Content ideas
In this activity, we are going to take the themes you noted down in the boxes of your Workbook on page 24, and turn each of them into a big list of content ideas.
An example:
To help you visualise this process, I’ve created an example for you. It’s based on a friend of mine, a business-owner who is a massage therapist and has decided to branch into making all-natural, scented candles that she will sell to her clients and online.
Working through the questions on pages 23 and 24 of the workbook, I was able to identify three audience-led themes for my friend: one was her audience’s desire for lovely home decor (pretty candles); the second was their desire to live healthier lives (healthy ingredients); and the third was the importance of scent to them (olfactory aesthetics and aromatherapy).
I made a start at filling out three workbook pages on her behalf, and you can view them below (click on each to see a larger version), or download them here if you find the text in the documents below hard to read. This process is sometimes called “ideas mapping,” and once you get the hang of it, the sky will be the limit for all your content ideas.
Use the workbook instructions below to go through this same process for your own brand or business. If you’re struggling, reach out to me via email for help, or ask your questions in the Workshop and we can go through it for you as a group.
Workbook Instructions
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1. Audience needs
Turn to Workbook 2 on page 25, where you’ll see a group of boxes that are tinted red. (If you have printed off your workbook and it’s in black and white, write RED at the top of that page - we’ll be coming back to the colour-coding later, as it’s important).
In the box at the top that says “Audience need 1,” write down one of the themes you identified in the previous activity, that you noted down on page 24 of your workbook. If you have any in the first box (combining your needs, your audience needs and your skills), choose from that box first.
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2. Addressing that need
Now back to page 25: in the boxes underneath “Audience need 1,” write down three ways that you address that need, one in each of the three boxes provided.
Note in your head the way each of these three answer forms the “head” of the three red-tinted columns of answers that are to follow.
Yes? Then you are ready to move on…
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3. The ideas list
OK! Now look at the first column (the one on the left-hand-side). In that column, please note down as many ideas as you can that flow from that one specific way that you address your audience’s need.
I have allowed seven boxes for you in this column, for seven separate ideas. If your brain is on fire and you come up with more, continue jotting them down elsewhere as you don’t want to lose all these ideas.
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4 Rinse and repeat
Once you’ve filled as many of the boxes in Column 1 as you can, move on to Column 2, noting down ideas inspired by that second way you address your audience’s need.
Repeat for Column 3, then turn the page in your Workbook and start this process all over again with another of the themes you noted down on page 24.
Continue until you’ve done this for all the themes you filled in on page 24. I’ve given you enough pages for five themes, let me know if you’d like some extra pages.