[Tweet “To assist in helping businesses achieve their marketing goals, there are numerous resources available that can act as references during your developmental phase.”]
Whether inspiration comes from a brainstorming session with a small group, an ideation meeting with your team or any other method, developing content creation ideas can sometimes be a difficult process.
To assist in helping businesses achieve their marketing goals, there are numerous resources available that can act as references during your developmental phase. Identifying these information sources can help you tell a story that your readers are interested in, consequently improving your site’s SEO metrics in the process.
This list will help spark your content creation process.
Tips for Finding Inspiration for Content Creation
Your business generates information that your readers would be interested in. These stories, pieces of data, or expert opinions can very easily turn into highly engaging content.
Looking internally is a great tactic for content ideas, but read on for a list of resources and examples to inspire your next collaborative project.
Data Sources
Craft an interesting story using a unique dataset. This is something that Fractl does to develop our own content. We developed a case study that analyzed our content marketing strategies for Fanatics.
Examples: Kaggle, Data.World, Data is Plural
News Aggregator
Daily bulletin and news websites are useful when building content ideas. They publish large amounts of content across a range of verticals. Some of these aggregators focus in on one field, while others act as a funnel for different types of content.
Examples: The Skimm, FiveThirtyEight, Pew Research
Forums
Sometimes people are asking questions that you are best suited to answer. Try searching around on sites like Quora for terms specific to your business.
Competition
Check out the blogs of your competitors. They may be writing content that you can do better or from another perspective. Alternatively, look at the reviews of their products/services and craft content around why you are a better alternative.
Tips for Content Sources
One important thing to consider is the types of sources that you choose to contribute to your creative process. Creating content is reliant on authoritative sources to back up your claims; as a result, the benchmark for sourcing is based on reliability, consistency, and quality.
Data Sources
Use your own customer metrics or Google Analytics to tell an interesting story about your growth or change over time. Looking to aggregate data can be a successful way to measure your own internal metrics as well.
Survey
Making your own dataset is not as complicated as you might think! Build a survey using Survey Monkey asking questions that you think would be pertinent to your readers. The backend tools make for easy analysis and help to produce high-quality visuals to better convey your story. Focus on an unbiased methodology and go from there.
How-To/List
Content that provides value can be the most engaging. Educate your readers using this formula and they will appreciate it! Stepwise articles are easy to follow, making content consumption easier and more enjoyable as a result.
Interviews
Another way to provide value to your readers is to give them information from an expert. Whether this person works with you or is recognized throughout the industry, a well thought out interview can provide answers to questions your customers are asking. Maybe record it and transcribe it as a post?
In our podcast, Ask Amanda, we speak with industry professionals to break through the information barrier of organic growth strategies and digital marketing techniques.
Guest Posts
Similar to interviews, invite an industry expert to do a guest post for you. This will help to lend credibility to your brand while also providing helpful information.
Information Compilation
Sometimes laying all the options out is the best way to go. Rather than forcing your readers to do the research, do it for them! Bringing disparate information together enables you to act as a resource and benefit from those who are looking for it.
Information Explanation
Another form of a resource page, walk your readers through data using things like infographics or diagrams. When used correctly, visual assets can tell a story much more easily than a paragraph.
Case Studies
One thing you can do to drive more customers is to provide them with the reassurance of your services. A case study featuring your past work could do the trick!
Read about Fractl’s content marketing case studies to learn how we have provided results for our clients and their brands.
Company News
Similarly, make your company more transparent by sharing news of your inner workings. Are you hitting certain milestones? Looking to bring on more people? Let your social media followers know! Keeping them up-to-date on your company’s success will keep them engaged.
We share our monthly wins with our followers on our social media pages:
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Investigate Every Method
There are countless ways to generate content for your business. The trick is to make sure it’s engaging and helpful rather than being built expressly for SEO purposes. These resources should help you get started on developing ideas for your own content creation.
