How to Never Run Out of Content Ideas Again

Looking for ideas for your blog, social media and content strategy?

Do you wish you could create content more consistently for your small business marketing, but struggle to come up with ideas for posts? Having a few techniques up your sleeve to help inspire you will be a game changer. The ideas don’t come naturally to everyone and that’s totally ok, these tips will help you conjure those brainwaves when you need a boost.

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  1. Work out your content buckets

Content buckets (or content pillars) are basically the categories of expertise or interests that you have, and you can create content around. Working out what these are massively helps when it comes to coming up with content ideas, because you’re not working from a completely blank page, you have some general topics to start you off. The number of content buckets you choose is up to you, I find 4 or 5 works best, but I know some people who have around 10.

The main thing to remember, is your content buckets are there for you to provide value for your ideal customer first and foremost, so they should be relevant and helpful to them as well as you. As an example, the topics I regularly create content around are: Pinterest Tips, Creativity, Time Management/Productivity, Styling for Your Brand and Content Marketing Strategy. If you want to hear more about content buckets, you can listen to this podcast episode where we go into this in much more detail, and help you come up with your own.

2. Keep All Your Content Ideas in One Place

We’ve all been there, you have a brilliant marketing idea while you’re out on a walk, or when you wake up in the morning, and then you forget about it as soon as you go to create your next social media post. I like to keep a Trello board with all of my content ideas on, that way I can access it on multiple devices and make sure no fleeting idea gets forgotten.

3. Repurpose Your Existing Content

Every new content idea doesn’t have to be completely original, in fact it’s actually really good practice to repeat yourself in your marketing. There are so many ways you can talk about or package up one idea. For example, this blog post will be turned into multiple instagram posts, pins for Pinterest, topics in my facebook group, and we’ve also discussed it on my podcast. Dive into your existing content and see what you can repurpose for another platform. Look in your story archive for videos/images you can use for video pins or reels. Did you film an Instagram live that could be turned into a blog post? Make the most of every idea you have, and those ideas will work much harder for your business. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single time.

4. Survey Your Audience

The best content ideas actually come from your audience, because that’s the stuff they really want to know about. Set up a survey on google forms or typeform, and send it to your existing audience. Don’t be shy - share it on social media, link to it in your email newsletter, send it to your past customers. It feels like you’re bothering people, but actually most people love to help, and some even find filling out surveys quite fun (I’m one of those!). “But what questions should I ask?” I hear you cry. Try to focus on questions that will give you valuable answers. Asking “what do you want to see from me”, is likely to be less illuminating than “what are you struggling with at the moment”, or “if you could wave a magic wand, what would you change about ___”.

5. Try Group Challenges and Prompt Lists

Why not take part in a group challenge where the prompts and ideas are provided for you? Great examples of this are the March Meet the Maker Challenge by Joanne Hawker, or there are even memberships like Project Storyline by Alex Beadon that will deliver you ideas every day for a subscription fee. These are brilliant for when you’re seriously lacking in motivation and ideas from outside of your own head will help jog you in a new direction.

6. Keep an eye on your best performing posts, and repost them later down the line

To go one step further from repurposing and repackaging your existing content, you can just copy old posts and repost them in the future. If you’re worried about being repetitive, don’t forget that only a tiny percentage of people see every piece of content we post. And even if they did see it the first time, sometimes seeing it again is the exact reminder they needed to take the next step with you.

7. Consume other content with intention

We obviously consume content all day long, but how often do we consume with intention? When you’re scrolling through TikTok or Reels, could you save audio you want to use for later, and keep a notebook handy for any trends you notice? Do you ever type keywords around your niche into the Pinterest search bar to see what pops up? Are you reading relevant articles within your industry to further your knowledge. As well as creating your own content around the themes you see popping up, you can also share that relevant content with your audience to add depth to your output.

8. What do your audience need to know, believe and understand to decide to buy from you?

Asking yourself this question can be really helpful to come up with content ideas that help to move your potential customers through the buying journey. What do they need to know about your product or service? What do they need to believe about the issue or problem you’ll solve for them? What do they need to understand about your processes to know that you’re the right choice for them? Journal around these prompts and see if you can create content that answers these questions.

9. Experience something new, to spark your creativity

Sometimes when you’re lacking inspiration, the best thing to do is to take your mind off it and do something completely different. New experiences help to broaden our references, so even if it’s walking a different route in the morning, or watching a new to you documentary, doing something new can help break your brain out of old patterns. I have another blog post about getting out of a creative rut that has more tips around finding inspiration in your work again.

10. Set a timer, write a “shit list”

This sounds like a weird tip, but hear me out. When you feel blocked for ideas, sometimes you just need to take the pressure off coming up with “good ideas”. On the podcast, we call this method the “shit list”, and it involves setting a 10 minute timer and writing down as many ideas as you can in that time, regardless of how good they are. Once you get past the first few, you may end up coming up with ideas that surprise you in their brilliance.

11. Be aware of trends, and apply them to your content.

Creating content around trends can be a really great way to get more eyes on your work in a shorter space of time. I’m not just talking about what type of jeans are trending right now - there are trends you can reference in every industry. One of my favourite places to keep up to date with upcoming trends is Pinterest. Every month they release a list of trends that they’re noticing in user behaviour, and they use this information to curate the Today Tab. It’s worth keeping an eye out for this list, along with regularly checking the Today Tab to see what sort of topics are trending. This tip isn’t about following trends in your business to be like everyone else, it’s about seeing how current trends can apply to what you’re already doing in your business. For example, right now on Pinterest they’ve highlighted that lots of searchers are looking for advice on starting a business, which is definitely something I can create content around.

12. Learn the best practices for content on each platform

It’s much easier to think of ideas for content when you know what actually works on each platform. For more help on this, I have lots more tips for you in these places:

I hope this helps jog some ideas for you! If you’d like to chat one to one about your own content strategy and get some personalised help with ideas for your business, you can read about my 1-1 services here, I’d love to chat :)

Content MarketingRachel Waringcontent marketing, Marketing Tips, creativity, Instagram, bloggingComment