Maintaining a blog isn't always easy, and that goes double if you're in a niche that's, you know…
Unsexy.
Who really wants to sit down every evening after work and write 2,000 words about coffee grinders or power sanders?
Whether you're running a small local business, an ecommerce store, or a niche review site or blog monetized with affiliate links, coming up with content can be tough.
Eventually, you find yourself wondering what the heck you have left to write about.
Or, maybe you're just starting out, and you don't even know where to begin.
And that's just coming up with content topics. Then, there's the matter of good topics — the ones your audience actually wants to read and share.
That's even harder.
Just getting an audience for your content can be an uphill battle, much less getting something to go viral.
In a recent blog post, marketing guru Neil Patel offers up a simple yet effective four-step process for finding the right topics for blockbuster content that gets attention. Here's his process.
Build an idea bank
Truthfully, I have a difficult time coming up with great ideas.
But I’ve learned that out of all the bad ideas, there’s always a few that will stand out. And that’s the important thing.
When you can’t think of what to write about, there are four simple ways you can come up with viral-worthy blog topics.
First, create a master spreadsheet to serve as your idea bank. The headings should look something like this:
[image source: Neil Patel]
There’s no sweat involved in filling out your spreadsheet.
Step one: Analyze your products and services
While blogging isn’t a direct sales tool, you want to be intentional about choosing topics that are aligned with what your business offers.
This way you’re not blogging for the sake of blogging and are more likely to see a return on your time investment.
Consider each offer individually.
What hurdles are preventing your prospects from saying yes?
Addressing the objections that people have about your business is the best way to improve your lead generation efforts.
A gold mine for finding these objections is on webinar chat boxes. You can either examine your own webinars or those of your competitors.
You’ll find a scenario like this:
[image source: Neil Patel]
More questions to use when considering your products/services:
- Why are you the best person to solve their problems?
- Why not your competitor?
- What’s the urgency?
- Why is your product relevant now?
- Why is your product the #1 solution?
Use these questions to brainstorm, and add the answers to your spreadsheet. You can then use the headline formulas that I’ll be giving you to craft a custom headline.
Step two: Audit your popular blog content
The best way to know what content will delight your audience is to pinpoint blog posts that have already hit the mark.
Check your analytics and note the categories of the most popular posts and content upgrades.
You can then brainstorm ideas around these categories or plug them into Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator.
[image source: Neil Patel]
The tool will generate blog post topics for you.
[image source: Neil Patel]
Step three: Conduct competitive intelligence
It’s easy to get yourself worked up by the idea of competition.
However, I believe in making your competitors work for you and not against you.
Why not tap into what already works for them?
One of my favorite tools for gaining insight into high ranking content is Buzzsumo.
Simply plug in your keyword and browse through the results.
[image source: Neil Patel]
The goal is to select content with the most social capital.
Make it yours, make it better, and readers will find you.
Step four: Get in tune with the desires and pain points of your target audience
It amazes me how many people neglect this step.
You want to tell an effective story, create hyper-relevant content, and be perceived as an authority.
Ignoring the people you’re trying to reach is not the best way to accomplish this.
It’s to get into the heads and hearts of your audience. Here’s where you can get that insight:
- Blog comments
- Quora
- Niche Forums
- Amazon book reviews (pay special attention to the negative reviews)
- Facebook groups
- Twitter search
What questions are your prospects asking? What objections do they have? What do they need help with?
Take down these ideas word for word. The goal at this point is not to form a concrete hook but to generate ideas.
After you’ve completed these four steps, you’ll have an arsenal of raw data that can be transformed into custom blog topics.
And that's just the beginning. To find out more about how to write awesome posts — and not only that, but how to learn how to do it quickly and efficiently — check out the full post over at Neil Patel's Blog.
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