In today’s fast-paced, digital-based world, generating fresh and functional marketing content is indeed a coveted skill, blending both creativity and logic. Where do good ideas come from?
Some stare into a blank screen until inspiration strikes. Some tackle ideation with a collaborative team pitching half-formed thoughts. No matter the process, after days or weeks of racking your brain, all you’ve got is an outlined list of possibilities and the desire to scrap it all and give up.
What if it content creation didn’t have to be so daunting? Turns out, just beneath the surface is an untapped well of source material waiting to be analyzed and palated for consumers. Look no further than your industry or brand’s own SEO data to churn out relevant, applicable, captivating material.
Don’t Worry if You Are Not An SEO Whiz
If sifting through and dissecting search engine particulars is not in your experience, don’t write off this method of ideation just yet. It’s merely a way of thinking introspectively to both get the ball rolling and keep it moving forward with future topics and trends.
Using Keyword Research and Semantic SEO
Keyword Research
There’s no need to dive into the world of SEO research alone. With a growing industry need for tracking and interpreting clicks, downloads, and followings, there are now a number of tools to aid in the organization of facts & figures.
Keyword Research tools, namely Google Ads Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Moz, etc., allow users to search volumes of SEO results in order to keep up on current waves of content within an industry. (No matter the program you choose, so long as some amount of search data can be accessed).
However, some tips for Keyword Research include: utilizing keywords that are a predetermined part of your brand’s SEO or marketing strategy to make sure you’re hitting targets. If nothing has been agreed upon, try keywords suggested for your specific field of business.
At this point in your research, general, vague keywords like “video marketing” or “SEO” won’t be of much help as it will either yield too wide a variety, or too little an outcome. A more beneficial search would detail slightly longer and more topical phrases like “Search Engine Optimism vs. Search Engine Marketing” or “video marketing statistics.” Examples like these have quality volume outcomes which help direct you to timely, practical subjects that others are already deeply interested in. Also keep in mind, the top search results can help justify why you are writing a piece at any given time.
Semantic SEO
There is another layer to capitalizing on SEO ideation and it comes from the ever-enhancing technology behind the main source of all searches, Google. Google has learned to move beyond just keywords and now functions off of what they identify as “entities.”
Without boring you with the nitty gritty, know that Google will sometimes not respond correctly to certain keywords without the user also pointing towards it’s context or entity. The change is broader on Google’s side, meaning it umbrellas many keywords under larger topics.
Therefore, the search engine looks for the relations of things as opposed to the keywords in isolation. For example, typing in “Apple” may output a variety of possibilities until further specified by whether you’re looking for the nutrition facts on the fruit or the closest company store.
If you don’t mention anything but a keyword, Google’s algorithm has less trust or confidence about what you are referring to and therefore will have trouble ranking your website. What this means for content creators is that you ultimately want to write and market key phrases that reinforce your overall concept and authority to speak knowledgeably within that concept.
Again, you can lean on tools such as Answer the Public to see which subjects Google associates or links together for further insight.
The Key is to Not Overthink
At the end of the day the hardest part about creating content is not fabricating words to a page or editing video, but where to grasp hold of the source material. There’s the argument that you should only post when you have something meaningful and groundbreaking to say.
However, choosing not to publishing for an extended period of time, waiting for the perfect opportunity, is much riskier than keeping a backlog of ideas at the ready even if only one or two sticks.
Implement the ideation practices outlined here to get the content machine up and running and push more data-based material to your consumers.
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