How to Discover Content Topics Your Audience Will Love
Find the sweet spot of content your people will engage with the most ✨
If you are struggling to come up with content that resonates with your audience, you aren’t alone. Writer’s block is a real thing. But you don’t have to be stuck… there’s a way to crack the code of finding topics your audience will actually love.
4 Steps To Discovering Highly Relevant Content Topics
Step 1: Start with Audience Research
First, you need to understand your audience. It’s important to align your content with your audience's interests and pain points in order to drive the most engagement. If they don’t resonate with it, they won’t interact with it, plain and simple. Define who they are, what they need, and what keeps them up at night.
✨ RELATED: Market Research 101: Know Your Audience →
Tools to Use:
Social media insights (I like Plann, Later, and Sprout Social… but use what you have!)
Surveys
Pro Tip ☝️: Use social/email polls or direct questions to get real feedback from your existing audience.
Once you’ve gathered all of your audience data, it is helpful to create buyer personas. Here is a Buyer Persona template you can use!
Step 2: Analyze Existing Content
Look at what’s working now. Review your content from the past 6 months to a year to see what’s getting the most engagement. Analyze content formats, long form vs short form, distribution channels, calls to action, topics, timeframes, and audience demographics. Did any specific content pieces and/or topics rise above the rest? Why? Your primary question to consider here is, “What is getting the most traction and why?”
I find it helpful to track everything in a marketing performance spreadsheet (like this one) and then view it all in charts because I’m super visual, but use a system that works well for you!
Next, run a Competitor Analysis. Check out what topics are trending on your competitors' blogs or social media and ask yourself the same question: “What seems to be getting the most traction and why?”
Finally, it’s time to fill in the content gaps. Identify areas that haven’t been covered but are relevant to your audience. What can you produce that is relevant to both your business and your audience that is currently missing?
Pro Tip ☝️: Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and write out all content topics you can think of that are relevant to your niche. Once the timer goes off, highlight the ones that you already write about often. Then you’ll see the unhighlighted topics visually and make a plan of action!
Step 3: Use SEO Tools to Identify Topics
There are a wide variety of SEO tools out there — both free and paid versions — that can provide you with a goldmine of information.
✨ RELATED: 5 ways to boost your ranking on Google →
For keyword research, use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Also Asked, or Ubersuggest to find what your audience is searching for.
For trending topics, explore Google Trends, Semrush, Answer The Public, or BuzzSumo to spot hot topics in your niche.
Pro Tip ☝️: Remember to identify long-tail keywords — those that are more timeless and specific to your niche. Focus on highly specific, niche phrases that align closely with your audience’s interests.
Step 4: Address Pain Points Directly
If you can show your audience how you solve their problems through your content, you will win the day. Create content that addresses your audience's biggest challenges. Keep chugging along and showing up with helpful content in formats that your audience will want to interact with. They will take notice. They will engage.
And when they engage, make sure you respond in kind! Interact with your audience, not only to gain traction with meaningful engagements and grow your following, but also to discover common pain points among followers. Monitor forums, social media, and blog comments to dig deeper. Then publish content that will speak to those pain points.
Real-life examples help tremendously. More and more, people are looking for authenticity and transparency in the content they consume. Use case studies, customer stories, or Q&A sessions to provide actionable solutions. And it doesn’t hurt to tug at the heartstrings every once in a while. 🥰
Identifying content topics that truly resonate with your audience’s interests and pain points doesn’t have to be painstaking or cumbersome. Start with the steps outlined above and you will have plenty of highly relevant topics in no time. Once you have a fresh list of topics, the fun part of thinking how to creatively produce new content begins!