Finding new content ideas for blogs is complicated. Maybe you think of new ideas quickly, but you’re not sure which ones are worth pursuing.
Or maybe your blog has gone stale with too many basic SEO-focused posts, and now you need to spice things up a bit.
Whatever your content ailment, prepare to feel a lot better.
We’re serving up info on why fresh content ideas can help you execute your strategy, and we’ve got 25 resources for coming up with new content ideas for blogs.
Why you should find new content ideas for blogs (even when following a strategy)
Here’s what we don’t want to happen:
In our rush to adopt content marketing, we’ve done it in a one-off, ad hoc fashion. - Jesse Noyes, former Senior Director of Content Marketing at Kapost
The intention of the resources below is not to randomize your content strategy.
According to content marketing expert Julia McCoy of Content Strategy Courses, new ideas are worth exploring if they fit into one of your goal buckets.
It would help if you had a good handle on your target audience and your content marketing goals. Top goals include:
- SEO rankings
- Sales and connections
- Brand awareness
So long as your topic idea fits your audience and at least one goal, you can feel confident in moving forward with it. There’s no need to worry about releasing content haphazardly when following the above workflow.
Best resources for coming up with new content ideas for blogs
Now that we’ve addressed the strategy elephant in the room, let’s move onto the juicy ideas.
Get ready to feel fresh as a daisy with these cool topic resources and idea-generating methods.
1. Survey your sales team
Your sales team has many insights into the secondary and tertiary problems that your target audience faces. Issues near the core problem your company solves can serve as great fodder for content. Ask your sales team for their insights once or twice a year in a concise survey.
2. StoryChief’s Content Discovery Feed
StoryChief’s Content Discovery Feed pulls in your favorite blogs in one place so you can keep tabs on your competitors and industry inspirations. Just install the free Chrome extension and start adding your favorite articles to begin curating content inspiration that you can view anytime you need a fresh idea.
3. Behind-the-scenes information and stories
You can appeal to your audience when you release behind-the-scenes stories that are relevant to your industry. For example, if you’re in the property management space, talk about how you’re dealing with the challenges of COVID-19. In this example, Drift talks about their recent web design process to help their audience of marketers learn strategies they can apply to their own rebranding processes.
4. Your proprietary data
In their article on business travel statistics, TravelPerk released proprietary and anonymous data from their own customers. This release is a smart move because you can release never-before-seen stats that other sites will need to link back to credit, thus increasing your chances of ranking for the statistic-focused key phrase you’re targeting.
5. Google Trends
While Google search can show you related inquiries and suggestions, this data isn’t tied to current trends. Instead, use Google Trends to find trendy sub-topics related to any topic you search. In the above example, “project management” yields “Notion project management” and “project management courses online free” as related queries whose popularity is rising.
6. Pinterest Trends
Use Pinterest Trends to find out what content Pinners are pinning more than any other. The company shows you what is currently trending and annually releases its predictions of the top 100 trends for the coming year. While Pinterest trends are mostly B2C, they can still yield new content ideas for B2B companies' blogs.
For example, the trend of “cold-weather drinks” could spark the idea for “cold-weather office gear.”
7. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is an excellent resource for finding search queries that have brought traffic to your website but that you are not actively targeting. For example, because we have a post about Webflow blogging, we also rank for “Webflow website examples” but not in a high position. We can use this data to write an article that actively targets that key phrase to rank higher in search for it and drive more traffic.
8. Industry publications
As one of the top publications in the consumer and business travel industries, Skift offers plenty of ideas and insights. Learn about new studies and surveys, swipe new content ideas for blogs, and learn what industry leaders care about right now. You can find publications in your industry by simply searching for “top publications + industry” or by asking colleagues who have been in the industry longer than you.
9. Support tickets
The support software analytics that customer service and product teams use to improve can also offer terrific insights to content teams. For example, Zendesk’s Customer Analytics can help you categorize support tickets and sort out those relevant to your product. This way, it's easier to find blog content ideas.
10. HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator
HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator is a fun and easy way to get a handful of new ideas. You can add your main topic and a few subtopics, then generate five unique headlines or give up your contact information in their lead form to unlock 250 different headlines.
11. Answer The Public
Answer The Public turns any key phrase into a list of questions. These questions could then become exact blog post headlines, or you could turn them into subheadlines and combine them into one master guide.
12. YouTubers in your industry
Ben Nader is a YouTuber who talks about staffing, interviewing, and running a staffing agency. He releases several videos a month, and each one can provide content ideas to other businesses in the staffing industry. Search your core content topics on YouTube to find content creators in your industry, and then peruse their other videos for more ideas.
