Content has long been the currency of the Internet. If your brand wants to be seen, it needs content. If your company wants engagement on social media, it requires quality content. If your website wants to generate visitors and sales leads, it must have content. Content will continue to be vital for any organization, whether brick and mortar or entirely virtual in nature, interested in growth.
Producing fresh, effective, and new content ideas is often problematic. According to a study by Zazzle Media, 6 out of 10 companies struggle to produce content consistently, and 65% find it challenging to produce engaging content. (1)
Building valuable content that attracts potential customers and target markets isn’t the only issue. Effective content requires knowing who the content is written for, the circumstances around why they are engaging with your organization, the type of content that will most resonate with your audience based on why they are engaging with you, and much more.
Here are fifteen effective ways to curate fresh content ideas…
- Perform a competitive analysis and target industry review. Visit the website and blogs of your competitors. Consider competitors that are well-known brands, those that are the same size as your company, those that compete with you on a local/regional level, and those that your target audience might think are your competitors. Break these out into categories: brand competitors, similar or same-size competitors, actual competitors, local competitors, perceived competitors, etc. Investigate the target audience, the topics they write about (and for what audience), the frequency they write about the issues, etc.
To better understand how to break out competitors by sub-type, here’s an example:
| My company: | Soft drink (soda), small, located in Illinois | |
| Competitor Type | Competitor 1 | Competitor 2 |
| Big/Well-Known Brand | The Coca-Cola Company | PepsiCo |
| Similar/Same Size | Shasta | |
| Local/Regional (e.g. IL) | Green River | |
| Perceived Competitors | AriZona Beverage Co. | BodyArmor |
- Identify what trade publications your target audience reads, websites they frequent for trusted/credible information, and thought-leaders they follow on social media. Utilize tools such as SimilarSites or Feedspot to locate even more websites in a specific industry or subject area.
- Begin exploring RSS feeds from competitors and trade/industry resources to see what topics might be relevant to your audience and begin grouping them into categories. If you plan to do this on an ongoing basis, which is fantastic for fresh ideas for new content, content curation you may want to share from the industry, and much more. RSS.app makes it easy to consolidate everything in one spot!
- Dig deeper into topics by using BuzzSumo. Explore by keyword, topic, or domain to see what content is most visited, shared, and on social media platforms. Additional tools include SparkToro and ExplodingTopics. While these tools are different than BuzzSumo, they still provide valuable insights that can inspire content.
- Learn to utilize the power of searching in Google. Here are a few ways you can dig deeper into search results:
- Utilize Boolean operators to target searches and generate results that will be more helpful. For example: and (limits results), or (searches for one term or another), – (excludes a term from the search), -site (excludes a domain/website from the results), ~ (includes a term and its synonyms), or ” “(when a word or phrase is surrounded by quotation marks, the search is limited to an exact match. For example, “data analytics for green initiatives” would limit the search to only results that included the exact phrase data analytics for green initiatives.)
- Refine your results through additional search operators, such as:
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- intext: (searches the body of the text on web pages),
- link: (finds pages linked to a specific URL),
- site: (when used in conjunction with a key phrase, can find specific types of sites such as “airline regulations” site:.gov).
- Find specific genres or fields of study of information quickly. For example, scholars, finance, blogs, books, and images can be easily located simply by using a format such as this – https://[genre].google.com, where [genre] is replaced by the genre or field of study. For example, if you wanted to search for images, you could use https://blogs.google.com, which would take you directly to the blog’s search engine. You can then use a keyword to search within blogs to find a specific topic.
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- Make aggregating user-generated content easier to find using Social Mention and Google Alert tools. Users of products find it beneficial to better understand how your products and support services work in their environment. As a bonus, you can better understand who they might be by looking deeper into their profiles, other interactions they have had, and what kinds of content will be most relevant and engaging. Either way, you can find content to develop to help prospects who want to know if your product will work well within their existing environment. You can also provide self-help guides for post-sale support and offer bounties to users who help you locate issues, solve them, and even aid in the creation of content!
- Identify social media groups or other online specialty groups where the target audience, your competitors, and your industry may be. Two private communities that can help you get started are Discord and Mighty Network. As you observe and interact, consider the following: What topics frequently come up? Are there new resources you need to be aware of? Are there problems that can be addressed? Case studies you can dig deeper into (with permission, of course)?
- Find comments, questions, trending topics, and more within forums and discussion groups using BoardReader or Talkwalker. Seek to answer these questions: What information is being shared? Are there competitors with advantages or weaknesses that you need to address through informative or educational content? Are there opportunities to improve support or change perceptions? Is there industry research that’s being done or that’s coming out that you should know about? Is there research you should be doing that can contribute to these discussions?
PRO TIP:
Content isn’t just for the external customers such as the companies and people who purchase what you do, sell or make. Internal customers such as suppliers/vendors, talent, employees, media, and others who interact with your organization also require content.
Internal content is vital to more productive and effective sales processes, faster resolution of support issues, attracting and retaining key talent, seeking new ideas and inspiring innovation, and much more. When exploring content for external customers, look for opportunities that may also benefit your internal customers.
- Utilize online question and answer websites and forums such as Quora and JustAnswer. Search by a keyword or topic or problem, or even a solution. Are there ideas that can inspire content?
- Explore Pinterest or perform a Boolean search in Google that includes the word “infographic.” For example:
- [“topic or keyword”] AND infographic. Replace [“topic or keyword”] with the topic of the keyword of your choice, such as: “employee engagement” AND infographic.
Almost every industry has interesting information, data, or knowledge shared visually to make it easily understood. Often infographics provide ideas to delve deeper into specific concepts that might be touched on but not explored further due to the eye-catching simplicity of an infographic. New content can be created, whether written, in video or audio format, or a new infographic that explores data or shares new knowledge.
- Search YouTube looking for tutorial videos on subjects that might be of interest to your target audience. Often some comments or questions can be found below these tutorials. Explore the comment section looking for ideas to develop new content.
- Search Amazon for recent publications, Kindle digital books, etc., that are trending or popular with the target audience. These may be subjects written by thought leaders that the target audience admires. Sort by publication date to ensure that the most recent appears at the top of your search results. When available, use the “look inside” feature to see the table of contents or the index for topics.
- Another way to use Amazon to find inspiration is to search for a specific product. Look up products from your company or any type of competitor. Explore products that share similar product features or specifications. Also, consider alternate options that may be completely different. Will the people who purchase your product view them as “competition?” Look for items with many reviews and read the comments left by reviewers. Often reviews provide insights into common sales objections, industry perceptions, return policies, and more. If used correctly, this intelligence can fine-tune your messaging, resolve customer service issues faster, identify issues where trust and credibility may be issues with your competition, etc.
- Use Podchaser or Spotify to search by topic to identify podcasts and broadcasters that produce meaningful content that your audience will find of value. Often there are links to transcripts where content can be scanned, reviewed, etc. Another option is to explore audio chatrooms such as Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces and see how these emerging channels allow genuine conversations.
- Explore the use of AI technology to better understand customer relationship interactions. For short interactions such as sales or support calls, much information must be decoded from quality assurance transcripts or data entry notes on account details. Solutions such as Bluecap.ai can consolidate all voice, transcript, and data entry details to better understand the kinds of sentiment, topics, concerns, issues, and market position that exist for content development needs.
Discover inspiring ideas for exciting experiences that boost morale and engage your people. Contact Gavel International for details.
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SOURCES:
1. https://www.zazzlemedia.co.uk/resources/state-content-marketing-survey-2017/
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