.jpg)
Media Shower writer Juliet Tran is well-known for her work in business, marketing, and home improvement. You can follow her on Twitter.
There’s no beating around the bush on this, a successful blog or business website will consistently have fresh and valuable content that is relevant to their target audience. 37% of B2C marketers have a documented content marketing strategy; that means it had been thought about and planned out. The secret to successful content marketing is in knowing how to plan for content that people actually want to read. If you’re struggling to find topics to write about, realize that these successful bloggers also have trouble getting ideas to flow all the time.
Creating a list of topics can help with your content marketing strategy.
There is no trick to overcoming the struggle, but there are actions that will take away your writer’s block. The best method is to create a list of topics ready for when you need to write a new article. By doing these three things, you can have a substantial supply of valuable content for your blog for years to come.
- Keep an Eye on the Competition
The cliché has to be said, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Discover who your competitors are and study them. Read their blogs, their articles, those articles that people are talking about.Are there topics that you know you can elaborate on or explain in a better way for your target audience? Write these topics down on your list. When we look at our competitors, they don’t always follow up with their reader’s questions. That leaves a lot of room for those readers to go elsewhere to find the answer. Keep this in mind as you write your article; make it the best one that answers any potential questions you can think of.
Listening to your audience helps you learn what topics are important to address.
- Listen to Your People
Read the comments from your fans and followers on your own blog and social media. What questions are they asking? What do they want to know more about? Going a step further, analyze the comments on other related websites too. Write these topics down on your list. You already know that people are interested in knowing more about this topic. For example, one Insurance carrier took the opportunity to immediately write about the topic of damage from fallen trees during an extremely windy week. How they came up with this topic was by listening to their customers; they received about 5 inquiries in 1 day. In insurance, that’s a lot for a fairly rare occurrence. - Go to the Pub
When we say pub, we mean go to the place people hangout and talk. This would be online places like forums, Facebook groups, or LinkedIn Groups that are related to your industry. When you’re there, you’ll be doing more listening. By reading the comments, you’ll be able to see what people are talking about, what topics are trending, what topics are confusing people, and what they want to know more about. These topics should also go on your list of topics to write about.
Why Bother With Content Marketing?
By now your list should be filled with plenty of topics. Now it’s time to write that content. But why is content marketing important? When you know what people want to learn more about, it’s easier to get their attention. Content marketing is your chance to create meaningful content to position yourself as an expert in your industry. When you’re able to inform and teach our customers, you’re gaining their trust in you and increasing their willingness to pay for whatever service you are offering. If you’re interested in seeing how our service works, don’t hesitate!