How to Produce Blog Content Every Week of the Year

Have you ever felt that lump of abject dread in your stomach when you stared at the keyboard, trying to fuel ideas for new content?

Fear no more! It’s time to start creating content! And not just any content – shareable content!

While producing new content daily is a lofty goal that not all of us can achieve, I have full confidence you can develop at least one piece for each week of the year.

To get your creative juices flowing, here are 52 concepts that will inspire you to put together infinitely shareable content. Use one a week and you’ll be good to go!

Calendar-Oriented Content

The yearly calendar provides ample opportunities for seasonal content creation inspiration. Between the numerous holidays people celebrate and the seasons themselves, you can easily increase sales using creative content marketing.

For example:

Focus content on the holiday spirit
Tie holidays back to your products, services or markets, like thanking customers on Thanksgiving
Cover local holiday events

Try putting together pieces focused on these calendar-related areas:

The change of seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

Popular holidays:

New Years Day (January 1)
Valentine’s Day (February 14)
Daylight Savings Time Starts (March 13)
April Fool’s Day (April 1)
Mother’s Day (Second Sunday in May)
Father’s Day (Second to last Sunday in June)
American Independence Day (July 4)
Women’s Equality Day (August 26)
Labor Day (First Monday in September)
Halloween (October 31)
Thanksgiving (Last Thursday in November)
Winter holiday round up (Last week in December)

Wacky holidays:

Trivia Day (January 4)
Send a Card to a Friend Day (February 7)
Old Stuff Day (March 2)
International Moment of Laughter Day (April 14)
National Chicken Dance Day (May 14)
World Environment Day (June 5)
Embrace Your Geekiness Day (July 13)
International Left-handers Day (August 13)
National Good Neighbor Day (September 28)
World Vegetarian Day (October 1)
World Kindness Day (November 13)
National Cookie Day (December 4)

Celebrating National Cookie Day

Products And Services Content

You are the expert on your products and services. Your audience looks to you to provide them with details, both high-level and in-depth. This is your opportunity to educate without being overly pushy.

Try to avoid the hard sell. Instead, provide material that opens prospects’ eyes to the benefits and unique aspects that your products and services offer. You can even use humor, like in the hilarious “living with lag” video or the marvelous Squatty Potty video (though I’m not sure I’ll ever look at ice cream in the same way again).

For instance, here are some product and services related ideas for creating content:

Overviews of your offerings
Guides that discuss the differences between your offerings
How-tos that show people specific features
New features and services
Big picture explanations for why specific features or offerings are important
Security features
Definitions of terms related to your area of service
Tricks and tips
Checklists to make using your products or services easier
Answers to frequently asked customer questions
Customer guest posts about why they chose your offering
Case studies or use cases
Customer review round-ups

Check it Out: Writing Samples from Holly Chessman Marketing

Market Expertise Content

Besides being an expert on your own offerings, it’s important to show your audience that you know about the market in general. Curation is a great way to show you know your way around the market – and if you use the right tools, it will help you speed your content creation process. You can also create your own pieces to show you have deep knowledge in your area of expertise.

Follow the Doctor's lead and show off your smarts

Becoming a resource for market-related knowledge helps build trust, confidence, and loyalty. It also gives you a way to connect with other companies in related areas, partners, influencers, and more.

For example, you can create content like:

Topic guides
Glossaries of market terms
Round-ups of blogs that provide great knowledge of your market
Round-ups of influencers in your market
Product comparisons (remember not to bias these too much in your favor or they will look unreliable)
Vertically-oriented focus pieces (for example, based around healthcare, retail, SaaS, etc.)
Research – your own, others’, or a combination of the two

Personal Content

Whether you are a B2C or a B2B company, it’s good to give your business a personality. Show that you are more than your products and services. You are an organization made up of a group of fascinating people. You have experts. You have fun souls. Make a connection with your audience on a human to human basis.

Searching for a great example of business humanization? Look no further than Zappos, who has an entire Twitter feed focused on its fantastic employees.

Ready to try humanizing your own business? Try focusing your creation efforts on:

Employee profiles
Company history
Product history
Partner stories
Fun company and local activities
Tours of the office
Employee hobbies

Bonus: Recycled Content

Still not convinced you have sufficient material to fuel your content marketing efforts? If 52 ideas aren’t enough for you, remember that you can take each of the posts you create and reuse them to make new pieces.

For instance, take your current articles (or the ones you write using the 52 ideas listed in this article) and create:

Roundups of articles, research, graphics, etc.
Infographics
Slides
Videos
Podcasts
Photo albums
Updated posts (add new media or info) that you repost

Do you have other ideas for creating spectacular content that is sure to be shared? If so, send me email at holly@hollychessmanmarketing.com or Tweet me up at @HollyChessman.

About the Author

Holly runs Holly Chessman Marketing, a premier marketing firm that provides strategic advice, digital services, and social media guidance and education. Named one of New England’s Top 40 Influencers in Content and Digital Marketing, Holly fully understands the power of online engagement. She is passionate about implementing marketing strategies that result in quick growth, rapid revenue and happy customers. Holly has worked for a variety of tech companies, as well as spearheaded her own marketing consulting firm. She is regularly quoted in a variety of major publications. Holly is also not afraid to embrace her nerdy side (as evidenced by her love of Neil Gaiman and her “talking” TARDIS).

This article was originally written by Holly Chessman for Maximize Social Business.