Developing the best content ideas is critical to telling your brand’s story.
In the world of digital marketing, quality content is king. With the right content, a business can establish itself as a thought leader in its industry, increase its online visibility, and drive conversions. But how does one come up with quality content ideas? Enter content ideation.
What is Content Ideation?
You might hear content marketing professionals and digital marketers tossing around the word content ideation often. Perhaps you even nod in agreement, secretly wondering what they are discussing. Those of us (myself included) in the industry sometimes forget that new people might not completely understand a discussion. So it’s worth slowing down to define the terminology.
Content ideation is the process of brainstorming and developing ideas for content that will appeal to your target audience. It involves researching and analyzing data to identify topics and themes relevant to your industry and audience. Then, you use creative thinking to turn those topics into engaging content.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Content Ideation From Start to Finish
The process of content ideation involves a mix of data analysis, creativity, and research. The process is similar regardless of whether you create podcasts, YouTube videos, or write content for a website. Here are the steps involved in the creative process of content ideation:
Step 1: Identify Your Audience
Who are you creating for? Before you begin the content ideation process, you must learn who your target audience is and understand their needs. It involves creating detailed buyer personas that outline your audience’s demographics, interests, and pain points.
A well-known marketing expert and author said the following:
When we create something, we think, “Will our customers thank us for this?” – Ann Handley, Author and marketer
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Step 2: Research Your Industry
Once you have identified your target audience, research your industry for relevant topics and trends. Use tools like Google Trends, BuzzSumo, and SEMrush to analyze search data, social media engagement, and competitor content.
Step 3: Brainstorm Ideas During Content Ideation
Considering your target audience and industry research, it’s time to brainstorm content ideas. Hold a brainstorming session with your team, and use techniques like mind mapping, word association, and random word generation to develop as many ideas as possible.
Step 4: Evaluate Your Ideas
Does your intended audience find your topic interesting? After brainstorming, evaluate your ideas against relevance, uniqueness, and shareability criteria. Narrow down your list to the best ideas that meet your criteria.
Step 5: Analyze the Data
Use data analysis to identify keywords and long-tail keywords that are relevant to your industry and audience. It sounds dull, but don’t skip this process! Data analysis is critical to the content ideation process. Analyzing data lets you identify relevant topics and trends for your industry and audience.
Here are three ways to use data in the content ideation process:
- Keyword research pinpoints the keywords and phrases people use when searching for information related to their industry. Use resources like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to locate keywords with high search volume and low competition.
- Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases less competitive than shorter, more general ones. Use tools like Google Autocomplete and Answer the Public to identify long-tail keywords relevant to your industry and audience.
- Social media listening involves monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand, industry, and competitors. Use tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social to track social media conversations and identify trending topics and themes.
Step 6: Discover Social Media Trends
Monitor social media channels for industry-related trending topics and themes. Find out what people are sharing and discussing to ensure your target audience finds your helpful topic enough to share with others.
Step 7: Create a Content Ideation Calendar
With your ideas in hand, create a content calendar that outlines the topics, formats, and deadlines for each piece of content. This tool helps you stay organized and consistently publish quality content.
Step 8: Write, Produce, Edit, and Publish
Develop high-quality content based on your ideas and data analysis. Pay attention to the details that speak to the quality of your work.
Step 9: It’s Time to Share!
Promote your content through social media, website, email marketing, and other channels. Use all appropriate channels to reach your audience.
Digital marketers Andy Crestodina said it best:
It’s not the best content that wins. It’s the best-promoted content that wins. -Andy Crestodina, Digital marketer
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Step 10: Monitor and Update
Monitor your content’s performance and use analytics to refine your content strategy. Stay up-to-date on audience response, making updates as needed to keep the content fresh, engaging, and accurate. You should also note what brands are linking to your content. That’s because other creators who see value in your work could present good opportunities for collaboration–like guest blogs.
Summing It Up: Spend the Necessary Time and Care on Content Ideation to Drive Results
By deeply understanding the significance of the creative process, you can develop a creative and data-driven creative process. By consistently publishing quality content that resonates with your intended audience, you establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry and drive conversions. Contact us if you need help with content for your website, blog, or email marketing campaign.