As you are looking for advertising ideas for small businesses to fuel your success through the end of the year and the start of the next, planning strong, engaging content needs to be part of the mix. Crafting content that can sparkle, shine and jump off the page, engaging with the reader and sticking in the mind of your customers, requires finding the right topics. Here are four places where you can find topic ideas to fuel your content planning and hit a home run with your readers.
1. Keyword Research
Keyword research can help drive your topic selection as well as your writing and SEO, according to Copy Blogger. By typing your main keyword phrase into a keyword research tool, you will see the different sub-categories of that word that people might search. Use this to determine the topics your target audience wants. You can also base content off of the most commonly searched terms found on Google Analytics.
2. Industry Forums
If you’re drawing a total blank on what to add as content to your blog or website, go hang out in some forums related to your industry. Also, check Quora to see what people are asking about your industry niche. Make a list of topics from these sources, but make sure to jot down where the idea came from. Then you can come back and post a link to your content to answer the question or join the discussion, and gain more traffic as a result.
3. LinkedIn Groups
For the baseball player to hit a home run, he must dig in deep and swing hard. For you to hit a content home run, you need to dig a little deeper too to find the topics that gleam in the mark that is the World Wide Web, drawing your target reader to your site. LinkedIn can provide a place to find topic ideas. Join a few LinkedIn groups in your industry, and interact with the questions and comments in these groups to find trending topic ideas.
4. Your Own Expertise
The content that connects most with your audience is content they can’t find anywhere else. To provide this content, dip into your own expertise. What is it that you know and can write about well? If you can provide something new to your audience that comes straight from your own head, and if that topic meets a need or answers a question your audience has, you will connect like Babe Ruth during the World Series.
Hitting a home run in baseball may look like it is more luck than skill, but in content planning, truly connecting requires the right planning and effort. With these four sources, you can be inspired with winning topics that will leave your fans begging for more.
Writer Bio: Nicole H is a professional writer and photographer who is always looking for ways to make content and clients shine. When she experiences writer’s block, she grabs a camera and a random toddler to get the creative juices flowing again before cranking out more content.
