How to never run out of ideas

Hey 👋

Welcome to Neighbourhood Post issue #19 - easy to implement digital marketing ideas straight through your metaphorical letterbox.

I hope you’ve had a good week.

I stayed up to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, I’m still paying the price now. 😴 The game was bad (well, three quarters of it), but the adverts were great. 🏈 

Anyway, on with today’s newsletter - we’ll be learning a model that will help you come up with great content ideas, very quickly.

👉 By the way, if you’ve missed previous newsletters you’ll find them here.

📩 And if you’ve been forwarded this email you can subscribe here.

What’s holding your content up? 🏚️

This might shatter the illusion of how well prepared these newsletters are, but here’s a conversation we had yesterday afternoon 👇

When I started the newsletter back in September, I had a long list of content ideas. It helped me not miss an issue.

That list ended a few weeks ago.

Now I think of the topics week-to-week, and it takes me a little longer.

That conversation 👆 was a helpful reminder that we don’t always practice what we preach.

What I needed to do was create content pillars.

What are content pillars? They’re the backbone of your content strategy. They give your content direction, consistency and relevancy. They hold up your schedules and ease your brainstorming sessions.

Think of them as content topics or themes.

Each one acts like a bucket that your content can fall into. If the idea doesn’t fit neatly into a bucket, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

By defining 3 or 4 pillars you give yourself a guideline that helps generate content ideas.

As well as helping with ideation, they’re great for brand positioning and awareness. Sharing ideas in the same ballpark will help you become known for something specific and avoid a scattergun approach to your messaging.

When I was faced with writers block yesterday, I needed structure to help me think about what to write.

Here’s how to create ones that work:

#1 Start with your audience. As always, understand what your audience wants and needs, what their pain points are and how your organisation helps solve them.

#2 Focus on value. You’re probably bored of me saying this now. But make sure your content pillars aren’t just about you. How can you actively provide value to your target audience?

#3 Make sure they have legs. When you create a content pillar, you should be able to immediately name a dozen or so content ideas that fit within it.

#4 Think format and topic. Where will the content be shared? Does thinking about format help you come up with more ideas?

#5 Stick to 3 or 4. It might be tempting to have ten, but the more you have, the less your audience will know you for.

#6 Mix it up. Keep your audience engaged with a mix of evergreen and timely content. Educate, entertain, inspire. Give them a little bit of everything.

What does that look like in practice?

Let’s say you sell holidays, your content pillars might be: #1 tips on getting the most out of your holiday, #2 destination guides, #3 guest reviews.

If you sell watches they might be: #1 latest releases, #2 fashion advice, #3 time-management tips. (Notice how #2 & #3 aren’t directly talking about watches, they are designed to provide value. Both pillars have enough connection to watches - style is important to their audience, and time and how we spend it is inherently linked to owning a watch.)

What might your content pillars be?

Note: if you work for a charity, it can be a little harder to think of pillars that provide value, but think about what’s connected to your cause that positions you uniquely to speak about a certain topic.

Right, I’m off to write my content pillars so I don’t get stuck for ideas in the future.

See you next week ✌️

What we’re looking at 👀 and listening to 👂

📖 I’m a big fan of content automation. Take a look at this deep-dive into using elements of automation to streamline podcast creation. A thing of pure beauty.

📺 If you like dramas that swing from heart-warming whimsy to hard-hitting trauma in the blink of an eye, look no further than Boy Swallows Universe on Netflix. Very enjoyable but not for everyone.

Before you go - we’ll never use these newsletters to directly sell you our services, but we’re always here if you need any expertise or support 👍