Generate Ideas For Content, Offers, Emails And More (with ChatGPT tips)

There was a time not too long ago that I refused to make content – EVEN THOUGH I knew it’s what I needed to do to grow. Even though I’ve been doing it for years for others. Even though it was and continues to be a proven strategy for online business – to add subscribers to your email list, increase your podcast listenership, to find your brand’s loyal audience – to grow your business.

But after years of refusing, the time was finally right. I felt ready. I did the work to figure out who I wanted to serve, and why. And then, the content kind of just flowed. I found my groove, my niche, and I made my own frameworks and processes to set myself up for content-creating success. It’s not always perfect, but I finally feel like I have the hang of it – and I’m not just posting to post.

Today I’m walking through how you, too, can have an idea bank for your content (I’m talking emails, blogs, podcasts, social media, etc.).

AND what’s more?

What I’m sharing translates to anything else you’re needing ideas for – like your products, services, courses, etc. – so that when you need to get the ACTUAL work done, you’re not staring at a blank page or racking your brain wondering what you’re going to say or do.

(A little bonus too, I’m dishing some tips I’ve learned on how to use ChatGPT to help.)

First off, if you haven’t listened to or read the show notes from episode #5 titled, “Your Holiday Marketing Strategy”, I recommend you do that!

BECAUSE I touched on this concept of creating a document called your “48 content ideas document”. It’s an exercise I started doing a few years ago and it’s changed the way I think of ideas and create content. So, if you haven’t yet, go read or listen to Episode #5 because it’s the precursor to this one!

Now let’s get into it, here are the 4 Phases we’ll go over today:

• Phase One – A deeper dive into deciding your content categories
• Phase Two – Filling your content ideas doc
• Phase Three – Using ChatGPT to help with content ideas
• And finally, Phase Four – Applying this exercise to anything

PHASE 1: Deciding Your Content Categories

So you’ve decided that you want to create content for your email subscribers, for your blog or your podcast, for social media – whatever it is – but you don’t know where to start. I know I touched on this a bit before, but we’re going to dive a bit deeper today, because I have a few more tips to help you figure out your content categories, plus prompts when using ChatGPT.

First of all, you need to get straight about who your content is for. Is it for you? Are you doing it for fun? Are you doing it to help your business? If you’re here and listening to this, I’m going to just assume that you’re here to make content for your business. Which is great – so, you need to ask and answer these 3 questions:

1. What do you do or sell?
2. Who is your ideal audience?
3. Now, based on what you do and sell, and your ideal audience (this is question #3), what types of things are those people interested in? What would benefit them, or make their day to know or learn? What would inspire them, what would fill the gap or the need they’re facing? How could you serve them, knowing they need what you have, that you have a great thing to offer them and you have expertise they don’t?

I’ll just use my business as an example:

I sell things centered around brand design and brand strategy. And yet, I’m here talking about content creation. Now, I don’t consider myself a content creator as in, I’m not an influencer, I’m not highly-known on Instagram, I’m not a YouTuber.

No, but I do make content.

I know how to make content, I’ve done it for years for other businesses.

So technically I am a quote “content creator” because I’m making content like this podcast and other things, so that I can point people to my products and services.

And there it is – I make content, with THE GOAL of pointing people to my main business, my branding and brand strategy business, and my online shop.

And I know for a fact, that my ideal audience does the same (or wants to do the same).

My ideal audience is either already making content to point people to their businesses, or they want to learn how.

And THAT is why I’m here talking about content creation.

Even though the topic doesn’t have anything to do directly with branding, it does have to do with my audience and what they’re interested in. So by listening to this, it could indirectly lead them to my online shop or services.

I don’t create content just for fun, and I’m going to guess you don’t or don’t plan to either. If you’re going to spend time and energy making content, it needs to serve a purpose, and you want, you NEED, to make it count.

So, going back to that last question: Based on what you do and sell, and your ideal audience, what types of things are those people interested in?

And then, how can you relate that back to your business and what you sell? How can you serve your audience well?

