Lots of us aren’t great at quickly whipping up truly high-quality blog posts and newsletters.

We’d love to be that kind of person who can pump them out, but that’s just not our gift in life.

Don’t beat yourself up.  Look, you don’t even need to outsource.

What you need are . . .

7 Strategies for Ending the Agony of Not Knowing What to Write About

1.    Clarify Your Categories

Figure out what your ideal clients want—and need—to know.

Think about the full range of your target markets and things you do on a regular basis (e.g., reading books related to your industry, testing tools they might find helpful, etc.) that you want to share with them.

Let’s say you’re a productivity coach working with small business owners.

You might want to feature articles on productivity for mompreneurs, people running their businesses on the side, and for creative people.

In your posts, you can highlight client case studies related to these target markets as well as reviews of productivity apps, software, books, secrets and studies that will benefit these target markets.

2.    Answer Readers’ Questions

Just make sure you’re giving them regular opportunities to ask questions

You can:

• Encourage readers to fill out a form on your Contact Me page
• Regularly survey them to learn more about topics they might be interested in
• Invite your Facebook fans and Twitter followers to ask you questions
• When people subscribe to your list, include in the thank-you message an invitation to share with you an area where they feel stuck

Are there topics you get asked about often?

If so, create a Q&A page on your site linking the questions to your articles on them.

You’ll be creating engaging content, saving yourself time, and providing excellent customer service the next time the question pops up!

3.    Highlight Clients

Case studies are a simple, extremely powerful way of sharing content.

All you need to do is ask your successful clients if they’d be willing to share their transformations.  Then you can just create an intro and conclusion to frame their story.  That’s it!  Voila!  It’s done.

To make it easy for your clients to share their stories, ask them questions like:

• What were you struggling with before working with me?
• How did that struggle weigh you down and hold your business back?
• What changed as you worked with me?
• What was the experience of working with me like?
• How are you feeling now that your struggles are solved?

What’s so great about this strategy is that is flatters your client in an authentic way and celebrates their suggest, demonstrates the results you get clients, and helps prospective clients get a sneak peek into what it’s like to work with you.

4.    Use Themes 

Don’t underestimate the power of themes, especially when launching a new program.   Gear up for the launch by publishing a series of posts on issues related to your offering.

You’ll build up demand for your new offering, make smoother transitions into sales conversation and, consequently, improve your conversion rates.

For example, if you’re a productivity coach creating an e-course on becoming more productive, you might start with discussing signs that you are being unproductive.

Next, you might highlight what it’s really cost you—financially and emotionally to be unproductive in these ways.

Then, publish a post discussing the habits of productive people and showcase a case study of one of your clients who achieved remarkable results with your help.

5.    Put Others to Work

Create a series of questions you know your audience would love answered.

Send one or more of these questions to industry leaders you admire and see if they’re willing to share their wisdom in 2-3 sentences.  (Don’t forget to include a note of appreciation and tell them you’ll include a link to their websites!)

After collecting the replies, all you’ll need to do is create a few opening sentences describing the questions you asked and why you asked these leaders.  Then share them with your readers!

This technique makes it super simple to generate content your audience is eager to read and it generates more traffic to your site due to the popularity of the industry leaders.

Here is a beautiful example of how to do it.

6.   Do Your Homework

Scheduling your blogs posts in advance and using an editorial calendar might not work for you.  That’s okay!

Just keep a go-to list of ideas that you can refer to when looking for inspiration.

Take advantage of Google’s Keyword Tool or Google Trends to check for the most popular searches.

Poking around on Google’s Keyword Tool can generate lots of ideas in a matter of minutes.

For instance, as a productivity coach, you might quickly discover these topics:

• 10 Steps To Increase Your Productivity in 10 Days
• 5 Productivity Tips for Moms
• How to Be Productive When Working from Home
• How to Determine What Productivity Advice Is Best For You
• 3 Most Popular Productivity Apps
• 7 Ways to Make Your Team More Productive

7.    Curate Existing Content

You don’t have to constantly create original content.

Capitalize on the wonders of content curation, which involves collecting, analyzing and presenting existing content.

As an expert in your area, you’re consistently monitoring and examining the most relevant news sources to stay abreast of developments within your industry.

When you come across something thought-provoking or controversial, share it with your audience by framing it with your own perspective and quoting from it.

This method works especially well with new studies or findings.

Back to you

As you can see, creating engaging and valuable content doesn’t have to be like pulling teeth.

Where do you get inspiration to create content for your blog or newsletters?   Which one of the above ideas do you see yourself using?