3 ways to find topics for your content plan

Hey there! 👋

How do you find topics that your prospects are interested in?

Many people start with SEO topic clusters.

It sets a strong foundation and creates a process that can produce infinite ideas.

You can even argue that it's pretty close to talking to your customers--after all, you're using their search results as your primary source.

But there's no getting away from the fact that it's not a replacement for 1:1 conversations with your prospects.

Enter the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework.

This shows you how to build content topics from interviews, surveys and poll. So that you can understand your audience's language to mirror their needs and motivations.

Let's start with JTBD and look at how you can merge this with SEO topic clusters to create content ideas that your audience want to read.

We'll also look at ways that you can find content topics you didn't even know you already had.

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1. The JTBD framework clarifies the outcomes your customers want

Your prospects come to your content to complete a job. You need to find a way to answer the rational and emotional needs that drive their desired outcomes.

Here is an example: 

Emotional: A pet owner wants to find a friendly dog walker who will be kind to their pet.

Functional: A kennel owner wants to increase their capacity to take more pets during high season so they can make more money.

Once you understand your audience's drivers, you can build your topics around their problems and motivations. 

2. SEO clusters deliver a process for tonnes of topic ideas

SEO topic clusters give you solid data to evidence your chosen topics. Topic clusters start with a pillar topic (a primary keyword that is high volume and general). Then, your cluster content drives down into more specific keywords until you move from general to highly specific (or specialist). You can connect your pillar content and cluster content with hyperlinks, to drive the prospect's journey.

Use this process to build your topics from 5-10 pillars. If you're just starting out with your content plan, start with 2 or 3 pillars, so that you're not spreading time and resources too thinly across topics.

3. Where to find topics you didn't know you already had

Every day we log onto our computers, check our emails, and send replies without ever looking at them again. But what would happen if you went back to your sent items?

You'd find hundreds of replies to customers with questions your customers most frequently ask (with your answers). You can recycle these into website FAQs or blog posts with the knowledge that your customers will be interested.

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It's simple: combine your SEO topic clusters with the reasons why your customers are hiring your product to create content topics that resolve their job and drive into their motivations.
 
I’ll see you again on Saturday 5th February.
 
Take care,
 
Sarah

P.S. How do you define your content topics?

Hit ‘reply’ and let me know.