We live in the era of content marketing.
This new age of inbound marketing has created a flood of posts from businesses on the web. With more and more businesses getting involved every day, the online world is becoming an incredibly noisy place. According to some estimates, 86 percent of business-to-business companies use content marketing.
That’s a massive amount of competition for attention. If you want to stand out and have your voice be heard, you need to do something epic. It’s not enough to just publish a blog post every now and again. You need to publish remarkable content that adds to the conversation.
As the old saying goes: Go big or go home.
Related: Cutting Through the Noise: A Guide to Messaging in an Age of Marketing Saturation
Here are 10 epic content ideas that you can create for your company. Do them well and they’ll help you stand out, get heard and capture the attention of your target audience.
1. Write a in-depth, well-researched blog post.
If you’re creating content in a crowded space, you’ve got to make your blog posts stand out from the crowd. One of the best ways to do this is with in-depth, well-researched blog posts.
Mike Kamo over at Nutrition Secrets is making a splash in the noisy nutrition industry using this strategy. Just look at this post on avocados. Who knew there was that much to know! If it can work for this industry, it can for yours too.
2. Create a mega list of helpful tools for your industry.
People love lists. They love them even more when the list provides immense value to their daily lives. That’s why creating a mega list of helpful tools is such an epic content idea.
Buffer recently published a post that serves as a great example of this content opportunity. How epic is that?
Brainstorm a few topics that you could use to create a mega list like this in your own campaigns.
3. Conduct original research and publish it.
Many people have created amazing content using the research that others conducted. But just imagine the types of content you could create if you’re the one that published the research. Not only would it attract readers, but your website could be linked to by hundreds of other blogs in your industry.
4. Partner with an expert to create a strong resource.
Creating a piece of content with an expert partner provides two key benefits to your business: The opportunity to develop a peer-to-peer relationship with an influencer and access to the influencer’s network for promotional purposes.
The type of content doesn’t really matter. It can be anything from an exclusive, in-depth interview to an hour-long webinar. Just make sure it’s epic.
5. Produce a series of videos.
It’s no surprise that video series are really starting to take off in the online realm. People are consuming online video at an astonishing rate, and it’s a great time for anyone willing to invest in this medium. With the barrier to entry lower than ever before, there’s no reason that your brand can’t produce its own web series.
Related: Tools and Techniques You Need to Scale Quality Content
6. Interview several experts in your industry.
I like this epic content idea for a few reasons:
- You get to connect with a wide variety of experts in your field.
- Their contributions make them immediately aware of your brand.
- By contributing to the content, they’re more likely to share it with their audiences.
Find 10 to 15 experts in your industry and request an interview with them about a specific topic. Keep your topic the same for each interview. Once you’ve conducted the interviews, compile all of them into one massive content piece.
7. Publish a magazine to share with your audience.
Sometimes putting a new spin on an old tactic works well. Content Marketing Institute recently did this with its release of the Chief Content Officer magazine. Could your business benefit by becoming a leader through this seemingly outdated medium?
8. Convert your blogs into Slideshare presentations.
Content re-purposing often requires quite a bit of effort. But if you play your cards right, it could reap major rewards for your business.
Ann Hoffman used Slideshare to gain 243,000 views on her blog in 30 days. This is just one example of how publishing content to other formats can yield massive results for your business.
9. Compile your top blog posts into a book.
Publishing a book immediately increases your industry authority, especially in business-to-business service industries. But, really, it works in all types of industries.
If you’ve spent months slaving away at blogging, then you’ve probably generated enough content for a book draft. Ready to finally knock that item off your bucket list? Compile related blog posts into a book and get it self-published.
10. Post a new piece of engaging content every day.
Sometimes epicness comes less from the content itself and more from how you deliver it. If you feel like you’re doing everything you can to publish amazing content, then try to increase the awesomeness through quantity. Just make sure to never sacrifice quality in the process!
Epic content can make a huge impact on the success of your business. If done well, it can generate traffic, increase brand awareness and even help you acquire new customers.
Do you have any other epic content ideas you’d like to contribute? I’d love to hear your awesome ideas in the comments section below.