Content is the backbone of any digital marketing campaign, but it can also be its own worst enemy. Creating enough content for your business to reach new audiences and maintain existing ones can seem like an impossible task at times. I mean, how can any person endlessly come up with good content ideas, right?
Don't worry! There are many strategies you can use to find new topics, and we've compiled some of the best ones here in this article.
Contradictory to most content that you see online, you don't necessarily have to cram a boatload of information in one article. As much as you want to be comprehensive and cover all aspects, it can actually get pretty overwhelming for readers having to process so much information at once. Chances are they won't even retain half of it after reading.
Instead of creating long articles, try breaking your content into small, snackable pieces. For example, if you want to talk about "Best SEO Practices," you can break this down into multiple topics covering what SEO is, why SEO is important, definition of important SEO terms, how search engines work, and many more.
Think of it like you're writing a book. Stretch one story over many different chapters. Don't try to introduce all of your characters in one go.
No matter how bad it sounds, reusing content is actually a very common and effective strategy in content marketing. Remember that not everyone will see everything you post across all your platforms. Most digital content only peak within a few hours after posting. If you're doing this on an online community or on social media, your content will have an even shorter lifespan due to the number of user-generated content.
This is why it absolutely makes sense to repurpose your content. A lot of brands actually use this strategy, especially the more established ones who have been around for a longer time. They already have a huge amount of content published, and now they're repurposing these for their newer members.
Time is a precious resource. Don't waste it rattling your brain for content ideas. What's important is getting the content you already have in the hands (and minds) of more people.
Content creators need to stay on top of relevant trends in order to create high-quality content that is up-to-date with the latest industry developments. And there are many tools to help you do this.
Google Trends is an invaluable resource to find popular topics right now. It's an online exploration tool that features real-time search data from Google. You can explore people's search interests and pick out trends that are most relevant to your audience and organization.
Hashtags on social media are also also a good source for hot topics. When you're able to successfully write about these trends, it can help drive more website traffic, increase new visitors, and boost your SEO simultaneously.
Trying different content formats will offer the potential for different tastes and preferences. Some people might prefer longer articles while others may enjoy short videos or interactive infographics. Experimenting with various formats will let you find the one that works best for your audience, as well as shake things up every now and then.
Here are some content formats that you can try:
Starting an online community site can really help boost your content and SEO. Without a doubt, online communities are the largest source of user-generated data online. They provide a space for like-minded individuals to come together and share their thoughts on all sorts of topics.
In online communities, members are creating new content for you everyday in a way that is relevant to other members, and even people outside your community. Online communities take the pressure off of trying to constantly create content and get traffic from other sources, and puts it on engagement instead. The more engaged your members are, the more fresh content you have in your community.
Best of all, your users literally add hundreds of pages of great content to your site with almost no cost to you at all! Just make sure you have the right community management software and tools to maintain quality and safety across your site.
Communities powered by Beam.gg are well-optimized for content marketing. We do this by enhancing user engagement through gamification. We introduce elements like ranks, quests, badges, and leaderboards to encourage members to participate in and contribute to the community.
Try beam.gg for free and get your online community up and running in just a few minutes!