Research suggests that brands should post between two and four blog posts weekly to reap maximum marketing benefits. Coming up with that much new blog content every week is a challenge for even the most creative among us, never mind the multiple daily social media posts, subscriber newsletters, podcasts, and any other regular content we produce.
No one can blame you when your idea well runs dry. We certainly get it.
However, if you want your content to continue working for you, you have no choice but to keep on keeping on. Let’s explore where to get content ideas close to home.
Where To Get Content Ideas
Often, we think we need to venture afield to discover new topics. We scour competitors’ websites and social media pages and diligently research trending keywords.
Don’t get me wrong; these are great, tried-and-true strategies. Sometimes, though, rather than casting a wider net, you need to dig deeper to find untapped resources on your own turf.
There are many content ideas to discover within the structure of your own business. Here are seven places to get new ideas for content.
1. Brainstorming Sessions
While brainstorming sessions might not be anything new, you can expand your idea of who to include. Typically, when marketers ideate, they work individually or within team silos.
Instead, if you need to know where to get content ideas, include more people in your brainstorming sessions. Ask others within your business to participate, including those who might not have regular exposure to what you do.
Topic ideas can come from unexpected places. Sometimes people with an outside perspective generate the most creative ones.
Divvy’s platform makes collaboration easy for your brainstorming team, with communication tools baked into the software. We also give you a place to store those ideas so your team always knows exactly where to go for new topics.
2. Blog and Social Media Comments
When looking for where to get content ideas, look to participants on your blog and social media accounts. The people most likely to post comments on your blog or social media posts should be your target audience.
Explore the comments to see what posters are talking about. They often raise concerns, issues, and interests that make great content topics.
Posted questions can also provide the foundation for a blog, social media post, or podcast. Additionally, you might discover an opportunity for a how-to or explainer video for your website or YouTube account.
Source: Meltwater
3. Pre-Existing Content
Pre-existing content often provides an excellent source for new content ideas. When your team isn’t sure where to get content ideas, have them look through previous posts to find content ripe for repurposing:
- Update a blog post with new information and keywords.
- Extract and expand on an idea presented in an existing post.
- Convert one type of content into another (i.e., video to blog, blog to interactive infographic, or blog to social media post).
When you regularly conduct content audits, you can use Divvy analytics to discover what content to keep, repurpose, update, or remove. Our content audit template simplifies the process, so your team won’t feel overwhelmed whenever they hear “audit.”
4. Other Organizational Departments
Another good resource within your organization is departments that closely align with your content purpose. Talk to the folks over in sales to find out what products and services are hot right now and post product reviews.
The customer service team can tell you what issues your customers are currently experiencing. Turn their pain points into content, such as explainer videos, listicles, or guides.
5. Subject Matter Experts
If you need to drill down a little further in your search for where to get content ideas, look to the subject matter experts within your business. These colleagues are usually in the know about the latest and greatest trends in their area of expertise and can provide insight into what’s coming down the pike that might interest your audience.
Leveraging your company’s subject matter experts often gives you a leg up over your competitors. You not only stay ahead of trends but can also demonstrate thought leadership.
Consider generating a survey for your SMEs and sending it through your Divvy account so responses remain within your central content hub. You can also ask SMEs to write a guest post or interview them for podcast or video content.
6. Brand Stories
Everybody loves a good story, so when looking for where to get content ideas, turn the spotlight on your brand. What stories does your brand have to tell that would be relevant and of interest to your audience?
Don’t just think about the big stories like your business’s birth; also consider the less obvious ones, the micro-moments in your brand’s journey that made a big difference or contributed to your mission, philosophy, or values. You can also tell behind-the-scenes stories or interview the everyday people who make your company tick.
7. Customer Stories
Customer stories are another possibility. While customer-generated content in the form of reviews is great, you can do more.
Studies have shown that user-generated content (UGC) is perceived to be 2.4 times more authentic than branded content, so you should try to elicit stories from new and loyal customers. Of course you want any stories to connect to your brand on some level, but don’t be afraid to highlight your customers more than your products or services.
Source: Stackla
How Divvy Helps When Looking for Where To Get Content Ideas
When your team’s creative juices run low, you might need to expand your approach to mining content ideas. Divvy can help.
Our platform simplifies the collaboration process, whether your team works from one central location or distributed worldwide. We also provide a content repository with metadata that lives with each asset, making it easy to locate content for repurposing.
As your team generates new ideas, they can place them in our idea Parking Lot, allowing them to build up a storehouse of ongoing content ideas. When they’re stuck on topic ideas, they can pull from the parking lot and convert the topic to an active project, initiating an automated production workflow.
Your team might know where to get content ideas, but chaos will still reign supreme if they don’t have a way to simplify the ideation and production process. We eliminate the chaos, giving your team the tools they need to produce killer content weekly. Request a demo to discover the Divvy advantage.
