As a smart tech marketer, we don’t have to tell you that content is king. Or, remind you that creating the quality and quantity of content needed to support ongoing inbound lead generation is tough.
According to HubSpot, B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0-1 times per month. Yet, a recent study by Content Marketing Institute found that 49% of B2B marketers faced content creation challenges.
Sound familiar?
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking “Oh crap, we have to write a blog post about something!” then read on for five easy and practical tips to generate content your audience will love.
Follow industry buzz
Your clients expect that their partners, especially their tech-savvy vendors, know what factors are impacting their business. Industry knowledge allows you to recognize changing buying habits and identify new opportunities, all of which are great content topics.
To quickly and easily consume industry news, leverage news aggregators like Feedly or Inoreader. If you serve different industries, set up a feed for each niche. For example, here at Kiwi we set up feeds that align with our specific customers’ businesses, as well as feeds for the latest in marketing.
Cancel content brainstorming sessions
It’s hard to come up with blog topics on the spot. It’s kind of like trying to agree on a place for dinner at 6pm when everyone is hungry and exhausted from a long day at work.
Yet how many times have you been stuck in a marketing session dedicated to brainstorming ideas for next month’s blog?
If you dedicate a specific meeting to generating new content topics, that either causes stage fright or encourages random ideas just for the sake of getting something on paper. Instead of setting aside specific time, try keeping a lookout for good ideas in every meeting you attend. It may help to block off the first few pages of your notebook for blog ideas, so you have an easy-to-access arsenal of good, relevant ideas that you’re continually adding to.
Interview your sales team
You already know you should be writing content that helps your audience answer questions and solve problems. But what exactly are those specific questions?
As a member of the marketing team, you might not have direct access to customers on a daily basis. But you know who does? That’s right…your sales team.
Don’t ask them what you should write about…they will draw a blank! Instead, simply ask them what questions they are hearing on a regular basis. It’s your job as a marketer to connect the dots and create relevant content based on those real-life facts.
Use HubSpot’s idea generator
If you’re up against the clock and still in search of the next big idea, try an online topic generator.
We like this blog topic generator from HubSpot. Input a few nouns, and out comes more than a few headlines to start the creativity process.
You can probably guess that some headlines it spits out can be a little goofy, but it's a great starting place when you really need a new and different idea.
Create a topic creativity board
We’re going a little old school with this idea.
In order to encourage creativity, create a home for content ideas. Try a dedicated bulletin board that not only encourages the ideas making their way to paper, but is also a fun forum for evaluating and prioritizing the ideas.
