I have been very vocal about how content marketing helped me grow SerpLogic to seven-figures, from what started out as a blog with no intention of evolving into a full-blown agency. I will say that without a doubt, content was the foundation that allowed me to build a solid audience, which was engaged with the brand prior to offering services.
The truth is, a solid content strategy can help you take any business, whether a physical location, e-commerce brand or a personal blog, to seven-figures in annual revenue.
The hardest part of writing content is staying consistent, and to do that, you need to always have new topics to write about that are both timely in relation to your niche, but also something that your audience is going to be interested in reading about.
I have had a lot of people joke with me over the years, asking me how I have time to publish so much content on my blog. To be honest, it can sometimes be difficult to come up with new topics, but that is mainly due to having so many other responsibilities and business ventures.
One of the most helpful things I did early on was create a system to not only help me write a large amount of content consistently, but also come up with fresh content topics to write about. Now, as content formats are expanding, you can also use these tips to help you create content for eBooks and downloadable content assets, podcasts, vlogs, etc.
So, here are a dozen universal tips to help you come up with new content topics for your blog, or any other platform..
1. Tap into your personal experiences.
This is one of the easiest ways to come up with content topics, and honestly, it’s one of my favorite sources of ideas and something that has always worked well for me. This is also a great source if you really want to build a strong personal brand and separate yourself from the other noise out there.
You see, a lot of people will claim to be experts and claim to have found success, but it’s all BS and they are trying to be someone they are not online in order to sell you something. When I write a blog post about building a seven-figure SEO agency, I am doing so to share my personal experiences. Nothing I write is based on guessing or assumptions — it’s all based on personal experiences, both ups and downs.
2. Peep at your competitors’ blogs.
Want to know what is working in terms of content topics? Look at the blogs (or podcasts, vlogs, etc.) that your competitors are publishing. When I say this, I mean those that are doing better than you. You don’t want to turn to companies that you are outperforming, as you already have them covered.
So, identify your industry leaders (you know them off the top of your head — or at least you should) and make it a point to see what they are putting out there that is being well received. After all, you want their customers to be your customers. What topics are generating the most engagement and discussion? Where are the highest number of social shares coming from?
Make it a point to spend 5-10 minutes each morning surfing your competitor’s content. It soon becomes second nature and you will quickly be able to spot topic ideas that would work well for you.
3. Maintain a topic list whiteboard.
You should never have to sit down when it’s time to write and have to think of a topic. This just wastes time, and most don’t have much extra time, so you should always have a list of 10 or more potential topics to select from.
The easiest thing to do is have a whiteboard that you write topic ideas on anytime you think of one or see something that sparks an idea. You can never have too many topic ideas, so put down as many as possible and keep a running list.
So, when you sit down to create content you can just look at the list and pick something that clicks or that is relevant to what is currently happening in your industry. You always want to have a lot of options available.
4. New technology, apps, software, etc. related to your niche.
Any time there is something new in your industry that is newsworthy, try to create content based around it and publish it ASAP. If you are first out of the gate, it can help you rank on the top of search engines for search queries related to the news.
For example, if a new SaaS related to link building for SEO agencies is released, the first blog to publish an in-depth review of it is going to attract a lot of organic traffic, most likely from agencies looking for feedback, and when they land on your blog you can draw their attention to your offers if worked into your UX correctly.
Something as simple as checking industry news every morning can help spark ideas and also help you draw traffic by being the first to publish.
5. Audit your social media followers’ conversations.
Want to know what content topics your customers are interested in? Get it right from the horse’s mouth – see what they are talking about on social media. Login to your social media accounts and randomly read the feeds of some followers.
These are people that are clearly interested in your business, so their opinions should matter to you. You will have to do some searching, and not every follower is going to spark content ideas, but sometimes you will see something that clicks. If this does happen, make sure to take note of the follower and when the content is published, reach out to them and thank them for the idea or inspiration. Something as simple as that will strengthen the relationship even more and they will share it all over social media with a proud feeling inside.
6. Re-visit your most popular older blog content and re-write.
Some businesses are not constantly changing and may even have a limited amount of different original topics that they can create content around, so this can work especially well. It involves looking at your Google Analytics data from years ago and finding your most popular blog posts.
You want to look at visits as well as the time spent on each article. If one article has 100,000 visits with an average time on page of 1:30, but another article has an average time of 6 minutes and 70,000 visits then it’s going to be a much better topic to zone in on and consider re-writing.
