How to Find Content Inspiration for Niche Industry Writing

Writing for a niche industry can be difficult, especially if it means dealing with highly technical or unfamiliar information. But don’t let that stop you from flexing your writing skills and going for a job in one of these categories.

The fact is, niche industries need content writers. In the case of manufacturing, for example, many companies have only now begun a push to create content for their customers.  According to the Content Marketing Institute, 76% of all manufacturing marketers describe their organization’s marketing maturity level as “adolescent” or younger. This means the market is wide open for experienced content writers who are willing to help move these companies from “adolescent” to more sophisticated levels of content creation.

Here are several suggestions on how to find content inspiration for unique industries. 

Follow Blogs and Forums Inside the Industry, and Out of It

Before you write for any niche, you’ll have to understand what the hot topics are. If you have access to tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush you’ll be able to quickly see which blogs are highly ranked. Even if you don’t have access to these tools, you can typically find high-ranking blogs by Googling a few keywords along with the word “blog” to see what comes up first. You can also use BuzzSumo a limited number of times each month to see what content is already out there for your keyword search, and then follow those links to associated blogs.

Reddit is also a great place to find content inspiration. Reddit has online communities devoted to just about any specific topic you can think of, from olive oil to old ladies baking pies (yes, that really is a subreddit.) A few minutes wandering through a subreddit focused on your niche is sure to spark a few writing ideas.

You should also follow well-written blogs outside the industry you want to write for. The reason for this is simple. Content creation boils down to solving problems for people. Many of those problems are not industry-specific. This means the post you read on a financial blog about the challenges of hiring younger workers can likely be rewritten to apply to a number of different industries, and the article on your favorite fashion blog entitled “11 Products Worth the Hype” can inspire you to write a similar post about great products in your niche industry. Just make sure you do research for your particular audience in order to get your facts right.

Listen to Podcasts, Watch Videos, Read Books

If you decide to focus on writing for one niche, then you can invest more time in learning everything you can to become an expert on the subject.  This is when accessing other media comes into play. Today, most markets have had people creating podcasts or video content for years. This backlog of audio and visual information is a great way to ingest a lot of information in a short amount of time. It’s also a great way to create a base outline for written articles. Any subject that’s been recently covered on a podcast or in a video is likely ‘hot’ enough to write about. Use the podcast to create an outline for your subject, then go flesh it out with more research.

Books are also available for more information. Certain apps like OverDrive will help you access audiobooks for free using local libraries or schools.  Amazon also allows members of Prime to borrow a certain number of e-books for free.

Ask Questions

If you’ve been hired to create content in a niche industry, you know at least one person in that industry (the person who hired you), if not more.  Don’t be afraid to use your knowledgeable contacts as resources. If you don’t know anyone who’s directly related to the niche you’ve been hired for, ask your friends if they know someone. The power of networking is amazing. The benefit of this technique is it can lead you to subject matter experts no one else has unearthed before, which will make your content fresh and informative in a brand new way.