9 Ways To Brainstorm Hundreds of Content Ideas

Oh content ideas. The near bane of every creators existence. You don’t know if your creation will resonate. You’re stumped and don’t know what to do. It seems like every topic has been done before. Nothing feels good to you as a creator.

That’s what this newsletter edition is all about.

Content ideation is step one

The content creation process follows 4 primary steps:

1. Ideate
2. Create
3. Distribute
4. Measure

There are sub-steps, like editing. But these are the key ones to think about. And, of course, ideation is step one — you can’t create if you don’t know what you’re creating.

So, here are my 9 ways to brainstorm hundreds of content ideas. You don’t need a team to do this, so solopreneurs rejoice!

The 9 ways to come up with content ideas

Strategy 1: “Two Problems”

In every business, your customers face two key problems you need to overcome:

1. Having the challenge / problem that your solution solves.
2. Bridging the gap between them having the problem and them paying for your solution.

You can break down ideation using these two problems:

• Describe the challenge or problem.
• Talk about the negative outcomes of the problem.
• Explain what a solution should look like.
• Explain how to buy / the buying process.

Strategy 2: Current Clients

Don’t ignore current clients! Talk to:

• Sales to ask what objections they overcame in sales calls or what objections they couldn’t overcome.
• Customer success / support to ask what questions or problems come in through support tickets or on success calls.

Strategy 3: Social Media / Listening

Nearly everyone has some form of social media account — this is a great way to generate ideas from current customers, prospects, and getting a sense of the community at large.

Strategy 4: “Selfish Reasons”

We are told all content must be helpful to clients — and that’s correct. But you can’t forget about you and your business. After all, content marketing is a tool to help you grow, not just something you do for fun.

Strategy 5: “Content from Content”

As a creator, you likely have a history of creating — let that be your source of future creativity.

Strategy 6: “Know / Feel / Do”

I developed this framework over the years. It’s a simple question: What do you want your audience to know, feel, or do when they are done consuming your content? This question alone should generate tons of potential content topics.

Strategy 7: Other people’s content

Nearly every topic in the world has been touched by someone. Take inspiration from that, adding your unique perspective or value.

Strategy 8: SEO

Use SEO keyword research, particularly the keyword suggestions tool, to generate a ton of ideas based on topics you already talk about.

Strategy 9: The world around you

To quote economist Paul Krugman, ‘every purchase is also a sale’. So as you buy things in your daily life, take stock of what brought you in or what experiences made you feel awesome — that could provide insight and ideas for your content.