You want to avoid possible duplicate content penalties, so fully re-write it, but modernize it and adjust the information to be highly relevant to the current time period.
7. Scan your blog comments.
If you have been reading my content for some time then you have probably noticed that I end each blog post with a call-to-action, inviting questions in the comments section. I do this for two reasons. First, it creates engagement and conversation, both which help posts perform well. Second, it provides me with a constant source of possible content topics.
If someone is taking the time to comment on my content, then in my mind their feedback and opinion is one that I should pay attention to. If I see the same questions pop up multiple times in relation to a specific topic then I note it on my topic board.
8. Register for every industry newsletter you can.
Before I dive into this let me give you one piece of advice: register a separate email address for this and do not use your primary one. Something like promo@yourdomain.com or newseletters@yourdomain.com will do just fine.
Now, sign up for every newsletter you can – industry news sites and competitors. Then, every few days check that email address and pay attention to email subject lines. You would be surprised at how many ideas you will get from the subject lines alone. Think about it – email subject lines have to be so good that they draw attention, so the topics will usually be very intriguing and/or news worthy.
You don’t want to waste too much time on this. But open the newsletters and give them a quick scan and add anything that jumps out at you to your topic board. Remember, you don’t have to use every idea, but you want to have enough up there at all times that you are never left scratching your head for ideas.
9. Use Google search auto-complete suggestions.
This is something you can do if you are really hard up for a topic and just can’t seem to think of anything. It happens sometimes, so don’t feel bad if you ever get stuck. The quickest solution is to open up Google and start to type in words related to your business and take note of what auto-complete suggestions show up.
Often times these will spark some ideas, especially if you get creative and work in some “how” and “why” variations. Sometimes you will see a question suggested that could easily be turned into a great piece of content, and the best part is that you already know that people are actively searching for information related to it since Google suggested it. They only show auto-complete suggestions that are fairly active.
10. Keep an up to date list of relatable current events.
It’s a good idea to always stay up to date on current events that are directly or closely related to your business. Rather than keep a separate list, I simply just add them to my topic whiteboard if I am in my office, or I email them to myself if I am out of the office and just add it to my whiteboard when I get back.
When you start to experience the results that content marketing can generate it will constantly be on your mind; trust me. You will constantly want to find new topics to attract more traffic and generate more conversions.
11. Conduct expert interviews or round-ups.
Those who have been loyal readers of SerpLogic’s blog will know that we will sometimes have expert articles that feature online marketing professionals. It gives them another platform to be seen on and it allows me to provide a little extra value to the readers.
You can do this too, but I would be careful to not overdo it, as you don’t want to drown your own voice out and make sure the people you do highlight are reputable and truly knowledgeable. In a sense, they are directly representing your company, so select wisely.
Round-ups are also great, because everyone you include will typically share the content on social media, which introduces your blog to a new audience. Again, make sure to only include true experts that you don’t mind aligning your company with.
12. Scan popular niche-related YouTube videos.
YouTube is a goldmine for content and this is a great way for someone to learn how to pump out blog content. Find a YouTube video on a topic related to your business that has a lot of views and engagement and simply convert that content into a blog post.
If people are watching a video on the topic then there is a good chance they are searching for related content on Google, which gives you a great opportunity to go after those organic visitors. You can also get great blog titles this way, as YouTube titles are often tailored in a click-bait sense in order to draw views.
Conclusion
The most difficult part of content creation is making the time to do it on a consistent basis. It’s the only way you are going to really gain the traction and momentum necessary to build an audience.
The tips I’ve broken down above are very easy and don’t require a lot of experience. It’s a lot of common sense logic, but sadly many people don’t sit down and really think about how to map content out for a long-term play.
Most people will blog for a week, a month or even a few months and then declare that it doesn’t work for them. They simply gave up too soon and never experienced the potential. If you commit to content marketing — on whatever platform you deem best fit for your business — I promise you that the results will follow.
It took a lot of dedication on my part before I saw the results in the form of Google Analytics numbers, email subscribers, and then revenue. It surely didn’t happen overnight or after just posting a few blogs.
I want to hear about your experiences with content marketing in terms of how it has helped your business grow. Drop a comment below and tell me what niche you are in and what kind of results you have experienced thanks to content marketing. Also, if you have any specific questions drop them below as well and I will try to answer them all.