13. Quora questions
Quora is an endless resource for finding new content ideas for blogs. Just type in your main content categories and see what people are asking. For instance, a search for “team collaboration” pulls up questions about recommended tools, how to choose one, and why team collaboration software is essential. In the answers to these questions, you’ll find even more ideas that can inspire your blog posts.
14. Trending topics in subreddits
Join a subreddit (a forum dedicated to a specific topic on Reddit) to determine what your target audience is talking about right now. For example, the subreddit r/SaaS is a popular forum for SaaS founders and executives. Members discuss everything from SaaS product strategy to development to sales. No matter your industry, there are likely to be several active subreddits you could join to get content ideas.
15. Popular discussions in relevant Facebook groups
Facebook Groups are a smart way to discover what your target audience needs help with. Whether you serve graphic designers, CEOs, accountants, or a different audience altogether, there are sure to be Facebook groups where your target customers are active. Find out what questions they’re asking and what they need advice on, and then use this as fodder for your blog posts.
16. Long-tail key phrase research
Long-tail key phrase research is not only a smart way to increase your chances of ranking for specific topics. It’s also an easy way to grab blog headline ideas you may not have thought of otherwise. Because it’s a bit more affordable than other tools, Mangools is an excellent option for key phrase research. Type in a broad topic into the search bar, then set a filter with a minimum of 4 words. To find super long-tail key phrases, you can try a minimum of 5 or 6 words too.
17. Key phrases you rank for in positions 30 or higher
Firstly, type your domain into Ahrefs Site Explorer or a similar tool. Then, add a filter to show only the organic keywords your domain ranks for 30 or higher. As with the Google Search Console resource above, these key phrases are typically ones that you are not actively targeting but that Google is ranking content for.
For example, Webflow has a blog post about "freelance websites" that rank for "freelance jobs". Running this filtered search can give you ideas for blog posts related to what you’ve already covered in the past.
18. Communities your audience loves
Sales Hacker is the top community for B2B sales professionals. It offers quality blog content, podcast episodes, free training, videos, job listings, sales templates, and a forum. If your audience is B2B sales pros, it’s rife with fresh ideas. Therefore, try and find a similar community in your industry that's popular and regularly return to new content ideas for blogs.
19. BuzzSumo’s Content Discovery
BuzzSumo has plenty of features to help you develop new content ideas for blogs, but their Content Discovery feature is a standout. It enables you to analyze top-performing articles in your industry based on social media shares and virality. As a result, you can quickly hop on current trends to ramp up your social reach.
20. Your own social media data
Your own social media sharing data can also offer new content ideas for blogs. For example, Pinterest strategist Laura Rike discovered inside of Pinterest Analytics that one of her top pins of all times is “Best Pinterest Tips for Beginners.” She can use this to create similar blog posts such as “Best Pinterest Tips for Advanced Pinners.” Like this example, you can use analytics provided by social media platforms like Pinterest or YouTube, or you can check your top-performing posts in your social media scheduling software.
21. Top viewed blog posts in StoryChief
StoryChief is a content operations software that helps teams publish and promote blog content faster. It offers content analytics as well to help you analyze what works. An easy way to see some of your top-performing blog posts is to sort by views. As we can see, some of our best posts are on actionable topics such as content marketing funnel templates, automated content campaigns, and B2B Facebook groups.
22. Competitor rankings
Pop your top competitor’s domains into Ahrefs Site Explorer or whatever SEO keyphrase research tool you use. Then, pull up a list of key phrases that your competitor ranks for. Even if you decide that some of these are too difficult to have a chance of ranking for, you can still use this information to get longtail keyphrase ideas or blog posts that will perform well on social media (even if the chance of ranking in the search is low).
23. Infographic searches
Searching for infographics is a fast and visual way to get many new content ideas for blogs. Just type “topic + infographics” into Google Images. For example, a search for “customer success infographics” yields many different ideas, including why companies should invest in customer success, important customer success metrics, and details on the customer success cycle.
24. Podcast episode titles
Make a list of the top 5 to 10 podcasts in your industry. Then check out their recent episodes. Podcaster Amy Porterfield has recently covered landing page conversion issues, Instagram Reels, and content calendar management. Podcasts tend to cover trending topics, so this is a great way to freshen up your content with timely content.
25. Your company’s case studies
Your company’s case studies are a treasure trove of real stories of how your customers drive results. You can use these case studies to inspire blog posts that dive deeper into the strategies and tactics discussed in the individual stories. For example, Interact has several case studies posted on its website that they could use to inspire articles about quiz topics and specific ways to drive traffic to quiz funnels.
Finding new content ideas for blogs can be fun and easy when using the above resources and methods. Just remember to run every idea through the filter of your goals. Is the post likely to rank or perform well on social? If so, it’s an idea worth pursuing.
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