Content Creation

Top Ways to Stay Creative in a Monotonous Industry

CopyPress

August 19, 2013 (Updated: February 9, 2023)

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Whenever a story is published about the SEO industry, it doesn’t always touch on the difficulty in staying creative. Because SEO has so much to do with creating quality content and becoming an authority in that niche, it’s important that you have a variety of different things to discuss.

Google as well as customers want to see that you have a wealth of information on your subject. This, however, is more of an issue in some industries than others. What do you do if you’re working in an industry that’s monotonous, and well, kind of boring?

How to Find Inspiration in a Boring Industry

It’s first important to define what I mean by “boring” and “monotonous.” This doesn’t necessarily have to mean that your industry has nothing to talk about; it more so means that your industry has just one or two things to talk about.

Take paper for example. Paper is paper. Everyone knows what it is, and while you could surely write an article or two about different kinds and types of paper you can use or a “how to” article about how paper is made, the ideas seem to stop there. From a character working directly in the industry, Jim Halpert on The Office can give you a few boring reasons why paper is boring:

This is where creativity and thinking outside of the box really need to kick it up a few notches. The industry might seem boring on the surface, but there are always deeper stories that you can tell no matter what niche you’re dealing with (Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute from The Office take this mentality).

So enough about The Office…

Below are a few ways you can help find inspiration and find great content opportunities in even the most lackluster industries:

Think about the people.

Remember that good content just has to be relatable. You might work in the paper industry, but that doesn’t mean all of your content has to be about the actual product. Take a look at the people in your company and industry and find those hidden stories. Does someone have a great story about how/why they got involved in the business? Is there a cool story about someone in the industry from the past or from another company?

Do a Google News search.

See what others in your industry are writing about and decide if you can take a new angle with a small piece of information they included in their article. This is a great place to look for statistics and see new opinions. You might notice that everything is similar, but always take the time to look to see if you can find any small piece of information that you can make interesting.

Tie in breaking news.

Watch the news and see if there is anything going on in the media that could remotely have something to do with your industry. For example, something that someone said on The Office would be a great way to gain inspiration for an article if you owned a paper company.

In the end, it’s important to remember that although some things might seem boring to you, they could seem extremely interesting to a new customer. You might think something is old news or not worth mentioning, but others who are new to your business could very much so disagree.

Do you work in an industry that some would call monotonous? How do you find great content ideas and stay creative? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comments below.

Amanda DiSilvestro gives small business and entrepreneurs SEO advice ranging from keyword density to recovering from Panda and Penguin updates. She writes for HigherVisibility.com, a nationally recognized SEO company that offers online marketing services to a wide range of companies across the country.

Amanda DiSilvestro

Amanda DiSilvestro is the Marketing Manager for Coastal SEO Consulting. She has been writing about all-things digital marketing, both as a ghost writer, guest writer, and blog manager, for over 10 years. Check out her website amandadisilvestro.com to learn more!

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