In the world of online marketing, it is constantly said that content is the way forward. But what finesse is needed to take something dull and make it sound attractive?
As online marketers, we are often asked the question, “How can you make my business sound appealing?”
When writing content, you should have an excitement or a buzz when writing the piece. Are you excited about getting this piece on your blog, social media or other website? The first step is deciding on the topic. If you’re struggling to write something interesting about how the desert is an extra 10 degrees hotter this year and people ‘really need an A/C company,’ chances are people might not want to read it either.
So where can you get some inspiration?
There are a number of tools available online that help generate inspiration and give key data to help you capitalize on your audience. Google Trends is one of them. It’s essentially a recorder of what people are searching for and what’s been of interest to the public. As I’m writing this blog, I can see that St Patrick’s Day was searched for this week over 1million times. I can also see that the missing Malaysian Airliner is continuing to generate interest.
Socially, you’ll get a different picture. If you log onto Facebook and see the ‘trending’ block in the top right of your news feed, you’ll get a more socially varied range of topics that generally ranges from world views to more entertainment focused trends. At the moment I see that the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie is trending, along with the fact that the model Gisele Bündchen listed her Hollywood home for $50 million.
When utilizing any of these platforms for your own content needs, think of your industry and anything remotely connected to it that sounds exciting or interesting.
If you type ‘air conditioning’ into Google trends, you’ll see peaks and valleys as indicated in the image here. While looking for some content ideas, you’ve just gained some insight as to when people typically begin searching on Google for air conditioning. The increase happens around March of every year.
If we take a different turn on the industry of HVAC – perhaps we can look at related things:
You can see from the trends, that public interest in Global Warming and Climate Change has decreased over the past few years. This may be a topic you’d want to write about to spark interest.
If not, take a look at some other products or services that relate to your industry. The new Nest product (whether you love or hate it) is doing fantastic in the trends scale. 
See picture attached.
Either way, it goes back to the number 1 rule: Content is written to be read and shared. People are interested in facts and interesting information, and it may not always be about your company or even your industry. Using Google Trends, Facebook and Twitter gives you a good way of seeing what the public are talking about and have interest in. You just have to find out where you fit in.
