Churning out new content is hard, especially if your business has been around for a while. You’ve probably amassed quite a bit of content and might feel like you’re stumped on ideas.
Consistency is the key to making sure you never run out of content. Here are some tips to help you set up a reliable approach to creating new content.
Review Your Existing Content
Auditing your content helps uncover areas that are lacking and can spark new ideas.
- First, create a spreadsheet and add categories of topics you’d like to cover.
- Review the content already up on your site, and organize each post into the appropriate category on your spreadsheet. You may find some content that isn’t relevant anymore. You can file these under posts to be hidden or removed later.
- Once you’ve organized all the posts, you can easily find gaps in your existing content.
- Next, add spots on your spreadsheet for shares, page views, and other relevant metrics. This allows you to organize the posts based on performance. See which posts are performing well and which ones need improvement (including those that should be combined with other posts or rewritten with updated information).
- You can edit and republish the older posts to get some fresh content on your site without the work of creating a brand new post!
This step sounds tedious, but it’s worth the investment!
Who Your Readers Are and What They Want
There’s what you think readers want and what readers actually want. Instead of guessing, do a little brainstorming and research.
- First, figure out your target audience. If you haven’t done this exercise before, put together a reader persona. The reader persona includes the demographics, interests, lifestyle, and career of your ideal reader. Here’s a detailed guide to get you started.
- Once you have the reader persona, use it as a guide for every piece of content you write. Ask yourself, what fascinates them, and what frustrates them? Address both of these areas.
- Your reader persona should grow with your website. Incorporate feedback and questions from your readers. Regularly check forums, Google, and other sources to see if there are new trends your reader persona may be interested in.
At the end of the day, if you can address readers’ pain points and interests, you’ll have attractive content on your hands.
Just Ask!
This one is straightforward. Your readers can be an awesome source of ideas, and you are guaranteed to have someone interested in the content!
Make it a point to survey your audience consistently but don’t make it tedious. Depending on the platform you’re using, consider asking a few questions at a time rather than sending a long survey (unless you can offer some incentive for taking the survey like a free download). Most people won’t bother with a lengthy survey.
Some ways you can survey your readers:
- Email newsletters are easy. Just ask your readers to reply directly to the email with their response. Some email service providers (like ConvertKit) allow you to create surveys that can be inserted into your email.
- On Instagram, you can ask readers for a response by commenting on your post or direct messaging you. Or, a fun way to conduct a poll is to use the Questions sticker in Instagram Stories.
- Google Forms is perfect for longer surveys. They look nice and are easy to customize.
- Facebook allows you to add a poll to your business Page. Polls are a great way to establish a relationship with your audience!
Narrow Your Niche
Focus on a hyper-niche to attract readers looking for very specific content they can’t find elsewhere. Not to mention, you’ll be much more likely to rank higher in search results for that specialized topic than if you went with a broader, general topic.
- Create a list of subtopics that branch off from your main (broad) topic. For example, if your topic is saving money, your list can focus on saving money for different groups of people. You could include subtopics like saving money when you have kids, saving money when you’re paying off student loans, or saving money while in between jobs. Again, this is where your reader persona comes in handy. Focus on your target audience and branch out from there.
- Next, research to ensure that people are actively looking for content in this area. Look on forums to see what questions people are asking. Check YouTube, Facebook groups, and other social media to see if there is any buzz.
- If it’s relevant, you can see if anyone is offering services or products related to your niche. It helps to know if there is some existing demand.
There’s Always Fresh Content to Be Discovered
Hopefully, these tips help you discover new content ideas! Having an ongoing list of topics can get you out of a jam when you need to post content ASAP but are suffering from writer’s block. You’ll never run out of topics again!