How to Choose Content Marketing Topics in 2024
To get the best success with Content Marketing, you’ll need to understand your audience and choose the best topics to write. Check out these tips.
Content marketing can be a very challenging task if you are new to the process, but it can also give you a headache even if you are experienced in the field. In any case, there will definitely always be issues and challenges you will be struggling with along the way.
For instance, choosing content marketing topics can be stressful enough if you know that you have very many options to choose from – or, on the contrary, if you are absolutely lost about where to start. Hence, these 10 tips for choosing content marketing topics will help you achieve your content marketing goals effectively and almost seamlessly.
1. Define Your Marketing Goals
First and foremost, you need to clearly define your content marketing and general marketing goals. Defining your marketing goals will allow you to understand the bigger picture while defining your content marketing goals will help you align these more precise aims with the bigger ones. Moreover, defining your content marketing goals will help you understand what you want to do with your content and, in turn, choose the right topics.
To define your marketing goals, think about what you want to achieve with your offline and online marketing. Your biggest goal will probably be to increase revenue, but you can also think about such things as growing your client base or improving brand awareness. Then, you need to define your content marketing goals. These can be anything from increasing your follower numbers on social media to building a strong backlink profile on your website.
2. Look at Your Current Analytics
If you are already using content marketing and actively (or not-so-actively) publishing content online, looking at your current analytics will already help you get a better idea of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to your content specifically and the audience this content reaches. Analytics are by far some of the most precise tools you have for determining which topics work and which don’t.
That being said, you still need to be careful when looking at your current analytics. If something is working now, it doesn’t mean that it will work later on. Keep in mind the current news and trends because they can influence greatly what your target audience is interested in at any given moment. As experts from the best websites put it, “You need to look at analytics, but you must never forget about the different factors that could be influencing the numbers you see in your analytics.”
3. Focus on Your Target Audience
Speaking of your analytics, focusing on your target audience can help even more because you will be looking right at the people who will be consuming your content, whether these are viewers, readers, or listeners. While your analytics reflect what your target audience is like, your target audience is exactly what your target audience is. To put it simply, analytics can only hint at what your target audience likes while looking at your target audience will precisely tell you what they are interested in.
To focus on your target audience, look first at their basic information. What is their age, gender, nationality, etc.? What is their occupation, education, and family status? Then, you need to look at their more advanced information such as their interests, likes, dislikes, values, goals in life, and so on. If you are able to do this, make sure to also ask your audience directly what they would like to see from you i.e. which topics they want you to cover in your content.
4. Break Up Your Goals by Piece
Going back to your goals, an interesting tactic you can adopt is breaking up your goals by piece of content. This will help you in several ways. Firstly, you will be able to work with smaller, more reasonable, and achievable goals. Secondly, these goals will be easier to organize to work with separately. Thirdly, each of your pieces of content will have their own goals which will allow you to pursue a number of goals or aims at the same time.
Breaking up your goals is actually quite easy. Most of the time, a certain piece of content you are working on will already be pursuing a particular goal (e.g. an Instagram post will aim to increase engagement or grow your follower base). What you should do is look at your bigger goals and also apply them to each of the pieces of content you are working on so that you have both smaller and bigger goals attached to each post which will allow you to better understand which topics to cover.
5. Remember About Competition
Some business owners and marketers make the obvious mistake of focusing only on their respective jobs and not looking at the market or what the competitors are doing. Remembering about your competition is not only important for you to be up to date with all the latest news and events in the industry but also important for you to know what your competitors are doing and be able to use this knowledge to create your own strategy.
For instance, if your competitor often uses live streams to cover new product releases, you could do the same on your own social media brand accounts. If your competitor is covering particular topics on their blog, you could also cover such topics. You don’t necessarily need to do everything exactly the same way they do it but learning from their mistakes and successes can help you align your own actions the right way.
