How To Find Blog Post Ideas In 4 Easy Ways
Easy tricks to find blog post ideas that resonate with your target audience and build your authority. Learn to identify content opportunities and showcase your expertise.
CONTENT MARKETING
Tooba Jamal
8/5/20246 min read
After working in various industries, I’ve found that businesses without dedicated content marketing teams often struggle to come up with unique blog post ideas. As a result, they end up with generic content, such as 'The Ultimate Guide to Backpacking Through Europe,' instead of more specific posts like 'Backpacking Europe in Winter' or 'Essential Packing List for Paris.'
Fortunately, brainstorming content ideas isn't difficult. Anyone can effortlessly do that, but it might take a little while to get used to it. To help you get started, I'll share four of my favorite content brainstorming techniques that never disappoint me.
4 Ways of Brainstorming Blog Post Ideas
The following ways of brainstorming blog post ideas are simple yet effective in the long run. I’ve used them for more than 3 years and I’m never out of content ideas for me or my clients.
Ask Your Target Audience
The best way to attract your target audience is to solve their worries and help them achieve their goals. This is known as audience research in marketing and it's about knowing the daily life hurdles of your ideal customer.
For example, if your ideal customer is a college student searching for affordable shared housing, you can reach out to understand their needs better. Consider questions such as whether they have no place to live, have recently moved to a new city, or have other specific requirements.
When you know their desires, you can come up with a long list of content ideas. For example, if your ideal reader is worried about finding a small affordable living space before graduation, you could write about topics such as:
How to find a cheap living space before graduation
Cheap accommodation in Oxford City that doesn't require a lengthy process
To do this, you can interview your target audience, spend time with them, conduct surveys, or observe their behavior online or in person.
Write About Personal Experiences
Sharing personal experiences is the best way to demonstrate your expertise and Google loves expert opinions. There are probably three situations that you need to find new blog post ideas:
1. You Run a Blog
If you run a blog, you likely write about a familiar niche and already understand its unique angles and content gaps. For instance, as a chef with a cooking blog, you're aware of common mistakes new chefs make and can address these in dedicated blog posts. However, if you’ve started a blog in an unfamiliar niche, you’ll need to conduct research to create expert content. For example, if you're a teacher writing a finance blog, you can showcase your expertise by:
Documenting your own experiences managing finances as a teacher
Surveying others who excel at financial management
Interviewing finance experts to provide valuable tips to your readers
2. You Run a Business
If you run a business and struggle to create meaningful content, you need to understand a couple of things before brainstorming content ideas:
You already have the expert knowledge of all the issues your customers have
You need to create content that solves your ideal customer’s problems
You might only lack the lens to identify content opportunities
Since you already possess the expert knowledge, you only need to understand your customers’ problems. For example, if you run a clothing business, you might look into niche-specific styling tips, storage tips, or budget-friendly festive outfit options.
3. You Write Content For Others
If you’re required to brainstorm ideas for a client, you can ask them for subject matter expertise or conduct market research to come up with distinct content ideas. Most clients already have market insights since they regularly deal with customers. But if they don’t you can find distinct stories by assessing the target audience’s behavior. You can learn more about market research in the next section.
Furthermore, Google emphasizes E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) for content to rank on SERP. Therefore, experience and expertise not only give a unique angle to your content but also increase the chances of ranking.
For example, Eddie Shleyner and Ryan Robinson build authority in their field by sharing expert insights and content about their profession.
Observe Your Audience
People share their experiences and frustrations in online forums and social media. To craft a high-level content plan, you can gather valuable insights about your audience preferences on such platforms.
For example, if you’re looking for home improvement content ideas, you can scroll the HomeImprovement subreddit to identify unique blog post topics.
For example, the following post from the Home Improvement community could be transformed into a how-to blog post:
How to Use Social Media for Content Research
Social media is an underappreciated source of finding blog post ideas. Here’s how you can use social media for brainstorming content ideas:
Search for your main keywords
Find active communities with a large audience
Observe audience questions and replies to know their struggles
List all the blog post ideas that come to your mind while observing the communities
Reflect on the list whenever you create new content
Reflect on Your Niche Whenever You Consume Content
When you’re out of ideas, consuming other’s content can be fruitful. Popular media, like TV shows or vlogs, often touch on universal themes and experiences. By drawing parallels between content and your niche, you can train your brain to get more unique content ideas.
For example, if you're watching friends and you're a lifestyle blogger you could think about 10 life lessons learned from friends or if you're watching a vlogger expressing their struggle to effectively manage the delivery of their new business due to expensive options and you're a business blogger you could write about cheap delivery options for small businesses.
The key here is to keep your mind attentive to every content opportunity so you’re never out of ideas. No matter how irrelevant the content you consume is, you can still get content ideas if you’re mindful.
Why do you need content brainstorming?
Brainstorming content helps you publish unique material, preventing it from becoming repetitive and stale. The tips I shared in this blog post prioritize audience preferences so that you only deliver valuable content. And aligning with audience preference or satisfying user intent is the key to growing your blog.
Careful brainstorming also helps you rank higher on Google and showcase your expertise. However, no matter how adept you become at spotting content opportunities, there will be days when your mind goes blank.
On such days, you can use free blog idea generators like Writecream. Writecream is an AI content generator with multiple tools, including a blog generator, social media copy generator, copy generator, and more. You can use your creativity and research resources to refine Writecream-generated blog posts once you have an initial idea.
FAQs
How to do a content brainstorm?
Content brainstorming begins with identifying your content goals. Once you know your goals and audience, you can brainstorm content using various techniques. Inspiration from competitors, audience research on social media, and assessing industry trends are ways to find content ideas.
What is brainstorming in content writing?
Brainstorming in content writing is the process of generating content ideas to deliver value through written content. Idea generation, research, refinement, and execution are the key aspects of the content writing brainstorming process.
How do I get content ideas for SEO?
Use keyword research tools to identify high-value keywords and use content ideation tools like HubSpot blog topic generator to get SEO content ideas. Identifying content gaps and taking inspiration from competitors also gives insights into the type of content your target audience loves. You can also use Quora, Reddit, and Ahrefs keyword research to get SEO content ideas.
Want help with expanding your blog’s search visibility through targeted content? Hit me up to create a targeted content strategy for your business.
