You forgot to post, don't know what to do and have
no ideas whatsoever 😅 If this ever happened to you you're going to want to stick around for this
one. I'm talking how to have a never-ending flow of great ideas for content. LET'S DO THIS! 🔥🔥
Hi my lovely people, it's Natalia and welcome to my channel where I share super actionable
ideas on content creation for entrepreneurs and creatives! In today's video, I'm solving one
of the greatest issues that creators have which is HOW THE HECK DO I GET IDEAS FOR CONTENT. Let's be
honest, I've been there, you've been there, we've all been there where you're sitting down to plan
out your posts and you blank. *Scrolling ensues* Sound familiar? Fear not, I'm
here to give you tons of ideas, tips & tools to never run out of content
topics so grab a notepad and let's dive in! Before I kick off, one thing I need to
emphasize is that in order to be super efficient in your content marketing, it's
crucial to have these three things in place: a marketing strategy, a system
for planning & scheduling content as well as a database of ideas. Once these three
are in place, you no longer scramble to create valuable content and your marketing ventures
are actually bringing results. Have a look at this playlist which I created for you to learn all
the important steps to create content effortlessly and transform your business.
1. CREATE A DATABASE OF IDEAS And I'm starting off with the most important
one which is to start putting your ideas down! This might seem like a no-brainer
but hear me out. I rarely see companies or creators have an actual system
for gathering, retaining and reviewing ideas for content. This is super important
because nobody is always very creative and sometimes when you have great ideas they can
slip through the cracks and you're loosing these precious thoughts. Treat your ideas as a
well-organized resource rather than just a fleeting spark of inspiration which comes and
goes. Of course, the hardest thing is starting from scratch, but once you establish a foundation,
it's only going to make your work more efficient. There are tons of ways to get your ideas sorted.
You can have a notebook, a running list, a whiteboard in the office or you can rely on apps.
Trello is an obvious one, I used Asana in the past but now we're working in Notion which I can't shut
up about, it's just too good. I have a few free templates for you to start your own ideas board
so check out the link in the description box. Once you have that system
to gather ideas in place, you'll see how effortless your
content creation workflow becomes. 2. ASK YOUR AUDIENCE This is a true gold mine of ideas! Not only
can you keep a constant stream of ideas going, but it's also a fantastic way to really serve
your audience. And you know what happens when you do that! You get authentic engagement and
turn your followers into clients. There are multiple ways in which you can check what your
audience wants to see next. Utilize any of the platforms you're focusing on in your marketing
strategy or where you have the biggest engagement. Ask questions on Facebook, Youtube,
on your blog or even your newsletter. You can get a Q&A going on Instagram
Stories asking what their biggest hurdle is and create content around that. Polls are
also a great way to get ideas from them and differentiate between the types of content they
enjoy or what content they prefer. This way, your followers feel heard and are encouraged
to engage with you which in turn plays into the algorithm as well and helps your account
in general. Moreover, studies show that when you partially participate in creating a product
or service, you're more likely to enjoy it, opt for purchasing it and actually stick with it for
longer. Basically, you value it more. This is a super interesting cognitive bias that we all have
and it's called the IKEA effect - check it out! If you don't have an audience yet, don't worry, I
have a lot of other ideas for you as well so make sure to watch till the very end. At this point,
you should also get creative and ask yourself what your potential dream audience might want to
know from you. Think what you're good at, what you can share that someone might find valuable
or what things do people ask you for advice on? 3. BRAINSTORM Before you look for ideas externally, utilize
your own creativity. First of all, identify main categories for your content. So for example, if
you're a chef, you can have recipes, ingredients, techniques, presentation, nutrition, **CATEGORIES
HERE** . I mean, definitely not a chef here so you'll know best what your core pillars of
content actually are. Aim for anything from 6 to 12 categories. Make one of these YOUR STORY which
consists of anything personal that relates to you, your values, your mission, what drives you, what
inspires you... Get what I'm saying? This way, you're message is unique because there's only
one YOU in the world. Make that voice heard! Then, make yourself a cuppa coffee, get a big
piece of paper and start writing down anything that comes to mind on each of these content
categories. Start with a minimum of ten each. And at this point, don't you dare censor your creative
mind. Any idea, big or small, dumb or super smart is valuable because you never know where it
drives you and what actual value you end up with. Once you have a neat list of ideas, this is what I
like to do next which takes me out of that initial halt. Imagine a roadmap that your follower might
take when consuming your content. Think of the individual pieces of content as small and big
steps that they take to get to a desired goal. It can also be ideas that might lead them to
a specific mindset. You can think of this in so many different ways as long as it is a
road leading in some direction. This way, you can identify any missing steps
and create content on these as well. So for example, on my channel, I create videos
relating to creating content. You might find that actually a lot of my videos form a sort of path
for you to take you through a successful content creation process that delivers actual results.
