Kickstart Your Content with These Essential Questions

Let’s face it. Not all content is created equal. And not all stories resonate with their intended audiences. If you’re super effective at pumping out pablum, that’s not a win.

So, how do you create content and stories that people actually pay attention to?

I don’t know you, your company, or your situation. So, I can’t pinpoint the exact stories that’ll work for you. But I can share some questions you should be asking that will point you in the right direction.

Q1: What common issues do your customers face that you solve every day?

Your frontline folks are having conversations with customers all the time. They’re probably hearing the same things over and over. And giving the same advice over and over. Capture it. Package it. Share it – in different formats and on different platforms. Break it apart into separate streams if it’s too much to digest all at once.

Q2: What are the things people should be paying attention to in your industry that most aren’t?

Do you see a problem or an opportunity that no one’s paying enough attention to? Some nugget of insight you have that no one else is talking about? When you share your perspective on it with the people around you, do flashbulbs go off? Do their heads nod? Do they want to hear more? That uncommon insight is gold.

Q3: What’s something that’s about to change in your industry, and how is it going to affect everyone in it?

Are the winds of change about to blow in your industry? Do you have valuable insight from your unique vantage point on what those changes are likely to be? Who do those changes favor or present challenges to the most? Do you have a sense for who the winners and losers will likely be and why? And what people can be doing to improve their odds of riding the wave. This is a great place to start when building content.

Q4: What are some common things people are doing in your industry that are outdated or flat out ineffective?

You see it all the time. People in your industry doing the same-old, same-old. Following some standard practice that has become ineffective or inefficient. But inertia rules. And change doesn’t happen. Until someone shows them a better way. And the people who lead the way bring along a lot of followers – and rewrite the rules of the game. 

Q5: What’s the one thing your customers consistently get wrong about their own problems?

Maybe they’re stuck in a rut. Maybe they’re too close to a problem or challenge to see another way to tackle it. Maybe they lack an outsider’s perspective. Whatever the reason, there’s probably something big that your customers are doing or thinking that they’re getting wrong – even though they’re the experts in their field. Don’t you see it, you think? You’re complaining or paying attention to the wrong thing. Have you ever considered X? Challenging and finding alternate solutions to well-established assumptions is a great way to set yourself apart from the crowd and gain trust.

Q6: What’s the one piece of advice you give customers that’s always the most helpful?

What piece of advice do you give that elicits the most gratitude from your customers? That makes the biggest difference in their business and lives? What do they thank you for? This is a great and easy place to begin building content that will matter to others.

Q7: Which emerging trend is a distraction, and what should customers focus on instead?

Taking a contrarian position on a hot topic or trend that everyone seems to be on one side of is a great way to challenge conventional thinking and position yourself as a true thought leader. If you have an opposing view on a subject the majority of folks in your industry all seem to be aligned on – and you have a persuasive argument for why the wisdom of the masses may be wrong – put a stake in the ground and make your mark.  

Q8: What’s happening in a completely different industry that also applies to yours or could have an impact on yours?

The trouble with being an expert in any field is that it could lead to overconfidence – or make you blind to something beyond the horizon of your world. How many times have we seen how something happening in one industry, or with one type of customer, suddenly becomes a problem or trend in another industry? How many times has a so-called black swan event completely disrupted a category? Take GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic. They were drugs meant to treat diabetes. But – wait a second – a side effect is weight loss? Boom. It’s not only created a new category of weight loss treatment but an entire social dialog around the subject.

Q9: What new cultural or economic trend, regulation, or law is about to make your customers’ lives better or worse – and what should they be doing to prepare?

New round of tariffs? People quiet quitting at work? New tax laws going into effect? Young people freaking out about AI taking their entry level jobs when they graduate from college? The list goes on. At any given time, there are all sorts of trends, regulations or laws coming into and going out of existence, and each one could represent an opportunity for you to create content around – provided you have a legitimate and unique perspective on it. Word of caution here. Don’t overstretch. The worst thing you could do is get too far outside your lane and try to attach yourself to a trending topic that’s beyond your comfort zone. You’ve seen disasters like that. One of the biggest examples was when Pepsi showed Kendall Jenner offering a can of its soda to protestors and police officers as a peace offering over the Black Lives Matter movement. It fell flat because it was gratuitous – and also because the company had no history of activism in the space.

To sum up.

If you focus your content on addressing real problems, issues and opportunities the people you count of for success actually care about, rather than forcing them to listen to what you want them to know about you – you’ll be in a much better place.