21 Ways to Inspire New Blog Post Ideas, Video Ideas, and More
Whether you’re new to blogging and looking for a place to start or you’re a seasoned marketer searching for new ideas, here are 21 sources of inspiration for blog post ideas to help you get going. These websites, tips, and tools are also excellent for generating video and social post ideas.
We would also love to hear from you! If you have other ideas for curing writer’s block, drop them in the comment section below. We’re always looking for new online tools and productive ways to work.
Analyze Google Trends
Google Trends is a website Google created that analyzes the popularity of top search queries and topics in real time. Whether you’re a journalist or marketing professional, you can use this information to explore content ideas.
There are a few particularly useful aspects of Google Trends. First, you can determine if your ideas will have any traction online by looking at their interest-over-time graphs. Secondly, you can investigate the interest in a subject by region in case your products or services are location-specific. Third, you can find related topics and search queries to help you generate more relevant blog topics.
2. Brainstorm Independently
Organizations often use group brainstorming as a primary technique for creative problem-solving and ideation. Alex Osborn, a creativity theorist and advertising executive, actually coined the term in 1953, toting its power to enhance creative performance by roughly 50 percent.
The problem is, the research begs to differ. A meta-analytic review of over 800 teams indicated that individuals are actually more likely to generate more original ideas when they don’t interact with others.
So, while we do recommend collaborative brainstorming, we strongly encourage you to start the process independently. You might be surprised what comes out of your own mind. To position yourself for successful independent brainstorming, consider:
Finding inspirational media (e.g., find a movie, show, or podcast that inspires you)
Going for a walk (bring a small notepad or your phone to jot down ideas)
Making a mind map (find the relationship between seemingly disparate topics)
Reading a book (e.g., generate an idea per page)
Taking a brain break (e.g., take a shower, listen to music, exercise)
Working in a new location (e.g., coworking space, coffee shop, even an Airbnb)
Independent brainstorming can be one of the best ways to generate new ideas for a new video, social post, or article. But if you’re still coming up short, perhaps you need some additional input.
3. Brainstorm with a Group
Leverage the people around you to start generating content ideas. Whether they’re friends, coworkers, industry peers, or mentors, ask to have a conversation. To better ensure a successful group brainstorm, it’s helpful to follow four best practices:
Aim to generate as many ideas as possible
Abstain from criticism during the exercise
Prioritize unusual or original ideas
Combine and refine the ideas you generate
The basic premise of brainstorming is that, eventually, the sheer quantity of ideas will lead to quality. Secondly, people can motivate each other when they’re together. To jumpstart the brainstorming session, ask people:
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• What are the top five concerns of our current audience?
• What are the most frequently asked questions from our audience?
• What are some problems we could help our audience solve through a blog post?
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• What seasonal topics or events can we discuss?
• Are there any upcoming holidays or national days we can create content around?
• Are there any recurring posts we could write?
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• What’s a common challenge our audience faces?
• What do we think confuses our audience?
• Does our audience know what problems our products and services solve?
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• What topics have we yet to cover that our competitors have?
• Are there any industry myths or misconceptions we can debunk?
• What resources can we provide that are currently lacking elsewhere?
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• What unique expertise do we have that isn’t widely available or known?
• Can we create a “how-to” or “guide” post about something we’re experts in?
• What are the best practices in our field that we can share?
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• What questions have we received from our audience?
• Can we create or analyze a poll, survey, or study to learn what our readers need?
• Are there any frequently asked questions in our social media comments?
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• Where do we see our industry going?
• Can we predict the next “big thing” in our industry?
• How will our audience’s needs evolve?
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• How has our industry changed over time?
• Can we write a “this day in history” post?
• Are there any major industry milestones?
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• Can we combine/connect two seemingly unrelated topics?
• What’s something surprising or counterintuitive about our industry?
• Are there any useful “hacks” our audience can use?
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• What trends are emerging in our industry that our readers need to know about?
• How are current events affecting our industry or audience?
• What’s a new piece of technology that's changing our topic area?
Document all of your ideas on a physical or digital whiteboard so everyone can see them. It’ll help people connect different ideas and generate new ones.
When it comes to brainstorming, remember that the first goal of brainstorming is to generate as many ideas as possible. As you reach the end of the session, start pruning down your options. Just make sure you’ve documented all of your ideas before wrapping up. You never know when a “bad” idea will suddenly become one of your best.
