So, how do you identify content that is valuable to your audience? There are lots of different ways to get the ol’ creative juices flowing, but the key takeaway of this section is to understand your ideal customer.

When you understand your ideal customer, you can speak to the problem they are encountering which then builds trust and confidence in your expertise. Trust and confidence in your product or services leads to sales.

It is also vital to keep up with current industry trends and standards to most effectively meet your customers where they are and reach new markets.

Research is the key to better understanding your customers and what they are looking for. Here are some ways to stay in touch with content ideas and form your pillars of content:

• Read blogs
• Subscribe to emails
• Follow other industry leaders on social media
• Network in your industry
• Attend trade shows
• Listen to podcasts
• Read books
• Survey your customers

This research can generate oodles of content ideas.

Here Are 15 Ideas to Generate Content

Grab a notepad and start jotting down ideas. You are in the hot seat, let’s start the clock!

1. Create topic lists in bunches. Create an ongoing list of possible content ideas and review them often.
2. Social media followers. Poll or survey your followers for their pain points. 3. Blog comments. Review your blog comments and see if that sparks something for you to write about.
3. Conduct interviews. Interview specialists in your industry.
4. Competitor websites. See what your competitors are writing about.
5. Google search suggestions. In the search bar, start to put a keyword in and see if it finishes the sentence and sparks an idea.
6. Recent events. Can you relate current news events or holidays to your content.
7. Recent events. Can you relate current news events or holidays to your content.
8. Product reviews. Can you review a product in your industry or highlight a review that has been created about your product or service?
9. Topic generator platforms. Go to HubSpot blog ideas generator and get some inspiration.
10. Personal stories. What personal stories can you tie to your product or service?
11. Sign up for newsletters. Sign up for other industry-related newsletters to gain some inspiration.
12. YouTube videos. Search YouTube for what is there or what might be missing and fill in the gaps.
13. New products and technology. Are there new products coming to the market or new technology that is industry-related?
14. Use data and analytics. Use data to tell a story.
15. Revisit previously published content. There might be an update needed, or to come at the concept from a new perspective to tell a better story.

When finding topics to generate content about, consider these as a starting point:

• Ask your readers/viewers a question.
• Show a tutorial about something that would help them out.
• Go behind the scenes
• Conduct an AMA (ask me anything)
• Share valuable thought leadership
• Conduct an interview with an industry leader
• Jump on a trend
• Feature user-generated content
• Create a photo collage
• Use a daily hashtag to spark inspiration
• Share your mistakes
• Show a before and after
• Share an action shot
• Show an influencer using your product or service

Download a copy of our free team marketing worksheets here. Want to learn even more? Check out our book and video course, Unify Your Marketing.