The reason, ofcourse, is lost time: If you’re creating content primarily for purposes of inbound marketing, simply waiting for inspiration to strike is not a sustainable strategy. Simply type in a search keyword, for example, “content marketing,” and AnswerThePublic will spit out hundreds of questions that people have asked regarding the topic. It should be one of your first stops when writer’s block strikes. BuzzSumo is a powerful app that allows you to research which content has been successful for any given topic or keyword. Builtvisible Another social listening tool, Builtvisible, scans Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, even Y Combinator’s HackerNews, to uncover which topics are trending. Blog Idea Generator, by HubSpot Just enter a topic keyword into Hubspot’s Blog Idea Generator, and it will generate an Excel spreadsheet of over 200 related topics. The most-asked question out of 43 listed regarding content marketing is, “What is Content Marketing?” The questions, “How Does Content Marketing Drive Sales?” and “How to Measure Content Marketing?” also appear in the top-10 most searched questions on the topic. Ahrefs Wouldn’t it be valuable to know which pieces of content have been the most successful, in terms of driving traffic and generating backlinks for your competitors? Through its competitor research tools, Ahrefs allows you to see just that. While the online tools listed above won't do the writing for you, they can help dissipate the creative logjams that led to writer’s block in the first place.
There are apps galore to help you generate story ideas. Are you using any of them yet?
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Writer’s block can disrupt the productivity of even the most prolific writer and content creators out there. The reason, ofcourse, is lost time: If you’re creating content primarily for purposes of inbound marketing, simply waiting for inspiration to strike is not a sustainable strategy. In fact, your business likely can’t afford that strategy at all.
According to the inbound marketing industry leader, Hubspot, businesses studied that had published 16-plus blog posts per month got almost 3.5 times the traffic of companies that had published between zero and four monthly posts.
If you’re a busy entrepreneur, coming up with an idea for even just one blog post a week can feel like a heavy burden, let alone four or more. Luckily, there are tips and tools that can help unblock any log-jams in your content-creation workflow.
The following seven online tools are useful to turn to when your stream of thought just won’t flow.
AnswerThePublic
Ever start typing a phrase into Google only to marvel at how it predicts the question you’re about to ask? This isn’t magic. Google compiles data from countless search queries in an attempt to predict what you’re looking for — even before you’re finished typing. This autocomplete data is publicly available to developers, and AnswerThePublic has leveraged it to create a tool that can help smash any creative logjam.
Simply type in a search keyword, for example, “content marketing,” and AnswerThePublic will spit out hundreds of questions that people have asked regarding the topic. Knowing what people search for regarding a specific keyword gives you the opportunity to write content that answers that question. It’s a marvelous springboard for brainstorming new content ideas.
AnswerThePublic also boasts an entertaining user interface and presents data in a visually appealing way. It should be one of your first stops when writer’s block strikes.
BuzzSumo
Unless you’re venturing into completely uncharted territory, the odds are that your competitors have written successful content related to topics you’re interested in pursuing.
BuzzSumo is a powerful app that allows you to research which content has been successful for any given topic or keyword. But the app doesn’t stop there. BuzzSumo employs social listening to actively monitor mentions of your brand — and your competitors –on a wide assortment of social media platforms. Knowing what questions your…
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