Have you been racking your brain for content ideas? Everyone responsible for writing their website’s content has found themselves derailed at one point or another – stuck in a dreaded content rut.
Roll up your sleeves, these 17 content ideas will set you back on track.
1. Give new service previews.
When launching a new product or service, make an event out of it! Unveil it with a blog post and drum up the excitement of your readers.
2. Review a product or service.
If there is a product or service you use frequently for your business, why not leave a detailed review? Perhaps the product compliments what your business offers and it would be only natural for your audience to purchase them together.
Either way, the business who offers the item you review may feature your post on their website – this is a perfect opportunity to collect link juice!
3. Show how it’s made.
It doesn’t matter if you glue the soles on shoes, if you showcase your process in the right way your audience will be interested. Lay it out step by step to illustrate the care and attention your business puts into each item.
Video may be an even more effective route for this and it can be transcribed to preserve SEO benefits.
4. Think about lessons you’ve learned.
What kind of mistakes have you made? No, we’re not advising you profess to divorces and bankruptcies. We’re talking about the kind of lessons that helped shape your business and approach into what it is today.
Outline a story in which you learned from a mistake or an obstacle you overcame. Your audience knows you aren’t perfect and they’re sure to appreciate your candor.
5. Read the comment sections.
If your blog is like most nowadays, your comment section looks a lot like a ghost town. That’s okay! While blog post comments are getting few and far between, you don’t have to look far to find comments.
Log into Facebook and check out popular pages. The articles and posts they share are bound to have a long list of comments below them – you may end up with more material than you need. If you see opinions or statements that you disagree with, make it your mission to inform this kind of person in your next blog article.
6. Bust a myth.
Every industry has it’s misconceptions. As a subject matter expert, you can delve into the common myths you hear and explain exactly why they’re misguided.
7. Come up with similes.
Think of an aspect in your business that can be compared to something unrelated that most people would understand. For example: 7 Reasons Why Managing an Office is Like Running a Day Care
This can make an otherwise dull topic humorous, or help those with little understanding of your niche get a better grasp by comparing it with something they know.
8. Tell the story behind your business.
Every business has a story. Don’t worry if you’ve had a humble start, this makes for an even more interesting story.
Take Apple, for example. Apple was founded in the garage of Steve Jobs’s parents, funded by the sale of a Hewlett-Packard calculator and Volkswagen microbus. The quirkier your business’s story, the better!
9. View your internal website searches.
If you have a search bar for visitors to search the content within your website, take a look at your website analytics. The queries people enter into the search bar tell you what they’d like to know more about or are having a tough time finding.
10. Challenges and competitions.
Challenge yourself to accomplish something within a time span and describe your journey. A friendly competition within your company or even with competing businesses can be a fun twist for your readers. Don’t forget to take lots of photos!
11. Attend local events and meet ups.
Even if there aren’t industry specific events near you, it’s worth going to general ones. “Buy Local” events and business networking meet ups can give you all kinds of ideas. You may see the way a completely different business is approaching an issue and be inspired to write about it!
12. Browse internet forums.
Whatever industry you may be in, there’s a forum out there that can help stimulate new content ideas.
All it takes is a quick search in Google:
[Your industry] forum
At best, forums can provide you with unique insight on your niche that would be otherwise tough to find. At worst, forums are a time suck. If you’re suddenly ten pages deep in a meaningless thread, forums may be more harm than good for your blogging efforts.
13. Prioritize the question.
Each time a customer or friend asks you a question around your business or industry, note it down! Focus on answering a question in every single one of your blog posts.
14. Seek out the unknown.
When it comes to blogging, it’s easy to find yourself on autopilot. You’ve been coming up with blog topics all year long afterall.
Take a step back and return to the drawing board. What got you inspired to start blogging to begin with? Stop recycling the same old topics you know and begin looking for the topics you don’t know.
Blogging presents a great opportunity to learn something new about your niche while creating content that helps you rank higher in search engines and convert website visitors.
15. Conduct an interview.
Interview someone in your field – or out – and you will reach whole new audiences. The chances are high that they will be flattered and gladly accept your invitation for an interview. If they’re active on social media, another perk is that they will likely share your post with their followers.
16. Set up Google Alerts.
Google Alerts make it easy to stay informed around topics that interest you. Simply enter in a keyword that relates to your industry and you will receive an email each time it is mentioned around the web.
Alerts can be customized by:
- How often you receive them
- Sources
- Language
- Region
- How many you receive
17. Utilize content idea generators.
When all else fails, try a content idea generator. There are a number of them available for free online. Hubspot’s Blog Ideas Generator takes three nouns and spits out a week worth of blog titles.
We wouldn’t suggest using their exact titles as there’s no telling how many others are using the titles in their system, but it can at least help stir up new ideas.
With all of these new content ideas, ensure you have a way to organize them. You’ll thank yourself later if you add each idea into a spreadsheet.
Is there a unique way you inspire new content ideas? Do tell in the comments below!