How do you generate ideas for blog posts?
When writing blogs, emails and other sorts of content for your firm, you will inevitably hit some sort of writer’s block.
Everyone knows that dreaded feeling, where you feel like you have explored every topic under the sun and all that’s worth writing about has already been written. Or, you just can’t find the right motivation or angle to work around your latest story — everything feels like a big elbow grease!
We’ve all been there and done that.
Here are a few techniques I use to develop new ideas or get a fresh perspective on topics I’m writing about. Here’s hoping you can use them too:
- Competitor’s blogs
When reading a competitor’s blog, you may want to rewrite or paraphrase what they’ve already written, but then hold back because it ‘feels’ unethical. However, just ask yourself,
“What’s missing in this article? If I had to say that, would I have said it differently? What insights do I have, that could be worth exploring in this topic? Do I have anything to add to this article, or should I let it be?”
Answering these probing questions will be a great head-start for writing new content. Remember, you’re not trying to copy them or write paraphrased blog posts; you’re using their blog posts as a solid edifice to write more in-depth posts, or offer a fresh perspective on the same topic. They’re probably doing the same thing as you.
2. Books
Don’t Google it — look it up in a book! You might find laughable old ideas, but you might also find beautiful nuggets of information that are worth discussing. If you don’t have time to settle down for a new read, skim through the table of contents, read the foreword/ introduction, and see if it gets you brimming with ideas. What’s better, visiting a library in a somber environment might just give you the head space to start thinking clearly about new ideas.
3. Insights
What does research say? Do they contradict, like they usually do? Or do you trace underlying assumptions that might render the statistics less helpful?
As is the case with competitor blogs, use research (both offline and online) as a starting point to find new things to discuss. Challenge basic assumptions, map your own metrics against it and decipher why it works/doesn’t work. Compare your social media audience to those cited in research.
What do those habits tell you? Maybe you can write an analysis of why your data doesn’t agree with what the statistics predict: if it doesn’t make for an interesting post, at least it’s a worthwhile analysis that you leverage as a way of asking intelligent questions or initiating meaningful conversations.
4. Listen to your audience
If you’re a marketer, you’re bound to have a target audience. And if you have a target audience, you have a whole set of people with needs, concerns, queries and problems. Engage them, befriend them and talk to them like you would talk to a close friend in need.
What do they want? What’s lacking? What do they wish they knew? What do they wish people would stop saying?
Track all the comments on your blog and social media! What are people talking about? You can also look at sites like Quora to find topics that people care enough to talk about, or try out Google’s auto-complete feature in the search tab to see what is it that people are researching about in your industry, or even generally.
I recently wrote about how you should be paying attention to user intent, rather than keywords, which also talks about some of the lesser known SEO techniques. If you can pin down user intent and write about it, you’re not far away from having traffic chase you, instead of the other way around.
These are just a few ideas to de-clutter your mind and hit the word count on that blog post! On a platform like Medium, it is fascinating to observe new ideas that get people talking, so comment below with a technique that has worked for you, and I haven’t mentioned here — I’d love to know more!
Talking to (not at) like-minded people who’re driven by a common purpose can be a mighty effective brainstorming session, so let’s start a conversation!