For me, of course I can talk about all things branding and brand strategy, but I can also relate things like graphic design, email marketing, social media, content creation, websites and general marketing strategies back to branding and brand design. They’re all indirectly related.

For you, think about those things that might be directly and indirectly related to what you do or sell.

Answering that will give you a start to finding your own content categories.

Begin brain-dumping your ideas now. It doesn’t have to be perfect and no idea is a dumb idea. Get them all out, so you can narrow them down.

IF you need a bit more assistance, here is a way you can use ChatGPT to help with your content categories:

1. To get started, there are a few key pieces of info you’ll need to “tell” ChatGPT for this to be successful:
   1. Of course, you need to know your type of business
   2. You need to know what you sell
   3. You need to know your ideal audience
   4. You need to know your market and industry

2. Then, when you put all of that information together, you can begin to ask ChatGPT some questions. For example, that might look something like this, and follow me here, because this is exactly what you’d enter into ChatGPT:
   1. “I own a bakery that sells custom cakes to brides in the Oklahoma City Metro. My ideal audience are first-time brides, age range 25-35, that want a modern, timeless look. What types of content should I create for these brides that would make them interested in ordering a custom cake from me?”
   2. NOW depending on what ChaptGPT comes back with, you may need to refine your explanation.
   3. Or, if you like what it comes back with, you could then keep asking questions like:
      1. “What types of blogs should I post? What types of podcast episodes would my audience be interested in? What types of challenges are these brides facing when it comes to wedding cakes that I could help them with?”

There are so many ways you could take the conversation to fine-tune it to what you’re looking for. (And yes, I say “conversation” because although it is a bot, you can talk to it as if you’re talking to a person. It’s kind of weird, I’m still not used to it, but once you get the hang of it and practice more, it’s really, really cool and helpful.)

PHASE 2: Filling Your Content Ideas Doc

Once your categories are decided, you want to start filling them up, right? But, if you’re anything like me, that doesn’t always come easily. I have to change my scenery, or do something to get inspired and excited about adding to my contact categories.

Sometimes I get ideas when I least expect it or whenever I’m doing something else that isn’t work related. I know I mentioned before that if I go on a walk or I do the dishes or listen to a podcast, that sometimes ideas will come to me.

However, there are times I know I need to add to my 48 Content Ideas doc and I have to set aside time in order to do that.

Now remember, this document isn’t something you’re going to fill out in one day and it’s going to be a forever on-going task. You’re going to continue to add to it and add to it as time goes on, and pretty soon, you’ll have a pretty long list.

For me, I keep adding ideas because I’m always needing something new to talk about, and sometimes things change – I’ll make a pivot in my business or I’m not as inspired about certain ideas as I was before, and so my advice is to NEVER erase anything, and always jot everything down.

Keep every idea all in one spot so you can look at it when you need to make any kind of content.

Here are 4 additional ways to get inspired for content ideas:

1. Ask your audience! If you have any followers at all on social media, or if you have subscribers on your email list, if you meet with a business group every month, or your friends and family. Ask them what type of things they’d be interested in hearing from you, or what they think you’re good at, or if they’ve ever wondered how you did something – you might be surprised by the answers you get.
2. Set up Google Alerts for some of your main keywords. This one might sound a little advanced but it’s not really not that hard. Here’s how it works: First, have your list of keywords handy, and then go to “google.com/alerts”. A box will pop up where you can enter keywords and receive alerts via email. There are some options to choose from, like how often you want to receive the emails, how many you want to get, and from what source like an article or blog. Based on the parameters you set, you will receive an email alert to a real-time article someone just published about photography trends, for example. Now, I love doing this because it gives me relevant and timely information related to my keywords. The only caution I’ll give with this method is to only use this as a source of inspiration, and not a way to take someone else’s work.
3. Research related keywords to find inspiration. This is something you can do on google, on Pinterest, even on social media. Related keywords are those that aren’t your main keywords, but they are indirectly related to your content categories. Like I mentioned before, my main topics are branding, brand strategy, and graphic design. But I know that marketing, social media, content creation, email marketing and more are all closely related. So, I often do some research using those keywords to help me get inspired for content that I want to make. You could even set up some Google Alerts for your related keywords as well.
4. Research completely unrelated topics. This is something I haven’t really heard anyone talk about, BUT, for me, it’s been so effective and helpful. And fun. Sometimes, I search completely unrelated topics to get content ideas, especially on Pinterest. For example, I often find that searching for “home decor trends” or “quick meal ideas” or “easy cleaning tips” can get the creative juices flowing. I’ll even click through and read the posts because I know they aren’t related to my niche at all, so I don’t have to worry about accidentally stealing content from someone else. But, I do get really inspired reading someone else’s blog post or podcast show notes, just to see the framework they follow and the headlines they use and where they place their Pin images… It’s just another way to kind of get yourself out of a content or creative rut if you’re in one.

