How can you develop original content ideas that aren't copied from competitors?
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— The LinkedIn Team
Creating original and engaging content is a key challenge for any content strategist. You want to stand out from your competitors and offer value to your audience, but how do you come up with fresh and relevant ideas that haven't been done before? In this article, we'll share some tips and tools to help you develop original content ideas that aren't copied from competitors.
Before you start brainstorming content ideas, you need to know who you're writing for. Who are your ideal customers, what are their pain points, goals, interests, and preferences? How do they consume content, what channels do they use, and what types of content do they prefer? You can use tools like surveys, interviews, analytics, and personas to gather and analyze data about your audience. This will help you create content that matches their needs, expectations, and behavior.
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Sarah Noel Block, MS
Marketing Consultant 👈 I help B2Bs with 0-2 person marketing depts C&P their fave customers with streamlined marketing strategies, customer-centric messaging, and quarterly execution (yep, DFY :) | Host @ Tiny Marketing
I always interview my client’s customers and internal stakeholders to get ideas. There is so much gold hidden in those conversations. What kind of questions do they hear? What alternatives did they try before the solution they landed on? What triggered them to find a solution in the first place?
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Sagar More
💡 10x Top LinkedIn Voice ✍️ Author 🗄️ Enterprise Technology Architect 🌟 Digital Transformation Evangelist 🚀 DevSecOps, SRE & Cloud Strategist 🎙️ Public Speaker 🗣 Guest Lecturer 🎓 1:1 Coach 🤝
Crafting original content starts with an extraordinary understanding of your audience. Delve deep into their desires, pain points, and aspirations. Tailor content to resonate uniquely with them, ensuring your message is a beacon of authenticity that stands apart from competitors. By placing your audience at the forefront, you'll ignite the spark of creativity that fuels exceptional, non-duplicative ideas.
Another important step is to research your competitors and see what kind of content they are producing. You don't want to copy them, but you want to learn from them. What topics are they covering, what formats are they using, what keywords are they targeting, and how are they performing? You can use tools like SEMrush, BuzzSumo, and Ahrefs to conduct a competitive content analysis and identify gaps, opportunities, and trends in your niche. You can also use tools like Copyscape to check for plagiarism and avoid duplicate content.
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Lakshmi Padmaja Gopal
Elevating your brand visibility & influence through curated LinkedIn content & Ads | SMM @ DBG |Half full, half empty, depends on what you see!
Imagine yourself as a user of the product in different age groups. If you have a team, brainstorm with them what they have seen so far and how would the product work with them. The output of a team with eclectic tastes should be trusted regarding what they expect from a product like yours in the future. List out ideas, research on competitors, and long tail keywords. If it is similar to your competitor, it means there are only limited ways in which the product can be sold. Test through organic content which format/language/style is working, once you have enough insights, adapt and make it unique. Remember content strategy needs an update every 3-6 months.
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Eric Novinson
Freelance Writer at Self Employed
Ahrefs will show you a list of your top competitors but you might also want to check which sites are ranking for the keywords you're targeting. Some of those sites might not appear on the competitors list but they're still competitors.
Once you have a clear understanding of your audience and your competitors, you can use content ideation tools to generate original and relevant content ideas. These tools can help you discover popular topics, questions, headlines, and keywords that you can use to create your own content. Some examples of content ideation tools are AnswerThePublic, HubSpot's Blog Ideas Generator, Portent's Content Idea Generator, and Ubersuggest. You can also use social media platforms, forums, blogs, podcasts, and newsletters to find inspiration and see what your audience is talking about.
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Regina Woodard
Pizzazz Manager of Writing
Agreed with using Chat-GPT to come up with ideas when your brain is struggling. Something that I don't think a lot of people utilize is just doing something else. Reading about related topics or even just watching a quick video on your subject is helpful. Trying to make your brain to do something it doesn't is a clear push towards writer's block.
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Lauren Simmons
Content Strategist at Reckless Agency
Obviously keyword tools and the likes of ChatGPT are great for developing original content but in my opinion they can only get you so far, why? Because your competitors can also easily access the same information. To create unique content take a step back from digital tools and look to... actual people. If you're creating content related to a particular service /product your business offers, speak to colleagues who deal directly with customers e.g. sales team, customer services. Listen to the common questions, objections, anxieties and get their unique perspective on how they position the product/service. Colleagues who speak to your customers have a better understanding of what content is useful and give an original viewpoint.
After you have a list of potential content ideas, you need to validate them and see if they are worth pursuing. You want to create content that is valuable, relevant, and unique. You can use tools like Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, and Moz's Keyword Explorer to check the search volume, competition, and difficulty of your content ideas. You can also use tools like Quora, Reddit, and Facebook Groups to see if your content ideas are answering real questions and solving real problems for your audience.
