I recently joined a LinkedIn group called Content Marketing Academy, where I found a great conversation budding around coming up with new ideas for corporate blog articles.
It’s surprising how quickly a blog editor or writer can start feeling like the well has run dry. It’s equally surprising how much you may have missed when brainstorming topics once you’ve asked someone else for help–after all, you’re only one person, and there is truth behind the old saying “two heads are better than one.” So here’s my first suggestion for the topic-challenged:
1. Ask someone for help.
It may seem like a no-brainer, but get someone else’s opinion. They may take an angle you haven’t thought of, especially if you’re the only one who’s intimately familiar with the subject matter.
2. Explore Google Trends.
Sometimes it’s worth seeing what the world is searching for. Don’t plug your article with keywords like ‘Miley Cyrus’ just because Google Trends said so, however–use it for blog topics, not for misleading SEO.
3. Try Google Autopopulate.
Google is like magic. I use the brand name, industry keywords or relevant topics in a question. For example, a painting company might input “do painters” and see that “do painters move furniture” comes up. A social media consultant might type “is Facebook” and see results like “is Facebook messenger safe”. These could all be blog posts for each respective target market, and using Google may help you identify some of the questions where people are looking for answers.
It’s a non-traditional way of generating ideas, and you could probably come up with some better examples than this, but give it a shot if you’re really stuck.
