14 Feb 2024
- 29 Aug 2018
- 4 Min read
5 ways to generate new content marketing ideas
- by Emily Park
If your marketing strategy involves creating high-quality pieces of content on a regular basis, it’s likely you’ll run out of ideas every once in a while. It’s only natural, and you’re not alone. In fact, 52% of marketers consider producing engaging content to be one of their main challenges, according to Zazzle Media’s State of Content Marketing Survey Results for 2018.
Fortunately, there are some techniques you can use to generate new content marketing ideas time and time again, and we’re going to outline some of our favourites. So, next time you’re feeling uninspired, give one of these a try. You’ll be back in the content marketing game in no time.
Check out Google Trends
It’s not just the quality of your content that you need to worry about: the timeliness is also incredibly important. One way we make sure we’re producing and publishing content at the best possible times is by keeping an eye on what people are talking about. And, Google Trends makes it very easy for you to do this.
It’s a free tool that allows you to chart the popularity of a search term. You can compare several topics, as well as examine how they’ve fluctuated over time. Because you can see if particular terms are searched more often at a certain time of year, this can help you to devise a content calendar, as well as come up with ideas to use now.
Ask your audience what they want to see from you
If you’re not sure what your audience wants to see from you, ask them. You can do this in a number of ways. For example, you could put an open-ended question out to your social media followers and encourage them to reply with their thoughts.
You could also speak to your customer service team and ask them if there are any questions they tend to receive over and over again. This will give you a good idea of what kinds of queries aren’t already being answered online. You can then take advantage of this and create a piece of content to fill the gap. By listening to your audience, you’ll be able to fine-tune your strategy, so you can create content that you know people actually want to see.
Take inspiration from your competitors
You’ll already be keeping an eye on your competitors to see what they may or may not be doing better than you, so why not take inspiration from the content they’re creating, too? Check if they’re answering questions you aren’t, covering topics you haven’t even thought about, or publishing types of content that you haven’t tried yet. If you find anything that inspires you, try to replicate what they’re doing in a style that suits your brand and website.
Use a research tool
There are plenty of tools out there that have been designed specifically to help you create high-quality content that’s going to perform, so make sure you take advantage of this. Buzzsumo is a great example, as it gives you an idea of which kinds of content are receiving the most shares on social media, and therefore the most attention. So, if you’re feeling uninspired, try searching a keyword closely relate to your products or services. You’ll soon have plenty of new topics and types of content to work with.
Answer the Public is another helpful tool that we often use in our research, and it’s free! You can simply input a keyword or phrase you want to know more about and Answer the Public will show you all of the frequently asked questions surrounding that topic. This can help you to come up with an idea for a piece of content marketing, as well as point you in the direction of what kinds of questions you should be answering in your copy.
Have a good old-fashioned brainstorm
A great way of reducing the risk of you running out of ideas is by holding brainstorming sessions on a regular basis. You can do this with your content team, but it will help to ask for ideas from people working in other areas of the business, too. This will allow you to keep your momentum up and should give you a bank of ideas that you can mine whenever you need to.
It’s worth noting that ensuring every brainstorming session is productive isn’t always easy, but there are some things you can do to give yourself the best chance of coming up with some fantastic ideas. Here at Glass Digital, we make sure to clearly define the purpose of our brainstorming sessions at the very beginning to help us stay focused, and we create a judgement-free zone to promote risk taking. We find that this helps us to come up with much better ideas, and it could do the same for you!
Take these tips on board, and you’ll always have plenty of inspiration to fuel your content marketing strategy. Alternatively, if you’re not sure you can keep up with the pace of your competitors, get in touch to discuss our content services. We can do the hard work for you!
