Inspiration is difficult to come by some days. Once, your website was a blank canvas just waiting to be filled with fascinating blog posts, infographics and videos. Now, the mere thought of conceiving of and creating yet another small business blog post hurts your brain.
You’re burnt out, nursing a severe case of writer’s block, and not sure what to do next.
We all know that regularly publishing quality content is one of the keys to a successful small business website. Consistently coming up with new topics, however, can be difficult even for the wordiest among us.
But if you’re hurting for ideas, you might not need to look any further than your previously published content!
Take a Stroll Down Memory Lane
When was the last time you visited your own blog? Cursory glances don’t count. We’re talking about taking a deep dive into content that was published months or years ago.
If it’s been awhile, there’s no time like the present. You’ll want to start with the oldest blog posts and work your way forward. Older content typically won’t be as fresh in your mind, so it might trigger new ideas more easily than a post you wrote last week.
You’re looking for gaps in your content – things you could have explained better, things you only touched on tangentially that deserve their own post or places you can follow up with new and better information.
Turn One Small Business Blog Post Into Many
To illustrate how to find (and fill) the gaps in your content, we’ll use this post from our own blog.
On the surface, the post is about ways to show that you appreciate your customers. The blog contains five different ideas: host a VIP event, send thank-you notes, rely on the element of surprise, pick a fan of the month, and give a gift. Each of these five talking points has a few sentences about how your small business might implement the suggestions.
Right off the bat, you now have five brand-new topics for five brand-new blog posts. Each section can be expanded into its own, lengthier post. “5 Tips to Hosting a VIP Event that Will Have People Talking.” “Say Thank You in Style with These DIY Thank-You Notes.” You get the picture.
But we’re not done yet.
Even the most mundane sentences can spawn topic ideas. Take the opening bit of our example piece for instance: “They’ve supported you through the good times and the bad, cheered you on as you launched new products or services, and forgave you for little (and maybe not-so-little) slip-ups.”
Can you spot any potential topics hiding in this sentence? If you said something along the lines of “How to Plan a Successful Product Launch” or “X Ways to Apologize to Your Customers,” you win a virtual cookie.
One piece of previously published content has now given us at least seven different topics for new blog posts, videos or infographic. Are they all Pulitzer-worthy? No, and they don’t have to be, nor do you need to use every one of them. But when you’re stuck for topics, it’s any port in a storm.
There’s No Need to Reinvent the Wheel!
We all struggle for ideas on occasion. And while we’d love for every piece of content to be absolutely revolutionary, there’s nothing wrong with mining for hidden gold in already-created content. When you’re stuck for ideas, finding and filling the gaps can help get you out of the weeds!
Is content creation driving you crazy? Let Mischa Communications take the helm. It’s easy to get started!