6. Try Various Format Types
Speaking of live streams and blog posts, trying various format types can also inspire you to choose appropriate topics for your content marketing. There are so many format types currently available that there is definitely something you will find that fits your needs, abilities, resources, and audience requirements. Here are just some content formats to try out that professionals from the top writers list often use:
- Blog Posts and Articles
- Images and Photographs
- Illustrations and Artwork
- Social Media Posts
- Guest Posts and Shoutouts
- Interviews and Collaborations
- Giveaways and Contests
- GIFs, Videos, and Animations
- Live Streams and Podcasts
- Quizzes, Polls, and Surveys
- E-Books and Webinars
- Email Newsletters
- Wish Lists and Checklists
- Infographics, Charts, and Presentations
- White Papers, Reports, and Case Studies
7. Keep in Mind the Buying Cycle
Another big mistake many business owners and marketers make is that they keep creating and publishing content as if it exists in a vacuum. But when you do this, your content will have more chances of performing poorly. This is why it is so important to keep in mind the buying cycle to be able to align your content with the different points in this cycle which will allow you to get to potential customers at almost any moment of their interaction with your brand.
Keep in mind that there are probably different ways your buying cycle can develop which is why it’s better to have multiple versions of your buying cycle. One customer could first find out about your brand through social media which is why your social media posts need to correspond to this particular buying cycle. Another customer could first get exposed to your brand through a guest post on a different website which means you will need to align your content to this other version of your buying cycle.
8. Experiment with Different Ideas
Experimenting can be frightening, but this is actually the only way for you to find out what works specifically for your brand and what you should stick to as you plan your future content marketing strategy and campaigns around it. Experimenting with different ideas will help you come up with the topics that you might have not though about otherwise – and you will surprise both yourself and your audience.
Surprising your audience is by far one of the best things to capture their attention and prove to them that you are able to create authentic and unique content in an age when everything is quite repetitive. You don’t even need to do something big – simply coming up with an unusual approach to a common topic will help you stand out. Moreover, experimenting with ideas will allow you to make mistakes which will help you learn from these very mistakes and outperform your competitors.
9. Adapt Your Older Content
Adapting your older content may not seem like the most obvious way to find new topics to create content for, but it is actually a surprisingly effective technique. By revisiting your older content, you will discover the topics that you may have forgotten about. Moreover, older content that has performed very well can simply be updated by new findings and statistics to be relevant now – and then you can just publish it again.
Try to first look at your blog posts and articles. Then, you can move on to other types of content you have posted. You can also check out the different platforms you have posted to. In addition to that, you can take older content from one platform and adapt it for a different platform. For example, an old blog post can be the perfect foundation for creating a video for your YouTube channel. You can also post this updated content simultaneously by adapting older content for multiple platforms. In a way, this will also help you experiment more.
Final Thoughts
All in all, perhaps the most important thing you must remember about choosing content marketing topics is that it takes time to learn all the skills you will need to choose the topics quickly and effectively. Use the tips in this article to get you started and set you on the right path when choosing topics for your content marketing.
FAQ
How Do You Identify Relevant Content Marketing Topics for Your Audience?
Identify topics by understanding your audience’s interests, challenges, and questions. Conduct market research, review customer feedback, and analyze what competitors are discussing.
What Role Does Audience Persona Play in Selecting Content Marketing Topics?
Audience personas help in tailoring content topics to specific segments of your audience, ensuring that the content resonates with their specific needs, interests, and pain points.
How Can SEO Research Assist in Choosing Content Topics?
SEO research helps identify popular search queries and keywords in your industry, guiding you to create content that aligns with what your audience is actively searching for online.
What Is the Importance of Aligning Content Topics with Business Goals?
Aligning content topics with business goals ensures that your content marketing efforts contribute to broader objectives like brand awareness, lead generation, or customer retention.
How Can You Use Social Media Insights to Generate Content Ideas?
Social media insights can reveal trending topics, common questions, and discussions among your audience, providing a rich source of ideas for relevant content topics.
Why Is It Important to Keep Content Topics Fresh and Updated?
Keeping content fresh and updated maintains audience interest, reflects current trends and developments, and improves search engine rankings by showing ongoing relevance.
How Do You Balance Trendy Topics with Evergreen Content?
Balance by mixing in trendy topics that attract immediate attention with evergreen content that remains relevant and valuable over time, ensuring a diversified content strategy.
Can Customer Feedback and Inquiries Be a Source for Content Topics?
Yes, customer feedback and inquiries often highlight areas of interest or confusion that can be addressed through targeted content, directly responding to your audience’s needs.
How Should You Evaluate the Success of Chosen Content Topics?