4. Build Yourself a Creative Box
Sometimes, there are simply too many options, too many stimuli, and too much content right in front of you to think clearly. If you suspect this might be your issue, consider setting up a few creative boundaries. For instance, you can set up:
Subject-matter constraints
Time constraints
Phrase constraints
Word count constraints
An example of a creative box might be: I’ll create 20 holiday blog post ideas in 25 minutes, starting with the word “Best” in the title.
5. Change Your Environment
We briefly mentioned working in a new location at the start of this piece, but it’s vital to expand upon the idea. Studies suggest new experiences, such as working somewhere novel, could enhance learning and memory. So, change your location for more inspiration. A few places you should consider working include:
Bars & Restaurants
Bookstores
Cafes/Coffee Shops
Coworking spaces
Different rooms in your house
Hotels & Airbnbs
Libraries
Parks
6. Explore Industry Studies
Leverage the research of others to discover new blog posts, social posts, and video topics. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, we’re confident someone out there is studying it intensely. From insect farming and mushroom cultivation to binaural beats and quantum healing, you’d be surprised by what research people are doing. But if you’re looking for a few general jumping-off points, we suggest visiting:
7. Leverage ChatGPT and other AI Tools
There are seemingly endless ways to use ChatGPT. One of the many ways is to use it during the ideation phase of the writing process. With the right question or prompt, you can generate a high-quality list of ideas. To get started, try asking ChatGPT:
Can you suggest some common problems in [Industry/Niche] and how to solve them?
How is new technology impacting [Industry/Niche]?
What advice might experts in [Industry/Niche] give on [Specific Topic]?
What are some significant historical developments in [Industry/Niche]?
What are the latest trends in [Industry/Niche]?"
What predictions can you make about the future of [Industry/Niche]?
Remember, ChatGPT is only one AI option. Some excellent alternatives include:
8. Listen to a Podcast
As of November 2023, there are over four million podcasts. Therefore, no matter your industry, we’re confident you’ll find one that’ll generate some ideas. But don’t be afraid to veer off the beaten path. Find guests who motivate you and see if some unsuspecting podcast hosts have interviewed them. You’ll notice that the information a guest shares changes significantly depending on the interviewer.
9. Look at Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free web service offered by Google that allows web admins to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site's presence in Google Search results. Quick note: If you have a website, you need Google Search Console. It’s critical for tracking traffic, checking mobile usability, and discovering crawler issues.
Within all the technical info is an ever-growing list of every search query for which your site appears in search engine results pages (SERPs). You’ll also see the number of clicks, total impressions, average click-thru rate (CTR), and average position for each query. This data can give you a much better idea of what your audience wants more of, what’s working, and what’s not.
10. Power Up with an “Idea Generator”
AI-driven idea generators can be a helpful tool for bloggers, videographers, and social media managers alike. The perk of an idea generator over a general AI tool is that it’ll keep you focused on the task at hand: Your next topic.
Further, many idea generators are free. Just add a few keywords, and they’ll give you a list of ideas. Some of their ideas may be pretty weak, but at least they’ll help you get your creative juices flowing. Here are a few good options:
At the very least, these options will give you a good laugh. At best, you’ll experience an epiphany and feel great about your content marketing plan. It’s a win-win.
11. Read a Book
The internet seems to put the whole world at your fingertips, yet somehow, it doesn’t always succeed in bringing us the inspiration we need. So, instead of searching your way to the bottom of Google, try cracking open a book.
While fiction certainly isn’t off the table, we recommend starting with a nonfiction book. We also recommend giving yourself a screen break and opting for a physical copy. Studies show that paper-based text yields better comprehension outcomes than digital-based reading.
12. Repurpose Old Content
Repurposing old content can help you save time, improve your ranking in search results, and maximize the impact of outperforming content. There are several ways to repurpose old content, including, but not limited to:
Updating published blog posts
Repurposing content for eBooks
Creating “snack-sized” social posts from videos and blog posts.
Making an audio/video version of a blog post
Turning main ideas into infographics
13. Research the Competition
Drop by the websites and social media profiles of your competitors to see what they’re talking about. If you’re unsure who your competitors are, you can conduct some simple market research by:
Searching on Google and other search engines
Asking your customers
Scouring social media
Whether you purchase the software in-house or reach out to an SEO agency, you can also use tools such as SEMRush and Moz to get even deeper insights into your competition and the content they’re creating.
14. Scope out Social Media
Scrolling your newsfeed is one way to see what’s happening in the world and your particular industry. But you can also be more precise in your search. Below, we list where to find the best insights and inspiration for the top social media platforms:
Facebook: Insight Tools is an insight discovery tool for marketers and content creators. It boasts a boatload of proprietary Facebook data and third-party commissioned research. With it, you can easily filter by topic, region, demographic information, industry, and much more.
