Launching a blog is easy, but finding the right blog topic, maintaining consistency in publishing valuable and relevant content can be a challenge – we know! It takes commitment in effort and time. The benefits of a blog are numerous, from boosting site traffic to improving engagement to increasing conversions. But if you want to drive long-term results from your blog, you need to keep coming up with the right blog topic so people actually read it. So, if you’re running out of ideas, try these 4 powerful tips for your next blog topic that should help you stay consistent at least until Google changes their algorithm again.
Gain a Better Understanding of Your Audience
The premium blog topic is targeted to your key audience. Your readers are the ones you’re doing it for, so everything comes down to that. And understanding your readers is essential to your blog success. If you already run a blog, then you probably have mapped out your key personas. However, to expand your scope of topics for blog writing, you need to keep studying your audience. There are always some business aspects that you haven’t handled. f you’re starting, get to know your audience by:
- Creating an ideal buyer persona
- Getting to know your customers personally
- Looking at your competitors
- Conducting surveys
- Keeping track of engagements and comments
- Social Listening for Blog Topic Writing
To get more ideas of what topics you should blog about, follow the people that could help you with that. Your best audience members and customers may have large followings on social media. For example, if you own a music studio, there are many music recording and production professionals with a massive audience. Check out the comments and questions their followers are leaving on their sites. Are there any that may spur additional discussion? Use them as inspiration for your next blog topic that will address these concerns and questions. Use social listening to fuel your content strategy.
Follow Social Media Profiles, Industry Blogs, and Newsletters
New industry information is always relevant to any audience. By providing them with relevant news, you can generate real value for your readers. Follow known industry social media profiles, blogs, and newsletters and stay on top of all the latest trends and events within your area.
For example, if you’re a marketer, you’d want to follow sites like Search Engine Journal, Content Marketing Institute, Social Media Examiner, and ConversionXL. Each of these sites posts their research and drives trends and changes in the marketing industry, which you can comment on from your perspective. These blogs sites are your resources for creating content that focuses on the latest topics from your niche.
While leveraging existing content is effective, make sure not take copy and make it your own of course. Write down some trending article headlines and repurpose them for your audience. If you want to write a post about PPC for beginners, Google will show you articles like:
- The PPC Guide for Beginners
- The Beginner’s Guide to PPC Advertising
- Your Step-by-Step Guide to PPC Advertising
Get the point? Also, check these other blogs to study the writing style, techniques, and approach. That will inspire you to write but also help you boost your writing skills.
What are Your Competitors Doing with Blog Topic Selection?
You can find fresh topics for blog writing by reading up on your competitor’s blogs as you your competitors share the same audience. Check out their social media feeds and blogs to see what content they publish and which pieces get the most engagement. Now, ask yourself: Can I add something to expand on my competitors’ popular content? Of course, you need to be authentic, meaning that you must offer your insights, information, and perspective in your blog posts. You may also find a gap in the topic they’ve written a blog about as well and fill that gap.
When analyzing your competitors’ blog sections, you should pay attention to things that are working for them, such as:
- The length of their most popular blog posts.
- The structure of their headlines (such as “7 Ways to…”, “How to”, how many characters and words are in them, etc.)
- The type of their most popular blog posts (such as text with images, videos, infographics, and charts.)
- How and where their posts are shared (such as website, LinkedIn, Facebook, email, or somewhere else.)
- Their readers’ comments – what are they saying as well what they like or don’t like about their posts.
- Google is Your Friend
To generate some new and exciting topics for blog writing, you can use Google’s “People also ask” feature or Google Alerts. You can view what your audience is already searching for on the web. Tell Google what industries, sites, topics, and keywords you want to be up-to-date, as well how frequently you want to get notified. After you set this up, Google will send you results via email. So, if you want to know what’s new in the restaurant industry, Google will keep emailing further information about sites, research, and posts that contain the keywords you’re interested in.
As for the “People also ask” box, it appears under your search query results. It provides similar questions that people are already asking. It’s called “relational data” and can serve as another source of inspiration for new, relevant topics to write about.
Use Your Data
With website analytics tools, you can analyze data about your posts’ performance, and review the results. For example, by monitoring what blog posts get the most likes, comments, and shares, you’ll know what engages your target audience. Which posts are viewed the longest? Which ones lead to the conversion on your site? Expand on those topics and create more content that you know will be of interest to your readers. For this purpose, you can use platforms like eclincher, a top-of-the-line social media management tool.
As for the comments, that’s where your readers leave the most valuable information. They share opinions, talk about what the content lacks, what they would like to read about, and even suggest subtopics you could write about.
And Use eclincher
eclincher can reinforce your content marketing strategy. As you know, relevant content is always shared on social media networks. With eclincher, you can schedule publishing, keep track of your posts’ performance, and analyze data. With the right insights, you can drive your content optimization to perfection. Maintain all your conversations from the centralized system of the Social Inbox. Monitor relevant hashtags and keywords that will inspire your next piece of content. And of course, the Suggested Content Feeds feature helps you discover fresh content containing specific topics and keywords. eclincher will collect the articles from the social media and web and will display it on the dashboard.
According to Social Media Examiner, 66% of marketers said that they’re using blogs in their social media content. On the other hand, 60% of all branded content fails to deliver and is inadequate or irrelevant. That means that many people are automating their efforts, and are not authentic. If you want to be successful and grow your credibility, you must choose smart topics for blog writing and keep it modern and fresh.
Now Get Blogging!