Evaluate success by analyzing engagement metrics like page views, time spent on page, shares, comments, and conversion rates to understand the impact and relevance of your content.
What Strategies Can Be Used to Brainstorm Innovative Content Topics?
Strategies include team brainstorming sessions, analyzing industry reports, staying updated with news and trends, and even looking at parallel industries for inspiration.
How Can Analyzing Competitor Content Influence Your Topic Selection?
Analyzing competitor content can reveal gaps in their strategy that you can fill, help identify popular topics in your industry, and inspire ideas for unique angles or untapped subjects.
What Is the Role of Keyword Research in Content Topic Selection?
Keyword research helps identify the terms and phrases your target audience uses in search engines, guiding you to create content that improves visibility and search engine rankings.
How Can Current Events and Industry Trends Shape Content Topics?
Staying abreast of current events and industry trends ensures your content is timely and relevant, engaging your audience with information that’s currently important to them.
Why Is It Crucial to Understand the Customer Journey When Selecting Topics?
Understanding the customer journey helps create content that addresses the specific needs and questions of your audience at different stages, from awareness to decision-making.
How Can User-Generated Content Inspire New Topic Ideas?
User-generated content, like comments, reviews, or social media posts, can provide insights into what your audience finds interesting, sparking ideas for new topics.
What Strategies Can Be Employed to Regularly Generate Fresh Content Ideas?
Regular strategies include setting up Google Alerts for industry keywords, following thought leaders and influencers, participating in forums, and using tools like BuzzSumo to identify popular content.
How Does Audience Feedback on Existing Content Guide Future Topic Selection?
Audience feedback can highlight which types of content resonate the most, indicating subjects or formats that might be successful in future content strategies.
Why Should Content Marketers Consider the Format When Choosing Topics?
Different topics may be better suited to specific formats, like blogs, videos, or infographics, based on the nature of the content and the preferred consumption methods of your audience.
How Can Testing and Experimentation Aid in Selecting Effective Content Topics?
Testing different topics and formats and analyzing their performance can provide valuable insights into what works best, helping refine your content strategy over time.
What Is the Impact of Visual Elements in Choosing Content Marketing Topics?
Incorporating visual elements can make certain topics more appealing and digestible, particularly for complex subjects, and should be considered when planning content.
How Can Historical Content Performance Data Guide Topic Selection?
Reviewing the performance of past content can identify what topics resonated most with your audience, guiding future topic selection based on proven interest and engagement.
What Is the Significance of Creating a Content Calendar for Topic Planning?
A content calendar helps in planning and organizing topics over time, ensuring a consistent publishing schedule, thematic variety, and alignment with key dates or events relevant to your audience.
How Does Understanding the Sales Funnel Influence Content Topic Choice?
Content should address different stages of the sales funnel – awareness, consideration, decision. Understanding this helps in creating topics tailored to guide the audience through each stage.
Can Collaborating with Other Departments Generate New Content Ideas?
Collaboration with sales, customer service, or product development teams can provide unique insights and fresh ideas for content topics based on direct customer interactions and feedback.
What Is the Role of A/B Testing in Choosing Content Topics?
A/B testing different topics or formats with a segment of your audience can reveal preferences and engagement patterns, aiding in refining topic selection.
How Important Is It to Regularly Update Evergreen Content Topics?
Regularly updating evergreen content ensures it remains accurate, relevant, and continues to rank well in search engines, maintaining its long-term value to your audience.
How Can Audience Segmentation Influence Content Topic Selection?
Segmenting your audience allows for more targeted topic selection, catering to the specific interests, problems, or preferences of different audience groups.
Why Is It Important to Align Content Topics with Brand Voice and Messaging?
Ensuring content topics align with your brand voice and messaging maintains brand consistency, reinforces brand identity, and builds trust with your audience.
What Is the Impact of Industry Expertise on Content Topic Authority?
Demonstrating industry expertise in your content topics can establish your brand as a thought leader, build credibility, and earn trust from your audience.
How Can Nonprofit Organizations Tailor Content Topics to Their Mission and Goals?
Nonprofits should choose topics that reflect their mission, resonate with their supporters, and promote their goals, helping to educate, inspire, and mobilize their audience.
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