5 Sources of Inspiration when Crafting a Creative, Results-Driven Content Plan
As a blog writer and marketer, you may not know what you want to write about. When the ideas stop coming, it can be infuriating. Trying to write like that and stir up emotion or action from a reader, the result is usually pretty terrible. If you’re looking for inspiration to get you going, there’s thankfully plenty of places to find it. So if you’re in a predicament where you can’t get going with your content marketing plan writing, here are a few places to look.
Read a book to discover new, unique topics in your niche.
There’s no shortage of books on a wide variety of topics out there. Choose one relevant to your industry and start reading. You may find unexpected ideas you can develop or re-develop into the content. Look for new angles, research studies or case studies that have not been reported on, and anything that speaks to you. For example, a lot of business blogs recycle ideas that have been seen time and time again. Instead, search for topics that aren’t being thoroughly explored at any given time.
Check in on social media for in-the-moment conversations.
At any moment, new topics are going to be trending on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and elsewhere. See what’s trending, what’s most shared, and analyze what’s creating the most conversation. If something’s resonating with a relevant audience, you can capitalize on it in the moment and help participate in the conversation. Although this type of content development may not serve a long-term purpose, it can help win attention and boost clicks in the moment.
Talk to your sales team.
Not all of us have sales teams to rely on. Nevertheless, if you do, speak to them. They know customers’ challenges and needs better than anyone. Ask them if they have any suggestions on how to grow your audience. Look for problems customers want to solve, objections to making a sale, the information customers seem most interested in, what positive feedback is received, and what sort of subjects or features relating to your product that prospects respond most favorably to.
Use Google Analytics.
Google Analytics has all sorts of amazing data to sort through which will tell you a lot about your website visitors. See online behaviour and reading habits. See what blogs have the most views. If there’s a pattern there, tap into it and begin developing content specifically for this use. Judge only on performance and you should see a clear way forward on what kind of content your audience expects to see on your website.
Read industry reports.
Chances are there are organizations or oversight-based companies publishing reports and identifying industry challenges. These reports may author-specific problems and introduce solutions on what to do to solve them. If the sort of things being discussed in these reports are seeing discussion on social media and in other parts of your industry, you may want to consider mining this for potential blog topics.
Results-driven blogs, articles, and website content development is at the heart of what we do at Unlimited Exposure. If you’re not building traffic or are experiencing trouble with SEO or organic search, contact a content marketing expert today. Remember, even if you think you’re out of ideas, your next great piece of content might be just around the corner.