The time is ticking and a deadline is approaching.
Sometimes, words can flow as fast as the river rapids. Other times, not so much. And no one wants to create boring content.
An impressive 60% of marketers publish content at least once a week; so trying to get noticed amongst the competition can be a challenge.
Not only that, but trying to create engaging content on a regular basis can become a mission in itself.
Today, it’s no good to just recycle old posts: if you do the same as everyone else, people are not going to visit you.
The key is to come up with something that will educate and entertain your readers, even if the topic itself is not sexy or unique.
Here are 15 juicy content marketing writing prompts to help you break free from writer’s block and create inspiring, captivating content.
Let Keywords Be Your Guide
Check to see what keywords are getting a lot of traffic in your industry, and find ways to create content based around those.
By finding out what people are searching for, you can stay attuned with hot topics that you can easily link back to your content creation.
Talk About the Benefits
Regardless of which industry you operate in, you can create a list of benefits to doing or not doing something related to your business.
The trick here is to focus on the benefits it brings to your consumer, rather than the direct features of your product or service. For example, if you’re in the fitness industry, focus on the benefits of healthy living, rather than the gym itself.
Review Tools
Everyone is looking for better ways to make their lives easier.
Sometimes, new apps and tools can be quite complicated, so make it easy for your audience and explain how the software works and your honest thoughts about it.
The Pros and Cons of X
A lot of issues are not simply black and white, nor is there often a “one size fits all” solution.
If you’re not too keen on the idea of arguing your case, take a neutral approach and give two sides of the story and let your audience make their own decision.
Make Predictions
At the end of the day, you’re the expert.
Even if you’re not used to predicting trends in your industry, you sure know a great deal more about what’s coming than what your clients or customers do.
Take time each month or so to summarise what’s currently happening in the industry and what you think the near future will or should look like.
Follow Up on Predictions
On the other end, if you’ve made a prediction in the past – let’s say 6 months ago.
Take time to revisit what you wrote and write a follow up. Discuss what was accurate, did you make the correct prediction or why it didn’t follow through.
What Has Stood the Test of Time?
Go back in time and find products or brands from industry years ago. Discuss what still looks great today and what has not aged so well.
Answer Questions
Your customers and clients will come to you with questions as you’re the one they see with all the knowledge.
And, it’s very likely that others in your audience will have the same questions.
Whether it be in person, via phone or over email, the questions you receive are a great starting point for a blog post.
Offer a Solution
Start a blog post by explaining a pain point in the first few sentences.
Then, you can use the rest of the post to explain the solution in more detail and give examples.
For example, advising people how to clean a fuel tank to avoid it rusting over time.
On this day…
Social media is great at reminding us what happened on this day 5, 10, 15 years ago. If this is relevant to your industry, write a more serious piece. If it isn’t, you can create something a bit more fun and light-hearted.
Interview Industry Experts
Two heads are better than one, so find an expert in your field you could collaborate with.
Simply interview them, either in person, over the phone or even by email – create a list of questions beforehand and compile this into a post.
And guess what? These experts you interview should hopefully share your post to their own network, therefore expanding your reach.
Create a Top 10 List
Of course, it doesn’t have to be exactly 10. But people love to read lists.
But brainstorm a few lists related to your business.
This could be trends, tips, things to avoid, things to do, what to experience and so on.
Write a Post-Event Summary
If you or your employees attend conferences, workshops, seminars and the like, why not take notes and combine those into post-event write up?
Doing this will not only recap the event, but your readers could learn and benefit from your experience.
Share Behind the Scenes
Pull back the curtains on your business and invite your audience inside.
Even if your business is currently running from your kitchen, there are bound to be behind-the-scenes moments that your audience will be fascinated in.
For example, share where something was made, or how it happened. Discuss who you’re dealing with and what it really looks like behind closed doors; celebrities have been doing this for years!
Relate Content to the News
It’s often a good idea to pay close attention to the news and find ways to relate what’s happening to what your business does.
It’s worth noting here that you will need to be sensitive, and do not go too far in trying to make a connection that doesn’t work.
At the same time, be careful when dealing with controversial issues and be prepared to deal with backlash or unhappy customers on the other side.
The Takeaway
The above content marketing writing prompts are only suggestions and there is so much more that you can write about.
Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, any of these can be moulded into content that works best for you and your brand, so go wild!
Hopefully, this will help you get started creating valuable content and trigger even more possibilities as you think through them.
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