Hey everyone, I’m Simone Cunningham. Welcome back to my channel where I share marketing insights to help entrepreneurs business owners and content creators grow their businesses. In this video I’m going to reveal seven techniques that should help unlock your creativity so you can brainstorm content ideas for your content marketing strategy. Content creation is never done, but you know that just as you seem to get on top of it you need to come up with more ideas for your blogs videos, social media., emails lead magnets and more.
It has literally never stops. So this is what I’m going to help you with today. Let’s talk about getting those ideas out of your head and into your content calendar. I have a copy of my Essential Content Calendar to give away later in the video. It’s a powerful tool to help you plan your content workflow and keep track of your content.
So if you’re ready to stop staring at a blank whiteboard keep watching. Before we get started remembering if you like what I share today please give this video alike and subscribe so YouTube will show this video to more people.
Also hit the bell button to be notified when I post a new video and be sure to leave a thoughtful comment below. I’d really love to hear from you. So here we go.
7 techniques on how to brainstorm content ideas for effective content marketing. Number 1 use topic mind maps. Whether you’re working as a team or alone a mind map is still one of the more effective ways to brainstorm content ideas. A mind map is a diagram that lays out information visually.
The idea is that you start with your main topic in the middle of a white board or a big piece of paper and then branch into more and more related issues.
For example to brainstorm ideas around health. You would start with the key topic health in the middle. And then start coming up with more specific topics like genes, food, medicine and keep going until you run out of ideas. Your goal isn’t to look for a right or a wrong answer but to spark inspiration and come up with subtopics that would lead you to specific ideas for your content marketing. A few mind mapping tools our Mindly, SmartDraw and Stormboard.
I’ll have the full list in my worksheet for this video. Technique number 2 build a swap file of your great content ideas. For those who don’t know a swipe file is simply a digital or physical folder where you keep all your fantastic marketing ideas. You might be doing this already by bookmarking websites or articles, but now I want you to be more organized about it.
When you’re searching for inspiration and find something you like always bookmark it and save it to a folder on your computer or an app like Pocket or Evernote.
Or even a Pinterest board will do. It doesn’t matter whether the content was produced ages ago or by a business in a different niche to yours or by a competitor. The goal is to capitalize on other people’s ideas as inspiration.
Technique number 3 find a strategy that nearly worked and understand why I didn’t. Learning from your unsuccessful content is a big part of content marketing.
The idea here is you research a piece of content that didn’t perform well and seek to understand why it didn’t and then fix it by making it better. There are two ways you can do this.
1. You need to look at your old posts. or 2.
Check out our competitor’s content marketing results. If you come across some that aren’t ranking well or haven’t earned a reasonable number of links then that’s content you can explore and make it better. You can use tools like Google Search Console, SEMRush and Moz Pro. Again I’ll give you the full list in my video’s worksheet. Technique number 4 keep a spreadsheet of all your old ideas.
Like I said earlier the first step in creating amazing content is to ensure that you have a bottomless well of great ideas. My tip is to store those ideas in a spreadsheet. I use Google Sheets. Remember there’s no such thing as a bad idea. Any idea that may not look good today could be a great idea in six months.
So don’t delete concepts that you don’t use.
Going over your old ideas is also the perfect way to brainstorm content ideas. You never know an old idea might spark someone to come up with a viral piece of content. Technique number5 explore topics your audience cares about. Don’t just base your content on keyword research.
Do further in-depth research with questions like what’s being shared on social media platforms? What are the trending topics within your Niche or industry at that particular moment? What’s being covered by journalists? Your content should not just be about ranking top on search engines. Think about how that piece of content resonates with your target audience.
Does that article or video make your audience feel more connected? Does it evoke some sort of discussion emotion or feeling.
If the answer is yes, then it qualifies as a successful piece of content. To get to know your audience better look at tools such as Sprout social, Buzz Sumo, Similar Web and Crazy Egg. I’ll have all these links in the video’s worksheet.
We’re more than halfway through now, so leave a comment below about the tips so far. What’s your favorite brainstorming technique? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Technique number 6 examine. what’s working in other industries?
I see you out there stalking your competitor. We all do it and really it’s an essential tactic in marketing. You need to know what your competitors are up to and the content they’re producing. But too much time spent looking outwards isn’t a positive way to get inspiration. So I want you to ditch that competitive spark for a moment and take some time to check out content created by brands in a completely different industry or niche from yours.
If your niche is financed, then have a look at the travel industry. If it’s B2C check out what’s breaking records in B2B land. Look for content pieces that have caught the attention of the community, social media and publishers and then dive into key metrics social shares and links. Where did they earn their links from? How are they ranking on Google?
Then I want you to reverse engineer that content by that I mean establish why the piece was successful Was it its unique research, timeliness, hook or data-driven angle.
Once you compare the content along with yours, You’ll know where to improve during your content brainstorming. Finally technique number 7 consult those outside your marketing team. Do I hear groans? Yes, you need to go down and talk to Johnny in sales or Melissa in manufacturing and hear their stories or better yet invite them to be part of your next brainstorming session.
You’ll be amazed at the insights you’ll get from different departments based on their interactions with customers, your products and services. This is how you keep it real and get research to develop targeted campaigns that answer your customer’s questions and concerns. Sometimes the negative client feedback you here is more useful than the glowing reviews.
I love this approach because your content marketing will be so much better for three reasons. One, your content will answer questions that your customers are actually asking.
Two, you’ll gain an actual insight into some real problems that your content marketing campaigns could solve and three you’ll figure out the best ideas to build on those key topics. So that’s it. 7 techniques to help you brainstorm content ideas for effective content marketing. No more blank white boards for you. As promised here is my free Essential Content Calendar.
It’s a powerful tool to help you simplify your content creation workflow.
And minimize the time spent looking for published content. I use my multiple times a day. Also don’t forget to download your free worksheet for this video. The link is in the video description.
https://allsolutionsnetwork.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi/TB72664/moremoney2.htm
I’d also like to hear what techniques you’re using to brainstorm content ideas. What do you want to try? Are there any you think I’ve missed out on? I’d really love to hear from you.
So be sure to comment below.
While you wait for the next week’s video take a look at these two videos I have here as well. In How to Increase Traffic to Your Website With Content Marketing I discuss tips to attract more clients, get repeat visitors to your blog, grow your email list and more. And in Content Marketing Strategy Explained I show you how to create a content marketing strategy for your business. Remember to download my Comprehensive Content Marketing Plan template. It will be a big help to you.
If you like what I’m sharing with you. Please remember to subscribe and hit the like like button.
Thank you for watching. As always, I’m grateful for your support. I hope you have a great day and a great week.
I’ll see you in the next one. Bye for now.
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