Have you ever needed to find a fresh spin for a piece of B2B marketing content? Business bloggers need to write about the topics that are important to their industry. In many cases, these topics are either very dry, very thoroughly discussed already, or both. But you still have a blog post due...so what are you going do?
The trick is finding something new to say about a topic, especially if other people have already written extensively about it. Previously I shared five methods I've used to come up with post ideas. Here are 5 more ways:
Respond to news.
Nothing adds a fresh spin to a story better than relevance to current events. Scan the latest headlines for stories with a potential relationship to one of your keywords. Science, business, lifestyle, and medical stories often contain a newsworthy angle. Explain how or why someone took a particular action, or point out little-noticed aspects of the story.
Of course, if there’s a clear connection to your business in the news, be sure to mention it!
Clarify a popular misunderstanding.
The media frequently makes mistakes, which gives us an opening to (gently) educate our readers. Busting a myth almost always offers a fresh spin on a subject. For instance, in the world of statistics, the results of regression studies are frequently reported as if they establish cause-and-effect relationships between a variable and a response. If you write a post pointing out a mistake or misinterpretation, however, be constructive and kind: your goal is to be helpful and dispel misconceptions, never to upbraid people who don’t know as much about your topic as you do!
Answer a question.
Customer questions make good jumping-off points for blog posts. In addition, you can monitor social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and others to see what people say about your industry. If one person asks a question publicly via social media, someone else is wondering the same thing. Write a blog post that gives the answer.
Reflect on an industry happening.
Most industries hold a wide array of conferences, expos, colloquiums, and conventions every year. If you attend one, draw on what you learn to give stories a fresh spin. Give either your live-on-the-ground or retrospective report on industry events. Did the keynote speaker say something relevant to your company? Did any sessions feature customers who use your products?
Make a list.
The “Top 10” list was a fixture of pop culture long before David Letterman or High Fidelity. Try picking a keyword, picking a number, and listing that number of things people need to know about the topic. This type of post is short, usually easy to write, easy to read, and can be used to provide a very useful, high-level summary of an important concept.
If you're stuck for post ideas, I hope this has been helpful. If there's an inspiration you regularly use that I've missed, please mention it below!