Content Ideation: Goal Setup, Methods, And Tools
Content Ideation in the marketing industry is the method of creating or sourcing topics to be used in future marketing content. The topic is meant to be relevant to the company in the hopes to be part of the content marketing strategy. In this guide, we have covered Goal setup, methods, and tools of content ideation so, just move ahead with that one by one.
Setup Goals for SEO Content
Content created as part of SEO Strategy is most effective when it has the ideal purpose in mind. Else, it might not be clear the action which the user should take next.
• Free sign-ups
• Brand awareness
• Sales and conversions
• Leads and retention
• Backlinks as well
Content Ideation Methods
There are different types of content that work better for different goals. Light-hearted and fun blogs which entertain the targeted audience are ideal for branding and awareness. But they may not turn the users. The goal is the ‘north star’ which you should aim toward the ideation method. Well, you can clear your this concept from the SEO experts in UK. When you have this, you can validate the ideas by considering if the content has achieved this goal.
Now, this is the time to move ahead with some methods that come with the ideas that will turn the content in the right direction.
Key Dates, Events, and Seasonality
The first brainstorming method is to mention all of the key dates and events across the year ideal for the industry which is worth creating content around. You might need to start adding these to the calendar so that you can see them.
The second list of brainstorming ideas is across any services or products which you might push at different times of the year for trend reflection in seasonality. When you are all set then, it is worth seeing if you can combine any of the key dates and events with the seasonality trends to develop the content ideas.
Mind Mapping
Just start by selecting the key topic and content type. When you have the central theme or content type you can easily create the ideas across it and sub-ideas across the individual ideas as well. Try to create as many ideas as possible, as you always can refine the specific ones and reject any which don’t meet the criteria.
Picture Connection
It is ideal to use images to your advantage to come up with content ideas. It is another efficient yet easy method that allows you to think more creatively and visually as compared to writing lists. Conduct an image search for the keywords which relate to the industry, theme, or topic for which you have to produce content. When the picture appears on the screen then, think about what comes to your mind first and establish the ideas which are based on what you can see.
Word Management
Similar to image management, this method is quite more on the creative side of the spectrum. Well, it allows you to uncover the new connections and insights about which you normally think. You can start to choose a word that is linked with the business. Next, you have to think of the many words linked with the first word and see if you can make the connection between them that fits with the products that you offer.
It can be quite tricky sometimes to make the connection between the words which you have chosen, but after a few attempts, the ideas will start to flow then.
Problem and Solutions
Rather than thinking about the new ideas from scratch, you should use the most precious business asset to your advantage. Make sure about the method through which you achieve the content ideas with the customer’s help. All you have to do is to ask or keep the record of all queries and problems which they had regarding your services and products. You can even suggest some of these from the past experience of customer necessity and look at the potential issues from their perspective.
Thinking Hats
To get the thinking outstanding in the creative and rational way, try to think hats method. The concepts include ideas or themes and apply different thinking hats for initial idea refining. With your theme in place, you should use these hats to identify areas that you might cover in the content-
Red Hat- Looks at the feelings and initials intuition and instinct
White Hat- Just look at the facts, information, and data that are already known or required related to the theme
Yellow Hat- Looks at the benefits and values
Black Hat- Look at the possible difficulties and problems
Green Hat- Looks at possibilities, creativity, alternatives, and new ideas
Blue Hat- Looks at the thinking process management. You can start with the focus and then describe the next steps, plans, and actions.
There are a lot of areas to look into with the method. But it is actually ideal for coming up with a large list of possible ideas to use.
Content Ideation Tools
All through the content ideation method, there are some tools which help you to inform, data-driven like-
SEMrush- Easily learn the content types that grab organic traffic and backlinks for the competitors
Google Keyword Planner- Conduct Keyword ideas, the average number of monthly searches, and how spirited the queries are? Also know to take care of specific keywords seasonality.
Answer the Public- Type in the seed topic to learn about the queries which are asked by people on Google
Google Trends- See the topics that are trending in the niche
Synthesio/Hootsuite/Spout Social- Listen to the audience concern that what are they talking about on the social media
Therefore, this is clear how to become more creative and this is the time to use these outstanding content methods to test. Next time, all you have to do is to come up with a range of content ideas for your own business or customer’s strategy. When it comes to strategy, it is required to hire SEO Agency in UK as they have updated ideas. It is also required to use some of the above-given methods.