If you’ve written your own blog for some time, you know how challenging it is to unearth new content ideas. It’s even more difficult to shine through as a unique entity within your niche, which is crucial to differentiate and gain attention. Yet somehow, a variety of companies seem to consistently find winning content ideas all the time. Moreover, they score the blog comments, social shares, search engine rankings, and customers you’re craving.

So, how can you dig up these can’t-miss content ideas? Here are some strategies to do just that:

1. Spy on Your Competitors

One nice thing about the web is that all the information you need to succeed is publicly available. In some cases, someone else has already compiled and published it. However, you can also personally gather this data both quickly and easily. Tools like BuzzSumo (limited number of free searches) and Ahrefs (paid only) let you search by keyword and then show you the most popular content for the same—along with some data. Knowing specific topics work well on other sites means your audience will likely appreciate them too.

You can also examine your own analytics data to learn what’s worked well in the past and then create similar content, going down a slightly different road you haven’t explored before.

2. Simply Google Your Content Topic

Looking to rank for a specific keyword? It’s as simple as Googling said keyword and then creating your own content on that very topic.

The fact that a content piece ranks highly in Google doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the most appealing angle on that topic. However, it does mean the particular topic landed in front of enough eyes to generate enough traffic, social shares, and links to retain a high position in Google.

So, truthfully, a large part of content success depends not only on your angle but also on your promotional capabilities.

3. Ask Your Audience

If you have any kind of active Facebook page, email list, blog, or any other way to interact with your customers (including in person), ask your audience what they want to know more about—it’s as simple as that!

You can either give them options or merely leave the question wide open and see what comes back. As you begin to hear the same topics over and over again, you’ll know these are priorities to focus on.

As you isolate your ideas, write them down. You’ll eventually dig up more topics than you could ever write on—which is certainly a good problem to have!