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Chapter 21—How do you decide what topics
to cover?

Some companies struggle with what kind of content to
produce—they don’t realize they have expertise that can be
turned into compelling material. Here are some practical ways
to identify and qualify content ideas:

1. Generate a list of twenty topics and ask your
customer-facing staff (business development, customer
service) to rate the topics. Since these employees talk with
customers every day, they understand what’s important
to them. They know what questions they get asked, and
they know what is currently selling.

2. Repeat the process of gathering topics, but have a
customer advisory panel rate the topics. A customer
advisory panel usually consists of five to ten customers
that have a good relationship with your company and that
represent your full customer base. Send each customer a
personalized email and have them rate each topic. Most
importantly, make it dead easy for them. The process
should only take five minutes of their time; you’re looking
for a gut reaction to the topics.

3. Take your product developers (often engineers) to
lunch, talk to them, and take notes. During these lunch
meetings, get the engineers to talk about your products
or services; their passion and enthusiasm for the product
will come across naturally. If you are in a highly technical
industry, get them to explain the most technical aspects
of the product and why they’re useful to customers. After

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© 2012 Lisa Shepherd