PHASE 3: Using ChatGPT To Help With Content Ideas

First I’ll say that I’m a fan of ChatGPT and other AI tools as idea generators, and nothing more. I see it as a tool.

ChatGPT is like a more robust version of Google. It can’t create like I can. It can’t do the work for me. It can help with ideas and getting a project going. But that’s it.

And I think the big hoopla about it is that people ARE doing that, people ARE using it to do the work or do the project for them. Some people aren’t touching it all, and for some people, that’s the only thing they’re using.

But the problem with that is, just like Google, ChatGPT and other tools are just taking work from other people and spitting it back out at you. It’s not making some ground-breaking new content or idea for you. It’s taking stuff that already exists on the internet and that other people have inputted into it.

So what YOU do with it – how you adapt what these tools spit out to your specific business and your specific niche and your specific services and audience – What you do with it as a tool is what will define the role it plays in your business.

In the case of using it to help you create your content categories, for example, you have to be careful with this because, for instance, I personally know nothing about jewelry making or creating content around jewelry making.

BUT Google does. ChatGPT does.

And if I asked ChatGPT, “What types of content should I post as blogs for my jewelry making business”, I’m sure it would give me some great ideas to run with. But that doesn’t mean I have the knowledge or experience to talk about it further. I’d just be using what it gave me because I have no expertise in jewelry making.

See where I’m going with this?

It’s a tool, it’s not a replacement for human experience or thinking.

I personally do not use AI tools to design anything for me. Everything I create through my business, from graphics to brands, is my own, I make it from scratch. I always have. I’ve never used anything stock and I don’t use AI for my business.

They say “never say never”, but I think it’s going to be one crazy day if I ever use AI to create someone’s brand and then claim it as my own. If I do ever use AI, I plan to be completely transparent about it. But that’s just me.

So all that to say, when it comes to using AI tools for content creation, my take is that you should learn how to use it to our advantage.

Embrace the change of these different tools, learn what they can do, what they can’t do, and if nothing else, at least be knowledgeable of them.

And this is just my personal preference and take on it, that even if I choose not to use certain tools like AI for graphic design, I at least want to be aware and be a leader in my space when it comes to these new tools and technology.

Just like the whole purpose behind The Sweet Brand Show – I want to LEARN how to use it, and use it to my advantage.

PHASE 4: Applying The “48 Content Ideas” Exercise To Anything

The last thing I wanted to touch on – and probably what’s been the absolute best thing to come of this whole experiment – is that you can literally apply this exercise to ANYTHING, it’s not just about content.

I’ve created “48 Ideas Lists” for so many things over the past couple of years.

From lead magnets and freebies, to email marketing, shop templates and other items I might want to sell. I’ve also brainstormed potential services and courses.

This is now my go-to exercise for anything where I need ideas.

It’s really easy to apply to other things, so I encourage you to try it out and let me know what you think!

From a deeper dive into content categories, filling up your 48 Content Ideas document, using ChatGPT and applying this exercise elsewhere, I hope you found this helpful. You can also listen, rate and review on your Apple Podcasts app – I would really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading, now let’s all go out and make our brands SWEET!