And this is exactly what we're aiming for. But don't stop on just the main road and think of
other smaller branches that might lead from it. In the end, you end up with a handy tree of
content that will get you going for awhile. 4. RESEARCH TRENDING TOPICS The best way to create value and stay fresh is
to mix evergreen content with trending content. And trending subjects are an amazing way to
insert yourself into popular conversations and get discovered. There are multiple ways to check
what's trending in your industry. First, you can try Google Trends and Exploding Topics which are
both free websites. Then, check some platforms for what's hot at the moment. This can be checked on
Twitter where you can switch between locations, Linkedin which suggests trending subjects
in the industry, Youtube with its Trending Tab on different categories or Tiktok with
trending hashtags and sounds. See if you can create content on these topics but remember to
be authentic and do it natively to the platform. 5. SEEK OUT SEARCHABLE CONTENT Searchable subjects are another rich source
of ideas. Similarly to asking questions to your audience directly, you want to tap into
all the questions they might be typing in in their free time. It's actually very easy to
find these and here are some tools you can use yourself. Ubersuggest is a free keyword
tool where you can find various content ideas. Another website that I absolutely love
is Answer the Public. It gives you a variety of different phrases that people are looking for
which are organized into questions, comparisons (so versus, or phrases) and prepositions (like
for, to, without). So for example, if I enter gardening, you get questions like "why
gardening is good for the environment", "gardening where to start", "which gardening
magazine", then you have "gardening with kids" and "gardening vs gym". It's completely free to
use so check it out yourself because it's amazing. You can also look into suggestions given by Google
or Youtube when you search for different subjects. For example, I searched a few different
phrases related to gardening and I can see that people are looking for "gardening tips in
june", "gardening tool sets" or "garden storage". Try out some of the subjects you think your
audience might be interested in and see what is suggested. Watch out for the numbers though -
check Ubersuggest for how many hits the phrases have. What you want to do is create content around
the topics that people are often searching for. 6. REPURPOSE CONTENT Repurposing content is a life saving approach
to content creation. Although I always advise to focus on one or two platforms to begin with, once
the company grows or when you're a professional marketer, you need to be on multiple platforms
at the same time and it can be a huge struggle to create fresh, valuable content for all of them.
That's why repurposing existing content is so crucial. This can be done in a few different
ways. First of all, if you're creating an evergreen piece of content, say, a blog post, you
can turn it into bite-sized pieces for Facebook, share a direct quote from it on Instagram
or record a video on that subject and share it on IGTV, Youtube, Facebook etc. Think about
how you can take the value from that one piece and translate it to other platforms to provide
value for the audiences there without spending time on creating a completely new post. Make
sure that it feels native to the platform. Another great way is to refresh your old
content. Have a look if anything changed and create an update, especially
if the original piece was popular. For example, if you have a great video
from 2017 on tools you loved to use back then (by the way, are we still on about
gardening?), record a new one for 2020 with things you discovered since then. Same applies to
blog posts. You can be honest and open and tell your audience you're refreshing this subject
because there are things that changed since then. The subscribers will then feel well taken
care of as you're providing up to date knowledge. Have a look at other older
popular pieces of content and check for feedback. Were there many
questions about something in particular? Maybe you can go deeper on the topic as well or
touch on some points mentioned in the comments. I have a video coming up all about repurposing
content so subscribe and hit that notification bell to be the first one to know when this
one is out. It's going to help you out a ton. 7. CREATE COMPARISON POSTS People are always looking for what's best out
there and comparing two products, services or tools is a great way to showcase your expertise
and give your opinion of which one is better. This saves a lot of time for your audience and
aids in their decision making process. Moreover, by showing your perspective and discussing
different aspects you liked or disliked, they get an idea of how this relates to their
situation. A lot of Youtubers are creating comparison videos on cameras, lenses or mics and
these are hugely popular types of content. It's a great idea to create a This versus That video
or blog post for your niche to provide some guidance for your audience. They work really
well and since it's a type of content rather than a singular post, it can be used many
times to talk about a variety of subjects. 8. CHECK SIMILAR CREATORS Before I discuss anything here, that's not to
say go ahead and rip off someone else's ideas completely. That's a huge no no, it's 2020,
we're better than this. Have some respect! Now that that's off my chest, let's see how you
can identify what's happening in your niche by looking at similar creators. Take the time to read
comments on their posts, look around at Facebook Groups, check out forums and Linkedin. See what
questions are being asked and where the interest is going. Moreover, look at other popular creators
in your industry and research why they're doing well. Are they being authentic? Is there anything
they're focusing on? How are they providing value? This can all inspire you to create wholesome
content for your audience. And remember, everyone is different, everyone has their
own unique characteristics and selling points so focus on how to serve your
audience in a similar way. 9. EXPLORE OTHER CREATORS We're not stopping within our industry. Expand
your scope and see what other creators are doing. Analyze what gets traffic, see how this can
work in your niche and do it better and more thoroughly. Maybe there is a specific format of
posts that drives a lot of engagement for these creators. Maybe there's a cool trend within
