Say it with me: Your blog is the cornerstone of your content marketing strategy. But coming up with blog topic ideas on a regular basis isn’t always easy. Brands with valuable, thoughtful, relevant blogs inspire 97% more links and way more conversions. They’re also the winners when it comes to driving organic traffic! Without a blog, even the most beautifully SEO-optimized site is more reliant on pay-to-play options like PPC advertising – which can easily chew up your budget.
The thing about blogging is that it requires a steady stream of fresh, evergreen content relevant to your audience. Because a blah blog isn’t doing anyone any favors.
Don’t worry. We’ve got your back. Here’s how to come up with must-click blog topic ideas your audience – and Google – will love.
🗞 Keep an eye on the news
New advances or innovations in your field can be great for inspiring timely blog topic ideas. And in our case, with social media, things change all.the.time. Set up a Google alert of make it a point to skim news headlines to see if anything shows up that might be relevant to your business – then chime in with an awesome blog response.
👀 See what your competition is doing
A little stalking can sometimes be a good thing. If you’re stuck on ideas, head to a few competitor websites to see what kind of blog topic content they’re putting out – and to get a sense of any particularly high-performing posts. Use these to generate new, original content of your own. (Emphasis on original here!)
📈 Get granular with Google Analytics
Let’s get analytical, analytical…! Dig into Google Analytics to see which search keywords are driving people to your site, and use those to inform new blog topic ideas. Similarly, see which posts are high performers and start building individual posts (or even a series) related to those.
👏 Mix up your content types
If that blogger’s block just won’t let up, think beyond the standard blog post. Try a “how to”, research round up, new product walkthrough, interview, case study or listicle. Still stuck? Reach out to others in your field to see if they’d like to provide a guest post. (Hey, we all love some backlink love!)
🎉 Tap into holidays, events and themes
Seasonal events, holidays, and even pop culture themes or trends can be great for inspiring blog topic ideas. Try writing something related to Halloween, Women’s History Month, National Donut Day, Black Friday or even Shark Week! These can be timely and topical – and often a lot of fun to work on. Pro tip: Just make these national days or culture moments relevant to your business and core values.
⚒ Mine your social channels
Those likes, comments, shares and Quote Tweets aren’t just great for your social cred. As you respond to posts or content, take note of any particularly high-engagement content you can use to inspire future blog topics. Additionally, if people are asking specific questions or keep mentioning a particular pain point, you’ve struck blog topic gold.
📣 Ask your audience what they want
Sounds almost too simple, doesn’t it? But there’s no better way to find out if there’s a gap in your content. Run a poll on social, link to a survey in your newsletter, or get people to send post ideas your way. You’ll end up with plenty of blog ideas, you’ll give more value – and you’ll have better insight into what your audience wants.
PSA: Don’t just stop at blog topics
Killer blog topics are a vital part of your content ecosystem. But once you’ve got your blogs ideated, written and uploaded, make sure you keep going back to that content repurpose it and extend its shelf life. Want to know how? Join me at my workshop in March to see how to quickly and easily repurpose your existing content into high-engagement, high-converting social posts (and more!) REGISTER HERE!