1. Get in the habit of taking notes
   Hey, it worked well in school, didn’t it? See something cool online or notice something in the office, take a note of it. Create a card in Trello or open a task in whatever platform you use. Or simply jot down thoughts in your Evernote or Apple Notes when they come to you. Anything can become a good idea when you give yourself time to come back and nurture it.
2. Do keyword research
   Blogging is not about jamming as many keywords into a post as possible to rank better. Your readers deserve better than that. But in order to truly deliver value to your customers, it’s super important to understand what they actually want to hear from you. There are a lot of keyword tools you can use to input a general topic idea and get a more specific direction based on the long-tail keywords that people are searching for.
3. Create Google Alerts
   A great way to stay inspired with little effort is getting topic updates and news sent right to your inbox. By setting up Google Alerts, you can tell the search engine the exact words or phrases that interest you, and new publications will be sent to you in real-time. Do that keyword research first to maximize your efforts here. Other content platforms like Quora, Mashable, Reddit often have similar capabilities you can take advantage of.
4. Analyze Google Trends
   Here’s another helpful Google tool for researching topics that surprisingly not enough people use. But hey, that’s an advantage for you! It’s super easy to navigate and offers broader topics being searched on Google to help inspire new blog ideas based on things your audience is already looking for. Just click the ‘Hamburger’ menu and go to ‘explore.’ You can search relevant topics and view them in the ‘Related Queries’ section. Check out both ‘Top’ and ‘Rising’ topics.
5. Talk to your customers
   It’s who you’re writing for, right? The people who already worked with you are the best representation of those who might in the future. You have their direct contact info so getting in touch is easy. Send them an email, make a phone call, shoot them a poll, or an easy survey. The simpler you can make it, the more likely they are to participate. And don’t forget to take advantage of your social followers too! They may not have worked with you yet, but they follow you for a reason, so find out what they like or don’t like about your content.
6. Talk to your team
   Just as important as talking to your own customers is asking your own team members. They’re the ones interacting with your customers on a daily basis, hearing their pain points, questions, and concerns. They also offer additional brainpower — you know, two heads are better than one.
7. Mimic what’s worked for others
   This doesn’t mean being a copycat. That’s not cool. But competitor research should already be a huge part of your marketing strategy. Visit their websites to see what they’re writing about. You can also hop on BuzzSumo to see which of their URLs from their domain are the most shared.Or search industry or competitor social media accounts you follow to see what kinds of topics they’re talking or writing about. Are they getting a lot of engagement? That’s a good hint it’s a meaningful topic.
8. Then try the stuff others are scared to do
   Everyone loves reading about things they’re scared to do or try themselves. It’s part of being human. But if you’re willing to take those risks, there can be a huge payoff — for that very reason. Trying new things is important to learning and growth. The same old, same old gets… well, old. So take a risk and be completely transparent. See what happens.
9. Explore Hashtags
   Unfortunately, your ideal followers won’t always follow you. It’s just reality. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find them and figure out what they’re talking about on social. Search popular industry hashtags and look for trending or popular articles, buzzwords, and questions. Browse the comments and see what people are saying. Then take those notes!
10. Repurpose other content
    Here’s a big myth-buster for you: it’s OK to write about a topic more than once. In fact, not doing so is just wasteful. Different people like to consume content differently; a traditional blog that may be really valuable to one person could be totally overlooked by another who prefers lists or slideshows. Make your content work for everyone.

To get a little extra help building and maintaining an effective blog strategy, contact shyft to get you on the right track today.