If you have a lot of ideas for content for your business or blog, you need to make sure you’re asking yourself these three questions about every blog post idea you have to make sure it’s right for your audience!

When I started planning out the year I quickly realized that I had a lot of ideas for content for my food blog.

This is a really great problem to have, but it made me realize that if I didn’t really focus in on what I wanted to write about, I’d end up writing things that weren’t really aligned with exactly how I wanted to help my audience.

As I started really trying to think through which of my blog post ideas would serve my audience in the best way, I decided that I needed to come up with a set of questions to check myself every time I had an idea for a blog post or I wanted to share something on Instagram.

If I wrote every blog post that popped into my head, my site would be a disorganized mess. And truthfully, in the past, I’ve just followed the ideas that came to me without focusing in on the best ideas.

Truly, in the past I think that this approach has stunted the growth of my blog but more importantly, it’s hindered my ability to write for my audience and truly get to know them.

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Here are the Three Questions You Should Ask Yourself About Every Blog Post Idea

1. Does sharing this piece of content align with what you want to HELP your audience do?
2. Does this piece of content inspire your audience to TAKE action?
3. Can you build upon this one piece of content?

Let’s break these down further.

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Does sharing this piece of content align with what you want to HELP your audience do?

Go back to your brand’s mission statement.

What is your business’ purpose?

What are you trying to help people do or achieve?

As a food blogger, I have to keep this in check. I have so many ideas of recipes I could share, but I have to make sure I keep in mind WHO my audience is.

As an example, in my case, I really want to help people who are new to cooking. So it wouldn’t make much sense for me to teach them how to make fancy recipes like merlot truffles.

So even though I may want to share how to make merlot truffles, it doesn’t align with the core of how I want to help my audience.

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Does this piece of content inspire your audience to TAKE action?

I really believe that the content you share shouldn’t be just fluff. Back in the old days of blogging, you could share whatever, whenever and people loved it.

But nowadays? That doesn’t really work. There are TOO many influencers and business owners out there to just be sharing things haphazardly.

There really needs to be intention behind every piece of content that we put out.

What action should your readers take when they read your content?

Do you want them to:

• make the recipe
• make the craft or do the DIY project
• walk away with tangible steps they can take to better their business
• subscribe for a freebie

Whatever that action is, make sure the content you are sharing is in line with that goal.

Can you build upon this one piece of content?

I used to think that if I shared something ONE time I could never share it again in any other way.

How silly is that?

Saying this out loud makes me sound so vain, but I just really assumed that every time I shared something… all of my audience saw it.

It’s taken me years of publishing new pieces of content after new pieces of content to realize that the combination of changing algorithms and people’s increasingly busy lives means that a small, small percentage is actually seeing the content I share.

That may sound a little depressing when you think about it, but it actually is SUCH good news. Because it means you don’t have to focus on always sharing more content.

Maybe it’s about sharing the same content in new ways.

This year, I’m sharing one blog post per week. But instead of just publishing it and hoping that everyone sees it, I’m focusing on sharing that blog post in a lot of different ways, like email blasts, Instagram stories, Facebook and Instagram lives, etc.

There is a Rule of 7 in marketing that someone has to hear your message seven times before taking action. So that alone shows us that we shouldn’t just share something once and hope they come. We can (and should!) be sharing our content multiple times and in multiple ways.

Someone has to be exposed to your message SEVEN times before taking action.

Don’t let this be discouraging. In this day and age, we have hundreds of opportunities each day to share our messaging in so many different ways.

So, when you’re thinking through your content ideas, is this a surface level idea that you can only turn into a blog post? Or is it an idea that you can expand upon?

As content creators, we focus so often on creating something new, when the wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented. Take one piece of content and stretch it as far as you can!

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If you’re stuck on how you can expand your content further, I’ve created a free download to help you with ideas of how to stretch and repurpose your content!

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When you look at these three questions, feel free to make them specific to your site. For my food blog, for example, here are my three specific questions:

1. Does this recipe help build confidence in the kitchen?
2. Does this recipe inspire people share food with others?
3. Can I build other content pieces around it?

Now that you have the framework, what are your three questions? What do you need to make sure you ask yourself to gut check all your content ideas?

Comment below and tell me!