Coming up with new content ideas on a consistent basis can be difficult. Between social media, email campaigns, blogs, webinars, videos, case studies, and white papers, it can be overwhelming to try and think of new topics for each of the different content forms. At Mountains Wave, we’ve created a list of reliable fallbacks that can help you fill in the content gaps and keep feeds full across your different content outlets.

1. Team Interviews

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to boost content for a brand, team, or employee, interviews are the way to go. All it takes is a 20-minute recorded call with a team member where you ask them a few simple questions on any specific topic.

For example, the topic can be as simple as the team member themself. Ask them a few questions about who they are, things they like to do, and their role with the company, and you’ll have the foundation for a simple, “Meet the Team” blog article.

Use a platform, like Otter.ai, to transcribe your recorded interview and help you write the article. If you’re a writer, then have some fun with it; write a story! But if writing isn’t really your thing, then a simple Q/A article format works great as well. To help spark some ideas for a Q/A article, read one of our “Meet the Team” blog articles.

If you’re ever hitting a dry spell on your blog or social media, you can simply whip one of these up and keep your audience engaged. Not only is it a simple fallback, but it can be a great way to add some personality to a brand. Your audience will get to know you and your team a little better and ultimately feel more attached as they meet the humans behind the screen.

If you’re a smaller company or a solo startup, get creative! Ask your friends or family member to interview you and ask questions you would ask an employee. Just because you’re a small company doesn’t mean you don’t have great experiences to share.

Regardless, team interviews are a great way to generate content because:

• You can pull bits and pieces of content out from these interviews and publish them across multiple different platforms
• They’re easy to create
• They’re convenient

2. Customer Interviews

Every business has had its first customer, and whether you have 1 or 1000, a customer is a customer because you provide value in the service or product you are providing. Customers hold a lot of power in the sense that they ultimately can decide whether your business thrives or fails. Customer interviews are a great way to not only generate content but also to learn about your own products and how you can improve (or keep crushing it!). Set up an interview or email a short questionnaire to your customers. With their permission, you and your company can turn their answers into powerful and relatable content, such as case studies and testimonials, for other customers and prospects!

If scheduling one of these interviews becomes a challenge, you can always try and ask them to send you a short testimonial about your business - just a sentence or two long. That way you’ll still gain some content to showcase on your website and share across your social platforms.

3. Events

Similar to how customer interviews can be more powerful than team interviews, events can be even more powerful than customer interviews. Attending events can provide a plethora of content in many different forms.

• Social Media: First, there are the days leading up to the event that allows you to post content hyping up that you’ll be attending. Then you have the actual days of the events where you can take plenty of photos and videos to post while you’re there as well as after the event. In addition, there will have been plenty of hot topics that get thrown around while you’re there. Use what you see and hear to engage with your followers.
• Email Campaign: Use the event as an opportunity to start an email campaign. Similar to social media, in the days leading up to the event, push out emails inviting your subscribers, leads, customers, other attendees, or whoever to meet you there and check out your booth. Send a follow-up email in the days after thanking everyone for meeting you there and add a CTA to connect further.
• Blog Article: Events open the door to plenty of different conversation topics. Write an article giving your insight on the main topic of the event. Listen to what people are talking about at the event and follow up with an article that touches on one of those particular topics that came up. Or, simply write an article that’s all about your experience attending from start to finish.
• Webinar: Better yet, turn any of those topics you take away from the event into a webinar.

The list of options and ideas can go on and on. It’s important to note that events can be expensive especially if you plan to sponsor, and even though they can also be a lot of work to organize and attend, the benefits you’ll get can easily equal or surpass the hard work you put in - especially if you take advantage of the content that can be created from each event you attend.

4. Industry News

Another simple way to bring about some new content is to look at your industry. Check out the latest news and see what’s trending then write your thoughts and opinions on it. It’s easy to write about what you’re passionate about. You can put a blog article together on your take on how a new trend will affect the industry moving forward. Writing not your thing? Make a short video for your audience that summarizes and breaks down everything that’s been happening in the industry.

Another option? Flip it on your audience and see what they think. Use social media to spark conversation and engage your audience around the latest news. Or, grab a team member or find a specific “industry expert” and ask them questions about their thoughts and opinions on the latest trends. Opinions do well, especially when shared by an industry expert. 

This option is simple because, in a way, the content topics are being made for you!

Bonus: Holiday Social Posts

Since the first two examples are so similar, here’s a bonus!

Having trouble coming up with new social media content? Look to holidays. If a certain holiday is coming up, create a post about it. If you or your team is actively doing something to observe a specific day, such as eating pizza on National Pizza Day (Feb 9), make an Instagram story out of it, and don’t forget to make it fun!

Conclusion

There you have it. A few different ways to help generate some content. If there’s one takeaway to pull from this list, it’s the power and simplicity of interviews. In other words, start recording yourself asking someone a few questions on a specific topic. The variety of topics you can center your questions around and the amount of content you can seamlessly pull from those recordings is limitless.

Check out our blog, share your thoughts, and reach out today if you’d like to learn about how Mountains Wave Marketing can help you with marketing strategy and content topics.