If you’re a content marketer then you’re going to struggle to come up with new ideas from time to time. This is completely normal. If you’re always writing about the one topic then it’s only natural that at some point your content marketing ideas will fizzle out.
However, it doesn’t have to be this way because there are a number of ways that you can kickstart your creativity for those days when you feel like you’ve got nothing to say.
Relax
Take a deep breath and relax firstly. It isn’t the end of the world that you are struggling to come up with new ideas. It is only natural and beating yourself up over it isn’t going to help and make you more productive all of a sudden.
Do an activity that makes you feel relaxed. You are far more likely to come up with a new idea when you are feeling relaxed compared to when your mind is buzzing with stress and anxiety.
Try Letting Ideas Flow Naturally
It is good to be proactively searching for new ideas but it’s also a good idea to let ideas naturally come to you. There are a few ways that you can do this:
Subscribing To Industry Newsletters
The great thing about doing this is that it keeps you updated about what is going on in your industry. Not only that but it will help you come up with new ideas. Perhaps you’ll hear about something and it will trigger that creativity inside of you for a new post.
Try Using LinkedIn Pulse
LinkedIn Pulse is a feature worth trying. To access this you need to hover over the “Interests” link on the LinkedIn navigation bar and click “Pulse”. From there you’ll be directed to a page that contains posts that LinkedIn thinks you may like.
Start Following Thought Leaders
This is one of the best ways to get new ideas. Follow thought leaders in your industry on Twitter and then refer to them when you have run out of ideas. Quite often a moment of creative genius will occur to you and you’ll come up with a great idea for a new post.
Also, make sure that you interact with thought leaders if you like their posts or tweets. This is important to establish a relationship with them in the long run.
Use Your Existing Network
Tapping into your existing network is one of the best ways that you can come up with new ideas. The reason being is that there will always be stories, questions, comments, and other things that will come up that could spur an idea for a new blog post.
Have Real Conversations with Colleagues and Customers
Have real conversations with your colleagues and co-workers and you’ll be amazed at some of the ideas that might pop up. Ask your co-workers if there is anything they’d like to see on the company blog. Ask if they’ve spoken to any interesting customers lately.
You could even send out an email to all of your colleagues and ask them for suggestions. Then there are your customers. Ask them if there is anything in particular they’d like you to write about. There are so many ways you can go about this if you put your mind to it.
Utilise Q & A Sites, Forums and Groups
Forums, LinkedIn groups and Q & A sites are also great ways to potentially find new clients. You could go on a forum or group and ask a simple question like “What’s the biggest challenge in your business at the moment?” Asking simple questions like this will spark a discussion and help you come up with new ideas for content.
Sometimes you don’t even need to ask. You can just look at threads and that will help you come up with new ideas for content.
Re-Use Old Ideas
Re-using old ideas is one of the easiest ways that you can overcome having no ideas to write about. There is nothing wrong with covering ground you’ve covered in the past. Here are the reasons why:
Not everyone will have seen the post you wrote in 2011
Even if they did, they won’t remember it as well as you do
People enjoy having old topics revisited again
Obviously this doesn’t mean that you should be copying and pasting old content. You should be simply revisiting it. Write another post on the same topic but with a twist, think of unique ways you can add to the post. If you’ve written something way back in 2011 then no doubt you’ve probably learnt some new things since then.
Experience Things for Yourself
Many people simply sit in front of the computer divulging all of their content online. One of the most effective ways of coming up with new ideas is by living and experiencing life, getting out into the real world. Go to seminars and live events. Experiment with products and other ideas. If you do these things it will give you an endless amount of ideas to write about.
In Conclusion
Whilst there are going to be times when you do run out of ideas for your content marketing, it really isn’t the end of the world. As you’ve seen in this post there are so many ways that you can jumpstart your creativity and think of new ideas to write about. If you use everything that I’ve written about in this post then you’ll have no trouble coming up with new ideas for content.
What are some of the ways you’ve overcome idea fatigue?