When it comes to producing blog ideas, it can easily become like a feast or a famine. One day you’re brimming full of thoughts and concepts, the next day you’re scratching around for a spark of inspiration.
So when it comes with having a pocketful of ideas, here are some of the ways the team at Tecmark come up with interesting and very readable blog posts for all of the accounts on their books.
Keep a notebook
Because you never know when inspiration is going to strike. Get a notebook, or use notes on your phone to jot down ideas that come spontaneously. Don’t wait until you find a pen, or until you get home – get that idea written down right there and then.
Brainstorm it
What should be filed under Business Cliches – along with ‘thought shower’ and ‘blue sky thinking’, actually works. If you’re up against a brick wall, write down one general phrase or idea, and then write down branches of that single thought. This should get the juices flowing and help you approach the subject laterally.
Check out the competition
When you’re scratching your head for an idea, one of the easiest ways of solving the problem is checking out what other people are up to. Go on competitors’ sites and see the blogs that they’ve created. This is just for inspiration, of course, not plagiarism!
Think of a ‘series’ idea
One of the best ways of generating ideas is to think in terms of creating a series of ideas. For one of our automotive clients, we created a series called ‘Ask the Mechanic’ which posed the most frequently asked car repair questions from Google. This formed a long-running blog series which get lots of clicks from people in need of vehicle advice.
Go back to it
Often when it comes to wracking your brains for ideas, the best course of action is to step away from it. Have lunch, go for a walk, read a book. Leave it a few hours before you return to the task in hand, and you should feel suitably refreshed to begin again.
Check in with the seasons
The time of year can heavily influence your blog. If winter’s on its way, how does that affect your subject? Is Christmas relevant to what you’re talking about? Does summer hold any importance for your brand? Link your blog post to the current season – and see how much you can write about. You’d be very surprised.
Refer to Analytics
Look at your Analytics account and see what past blog posts performed the best. It may not necessarily be your best piece of written content ever, but there was something within the topic you wrote on about that has captured an audience. See what related topics you can write about, using these ‘bestseller’ posts as inspiration.
Do some link analysis
You can also check out what posts performed well on any site in the world. Check out your favourite blogs, or a competitor’s on here, go to Top Pages and see which posts come up top. Use these to influence what your next blog will be about.
Use the Brainwriting tool on Tecmark.co.uk
Go to Tecmark.co.uk and use our free Brainwriting tool. Based on Professor Bernd Rohrbach’s “6-3-5 Method” from 1968, 6-3-5 brainwriting is a quantity ideas and solutions-generating exercise.
It’s useful whenever you need ideas, whether it’s content marketing, web design and conversion rate, product features or solutions to common business problems. Try it out and see how easy it is to create a huge supply of great ideas for your next blog post!
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About the Author
I joined Tecmark couple of months ago as an Influencer Relationship apprentice. It’s quite clear from my title that my main task is to create relationships with bloggers and ensure they are happy to work with our clients. Here is my advice when it comes to making new blogger friends.
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