12 Ways To Find The Next Content Ideas Your Audience Craves In 3 Minutes
brand direction & styling by us for Erika Parker | photo by Meg Sexton
You know that dreadful feeling when you finally make time to create content, sit down in front of your computer, and then… nothing comes to mind? And you find yourself frustrated and wondering, “how are people posting content online every day? Coming up with one content is hard enough!”
And after you created your content and are ready to hit “post” or “publish,” you then wonder, “Will people like this?” The next thing you know, you find yourself editing and redoing the content all over again.
If you want to stop second-guessing and start confidently creating content that your audience will love, here are 12 foolproof ways to find amazing content ideas fast, so you can create more high-engaging content with less time:
1. Find content ideas on Google, Pinterest, Quora, Youtube, and Reddit
We’re starting with these popular online platforms. Search for keywords related to your area of expertise and industry on Google, Pinterest, Quora, and Youtube to see what other people, leaders, and experts in your industry and space are sharing.
From Google, Pinterest, and Youtube, you can also make a note of other people’s content headlines, especially the links, posts, and videos that are ranked in the top 10, and get inspiration to create your own catchy headlines later.
Go to Reddit and Quora specifically to learn what questions people are asking around the topics that are relevant to your audience and target customers.
2. Check Instagram and Tiktok for trending content ideas
There are two ways to use Instagram and Tiktok.
First, use keywords to search on Instagram and Tiktok for popular posts related to the topics you want to create content for. The top search results show you what relevant content is trending and what people are interested in and engaging with.
Two, check the accounts of leaders and competitors in your industry and get inspiration from what they are sharing with their audience. To make sure that your research is effective, it’s important that you are focusing on the accounts your target audience and customers follow and go to for information.
To take this a step further, check the comments under these popular posts to see if there are any follow-up questions to get even more content ideas.
3. Check your comments, direct messages, and emails for content ideas
Go to your own social media accounts and see what questions your audience asked before. Check the comment section under your posts and your direct message inbox to find any frequently asked questions.
Your email inbox is also a good place to find inquiries and questions you received from your audience, customers, or potential customers before. Turn these questions into your next content idea!
4. Niche network, Facebook groups, and forums
Go to any niche network, Facebook groups, forums, and communities where your target audience and customers are, and ask what their biggest questions are and what topics they want to know related to what you do, what you sell, your products or services, or your business. And turn people’s responses into content ideas.
5. Podcast & Blogs
Go to the podcasts and blogs that your target audience and customers listen to and read, then go through the episode titles and blog post titles to get inspiration for content ideas.
6. Expand on an existing content idea
Find a top-performing content you created, and create a new content idea that expands on certain sections of the old content. For example, we created this blog post, Feeling Confused About What Content to Share When Launching a New Offer? Here's How to Create Pre-Launch Content that Converts, and then dive deeper into the topic of the last point of the blog post on “Social Proof” and how to get them by sharing the blog post, How to Get Powerful Social Proof & Testimonials Before You Launch Your Business.
7. Repost your top-performing content
Identify the content from at least 3 months ago that your audience enjoyed, engaged with, or responded to before, and repost the same exact content. Keep in mind that not everyone in your audience sees all your great content, so remember to extend the shelf life of your top-performing content by resharing them.
8. Recreate your low-performing content
How about your low-performing content, you ask? Let’s also not let those go to waste, especially if some of them might still have the potential to become great content ideas. Find your existing content that didn’t perform as well, and see if you can recreate new content on the same topic. Consider presenting your content in different ways, make them more concise, or make them longer. Never let a good content idea go to waste!
9. Recreate existing content in different formats
You can turn your existing content into different formats. For example, you can turn a blog post into a video, turn a long Youtube video into short Tiktok and Instagram videos to give a summary, or a short social media video with quick tips into a longer blog post or a podcast episode to dive deeper into the same topic, or a social media post into a longer video for people what want to learn more. You get the idea. The possibilities are endless!
10. Create different types of content from existing content
Besides the actual format of your content, you can also create different types of content on the same topic. Here are some popular types of content:
List
Checklists
how-to guides and tutorials
Questions & Answers
Interviews
Roundups and resources lists
Reviews
Comparisons
Infographics
Case studies
You can present existing content differently with additional information. For example, we can turn our blog post, 6 Simple Ways to Use Social Proof to Instantly Power Up Your Marketing, into a checklist and re-share it as a social media post. Or I can turn a short video we did on Tiktok on 6 Best Books for Every Women Entrepreneur into a comparison chart letting people know which book is perfect for what type of entrepreneurs.
11. Create a content series
From your existing content, create a series of multiple shorter content for social media. These shorter content can be videos or graphics and they are all related to a bigger, more general topic. When using a content series, you can dive deeper into an existing topic by delivering more digestible and concise information. This way, you can also generate several posts on a more general topic.
You can see how we break down our blog post, 3 Most Common Copywriting Mistakes & How to Fix Them With These Foolproof Tricks to Up-Level Your Copy, into short videos on Instagram here and here and also on Tiktok here and here.
12. Ask your audience for content ideas and topics they love
Ask your existing audience what they’re struggling with, what their biggest headaches are, the top three challenges they are facing right now, and what topics they would like to know more about that are relevant to your knowledge of expertise.
If you don’t have an audience, simply find five people who you know are your target audience and customers, and ask them the same set of questions to get content ideas they would be interested in.
“Asking” is the one secret to getting great content ideas! Click here to read more about how you can apply this to boost your marketing and grow your your business.
Want to learn how to connect with your audience better? Click here to uncover the 5 secrets to connecting with your audience, boost engagement & increase warm leads and learn the 8 jaw-dropping ways to generate desire on social & turn followers into customers.
Ready to build that next-level connection and trust with your audience? Let’s take the conversation to your direct messaging inbox, and check out these creative ideas to use direct messages to significantly boost engagement & strengthen loyalty.
Launching your business, a new product, or a new service, but not sure what to share on social media? Here's how to create pre-launch content that converts (+ a list of content ideas.)
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