My 4-Step Guide to Endless Content Ideas
Are you struggling to come up with fresh content ideas for your channel? Trust me when I tell you that you are not alone.
As a content creator, we’re expected to be active on so many different platforms. Even if you just post on TikTok every other day, that’s still over 150 videos in a year.
If the thought of finding great content ideas for your niche intimidates you, I’m here to help. Today, I’m walking you through my four-step process that will transform you into a content idea machine.
My 4-Step Guide to Endless Content Ideas
As a seasoned digital content creator with over a decade of experience, I've never run out of ideas using this fail-proof method.
And the best part? You can repeat this process as often as you’d like whenever you feel like you’re running low or are in need of inspiration.
Let's dive in!
Step 1: Brainstorm
You might be surprised how many ideas you can come up with when you actually set aside time just for idea generation, instead of frantically scrolling on socials 5 minutes before you meant to post looking for ideas.
To start out, I strongly recommend that you dive into a focused five-minute brainstorming session.
Go ahead and set a timer on your phone for five minutes and make sure that for the entire duration of that time you are just focused on writing down content ideas.
Rapidly jot down any keywords or ideas within your niche. Don't worry about making complete sense yet—just let the ideas flow.
Challenge yourself to think creatively, considering content for different time frames.
Is there an ambitious shoot that you’ve wanted to try but you have never made time to do? Is there a creator out there you’re currently obsessed with and want to emulate?
In addition to writing down actual ideas, you can even write down descriptive words about what you want your content to feel like.
Will your content be more editorial or more off-the-cuff? It’s all up to you.
You can do this digitally or in a notebook, but once the five minutes is up, create a designated space in Notion, Google Docs, or a spreadsheet to compile everything you wrote down. You’ll come back to this later.
Step 2: Think Seasonally
One of my favorite things to do when I feel like I’m in a content rut is to take a step back and look at what’s going on around me. That’s right, I’m talking about embracing seasonality.
Consider current trends, seasons, and upcoming holidays on the calendar.
Tailor content to fit the season. For example, in autumn, you might write down content ideas such as fall makeup look or Thanksgiving recipe idea.
Try to write at least five ideas a given season or holiday that is coming up that you think your audience would enjoy.
As another example, say you’re a fashion content creator and winter is about to begin. Five ideas I could think of for that creator include:
What to wear to Christmas
The best winter accessories (hats, gloves, scarves and more!)
Holiday work party ideas
Fun outfits to wear on New Year’s Eve
How to dress warm and look cute when it’s cold out
Keep an eye on both national and niche-specific holidays for unique content opportunities. Holidays like National Pizza Day, Book Lover’s Day and National Lipstick Day actually exist and can give you great inspiration.
Want to outsource part of your idea generation process? I share 25 content ideas at the top of every month for creatives inside my Patreon membership.
Record all of your ideas from step two in your content brainstorm document.
Use the seasons and upcoming holidays to inspire content
Step 3: Internal Content Ideas
Next up, I’m a big fan of exploring internal content ideas, also known as getting inspired by your own content!
If it’s been a while since you’ve looked into your analytics, go ahead and review your past content performance across platforms.
For me, I like to go in and identify top-performing content in terms of engagement or views across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and my blog.
Once you’ve found topics that have already performed well for you, now is a great time to generate spin-off ideas for each successful piece of content.
Don't hesitate to reuse successful themes but add a fresh perspective.
In this exercise, I like to aim for at least five spin-off ideas per top-performing content piece.
Example: If I had a popular YouTube video about how to pitch brands, I could think about related topics like negotiating with brands or the do’s and don’t’s of pitching brands to create fresh content about.
Need help navigating this exercise? Think about both taking that successful idea and zooming in on one particular part of that idea or taking a more broad approach and talking about a big picture concept.
Add everything you find to your content brainstorm document.
Step 4: External Content Trends
After you’ve taken a look inward to determine which pieces of your content have performed best historically, you can look for inspiration in other areas.
You can start looking to see what the top search results and content recommendations are for certain topics across other platforms to inspire new ideas.
Here are 3 ways I like to do this:
Utilize tools like Google Trends and Pinterest Trends for insights. Analyze search trends for relevant keywords in your niche and think about creating content 4-6 weeks ahead of when people will be searching for it.
For example, if you want to create a blog post about hosting ideas for Christmas, it’s probably a good idea to publish that post in late October or early November.
Explore related queries and rising topics for content inspiration. Leverage platforms like Answer The Public for a comprehensive view of content possibilities. Just one search on there can reveal a multitude of different ways that people search for one particular topic.
If you wanted to target “skincare routine” as a keyword, this website will show you how people search for that topic.
Additionally, utilize AI tools like ChatGPT to generate additional ideas by prompting specific queries.
I’ve previously asked ChatGPT to give me 10 ideas for videos about tips for influencers, and then based on that list I may say, “I like topic number 3 a lot, can you share 5 more ideas related to that?”
Be sure to add all of these to your large content brainstorm document.
Validating Your Ideas
After generating a mega list of content ideas, it's crucial to make sure that there is a desire for this type of content and that there are people out there actively looking for these content ideas.
Ask these questions to ensure your ideas align with your goals and the direction you want to take your content in:
1. Alignment with Audience and Pillars:
Does the idea resonate with your audience and core content pillars?
2. Content Repetition:
Have you covered this topic before? If so, can you provide a fresh perspective or turn it into a series?
3. Search Relevance:
Is there active interest in this topic? Check external tools to confirm people are searching for related information.
Use these questions to start to sort and organize the list you’ve been generating.
Plan content in short timeframes, such as eight weeks, to allow flexibility. Prioritize based on urgency and relevance to current events or seasons.
Regularly revisit your list, adapt, and add new ideas as they come to you.
By following these four steps and validating your ideas, you'll build a robust list of content ideas that keeps your audience engaged and your creativity flowing.
Need more content ideas? I include a sample month of content ideas in my free guide, The Influencer Launchpad.
yours,
Austen