Coming Up With Content Ideas Is Not Rocket Science

I get this a lot. “I don’t know how to write. We have nothing to write about.” 

Hogwash. 

Just ask yourself, “What are my customers having problems with?” 

Then write content that will help them understand the problem, solve the problem, or see that they are not alone with this problem.

I was speaking with a client that makes prototypes. They had no clue what to write about, “It’s impossible.” So I asked them a couple questions. Typically one of their customers sends them the drawings and technical info required for my customer to build the prototypes. 

Now, I found this genuinely interesting so I asked, “Do you ever have problems with the info they send?” I actually had visions of napkins with products drawn on them. But the reality wasn’t that far off. My client and his engineers started rattling off all the things that their clients did incorrectly, left out or didn’t understand. 

After listening to this for a few minutes I said, “There’s your first 12 posts. One a week for the next 12 weeks. This is info your customers should have. They will design better and get their finished products more quickly with less back and forth. This is information you can write about that will help them.” 

Then I asked him about the time they saved their customer, because everyone has at least one story like that. When he finished telling me about the time they dropped everything, and worked through the weekend for a customer that was in a pinch, I told him, “Great story. Now write it down. There’s another post for your list, or maybe even a case study.”  

That great story was always there, it just took me to remind him of it. 

The only reason coming up with content is hard is because you think it is hard.