High-quality content is a must if you want to maintain your audience or (better yet) attract new prospects. It’s not easy to simply come up with new and interesting content without much thought or research.
Brainstorming can be a difficult process – but it’s not an impossible one. When planned well, it can (and should) be fun to brainstorm high-quality content topics for your inbound marketing.
Here’s a look at how to lead a brainstorm and come out of it with over one hundred slam-dunk content ideas.
Be Open to New and Unusual Ideas
Forget the structured ”think session” for a minute – and let go of assumptions you may have made about when and where you’ll get good ideas. Keep an open and receptive mind. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, ideas can come to you from your experience – what you see, what you hear, and even your interaction with others.
You could be at the supermarket picking up groceries, or in the gym putting in hard work, when ideas come to you. Creativity doesn’t have to be forced or structured. It’s a good idea to travel with a notepad to capture your ideas as they come.
Follow companies you admire and see what conversations are happening online. Join LinkedIn or Facebook groups asking questions that your company can solve with your products or services. But don’t spam! Simply take note of the topics they are discussing and the ways your content can solve their problems.
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Pull Ideas From Your Team
Doing it alone isn’t always the best way to go about brainstorming ideas for content. If you have a team that can offer insight, use them. Like you, your employees know your audience and customers well. They know their interests, what excites them about your brand, and what concerns them as well.
Give your team a chance to help you develop fresh ideas regarding content that resonates with your target audience. Lead a brainstorming session in which you establish the goal, encourage everyone’s participation, talk about what’s working in other industries, and research topics that matter to your target audience.
It’s best to talk to members of your team who talk to customers on a regular basis. Structure the brainstorm so it’s easy for them to help, and the ideas will flow. A great way to prepare is to send a few prompts to your team members BEFORE the time of the meeting. Prompts to inspire great blog and content topics include the following:
- What questions do customers or prospects ask you in the early stages of working with us?
- What problems do THEY face prior to coming to us?
- How do we help them?
- What questions do they ask once they use our products/services?
- Why do they choose us over the competition? Why don’t they choose us?
- What common obstacles do you hear about why projects don’t finish or deals do not close?
You want to make it as easy as possible for your team members to contribute ideas. Make it fun! Use this blog brainstorm exercise to generate over one hundred topics in an hour.
Do Research With Google Tools
There are a few tools out there that can help you develop content ideas. Google, for example, is easy to use for brainstorming ideas. There are several ways that you can do this. You can simply open a Google tab and type any word or phrase into the search bar to see what results emerge. But let’s go beyond that. Take advantage of Google search predictions, where Google’s autocomplete feature automatically adds words to the search you enter. For example, you type the phrase “pet grooming” into the search tab and Google automatically adds the word “cost.” This is a good way to come up with content ideas that you never thought of before. You can also use Google Trends to see what terms are searched for at different times of the year in different locations. Comparing terms this way, and seeing what terms generate higher numbers of searches, may help you develop ideas for content people will search for.
Hear From Your Customers and Audience
Customer and audience input is a valuable resource, since they’re the ones whose problems you’re trying to solve with your content. Your customers can tell you what they want from your content to make your work most valuable. Whether it’s you or a team member, approach customers and make inquiries about what topics interest them, where they go online for information, and what problems they’re trying to solve.
Take advantage of social media, where many customers engage and interact with brands. Post questions to followers and allow them to use the platform to make comments or leave a message for your viewing. This is an opportunity to align your blog with your buyer persona by speaking their language, make the post specific to your buyer persona, and focus your spending on content or blog posts that work.
Draw Ideas From FAQs
Your target audience will almost always have questions that they need answered. If you want to build trust and confidence in your brand and pull people in, you have to make it clear what you offer, how it works, and how it benefits the customer. Consider your website’s “Frequently Asked Questions,” a useful resource that can be a content creation source. Perhaps, from each question, you could create a single topic or multiple topics that address specific aspects of an issue in greater detail. Think about it as providing your audience with invaluable information that they will appreciate. Create targeted content that can generate a positive response from your audience.
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It’s possible to come up with hundreds of high-quality content ideas that are effective and can amount to new leads. Brainstorming is an incredible tool that can bring ideas to life and make marketing more effective. Keep a few things in mind: your audience, their interests, and how you can best meet their needs.
Reach out to our team to build a time-tested, impactful content marketing strategy. Our digital marketing experts can help you make the best content for appealing to your audiences, which will lead to major revenue growth.
