Last month, we talked about why your business needs a multi-channel content strategy to increase your company’s awareness among clients and prospects, capture their interest and prompt them to take action. We also spoke about targeting your content to the needs of your target audience (not your peers) with text that is informative and interesting and will resonate emotionally with your customers.
Sounds great. So, what exactly should you write about? And how do you create compelling content?
Well, technically, the sky’s the limit… and if that frightens you, you’re not alone. If it’s any consolation, almost everyone runs out of ideas at one time or another, including famous writers such as Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Stephen King and J.K. Rowling.
So what happens when that copy deadline is looming and you just don’t know what to say?
Well, here is a great infographic that provides 22 wonderful suggestions to create content that is both memorable and compelling.
The good news is that many great ideas are right in front of you (or at least, easy to find) such as:
- Best/Worse Case Studies
- Product reviews
- Recent trends
- Interviews
- Personal stories
- Top 10 lists
Marketing Cafe works with our clients to create an “editorial” calendar as well as a distribution timetable, so clients have a good idea of not only WHAT they’ll be talking about but WHEN. This lets us plan articles in advance to get a more “big picture” view of the content for a better flow among subject matters. It also allows us sufficient time to conduct interviews or to schedule content around major events, such as Xmas gift giving or the Oscars (great for “best of” and “Top 10” lists).
So if you’re ever at a loss on what to write about for your blog, newsletter or other client communication, use this infographic as a personal “cheat sheet” of great content ideas. And keep in mind the lesson of Idea #22 – you can always recycle old posts into something new!