Blogs are an essential part of any content marketing strategy. They drive brand awareness by providing relevant information that informs and inspires your readers, leading to increased familiarity with your brand and offering. They are also a powerful SEO tool, as by publishing a regular blog on your website, you can increase the volume of outbound links by 97 percent, thanks to backlinks from external and social media sites. But finding relevant topics that will continuously engage your readers might be challenging at times. To help with the search for your next blog topic,  consider one of the following suggestions:

1.     Ask Google

As with any communication strategy, listening is more important than speaking and for your blog to be successful, it needs to be centered around the reader, in a language and style they understand and can easily relate to. It might sound basic, but turning to Google, or any other proffered search engine, is one of the most effective ways to find out what your audience is looking for. Google’s predictive search functionality will guide you - just start typing the keywords related to your business’ focus in connection with usual search terms like “how to” or “where to start with “. Whatever your focus, Google’s data will be able to predict the search queries your readers are looking for.

2.     Analyse available data

A tool we use regularly to help us shape our content marketing ideas is Answer The Public. This free tool listens to autocomplete data from search engines like Google, then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword. There are 3 billion Google searches every day, out of which 20% have never been seen before and this tool is a goldmine of consumer insight you can use to create fresh and useful content. Another helpful source are stats on your previous posts – did you notice that some topics get more attention than others? This could be measured by a higher number of post views on your website or the level of engagement you receive when you mention the topic on social media. Again, let your audience guide you – your blogs are about them and for them, not you.

3.     Listen in on social media

Social listening is the process of monitoring online conversations about a particular brand, person, or industry. Eavesdropping, in a virtual sense, on social media chats provides a real-time peek inside people’s lives without direct interaction. Marketing research suggests that social listening affects sales, brand health, and even stock performance and it provides a competitive advantage in the digital age. But despite its potential, social listening remains underleveraged and businesses look at social media conversations as something that needs to be managed instead of listened to. Insights from social listening, however, can drive both, your content and business strategy. If you are looking for tools to help you support your social listening, this blog by HubSpot provides some great social listening tool suggestions.

4.     Provide answers to questions

Relate to your potential readers and the way they do their online research and give them useful, practical tips they can learn from and enjoy reading. The internet is built to provide answers to questions. People constantly search for answers and tips on topics they don’t know enough about, so position yourself as an expert by using blog titles that make your audience quickly understand that they have found their answers. Lists and how-to guides are always very popular, especially if you can match them with an engaging headline. Think “A complete guide to...” or “How to…” Use headings, key phrases, and words in your blog that people would typically use to find the content you are sharing. As always, keep the reader in mind and provide insightful content that they can learn from and be inspired by, instead of selling your business.