- Set up Google alerts for keywords in your industry to see what others are writing about.
- Look at the news for your industry and see if there’s a topic you have a view on and can respond to.
- Think about the wider news – is there anything which has an impact on your industry? Share your views on the likely effects of floods, strikes, interest rates, unemployment…
- Predict and explain a trend in your field – analyse what it means in the longer term.
- Present a round-up of the latest developments in your industry.
- Keep an eye on what is trending on Twitter – see how you can contribute to the debate.
- Check Google trends and see how you can comment on something that is topical.
- Offer a bluffer’s guide to a much-misunderstood industry term.
- Write some content to tie in with a seasonal event or calendar milestone.
- Tie in your article to a national awareness day. Sign up for a calendar service like National Awareness days, which can alert you to what’s coming up. For example, Fairtrade Fortnight in February and Green Office week in May.
- Do you have a big product launch on the way? Start building anticipation.
- Look at a piece you wrote 1, 2, or 5 years ago today, and write an update.
- Look at a controversial industry development, and argue the case for and against.
- Talk to an expert in your business and write it up as an interview or Q&A.
- Think of a topic and take a straw poll of a variety of experts for their opinion.
- Compile a list of your favourite quotes from experts and leaders in your field around a key topic.
- Interview an interesting or important customer and find out their views on the market or a key issue.
- See what people are discussing on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+ and contribute to the debate.
- Write up a day in the life of someone in your organisation. Think about who would be of interest to your users – your managing director? Research scientist? Designer? Call centre operative?
- See what industry experts are uploading to slideshare.
- Email colleagues to come up with some ideas for things they’d like you to write about.
- Get an expert to answer questions emailed in by your users – promoting it beforehand, and presenting if possible as a live chat.
- Write a guide or tutorial about how best to use your products or services.
- Tell readers about what changes in legislation for your industry might mean for them.
- Create an infographic, chart or graph that gives users an insight into your industry or business.
- Answer any questions in detail that your customers ask regularly over the phone, in person or via email.
- Ask your sales team or customer-facing staff what problems your customers keep bringing up, and where their pain points are.
- If you have forums, see what problems and issues your users are discussing.
- Dispel a myth or misconception about your industry, product or service.
- Draw up a list of good or bad practice on an industry topic.
- Do a case study on a company or product – what can your industry learn from it?
- Think about some of your company's successes and failures and what you have learned from them.
- Think about some of your personal successes and failures and what you have learned from them.
- Create a timeline of changes in your industry over the years to show the milestones and developments.
- Write a how-to guide for one of your products or services.
- Explain a key industry concept for a new starter or new customer.
- Write a glossary explaining jargon terms that an industry outsider or customer might not understand or know.
- Find some useful facts and figures for your industry and share them. Make sure you quote the source.
- What x can teach us about y. Look at a popular cultural figure or phenomenon and see how you could apply this to your industry, eg what Jonathan Ive of Apple can teach us about design, or what Breaking Bad can teach us about content marketing.
- Collate a list of resources that would be useful to others in your industry – articles, tools, videos etc.
- Draw up a list of books that your readers would find interesting and useful, and explain why.
- Do a round-up of some of the best work you've seen recently.
- Report on a conference, exhibition, event or webinar.
- Come up with a list of experts and companies worth following on Twitter, Facebook etc.
- Has someone in your organisation spoken at an event? Share the highlights of their presentation.
- Invite your users and customers to share their top tips on a given subject.
- Write a buyer’s guide for potential customers. Come up with a checklist that could help customers and potential customers.
- Devise a quiz so that your users can test their industry knowledge.
- Write a piece beginning ‘10 ways to…’
- Create a video or podcast. Who’d make a good interviewee?
- Create a list of important upcoming events for your business or industry.
- Write a review of a book relevant to your industry.
- Repurpose existing content. Do you have print reports, marketing materials, client presentations or other collateral that could usefully be repurposed for a wider audience?
- Check out Quora and see what questions are being asked and answered on your industry.
- See what your rivals and competitors are writing about.
- See what your favourite non-industry sites are writing about and think about how you might apply their ideas to your field. For example, a football fan might see a transfer story, and write about the effect of a leading industry figure moving companies.
- Check out a new tool or platform – for example, a mapping tool, Storify, Pinterest, paper.li, SoundCloud or Audio Boo. For inspiration, search for best web tools to embed.
- See what bloggers are writing about using your keywords in Google's blog search.
- Check Google to see what users are searching for and use this to generate ideas. You can see the autocomplete and the prompts come up as you search.
- Check Google AdWords’ Keyword Planner for keywords that might give you ideas for new content. Ubersuggest is also great for this.
- Type some keywords into YouTube and see what comes up.
- If you have a search on your site, see what users are searching for and create content around that.
- Use your site analytics to see what content is most popular with users and think about how you could create additional content around that topic.
- Use Google Analytics to find which search phrases are bringing people to your site and add additional related content.
Source: Sticky Content blog 10 January, 2014
*or you know someone in your organisation who would be perfect at doing this
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