that industry and you can think of a way to translate it to your niche. Create content
using your voice, knowledge and perspective. You can have a look across various platforms
for this and apply it to another platform. But again, remember to make it feel native
to the platform you're using it for. 10. CHECK OUT OTHER SOURCES You know what my two other favorite sources
of inspiration are? Quora and Reddit. Quora is a question and answer based website where
experts and regular folks share their knowledge. You'd be surprised how many amazing questions are
posted there daily. They're usually more in depth because you get a short description below
the question and the answers are often very insightful too. It can give you a different angle
to a question you might have been asked before. I don't think I need to introduce
Reddit to anyone. It's literally an ocean of ideas. Just go to any subreddit related
to your industry and see how many questions or interesting posts are out there. There's
a ton of inspiration there all the time. For both Quora and Reddit, go
ahead and type in the subject your audience is interested
in or keywords for your niche, and you'll be flooded by questions. These
can be turned into content straight away. 11. DOCUMENT WHAT'S AROUND YOU This is a great piece of advice from the one
and only Gary Vee. Again, another person I probably don't need to introduce but if you
don't know him, check him out right now. Gary always says to document what you're currently
doing and this way you're creating content in and of itself. And you don't need to always do amazing
unique things, go out of your way to put yourself in amazing situations which you yourself deem
worthy of your viewers attention. This can be a good thing but is not necessary. Focus on
the behind the scenes and actually capture what's currently happening. You don't know
how interesting someone else might find it. For us creators, the daily stuff around us
can sometimes feel boring or uneventful. But remember, what's obvious and prosaic for us,
is not necessarily so obvious to someone else. Document your process and journey and see
how your audience responds. For example, if you're a photographer who just painted
their own backdrop, show a hyperlapse or describe it in a blog post. It can provide some
insight on the value of what you're creating and make things even more personal between you and
your audience - after all, they've just seen the behind the scenes of how something in your
studio was created and the fruit of your labor. 12. COLLABORATE Collaborations are a great way to boost your
following and put yourself out there for another audience to discover you. As long as they're done
in a supportive and authentic spirit, by working with another creator, you can both help each other
out tremendously and create interesting and fresh content for your respective audiences. Reach out
to other creators who have a similar following, either from your niche or another industry which
might go well with your brand. Direct collabs can be one way of approaching content creation,
but you can also do roundups. If you get in touch with other experts to accumulate their
knowledge on a single subject, you provide a lot of value for your audience and help enforce
the expert status of these creators. This can be in the form of their opinions, favorite tools,
trend predictions, strategies and so much more. 13. CONDUCT INTERVIEWS Interviewing someone is also a great
way to create content. This is such a well-established format for podcasts,
but think of ways to translate it into other platforms. You don't need to be a podcaster
after all to have a meaningful conversation. It can be done in a written
form like a classic blog post or an actual livestream. Asking questions not
only gives a fresh perspective and therefore value on a particular subject you're discussing
but for you, it can stimulate other ideas for content to create later on. Remember to
save your notes to your ideas board ;) 14. USE YOUR SENSES When we're creating content, we can often go
into our little hole and ideate all day long, forgetting that there is a lot of inspiration
where you least expect it. That's why one of my favorite ways of getting my creative juices
flowing is to actually explore with my senses. Our creativity comes from the prefrontal
cortex, a part of our brain related to personality expression, memory, decision making
and other very important cognitive functions. This part of the brain can get stimulated by
physical activity. This can be exercise, dance, yoga or even a simple brisk walk. Taking action
can lead to a ton of great ideas coming your way. Go for a walk on your own and allow yourself to
think and let your imagination float. You can have someone join you later because having stimulating
conversations again can be a great source of ideas, too. Nothing like bouncing your thoughts
off of someone else to get a fresh perspective. Look around you for inspiration in your
environment - colors that catch your attention, patterns, things like that. You might see
a billboard on your way which has something interesting to it. Think, feel, see
and take action. You'll thank me later. 15. SHARE LIFE LESSONS All of us have a very unique perspective not
only because how our brains work but also how we were brought up and what experiences we had
in our lives. I really encourage you to share that part of your story and see it blossom into
beautiful pieces of content. Is there anything from your past that taught you a valuable
lesson? Is there something on your mind? Go ahead and create around it. This makes you
relatable as a human being. I truly believe that if we show up as our gorgeous, authentic
selves with integrity, we can create beautiful spaces to share our ideas and experiences
with others. And that's very important. There are so many other ways in which you
can source ideas for content. Think reviews, your own data, opinions, what works, controversial
statements. Take action yourself, experiment, test things out and share it or take a challenge.
Heck, you can play around and try predicting the future of what's to come for your niche. And
remember, if you have an idea, implement it soon, because that's always the best way to test
it out and see if it works for your audience. I'd love to hear how you get your ideas for
content so leave a comment below - let's help each other out. Make sure to check out THIS playlist
for more actionable tips on content creation, leave a thumbs up if you enjoyed this
video and subscribe to my channel for more wholesome content. Thank you so
much and I'll see you next time!
