When you’re working at an agency, populating the editorial calendars for a diverse client roster is never an easy job. Keeping the creative juices flowing day in and day out is a challenge, and so is staying on top of the news and trends across a wide spread of client industries.
But as content marketers we’re required to ideate and produce a large volume of topic ideas for our clients every month, regardless of how difficult it might be to drum up new ideas on demand.
So how do you continue creating original content that captivates a very specific segment of the population when you’re 14 months into a contract and feel like you’ve already exhausted every possible topic for a client?
Here are eight ways to brainstorm like a pro.
1. Ask for the Intro
One of the quickest shortcuts I’ve found to uncover new content ideas when you’re face to face with a blank Word doc and a deadline for a new month of blog post topics is to reach out and ask your client for a couple of quick introductions. Then, schedule a time to conduct a quick phone interview.
When it’s time to plan out content ideas for the next month, put a call in to your client and ask if they’d be open to making introductions on your behalf to their customers and/or advisory team (or board) members. Let them know you’re looking to have a quick chat with people who are entrenched in the industry so that you can be sure to cover the most on-point and engaging topics their customers and potential customers will be interested in reading.
2. Schedule the Call
Once in touch with an interviewee, let them know that the call won’t take more than 10 or 15 minutes and that you’re simply looking to understand the industry in more depth so that you can be sure to produce content that will resonate with people in their industry.
This is also the time to ask if they mind if you record the call. Let them know you’ll send along a list of questions and topics shortly and thank them for their time.
3. Zero in on Industry Specifics
Put together a list of foundational questions that will elicit information about upcoming trends and industry specific issues. Here are a few questions you can start with:
- What are your organization’s main differentiators in the space? (This helps you get an understanding of what topics may be most interesting to people in the industry; the factors they consider to be most important in the space.)
- What key events or changes in your industry have yielded the most significant impact on business over the past five years? In your opinion, has the impact been positive or negative?
- What current trends do you believe will help shape what the industry looks like over the next three years? In your opinion, will this have a positive or negative impact?
- What do you believe will serve to distinguish organizations that grow versus organizations that stay stagnant or decrease in size over the next three years? In other words, what are the key characteristics of growth-focused organizations in the current landscape?
- Do you foresee any key markets or segments emerging over the next three years?
- What are the most significant challenges facing growth-focused organizations in your industry in the near-term future? How do you expect to overcome these challenges? What impact do you believe these challenges will have on the industry as a whole?
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