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Eric Novinson
Freelance Writer at Self Employed
You can also use LinkedIn to validate your content ideas by posting your research on here. Your network may provide useful suggestions and advice. And you can find new ideas by using LinkedIn to see what your network is talking about as well.
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Kelly ZIZINE
Consultante en personal branding sur Linkedin | Ghostwriter | Freelance 🆕 Mentorat 🆕 Workshop ✌️
Vous avez des idées ? Testez-les. Le seul moyen de se rendre compte si elles sont bonnes, c'est de ne pas les garder pour soi. Tous les projets que j'ai lancé, je les ai d'abord ruminé dans ma tête, ce n'est que lorsque j'ai osé les tester que j'ai été agréablement surpris des résultats. Linkedin est un terrain propice pour faire ses expériences. Essayez.
One way to create original content is to experiment with different formats and see what works best for your audience and your goals. You can try different types of content, such as blog posts, ebooks, infographics, videos, podcasts, webinars, case studies, and more. You can also try different styles, tones, lengths, and structures for your content. You can use tools like Canva, Lumen5, Anchor, and Zoom to create and edit different formats of content. You can also use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and YouTube Analytics to measure the performance and engagement of your content.
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Andrii Salii
YouTube Project Manager. I help channels grow faster & earn better
Here are some tips for experimenting with different content formats: Start with one or two formats. Don't try to create content in all of the different formats at once. Start with one or two formats that you are comfortable with and that you think your audience will enjoy. Test and measure. Once you have created some content in different formats, test and measure the performance of each format. This will help you to see what formats are resonating most with your audience. Be creative and have fun. There are no rules when it comes to content marketing. Be creative and try different things. You never know what might work.
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Allison Hertig
Chef de projet digital | Communication | Réseaux sociaux
Before launching a new profile for your company, make sure you *can* produce the right type of format for your social media. Failing at posting the right format can be extremely damaging to your brand image. Make sure the exploring is backed up with previous knowledge about the platform's best practises! Once the audit is complete, feel free to see what competitors are experimenting with as well for a good start!
Finally, you can create original content by updating and repurposing your existing content. You can refresh your old content by adding new information, data, images, examples, and links. You can also repurpose your old content by changing the format, the audience, the angle, or the platform. For example, you can turn a blog post into a video, a podcast into a blog post, or a webinar into a case study. You can use tools like Rev, Loom, and Medium to update and repurpose your content. This will help you extend the reach and lifespan of your content.
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Giorgia Guantario
Content Director @ UpSlide | B2B Tech Enthusiast | Content Marketing, Storytelling, Branding
One thing we try to do at least every 9-12 months is a thorough content audit to understand what's been succesful (and what hasn't) over the past few quarters/years. This allows us to understand what topic/format has worked with our audience and whether there's more we can get out of a piece of content - whether that's repurposing it in another format, or building on the topic with the same format.
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Ilianna Mathioudaki
Head of Social at Globe One Digital
For original content, you need to dig deep into the needs of the brand you are working with. It is important to focus in 3 key elements: - Audience - Audience Value - Goals Let's take the example of a rough, non creative industry, auto insurance. You need to always have under consideration your main audience in each platform, so for Facebook you need to speak to roughly 35-55 year old, that are car owners and the primary financial decision makers of the household. My goal is clear sell them insurance. Where both of them overlap is the value they can get from my brand meaning insightful industry news in simple language, car related tips & tricks in an entertaining manner etc. You always need to focus on what your audience will get!
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Jason Patterson
Founder of Jewel Content Marketing Agency / LinkedIn Top Voice 2X
If you want to create original content that doesn't copy competitors, don't use AI to write it. And don't let stakeholders bully you into copying competitors (which they do sometimes). Some say research competitors before you start, but this is actually the wrong advice. Researching competitors before hand is actually more likely to lead to plagiarism, because what you see will linger even if you think you're trying to avoid it. Research competitors after the rough draft. It's easier to see if you're copying them after you've written something. Then make adjustments if there's anything that does imitate or comes close to imitating.
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Abirami Pillai
𝟒+ 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝟏𝟑+ 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 | Content Strategist | Copywriting | Crafting Compelling Narratives for Engagement | Job Hunt Ends @AtliQ Technologies
By understanding what resonates with your audience, you can tailor content ideas specifically for them. Encourage open discussions, creativity, and diverse perspectives to explore unique angles and concepts. Share real stories or case studies that showcase how your product or service has made a difference. Authentic stories are difficult to replicate and can engage audiences uniquely. Instead of churning out numerous content pieces, focus on creating fewer but higher-quality, in-depth, and original pieces that provide real value to your audience.