10 Ways to Generate Fresh Content Ideas
By: Trapica Content Team
Tags: Marketing, SEO, Content Marketing, Content Strategy

Useful content is key. However, how do you continuously come up with content that your audience will value and enjoy? At times, it might feel like you’ve reached a dead end with your content strategy. We sit with the marketing team, staring at a blank sheet of paper, and finally admit that we’ve finally run out of ideas. If you recognize this scenario, you’re in the right place because we have some fantastic ways to generate fresh content ideas!

1. Social Media Research

We put tremendous effort into growing a following across several different social media platforms. However, we don’t fully utilize this resource when it comes to thinking of content ideas. If you use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites correctly, you can learn about what content your consumers need. We recommend checking the following:

The brands your followers interact with

What they Tweet or post

The sort of discussions they enjoy

The questions they ask

The groups they join

Over time, you may see that many followers are asking the same questions about your industry. This observation will allow you to create an article or video on this topic, and give the consumers a reason to flock to your content. Although you won’t learn something from every follower, you’ll soon pick up on trends and patterns that help with content-related decisions.

2. Ask Your Audience

We highly recommend all marketers and businesses to talk to their audience. Why suffer headaches trying to figure out what our audience will enjoy when they can just tell us directly? For example, you could set up a poll on Twitter to see where people need help with your product or industry. Alternatively, ask directly what they want to read articles and watch videos about.

If you sell golf tutoring services, ask what people struggle with when first getting into golf. Do they struggle when buying their first set of golf clubs? If so, create a guide helping them through the process. Do they struggle with the stance when standing over the ball? You get where we’re going with this.

Asking your audience is the best way to generate content ideas because you’re asking the people that will consume the content. If they have requested it, there’s probably a lack of content on this topic on the internet. Soon enough, you’re providing content not widely available from competitors. By doing this, you also show that your brand cares about what people want and need.

3. Assess the Competition

Before you get carried away, this isn’t an open invitation to copy a competitor’s every move. Yet, there’s nothing wrong with looking to the competition for inspiration and ideas. When the competition has a huge following, their interactions with followers can inform you of what people need.

Use this tip to generate bigger and better content than competitors. If there’s a topic the competitor has covered but you haven’t, don’t just go away and create the exact same content (the audience has seen it before!). Instead, put your own spin on it and add something unique.

4. Play with the Reddit Keyword Research Tool

We know, you’ve seen it all before with keyword research tools. You type in a word, and the tool returns terms that are similar and could work in a marketing strategy. However, the Reddit keyword tool offers something slightly different. Instead, it focuses on terms that are hot at that moment.

After entering the name of a subreddit, the tool will display the common phrases used in this subreddit. This tool combines the busy Reddit community with Google Keyword Planner search volume data. This means that you could be one search away from learning what your audience is talking about.

Other fantastic research tools include Trapica — where you can look for overlapping topics and their audience size — and Ahrefs Keywords Explorer.

Read more about keyword research tools here!

5. Blog/YouTube Comments

Just as we saw with social media research, some of the best information is the information that you already have. When reading through blog/YouTube comments, the nature of the discussion is split into a few different areas. While some praise the content, others will ask questions and a small number will comment on something irrelevant to the video but pertinent to your strategy.

As an example, they might ask for a tutorial on a topic that doesn’t relate to your content but does relate to your service as a whole. Without looking at the comments of your blog or YouTube channel, you’re relying on guesses when the audience probably tells you their needs every day.

This strategy is more important than ever at the moment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the needs of individuals shift quickly. For example, a seamstress might get comments currently about sewing protective face masks. Why develop face mask designs through guessing when you can learn exactly what they want through comments?

6. Landing Pages Report

For those who already have a steady stream of people visiting their blog, Google Analytics landing pages report is a great tool. Once on your Google Analytics page, click on the side menu, and follow Behavior — Site Content — Landing Pages. Here, you’ll see where all website traffic originates. You might learn that one blog topic is generating more website visitors than all the others combined.

Use this information to produce more of the content that works, and less of the content that doesn’t.

7. Industry Updates

Don’t forget, commenting on industry news and updates is always a great way to generate a following. The more you speak about breaking news, the more authority you gain in the market. Why? Because people see that you know what you are talking about, and will keep returning when something big happens.

When a big event impacts your customers, they will need a reliable source for some advice or reassurance. Just think about the number of businesses panicking about using third-party services after the introduction of GDPR in Europe. With a well-written article, it’s possible to ease the fears of your customers quickly.

8. Product Hunt

For those in the technology world, another useful resource is Product Hunt. If you haven’t used this website before, it compiles lists of popular websites, apps, and technology-based products. As well as daily and monthly lists, you can break the search down into collections, topics, and other sections.

Instead of creating content based on these topics exactly, use this as a way to learn the problems of your audience. Then, you can address these problems and answer important questions with content. What niches are growing? What are the main pain points of your audience?

As well as content creation, we’ve also seen businesses use this to identify potential collaborations. If the hot topics are irrelevant to your niche, why not team up with in-demand services and gain attention this way? Perhaps you could create a podcast with somebody from the niche and address industry topics.

When using Product Hunt, use the Ask feature because this is where you’ll find the burning questions of individuals.

9. Product Reviews

Both for your own products and those from the competition, customers are likely to leave reviews which can contain useful information. For instance, you might create a video demonstration when customers are all having the same problem with the installation process. Otherwise, the reviews might tell you of potential features they would like to see. In some cases, customers of other brands could be looking for your product without knowing it actually exists.

10. Other Content

You now have some great ideas for how to generate content, and we want to leave you with one that is often forgotten. Let’s say that a competitor uploads a detailed podcast about tips for cooking dinner while camping. You may have missed an opportunity but remember that not everybody will have time to consume a whole podcast. Can you use this as a base to create an article? When done correctly, you could potentially do so, without having to invest time in a podcast.

This is something you can do across all content because some people prefer videos, others prefer podcasts and another group likes simple infographics. When looking for content ideas, look to the competition and even your own content. Just because people didn’t read a 3,000-word article, it doesn’t mean they won’t love and share an infographic on the same topic.

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