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5 handy tips you could learn from the Yardstick content team to boost creativity

The first obstacle when creating interesting content for your clients might be coming up with the initial ideas – what should your blog be about?

It’s a challenge the busy content team at Yardstick is more than used to overcoming. Every month, the team writes more than 150 unique blogs to inform and entertain financial planning clients. So, coming up with fresh articles is a core part of the job, and it all starts in our monthly blog ideas meeting.

If you’ve hit a roadblock when brainstorming, here are some top tips from our meetings that could help you.

1. Create a list of ideas you update regularly

Inspiration can strike at any moment, so don’t leave coming up with blog ideas until you’re ready to sit down and write.

Instead, keep a log of interesting news articles, thoughts you’ve had, and questions clients have asked you. It could be as simple as bookmarking web pages you want to return to or writing a few lines in your notebook.

Then, when it comes to choosing ideas, you have a trove you can search through rather than starting from scratch.

Even if you’re unsure about how an idea could work out, make a note of it – there’s no bad idea! You might find that when you return to it with a different mindset, it becomes clear how to turn it into a brilliant article.

2. Keep your audience in mind

Consider who your content will be aimed at before you start sifting through ideas. It could be useful to put your clients into groups. For example, you might break your ideas down into those that would appeal to retirees, business owners, and wealth builders.

Picturing a client type could help you turn an initial blog idea into something that’s really valuable by positioning it to reflect the audience.

Let’s say you have a blog idea about why ISAs are valuable:

  • Retirees might be interested in understanding how they could use their ISA savings to supplement an income from a pension.
  • Wealth builders, on the other hand, could find a blog that explains why choosing a Stocks and Shares ISA could lead to higher returns in the long run far more engaging.

Keeping your audience in mind could help you come up with ideas that reflect your clients’ concerns, goals, and interests.

Read more: Euan offers some tips for getting inside the mind of your audience

3. Don’t be afraid to revisit key topics

As a financial planner, there will be core themes that come up again and again. Just because you’ve written a blog about Inheritance Tax, ISAs, or planning for retirement already doesn’t mean you shouldn’t revisit these areas.

There are always new ways to tackle a topic that keeps it interesting.

Research could be incredibly useful when returning to an issue you’ve already written about. The latest government figures or survey results can instantly make it more topical and keep your readers engaged.

In the past, we’ve written plenty of content about the importance of making care part of long-term retirement planning. This month, a new report showing the number of people receiving financial support from local authorities has fallen updated the content and highlighted why it’s something your clients need to think about.

4. Look beyond financial news for inspiration

Simply keeping up to date with the latest financial news could limit your source of inspiration. Cast your net wide to boost your chance of original and interesting content.

In the past, our team have drawn inspiration from the likes of:

  • National awareness days
  • Films and TV shows
  • Anniversaries
  • Current events
  • And much more.

Sometimes, turning non-financial topics into a blog that’s relevant to you as a financial planner can seem difficult. This leads us to tip number five.

5. Bounce ideas off your team

Sometimes the most creative blog ideas take a little work, and having a team is invaluable.

Could you link National Pie Day to retirement planning? Your immediate answer might be “no!”, and, indeed, that was my first thought when it came up in a blog ideas meeting. Yet, five minutes later, after bouncing the idea around we had a whole list of ways it could be done.

The end result was a blog that was thoroughly enjoyable to read and stood out from a sea of other retirement planning blogs.

So, rather than sitting alone with a notebook contemplating your notes, get your wider team involved and discuss the unusual ideas too – they don’t always work out but it’s a great way to think creatively.

Let us create blog and content ideas tailored to your audience

You don’t have to come up with content ideas yourself either – we could craft ideas that are tailored to your clients, write the content, and then send out newsletters for you.

If you’d like to learn more about how our content team could help you, email us at hi@theyardstickyagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300.

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