How to Generate (New) Content Ideas?

A few tips on sourcing topics for writing (creative) content.

New content is a positive message to the World Wide Web. It is one of the most effective ways of saying that your domain, and thus business, is alive, constantly evolving, and generates value.

Fresh content improves your on-page SEO. It boosts your organic ranking for target keywords and enhances the ranking potential for variant keywords while also helping the growth of the internal linking structure. Better on-page SEO is conducive to optimal indexability and crawlability, which ultimately results in better technical SEO. Last but not least, new content works to achieve your off-page SEO goals, such as updated presence on social media, distribution of relevant email marketing material, and stronger external link building.

No doubt, search engines love fresh content but maintaining content relevance is not always easy. Implementation of SEO marketing plans requires an unflagging commitment, consistent brainstorming, and research.

In his study 7 Search Ranking Factors Analyzed, Jeff Baker found that it takes a minimum of 100 days for your fresh content to mature and show ROI. The average age of a Google Page 1 content is 145 days. Therefore, you must keep posting your content without waiting for your recent publication to climb search engine results pages (SERPs), which calls for an inexhaustible idea bank.

Communication with customers

So, what can you do to generate some great content ideas?

Start by asking your customers.

Talk to your followers on social media

Your social media followers are your infinite source of ideas. Their profiles, comments, and photos may be extremely beneficial for your brainstorming process and ultimately lead you to some great content ideas. If browsing leads you nowhere, you can post your question directly and ask your audience for replies. Their answers will be helpful, if not content-wise than engagement-wise, in fostering brand loyalty.

Review your social media and blog comments

Although you need to be doing this regardless of your occasional quests for new content ideas, you may want to review the comments on your social media and blog posts specifically for content creation purposes. Make sure to respond to them, though. Never neglect an opportunity to engage with your audience and do it wisely. Oftentimes, the comments you get might become a great source of inspiration and improvement, and the questions – the SEO-friendly titles for your new topics.

Conduct interviews, surveys, or polls

Another, more controlled and streamlined, way to receive relevant feedback is conducting various interviews and surveys, for example, using your email marketing tools. The only requirement for this task is being creative when crafting the right type of questions. Simply, be inventive and find ways to get your audience talking.

Research

A fruitful alternative to communicating with customers is doing your research to generate some fresh content ideas.

Ask Google for suggestions

This option is particularly great if you already have something in mind – a specific word, phrase, or general topic – anything that your customers would type in the search bar to look for your business or find helpful or interesting. These keywords are the core of your content and Google will expand on them by suggesting more relevant ideas.

In addition to Google suggestions, you should also check the People also ask, People also search for, and Related searches sections on the results page.

Google shows you what other users look for regarding your query.

The priceless benefit that comes with using Google suggestions is that your topic titles are automatically SEO-friendly.

Come up with more content ideas through topic generator platforms

If you feel lazy, you can create a list of potential topics by using the HubSpot blog ideas generator or Portent’s content idea generator.

Simply, type your keyword in the bar and the tool will generate content ideas for you.

Check out your competitors’ websites

Your competitor’s blog is one of the best places to look for new content ideas. Same industry, same market. Same ideas? Not really. When it comes to ideas, you have an advantage over your competition. You should try and make your post about the same topic even better than theirs. Skim through their titles, posts, comments, FAQ page. Grasp their concepts. Then, refine them, expand on them, extract new ideas from them. Be bold and creative. And while you’re working on that, don’t forget to look at other aspects of their website. Chances are that exploring your competitors will help you unearth some precious content ideas.

Trends

Unique content ideas might be inspired by industry trends.

Inform your audience about recent events and products

Products and events related to your brand or industry are effective content generators. You can review a specific product in a blog post or a video and start a discussion around it, which, in turn, will generate more fresh content ideas to be stored for future writing endeavors. If you’re releasing your company product, don’t hesitate to create content around it too, and build marketing hype for your product launch. Similarly, use your local or national trade shows and events and make them relevant to your business. This way, you’ll always provide value to your audience by informing them about the current news, industry updates, and breakthroughs.

Stay up to date with industry studies and newsletters

Make your inbox a well of content ideas. Sign up for industry newsletters to be updated on the latest news and trending topics. Also, make sure to subscribe to your competitor’s newsletter to have insights into the dialogue they hold with their audience. Likewise, boost your content creation process by writing about the recent industry study or analyzing the analytics available on the topic in question. More so, you can try to conduct your own research, which will make your content even better, but that’s just an option.

Revisit your content

Your old content is not meant to be buried among the web pages and forgotten. It is very much usable and workable too. Refresh the title, rewrite a post from a different perspective – get new content. The reason why revisiting your own content is such an effective tactic lies in the fact that it has already been appreciated by your audience. They will undoubtedly appreciate the new angle of delivery as well.

Tell a personal story

If you are inspired to step into the unknown and create from scratch, your best bet would be writing a story from personal experience. In this case, you can’t do without a moral – besides describing what happened, it is necessary to tell your audience about the lesson you learned from the situation. Such content is always unique, always trending, and, most importantly, relatable.

 

Suffering from writer’s block is ok as long as you have the means of overcoming it. Now, you have a handful of sources of new, compelling content ideas at your disposal and should never be struggling to find where to start your writing. Your only task here is learning to use these resources effectively.

If you are looking for quality content creation services, you’re in the right place.

Start by getting in touch with us.

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