4 Ways to Brainstorm Content Ideas

Outside of business owners feeling like they don’t have the time to manage their own social media, they also have no idea what to write about. They’ll find themselves…

• Staring at a blinking cursor on a blank page
• Repeatedly starting and erasing posts because they “sound dumb”
• Giving up all together

Does that sound like you? You’re not alone. You know you need to start being more active on social media, and you try to sit down and plan, but… nothing comes to mind.

You’re in luck! Check out these four foolproof ways to brainstorm content ideas when your brain feels like absolute mush.

Listen to Your Clients and Customers

Out of all of the ideas we’re going to share, this one is, without a doubt, the most important and most effective one. Every single conversation that we have with our audience gives us crucial information about how we can improve our business: products or services to launch, markets to tap into, needs to meet, etc.

And, more often than not, these clients and customers are talking about the struggles they’re facing, therefore giving us the opportunity to solve those struggles through content. Every time someone within your ideal audience mentions something that makes you go, “Oh! I could talk about that!” write it down. Before you know it, you’ll have an entire list of completely relevant topics and ideas that will be so easy for you to take and turn into social media posts, or really any type of content, because you heard directly from your customers themselves what they want to know and what they’re looking for–and then that content will perform exceedingly well because it’s something that truly resonates with your audience.

We’ll give you an example: the reason why we’re even writing this blog post is because we hear time and time again from business owners that they never know what to post on social media, they feel like everything they write sounds bad, or they don’t think their content is truly serving their audience. So, we took this problem, wrote it down, and provided a solution to it by publishing this blog post.

This method really works, and it’s one that’s greatly underutilized.

Look at Your Competitors’ Content

Although there’s no such thing as true competitors in our books because no two businesses are exactly the same, it helps to take a look at what other folks in your industry are talking about. Is there a trend that they’re discussing? An idea they mentioned that stuck with you? A certain tactic that’s doing well?

While you never want to completely copy someone else’s content or only do what everyone else is doing, a good starting point when you don’t even know where to begin is the other experts around you. Their content can be a little building block that you can take, run with, and turn into your own entire foundation. It’s like finding one little piece of a puzzle that you then use to complete the entire puzzle.

The most important thing is to make it truly unique. You don’t necessarily want to write about what everyone else is writing about, but if you have a way to add a spin to it that sets it apart from the crowd, that’s when your content will really excel.

Think About the Seasonality of Your Business

Is there something relevant about this time of year for you that would be super important to talk about? Maybe there’s a certain holiday or a specific part of your business is really popular during this time that would be beneficial for you to touch upon. If so, you want to make sure that you’re capitalizing on that because your clients and customers will be looking for content like yours once the time comes!

This happens a lot with our service-based clients–like plumbers, photographers, interior and exterior painters, real estate agents, etc.–who may be incredibly busy during certain times of year or offer different services during a specific time period. If that’s the case for you, you’ll want to make sure that you touch upon it and bring awareness to it. Selling is serving, so it’s best to show your audience what you’ve got when they need it!

Put the Work Away and Relax

It may sound counterintuitive to stop working in order to think of a good idea for work, but truthfully, you produce poor quality work when forcing yourself to produce said work. When you’re staring at your computer for almost an hour just trying to think of one idea to talk about on social media, chances are that post won’t be that great once you actually write it because you’re not in the right mindset to focus on work. It’s almost like when you try so hard to think of the perfect idea, it’s not going to come to you just because you want it to.

That’s where stepping away from the computer comes in.

When your brain starts to feel like mush, focus on an activity that allows you to relax or tap into your creative juices in another way. Whether it’s going for a walk or picking up a craft, you want to focus your mind elsewhere so that you come back to your work feeling refreshed and ready to go. And, when you’re thinking about something else other than work, that’s when you’ll find the good ideas popping through because you’re letting them naturally come to you.

That’s why we have excellent ideas in the shower, because it’s a relaxing activity, relaxing activities increase our dopamine flow, and dopamine brings creativity. Boom.

If you’re ready to stop making excuses and start tackling your content, these four suggestions should be plenty to get you started, especially the first one. The most important thing to remember is that ideas surround us every second of every day–we just have to be open to receiving them.

And, if you ever have any questions, you can always fill out our contact form or schedule a free consultation.