How to Find Topics for Your Content Marketing Efforts
Most organizations understand that content marketing is a valuable strategy for connecting with potential customers, amplifying their brand, and building credibility. You and your team may have a few specific ideas, but beyond that . . . crickets. Where else can you find things to write about?
There are probably are tons of potential topics across your company. The problem is that they’re hidden away in employees’ brains, in files of research surveys, or in industry trend reports. The problem is how to extract those nuggets from the silos they’re stored in.
One option is to appoint someone to this task. They don’t have to be responsible for actually writing the stories, but they should focus on finding potential topics by talking to people, reading reports, and attending meetings. In short, they make connections between what’s going on and how you can leverage that for your content. This could be a dedicated role or a main responsibility for someone who already has lots of connections and relationships across your departments, such as an internal communications professional. Just don’t add it to a long list of things someone is already doing, because it’ll probably get pushed to the bottom. Finding, developing, and coordinating content can be a full-time job, as any managing editor can tell you.
In addition, it’s helpful to nurture a “story idea mindset” among your employees. Are they working on a project they think would make a great blog post? Did they stumble on some research that really helped them in their work or resulted in great insights? Is there a challenge they’re facing right now? All of these can be transformed into potential content for your organization. You can hold weekly or monthly meetings, or dedicate a Slack channel or a Microsoft Teams group to potential story ideas.
A few suggestions for where to start brainstorming and looking for ideas include:
Internal research. If you have team members conducting or compiling research, their findings could be compiled into a report, a blog post, or an infographic. Even a few insights could be incredibly compelling in a marketing email.
Industry trends. What are others in your field doing? What are some forces or circumstances that are driving change or causing challenges? How are organizations dealing with them, and what are the implications of not dealing with them? What are some ways your organization Is addressing these trends? What’s coming down the pike and how is your company poised to address it?
Employee spotlights. I’m not talking about the dry professional biographies you see on too many websites. These spotlights should tell the story of what an employee does, why they love it, and how their work has made a difference.
Case studies. What are some obstacles your teams faced down and succeeded at working through? Tell how it happened. Even smaller wins can make for valuable content, as they provide a window into your company and help build that customer relationship.
Customer success stories. These are similar to case studies, but by focusing on individuals, they offer a more personal, emotionally-driven narrative.
Executive thought leadership. Your leaders probably have thoughts about where the industry is going, best practices, or valuable things they have learned. These could be in the form of an article (which could be ghostwritten), a Q&A, or an audio interview.
Always keep in mind that your content should be useful for for your target audience somehow. Simply bragging about your organization’s accomplishments isn’t very compelling. But if you describe how they filled a need or helped solve a problem with captivating details, that becomes more engaging and emotionally resonant.