The Secrets of Content Ideation: Why 4 Out of 5 Articles Fail

The Secrets of Content Ideation: Why 4 Out of 5 Articles Fail

The Secrets of Content Ideation: Why 4 Out of 5 Articles Fail. Write down all your ideas, all the time The last time you had a content idea you weren’t sure about, what did you do? Of course, not everything you write down will turn into an article, but that doesn’t mean recording those ideas isn’t important. Take your time with the ideation process A common mistake marketers make is rushing the ideation stage. Rush past this bit and there’s a good chance you’ll wind up wasting all of your time. Here’s how you do it: Search the topic you want to write about. For instance, when following this process for this article, I might broaden the topic by searching for “why content marketing fails.” Open each of the articles ranking on the first page of the search results. What processes do you follow to ensure that your article ideas don’t suck, and are going to give you the best chance of success? Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used). Want to create great ideas for your content marketing program?

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I recently mentioned in an AMA discussion on Inbound.org that I expect – and plan – for most of my content to fail. On average, I expect just one in five of my articles to succeed.

Ultimate failure can happen at the start of the content creation process – the ideation stage.

We might be rushed, unsure of our objectives, or just confused about what it is our audience wants. All of these factors can play into the quality of the content we wind up producing and, in turn, what results that content does (or doesn’t) achieve.

Here are the secrets to coming up with ideas for content your audience wants to see, and consequently, the number of articles you write that can be ticked off as successes, not failures.

Write down all your ideas, all the time

The last time you had a content idea you weren’t sure about, what did you do?

If you didn’t note it down right away, you may have missed a trick.

The fact is that not all article ideas – very few article ideas, in fact – are ready to be written right away. Most of the time, more thought needs to go into developing them. That’s fine.

But you’re losing out when you’re not noting down everything that could become a fully developed idea.

Of course, not everything you write down will turn into an article, but that doesn’t mean recording those ideas isn’t important. One thought could well trigger something worth running with later down the line.

If you don’t already, get yourself (and use) an app like Evernote to easily record and organize your ideas wherever you are.

Take your time with the ideation process

A common mistake marketers make is rushing the ideation stage. Generally, they’re working on tight deadlines, but sometimes they just don’t realize how important the idea itself is.

Coming up with ideas and deciding which ones to run with is not something you should rush. Don’t push ahead with an idea because you think (or are being told) you need to get it together and just produce something.

Let’s say you usually spend 15 minutes coming up with an idea for an article, and three hours writing it. If that article fails because the idea wasn’t up to scratch, that’s three hours and 15 minutes of your time wasted.

Now, if you could extend the time you spend on ideation to an hour and still spend three hours writing the article, and in turn that article is a success, those extra 45 minutes are well worth it, right?

Don’t be tempted to rush this part of the content creation process. Ensuring that your ideas don’t suck is never a waste of time. Rush past this bit and there’s a good chance you’ll wind up wasting all of your time.

Confirm interest in an idea

This is a mistake I’ve seen marketers make time and again (and I’ll happily admit I’m guilty of it myself).

I’m going to call it ideation blindness. It’s a condition in which we come up with an idea, and because it’s our idea, we automatically think it’s pretty good (if not great) and worth running with.

This is a problem, largely because our brains don’t always act in our best interests.

Science writer David DiSalvo explains this phenomenon in detail in his book What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite, in which the overriding message is this:

What our brains want is not necessarily what they need. Things that make our brains “happy” can in fact lead to huge errors in judgment. Basically, our brains want to get their own way, regardless of how bad for us it…

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