Not exactly sure what you should be blogging about? Or maybe you’re struggling with coming up with topics that will keep your content calendar going.

Here’s the good news: There’s an easy way to generate blog post ideas that your customer will absolutely love.

Ready for it?

⇒ Write about the topics, questions, and challenges your people talk about the most ⇐ 

You see, it’s not what we think we should be blogging about, it’s what our customers want to hear from us.

The most engaging articles are the ones that dive deep into answering a question or solving a problem that uniquely relates to your audience. 

When you embrace the power behind this strategy–known as They Ask, You Answer–you’ll discover how effective and simple this approach is for your content marketing.

Read on to find out more about this methodology and how to create a content calendar that keeps your customers coming back for more.

What is They Ask, You Answer?

My friend and colleague Kiana recommended a book that changed the course of her freelancing career; that landed her high-paying clients–two notable HBCU’s and a leading online magazine–and increased her value tremendously.

The book was called They Ask, You Answer by Mark Sheridan.

Now see, I knew of Mark Sheridan as being the founder of IMPACT, a successful inbound marketing agency in which I had a couple of connections and friends at.

But I never took the time to explore the book or the methodology the company lives by.

And once I did, I realized why they were so successful.

The philosophy is: 

“…businesses must obsess over the questions, concerns, and problems their buyers have, and address them as honestly and as thoroughly as possible–just as much online as they do offline.”

In other words, being so laser focused on our customers that our content (blog posts) thoroughly addresses every question, challenge, and concern they have.

Simple yet profound.

So, it’s a question we have to ask ourselves: have we created a piece of content that answers every single question our leads and clients have asked?

If not, now is the time for us to make this happen.

Here’s how!

How to Build Your Content Calendar {Your Action Plan}

Okay, so what does this process look like?

Great question!

Here are the steps you can take to create 12 weeks of compelling content:

#1 Spend 30mins to 1hr Jotting Down Questions and Pain Points

Using your favorite journal or Microsoft Word, pour out all of the questions, concerns, and problems of your customers. 

What are those FAQs that are brought up time and time again during phone calls, email chats, and one-on-one consultations? 

Consider Facebook and Instagram comments. What recurring themes–most talked about topics–are you noticing that offers an opportunity to go deep with a blog topic? 

Also, what are the problems your products and services uniquely solve?

Dump it all out onto your sheet. You should be able to come up with 30+ ideas here.

#2 Choose Your Top 12 Topics

Take a small break and then revisit your responses. Put an asterisk next to the most popular ones. These are a must for your next blog post idea.

Then, select a few more topics that truly resonate with you and you know your customers would be happy reading about.

The goal is to choose twelve total. 

Now, if you’ve placed an asterisk next to 12 already, then you’re done! If not, continue to pick more topics until you’ve reached the magic number.

Congratulations🎉! If you plan to blog once a week, you now have 90 days of blog post ideas to run with.

#3 Put a Date On It

Using a content planning tool like CoSchedule, ClickUp, or Google Calendar, schedule the dates when you will publish your article. 

Then, work backwards on scheduling the days you will actually create the article.

So, for example, if you plan to publish a post every Monday, here’s what your content creation tasks will look like:

• Thursday: Research topic, list appropriate keywords, create outline
• Friday: Write 500 words
• Saturday: Write 500 words (finish article)
• Sunday: Edit and optimize with images
• Monday: Publish

#4 Have a Documentation System

Our customers are constantly providing endless content and product ideas. Let’s have a system in place to document these inquiries for future reference.

Choose what works for you: a Google doc or spreadsheet, use a tool like Evernote, or the note-taking app on your phone. 

I personally use the latter (Samsung Notes to be exact) since it’s easily accessible and I can create different folders to categorize ideas.

The key is to find something simple that you’ll keep using!

Conclusion

Coming up with blog post ideas can seem like a challenge. Yet, you already have an endless supply floating around just from the conversations you’ve had with your customers.

Use your relationship building and rapport skills to your advantage and write about what your customers talk about.

They’ll ❤️ on you for it!

Psst: Don’t forget to promote your blog post to get as many eyeballs on it as possible. 👇🏽

Use the steps outlined here to drive new readers to your content!