“An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.” – Gilbert K Chesterton
For content marketers, generating new and compelling content can feel like an all-engulfing daily undertaking.
Where do I start?
What if I don’t have any good ideas?
How can I be sure readers will like my topic?
These are all the right questions.
For small businesses looking to engage in effective digital marketing, asking these questions is a solid first step.
From here you can transform your blank screen into one that dances with content that animates and retains your readers!
An Adventure is an Inconvenience Rightly Considered
When sitting down to brainstorm ideas for a new blog post, infographic, video or image, the most important thing is to keep a positive attitude.
Content creation is an adventure!
Adjusting your outlook is the first critical step towards hydrating an otherwise arid reservoir of ideas.
1. Question time
There are no boring topics, only boring content creators.
Start by thinking about your audience and their needs.
What information would be most useful to them?
Ask yourself the classic who, what, when, why, how questions.
Create content that caters to a specific need within your market. This magically transforms your content into a topic of avid interest for readers and will ultimately lead to more site traffic and conversions.
How to do it: Jot down every possible variation of your topic. For example, if you are writing about light bulbs come up with a series of questions to help guide your article topic: Who invented the light bulb? What are some unusual uses for lightbulbs? Where are the most lightbulb sales globally? Why light bulbs and not light cubes?
Steve Jobs said that creativity is just connecting things.
Make connections between ideas and, like devising a ground-breaking headline, determine which concept catches your attention the fastest. From here it’s just a matter of pulling these ideas together in the form of a useful reference for your audience.
2. Creativity train
Environmental factors play a huge role in your ability to produce consistently good quality content.
Although conventional ideas point to the need for space and silence to meet deadlines, some of the best copywriters and content creators manufacture copy in an environment that treads a fine line between chaos and control.
Multiple studies have looked into the ideal time to brainstorm content ideas, revealing that the best time is actually when you’re feeling unfocused and lacking creative direction.
How to do it: Those quirky colleagues aren’t there to serve as a creative distraction, they’re actually here to help erode your mental levees!
Embrace the chaos.
Use their alarming anecdotes and other office frivolity to propel you into an unchartered creative space. You might be surprised by some of the ideas you come up with!
3. Topic of conversation
A quick topic fix can be as simple as typing your subject into sites such as Quora and Soovle or performing a basic Google suggest search to see whether people are talking about it.
If your proposed topic is already generating wide interest and online chatter it’s much easier to piggy-back onto these conversations and to build a discussion around your content.
Distinguish your content by injecting an unusual, interesting, helpful or controversial message that is useful and informative for your readers.
How to do it: Ask readers what questions they would like answered, cross-reference proposed topics with current events and think about adopting a journalistic approach.
When you look in the right places the possibilities for great content topics are virtually limitless.
4. Contradictions and consistencies
Challenge yourself to dream up new and interesting ways to enrapture readers.
Contradictions are one of the most stimulating ways to do this. Nothing delights a reader more than the momentary mental somersault sparked by two opposing ideas.
Part of the thrill of modern marketing is the fierce competition to be heard over thousands of competing headlines that demand your reader’s attention.
How to do it: Revel in the unconventional. Keep readers guessing with unexpected content and headlines. This shows a novel and exciting side to your brand that serves to build relationships and increase your conversion rates.
Some examples to consider:
A snowy summer’s day.
The statement below is false.
The statement above is true.
5. Clarity is key
Move people to open your emails and read your content by delivering your message in a clear and accessible way.
How to do it: Pivot your content decisions according to whether you would like to read something on the topic you are posting about.
If not, move on to something else.
These are our top tips for how to stay inspired. Change the way you think about creating great content and the ideas will overflow.
Got any other great tips for creating mouthwatering content in a topic drought? Then hit us in the comments below.
About the author: Sarah Lynch content manager and all round creative spark at TWiZ, a Digital marketing agency based in Sydney, Australia. To hear more social media and marketing musings from Sarah you can catch her for weekly installments on the TWiZ blog or follow her on Twitter.
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