Where to get B2B Content Ideas?
Writing stuff your customers don’t care about is a top reason why content marketing fails.
So, how do you figure out what actually sparks their interest?
Where do you find topics that your clients and leads will want to click on?
How do you cut through the clutter of posts and ads to find that content sweet spot?
Below, I’ve dropped some straightforward (but not necessarily easy) ways to mine for B2B content gold. Everyone can do these – most of them don’t cost any money, just time and effort.
Ask Current and Past Clients
Want to know what interests your clients? Just ask them.
And do it skillfully:
- Brainstorm a list of potential topics or themes.
- Present these in a format that’s easiest for them—like a Google survey, email, or call—and ask them to pick their favorites.
- Ask for their suggestions. What are they curious about that's not on your list?
- Make sure you’re asking the right people, those that fit your current Business Persona.
This survey or chat might not hand you specific topics, but it will clearly show which directions are worth exploring.
And don’t be a slave to numbers. Even a handful of responses can light up your marketing dashboard.
Ask Potential Clients
Treat your potential clients, like past leads or LinkedIn connections, the same way.
You could even kick off a cold outreach campaign about it – who says outbound is only for sales?
People often like to share knowledge. Sometimes, you just need to ask (and sweeten the deal by valuing their expertise—because it indeed is gold!).
I once ran a cold outreach project on LinkedIn, asking e-commerce managers for a quick chat about their company’s pricing policies. In a few days, I racked up over 10 call interviews, enough to start drawing some serious insights.
Ask the Community
You can also turn to a specific community, provided it’s the right audience—people in your target market.
For instance, if you're active in a business group on LinkedIn where your personas hang out, throw out a survey or a question, and see what comes back. The more you engage with the community, the better your odds of finding inspiration.
Track Your Personas' Activity
Now, from another angle, instead of asking, watch what your clients do. What they like, comment on, follow, or which conferences they attend (and the topics discussed there) can be a treasure trove of content ideas.
You might track not just the topics of interest but also the formats they engage with—whether it's blog posts, videos, infographics, or discussions.
First, you need to know where your personas spend their time. If you’re in B2B, LinkedIn is likely your first stop. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a handy tool here, allowing you to follow specific people or companies' activities.
Engage Your Team
Your clients are a goldmine of content topics, and your company is the mining crew—you just need good lighting.
Anyone in your company who interacts with clients and their business challenges is regularly collecting content ideas, whether they realize it or not.
- Salespeople talking to leads about their current pain points?
- Account managers working with clients on business challenges?
- Tech consultants hashing out heavy tech topics with a client’s IT staff?
All these situations revolve around business and process challenges, methods, and solutions—and any of them could inspire an article, video, or infographic. You just need to capture these moments.
Pro-tip: Tell your team about the marketing power they hold, even if they might not be aware of it.
Pro-tip 2: Create a Slack channel where everyone can share conversation snippets, links, or quotes. You can also tag #contentidea in your CRM, ERP, or task manager.
Pro-tip 3: Motivate your team by telling them that such content can simplify their jobs. Instead of explaining something over a 20-minute call or a 40-minute email, they could just send a link.
Job done.
Host a Brainstorming Session
Sometimes, you need to pull the right strings to get those ideas flowing.
You could have a classic brainstorming session, where you gather your team for a short meeting to discuss directions and specific ideas. Prep some initial thoughts and inspirations to help spark that creative flow.
Or start a grassroots initiative. Set up a sheet where employees can add topics they want to talk about. Repeat the exercise periodically to keep ideas fresh and inspire new ones.
Not every idea will be gold, but that's okay. At this stage, quantity trumps quality. Your job is to sift through and pick the topics that align with your company’s direction and fit your business persona.
Check Out the Competition
Get inspired by what similar companies are publishing. Don’t just copy topics—that means you’re playing their game, not yours.
Instead, look for thematic directions, content forms, or even specific topics. If they fit your strategy, make them your own—and do it better.
Explore competitor content on corporate blogs and social media. Download an e-book, subscribe to newsletters, review webinars, and follow comment discussions.
Watch your competitors as closely as you watch your potential clients and leads.
Recycle Old Content
Practice zero-waste marketing by recycling content in several ways.
- Repost content after a few months or when there’s a relevant event.
- Refresh content by updating it with new info or spicing up the format (like adding graphics).
- Break down content into smaller pieces, like infographics or slides.
- Turn the same topic into a completely different format (like turning a blog post into a podcast or combining several posts into a big e-book).
Use Research, Monitoring, and Analysis Tools
You might be surprised to see this point pop up here, but you really want to start using tools when you've hit a wall with your organic ideas. Once you’ve nailed down your industry, the type of persona you're targeting, or specific keywords, these tools can serve up fresh topics and thematic directions to explore.
None of the listed tools are the best; they’re just tools we or out clients used and found useful. You might as well use their alternatives if you find their pricing or UX better.
BuzzSumo: Use it to see what content is gaining traction in your field. Input a topic or competitor’s name to discover the most shared and engaged content.
SEMrush: offers keyword research, competitive analysis, and more, and identifies trending topics within your industry.
Google Trends: For real-time trend tracking. It shows what topics are currently popular and helps you publish timely and relevant content.
Ahrefs' Content Explorer: Ahrefs helps you find the most popular content related to specific keywords.
AnswerThePublic: Provides insights into what your audience is searching for by pulling autocomplete data from search engines.
Follow Industry Events
Every hot topic in your industry is an opportunity to make a statement, spark a discussion, or just inform people about something new—perfect for B2B content! After all, your clients want to stay in the loop.
If you keep up with and comment on trends, you become a go-to source for information and inspiration. It’s a small way to build up your image as a company worth doing business with.
So, follow websites, fan pages, and personas related to your niche. Watch what people talk about in Facebook groups, in the company kitchen, or on Slack.
Broadcast current events on your company channels and see who bites—maybe gather feedback from them and share it on your corporate social accounts.
Sometimes, you can drop an industry-relevant meme or two.
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