How to generate ideas for technical content in 25 minutes

How to generate ideas for technical content in 25 minutes

You've mapped out your content strategy and are ready to start churning technical content that drives your product goals. Yet, the biggest mistake we see most technical writers or Devrels make when creating technical content for sales enablement and driving conversions is relying solely on their intuition to develop ideas.

The outcome of this approach is that:

• Your target audience might not find the topic engaging (result: no conversion)
• The topic has been extensively covered by others (result: extreme competition, lack of visibility)
• The topic is unrelated to your niche (result: the people it attracts have no interest in your product)

Fortunately, there are ways to conduct research before creating content to ensure your blog post resonates, engages, stands out, is relevant to your niche, and meets your content goals. Moreover, you can also use these methods to generate ideas for use case articles, videos, product demos, white papers, and webinars.

Note: We’re tailoring this tutorial to Bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content. In this critical stage, indecision gives way to buying decisions, and high-quality BOFU content is the key to guiding potential customers toward your product or service. Let’s show you how.

Step 1: Stay on top of trending searches

Start with a simple Google Search. It's a great way to understand what people search for in your product niche. Check out the "People Also Ask" section at the bottom of search results pages, which can provide insights into related user search queries. Another helpful trick is to use Google Search's auto-suggest feature, which displays associated searches as you type.

While classic keyword research tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs are excellent for SEO, you should know that BOFU content typically has lower search volumes. However, do not underestimate the power of these targeted searches, as they often have strong conversion potential due to their high user intent. Therefore, you need to optimize your content titles to capture these opportunities.

Besides Google Search, Google Trends is another valuable tool for identifying trending topics. It allows you to observe the popularity of a particular keyword over time and identify any emerging patterns in search interest. Enter a broad topic and see how search volume has fluctuated. You can even filter the results by location and timeframe to get a hyper-specific picture of what your target audience is searching for.

Step 2: Look into forums and product communities

To uncover real customer needs and pain points, you must engage with online communities where your ideal customers hang out. You can find such communities on platforms like Facebook groups, Discord or Slack channels, Quora threads, or Reddit forums. These platforms are goldmines for gaining insights into what customers want.

While engaging with these technical communities, don't just focus on specific questions. Pay attention to the broader themes that keep popping up. For instance, you might come across recurring threads about ‘mobile app authentication.’

Try to take it a step further. While "authentication for React Native" might be a specific question, the underlying theme might be "mobile app development authentication challenges." This broader theme opens doors for creating content that caters to a wider audience, such as separate blog posts using technologies like React Native, Vue.js, iOS (Swift), etc.

Step 3: Tap into insights from your sales teams and support tickets

Your sales team is an invaluable resource you may be overlooking. They are at the forefront of your business, answering questions and addressing concerns from decision-makers, champions, and influencers throughout the sales process. They can provide you with some of the best ideas for content that will help convert leads into customers. This article is a perfect example of how to leverage your sales team’s insights. The idea for this article came from a common question posed by potential customers.

CTOs on the verge of making a purchase decision may be unsure about a specific feature. Similarly, engineering managers and senior engineers evaluating the product may have questions about functionality. By understanding these real-world concerns, you can create content that directly addresses customer pain points and drives conversions.

Step 4: Look at broader use cases

Explore use cases for a product beyond its typical use. For instance, a CMS like Agility CMS might be used beyond building websites for marketing to insurance, healthcare, Edtech, heavy industry, OEMs, IOT, robotics, and translation systems and services. Doing this allows you to create tons of BOFU articles and other content. When someone from a specific sector searches for a CMS, they will most likely find your tool. If a CMS has a particular feature that makes it stand out, such as excellent translation services like Agility CMS, it will be an obvious choice for prospects to choose your product.

Industry-specific use cases are great, but you can also look at implementation use cases. For example, you can write a tutorial on implementing localization in Agility CMS or implementing real-time updates in an online classroom product. Engineers and developers will be looking for such information, and they can use your product to build and eventually try it.

Step 5: Leverage GitHub issues for content ideas

GitHub issues are among the most valuable resources for content ideas in the BOFU stage. These are specific problems that users encounter with open-source projects. Unlike general discussions, GitHub issues dig into the root of the problem, which is perfect for creating targeted BOFU content.

For instance, users might struggle to set up a development environment for Neon or find the best approach for a particular task. You’ll find people tackling edge-case scenarios on GitHub, such as deploying an Appwrite function with another provider. These "how-to" inquiries are perfect for creating content that resonates with developers actively using or considering your product.

By addressing these workflow-based challenges, you create content that directly speaks to the needs of your target audience. This positions you as a helpful resource and your product as the solution to their problems.

Step 6: Find Content Ideas from Social Media

Social media is a valuable source for discovering highly targeted content ideas for BOFU. Remember the trend list we discussed earlier? Social media takes it further by providing insights that are not available anywhere else.

People often vent their frustrations online, especially on Twitter (now X) and LinkedIn. If your target audience is developers, these platforms are a repository for understanding their pain points. You’ll find discussions about feature limitations, disliked functionalities, and even features they would like to see added.

Here's a tip: search for your product or even a competitor's product on Twitter and see what the conversation looks like. What are people saying in the comments? Are there recurring themes about specific features?

By actively listening to these conversations, you can spot opportunities to create content that directly addresses these needs and frustrations.

Step 7: Finding valuable content ideas on Trustpilot

In addition to social media, Trustpilot is a great platform for finding ideas for BOFU technical content. Many people are unaware of this, but you can search for your competitor's product on Trustpilot to find negative reviews. When analyzing these reviews, look for ones that highlight an education problem rather than a product problem.

If a negative review highlights a knowledge gap rather than a product flaw (meaning the feature exists, but the user is unsure how to use it), this presents a golden opportunity. You can create content that educates users on effectively leveraging that feature, potentially attracting new users facing the same hurdle.

Step 8: What content pieces have worked in the past?

It's a good practice to use successful content as a source of inspiration for new ideas. For instance, if a blog post about "Uploading Videos and Images with Cloudinary" receives consistent engagement, consider creating a variation focusing on more recent technologies.

To keep up with the latest trends, you can adapt your content to incorporate new technologies. You could create new content that guides handling video and image uploads within Next.js 14 or explore using Astro or manipulating cloud-based uploads with edge functions.

This principle also applies to past successes related to uploading in frameworks like React or Vue.js. You can repurpose those successful strategies to create content that targets new and popular programming languages like Rust or Golang. By staying updated with the latest trends and customizing your content accordingly, you can ensure that your content remains fresh and relevant.

What’s next?

Now that you have a collection of ideas, it's time to turn them into a plan for your content bucket. Here's how to do it: Take all the points you brainstormed and create separate categories for different types of content, such as blog posts, videos, webinars, etc. You can mix and match these ideas as you like. Combine the insights you gained from Google Trends with feedback from your online community. By doing this, you’ll end up with a comprehensive list of potential content titles for each category.

The goal is to aim for 50-100 titles but remember that this is an ongoing process. As you continue to interact with your sales team and receive feedback from your audience, even more ideas will emerge. Keep the brainstorming process going because you are always selling, talking to your sales team, and learning from your audience.