Where to Find New Ideas for Your Content Marketing Calendar

March 9, 2022

It is pretty much common knowledge that content is the foundation of a successful campaign when it comes to internet marketing. However, one of the most challenging parts of creating a content marketing strategy is regularly coming up with fresh new content. It’s not enough to churn out blog posts and social media updates; you need to be producing quality content that offers something of value to the reader. It needs to entertain them, educate them, or evoke emotion. To achieve that, you need to develop fresh and exciting ideas to fill up your content marketing calendar.

Check out these tips on where to find new ideas for content.

1 – Google Trends

If you are not already using Google Trends to track the trending topics and search queries in your niche, then you should be! It is a great way to stay up to date on what is going on and what your target audience is searching for. It is also an excellent tool to find new content ideas. Take a look at the ”Trending Searches’‘ for your keywords, and you will see some of the topics that people are interested in right now.

2 – Competitors Websites

You should always make a point of checking out your competitors’ websites regularly. It is important to know what others in your industry are doing. However, it can also lead to ideas for new content. Check out what topics they have been covering, especially ones that have a lot of comments. Now think about how you could approach that same topic. This is not about plagiarism. Google will penalize your site if you have duplicate content. The idea is to give your own opinions on the same topic. Can you expand on an idea they only mentioned briefly? Do you have a conflicting opinion on the subject? You will also want to read their comment section in case people have asked questions not covered in the blog post. You can go ahead and answer those questions in your post.

3 – The Comment Section

Reading the comments that people leave on your blog posts or social media accounts should be something that you do anyway to build up a rapport with your audience. However, it can also be a great place to find content ideas. If a reader asks a question, you may be able to write an entire blog post or record a video to answer the question fully. Not only do you get a new content idea, but you are covering topics that your audience wants to hear more about.

4 – Repurpose Old Content

Look back at your most popular content in the last three years. Do you have anything new to add to those topics? Are your tips a little out of date? If it was popular the first time around, updating them with more recent advice or an entirely new approach to the same problem will likely perform well. If the information is still relevant, you don’t need to rewrite it. Instead, you can repurpose it. Take a two-year-old blog post and pull out ten key ideas to use as tweets. You could also use the blog as the starting point to script a video or design an infographic. That one old piece of existing content could end up generating 20 new pieces for your content marketing calendar.

5 – Current Events

How much attention do you pay to current events? This can be a great way to bulk up your content marketing calendar with current trends. Breaking news may not be a relevant topic but go a little deeper depending on your niche. What are the pop culture trends? Are there any significant sporting events? What’s that one TV show everyone is watching? Think about how you can incorporate it into a topic relevant to your niche. For example, it seems like everywhere you look on social media, people are talking about the TV show Euphoria. A makeup brand might go with a topic such as ”Which Lipstick Would Your Favorite Euphoria Character Wear?”. In another example, during SuperBowl season, an internet marketing company like ourselves might opt for ”Internet Marketing Lessons From Super Bowl Commercials”. The important thing is that you make it relevant to your audience; otherwise, you are just going to be seen as jumping on the bandwagon.

6 – Personal Experiences

Consumers want to get to know the people behind the brand. They are no longer interested in faceless corporations. Why not think about some personal experiences that you could share relevant to your brand? This could be telling the story of how you started your company, or it could be a situation where you personally used your product to solve a problem. Alternatively, you can describe an issue that prompted you to develop your product. Consumers will engage with a personal experience, especially if it resonates with them.

7 – Newsletters

Newsletters can be an excellent way to get new content ideas delivered right to your inbox! Sign up for newsletters within your niche and stay on top of the trends, topics, news, and events in your industry. This may spark a few creative ideas to add to your content marketing calendar.

8 – Brainstorming Ideas

Last but by no means least, when you are struggling with ideas, it can be helpful to sit down for 30 minutes and carry out a brainstorming session. The idea is to grab a piece of paper and a pen , and set a timer for 30 minutes, and write down any blog titles that spring to mind. Don’t overthink the content or question how good the title is. The point of the exercise is just to generate ideas. Start with one word and go from there, aiming to fill the entire page. Once the time is up, you can go back through the titles you have noted and eliminate any that are definite rejects. Then go over what is left and tidy them up into a handful of usable titles or ideas. From one 30 minute session, you could end up with 5 to 10 ideas for your content marketing calendar.

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To Your Best Online!

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Ingrid Maddox, Internet Marketing & Strategy Consultant. bluedress INTERNET MARKETING®, an Internet Marketing Company headquartered in Knoxville, TN. Internet Marketing Developed, Implemented, and Managed to Full Circle! Organic Internet Search Engine Guru. Turn-Key Internet Optimization Programs Placing You Everywhere and Anywhere You Need to Be Online.

ingrid@bluedressinc.com

865-378-7712