How much time do you think you waste daily, staring into your computer or phone screen thinking, “What should I write?” What if you always had marketing content ideas at your finger tips?
If you don’t have a plan for your content, that could be 10 to 15 minutes per day, 70 to 105 minutes per week! What else could you be doing in that time?
When you finally come up with an idea, how often does it resonate with the goals you’ve set for your business? Social media, blogs, podcasts, everything we take time and energy to produce, should be telling our audience part of our story and directing them to take action. Even those fluffy posts about dreaming big or quoting some celebrity, should be working for you.
Otherwise, you’re wasting even more time. People want direction, they want to know when and how to take action. It’s our job as business owners and marketers to make their lives easier and lead them down a path with our content.
Creating Marketing Content Ideas
One of the best ways to stop the dreaded, “What do I write” moments is to carve out some time to plan ahead and have them written out. Even then, it can be tricky to come up with content marketing ideas on the spot. Here are 5 tricks to try so you always know what to write and you’ve never stuck writing about things that don’t matter.
1. 30 Minute Free-Write
Set your timer for 30 minutes – no shorter – and start writing topic ideas down on a whiteboard or piece of paper. Don’t stop until the timer goes off. It might be challenging to get started, or you may be tempted to stop after only a few minutes. Take a deep breath and let your mind wander. You’ll end up with dozens of content marketing ideas that you can use to create posts, blogs, and podcasts that matter.
2. Interview Your Audience
The most decorated experts in the kind of content you want to hear, are the people in your audience. It’s easy to spend time creating hypotheses about what our audience wants to know, but asking them will produce greater results.
You can interview former clients to learn what they wished they knew before working with you and the most helpful information they learned. You can also ask your social media audience to answer questions or weigh in on a poll. They love to be asked and they will let you know what they want.
3. Go for a Walk
“Writer’s block can put you in a bad mood. A bad mood won’t work for creating great content. Get outside and go for a walk.”
– Neil Patel
This is one of my favorite suggestions from Neil Patel. When you’re under stress or forcing yourself to come up with topics, your creative brain might have a harder time working. Take a walk, get outside and let the ideas start flowing. You can record them into your phone or carry a small notebook for when inspiration finally comes.
4. Use Your Customer’s Questions
What questions do your customers ask over and over again? These questions are a treasure trove of content marketing ideas. What do you wish they knew before coming to you? What a-ha moments created the turning point in your relationship? Put yourself in their shoes.
5. Search Google News
Sometimes the best content is your take on the latest news and research. Search google for articles related to your industry and weigh in with your professional opinion.
Generating your ideas is the first step to planning out a marketing content calendar that works. Next, you need to know what to do with them and how to plan them out. If you need some help with your content strategy, check out my content strategy workshop.
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