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How to find topics that make your content work
Gathering content topics is an indispensable part of your strategy. Which subjects should you use to attract attention and achieve results? That’s the sweet spot you’re aiming for.
A lot of time and money can be spent on creating content. That’s why it’s a good idea to start with a clever strategy that allows you to use your resources as effectively as possible.
In the strategic phase, you should consider your content in terms of your customers’ points of view and in terms of your own business objectives. You should find out:
- how to match your content to the evolving needs and interests of your customers
- how this can serve your own objectives.
Gathering content topics is an indispensable part of your strategy. Which subjects should you use to attract attention and to achieve results? That’s the sweet spot you’re aiming for. Here are some suggestions you can use to track down topics that focus on your target audience’s interests. Once you have those, you can narrow down this list to see which of those topics will help you achieve business results.
4 ways to find content topics that hit the sweet spot
Ask your target audience
You can do this in a variety of ways. How about getting in touch with some of your customers or other members of your target audience whom you know personally? Ask them whether they’d be willing to answer a few questions face to face or on the phone. Create a questionnaire in advance to avoid wasting time. Try to interview between 5 and 10 individuals.
If you don’t know a lot of the people in your target audience but have access to the contact details of enough of them, why not carry out an electronic survey via email or an online application?
For example, Cypres asked 150 customers to help with a client’s publication. With clockwork regularity, the customers received one online question about content, graphic design, etc. The result? On average, no less than 90% of respondents gave their opinion within just 3 days.
Organise a brainstorming session
Chances are that some people in your organisation know your target audience well, so a brainstorming session with them is highly recommended.
Invite your sales people, who are in permanent contact with prospects and customers and are trained to detect their interests. Also consider people from your support teams, who listen to customers’ problems and questions every day.
A brainstorming session with colleagues is easy to plan and can give you valuable insight quite quickly. If you also involve someone from the target group itself, you’ll get an even broader and richer perspective.
Sift through social media and search the internet
You can also find out a great deal about your target audience simply through observation.
In the past, the best marketers regularly spent a day on a bus or at a hairdresser’s, simply to find out what was going on in the field. In the 21st century, you have a great tool to do exactly that from the comfort of your office chair: the internet.
By accessing social media, you’ll find a huge collection of conversations about anything and everything. Keep your ear to the ground via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs to discover out what your target group is talking about. A SEO specialist can also tell you which topics people are searching for using Google.
‘Spy’ on the competition
Finally, you can bring to light the topics that are proving successful for other companies in your industry. Let your competitors do the experimenting and then draw your own conclusions. Which blog articles get great responses for them? Which are shared most? Which subjects do well on their Twitter profile or Facebook page?
Expand your investigations beyond your direct competitors. You can learn something from every source that is publishing content in your sector – your ‘content competitors’. Discover what’s being written in journals and which topics are being talked about on ‘independent’ blogs.
So now what?
Can you spare some time and resources? Then carry out all 4 types of research. Each one is certain to reveal new topics that you can use.
Are you short of time? Then try to do at least 1 or 2 types of research – a little bit is much more valuable than no research at all. You can always tackle the other types later. List all the subjects that come up during your research. Then select the ones that have something – anything! – to do with your business. If you sell doors, for example, you might write down ‘construction’, ‘conversion’ and ‘renovation’, but also ‘burglaries’ and ‘home insulation’. Those are the sorts of content topics you’re looking for.
Need some help? Don’t hesitate to contact us.