Instagram: Because Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta, you can use Insight Tools for Instagram too. However, Instagram also has a Professional Dashboard that features content ideas based on other businesses, various content guides, and a host of resources via the Facebook Professional Dashboard.
X (Twitter): Jump over to the Explore tab of X to see what is trending.
Tiktok: Creative Center allows you to browse trends by location, explore trends by hashtag, song, and creator, and find keyword insights.
LinkedIn: Check out LinkedIn’s Learning Resource Center for featured resources, courses, and reports. You’ll likely leave here with a few ideas and new software skills.
15. Survey your Audience/Customers
If you have a significant audience, surveying customers can be insightful. However, if your audience still has room to grow, it may be somewhat fruitless. Reason being, people are busy, and busy people don’t often take surveys. But, if you have the numbers to make it worth it, do it. There are also a few tools that make it easy to get started:
GoogleForms (Free)
Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo)
16. Take a Break
If you’re hitting a creative wall, take a break. Research by The Atlantic suggests that the perfect recipe for productivity is to work for 52 minutes and break for 17. This assertion is based on an experiment performed by the Draugiem Group. The employees who had the highest productivity levels worked for 52 minutes straight and then took the next 17 to refocus, relax, and regroup. It’s up to you what you do during that break, but we have a few suggestions:
Avoid social media
Talk with someone
Have a snack
Get some sun
Drink some water
When you finally come back to your desk, you might see that some new ideas are flowing.
17. Tune in with Social Listening Tools
Social listening (or social media listening) is the practice of finding opportunities on social media (sometimes search engines as well) by monitoring and analyzing customer feedback, brand mentions, competitor mentions, consumer trends, and other relevant discussions. Through social listening, you learn more about who your audience is, what they want, when they want it, where they are, why they want it, and how they get it.
With all of that information, we’re betting you can come up with a handful of content ideas. And thankfully, there are a growing number of tools that simplify this process. Here are some of the top options for social listening:
AnswerThePublic: This tool is particularly good for finding popular search queries around a topic, brand, or product.
SparkToro: From the creator of Moz, SparkToro gives content creators and marketers the power to see their audience’s demographic information, social media behaviors, interests, and content preferences.
BuzzSumo: Find content that’s going viral on social, see what social network your audience is on most, and discover what kind of content your audience likes to consume.
YouScan: YouScan is particularly useful for discovering user-generated content (UGC) and competitive research.
Exploding Topics: Most social listening tools analyze the current conversation, whereas Exploding Topics tries to determine where it’s going.
Brand24: This artificial intelligence (AI) tool helps you get a better idea of how people feel about your brand, products, and services.
18. Turn on the Tube
YouTube is an incredible resource for content creators. But, it comes with one big pitfall. You can quickly find yourself going down a rabbit hole with nothing much to show for it. So, should you decide to find some inspiration from YouTube, stay focused by setting a limit on how much time you spend watching videos.
YouTube has a Trending tab, too, to help you explore what’s earning people’s attention on Shorts and traditional videos. Further, make sure you also drop by YouTube’s Official Blog for year-end reports, success stories, and more.
19. Use SEO Software
Google has some incredibly helpful SEO tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Trends. But there are paid options out there that are invaluable for professional-level SEO, content strategy, and marketing intelligence research. Some of our favorites include:
While you certainly don’t need these tools to create compelling content, they certainly help. If you have access to them, use them. Many of them also offer limited freemium versions.
20. View the News
The news can be a massive source of inspiration. Try going to the top publications in your industry and see what they’re talking about. Or cast a wider net by visiting Google News. Try a few different searches and see what you discover.
If you’re in an industry that has a lot of differing opinions, try visiting news sites that feature journalists who think radically differently about a particular topic than you do. Try to find the truth in what they’re saying, build an argument against it, or search for evidence that will change your mind.
21. Work with a Content Marketing Company
If you need extra hands on deck with your content creation initiatives, it can be advantageous to work with a content marketing company. From blog posts and eBooks to video scripts and case studies, Ethos specializes in a wide range of content marketing mediums across an equally wide range of industries.
From construction and economic development to technology and real estate, our small but mighty team of researchers, brainiacs, and marketers has covered some serious ground. Plus, we have all the right tools to ensure every piece of content is search-optimized and grammatically pristine. If you’re interested in learning more about what we do and how we do it, reach out to Ethos Copywriting today.