Oh yes, we have all been there ... staring at the screen for inspiration, hoping that a thought might pop into our head. We sit and wait for our fingers to start flying across the keyboard but nothing.

My last post was about the need for planning and this is so very true in marketing, and your strategy needs to support your business planning for the year. This will help give you focus, direction and material that is relevant to your audience and ensure you never stare at a blank piece of paper again.

Planning your marketing content for a year might seem daunting so try 3-months or even six weeks. Use every hook and trick in the book to get ideas and topics down on paper, in a spreadsheet or planning software tool.


My top hooks and tricks

1. Think seasonal, from Summer to Winter and Easter to Christmas. Write them down and give thought to how your business might utilise these events.

2. Perhaps awareness days might resonate with you and I highly recommend you visit Awareness Days - where you will find a day for pretty much everything!

3. Use a blog title generator such as Hubspot's Blog Topic Generator or Portent's Content Idea Generator which is slightly more off the wall!

4. Check out the competition, what are they writing about? This is to give you ideas only and you shouldn’t be afraid of taking a peak.

5. Look at what’s trending on social media or visit Google Trends where you can search by topic and country!

6. Think of keywords relevant to your business and pop them in the Google search bar – you may well be inspired by what you discover.


Using tricks and hooks is great but always keep in mind your audience, write with them in mind and align your sharing with your business and services offered. Go get planning and never stare at a blank piece of paper or screen again!

In May, I will again be opening the doors to my 21 Days To A Social Media Strategy, a short programme that will help you in creating a planned approach to your social media activity. The beauty of the programme, apart from taking just three weeks, is you can apply your learning to business marketing, not just social media. I will be announcing the programme in the coming weeks across my own social media platforms so like my Facebook page today.