What Is a Content Topic?
A content topic is a broad subject that a business creates content about.
It represents an area of information that connects to the business, its audience, its products or services, or the problems it helps solve.
For example, a bookkeeping business might create content around topics such as:
Cash flow
Bookkeeping
Business expenses
Taxes
Financial organization
Each of those topics could eventually lead to many individual pieces of content.
A topic gives content a general direction. The individual ideas within that topic determine what each specific article, video, email, or social post will cover.
Content Topics Are Broader Than Content Ideas
A content topic and a content idea are related, but they are not the same thing.
A topic is broad.
A content idea is specific.
For example:
Topic: Cash flow
Possible content ideas within that topic might include:
What is cash flow?
Why can a profitable business still run out of cash?
How often should you review your cash flow?
What is the difference between cash flow and profit?
What expenses have the biggest impact on cash flow?
The topic creates the category.
The ideas give you specific things to create.
This distinction can make content planning much easier because one topic can generate many different pieces of content over time.
Where Do Content Topics Come From?
Content topics usually come from the work a business already does.
They may be connected to:
Products
Services
Customer questions
Common problems
Industry knowledge
Processes
Tools
Areas of expertise
Business values
Topics customers need to understand
A gardening business, for example, might have topics such as:
Plant care
Soil
Seasonal gardening
Pest control
Lawn maintenance
A software company might have topics such as:
Productivity
Planning
Organization
Workflow
Using specific software features
The best topics usually have a natural connection to the business and the people it serves.
Topics Help Organize Content
As a business creates more content, topics can help keep everything organized.
Instead of having a long list of unrelated ideas, content can be grouped into broader subject areas.
For example, a fitness business may organize its content around:
Strength training
Nutrition
Recovery
Mobility
Exercise habits
Within each topic, the business can keep a collection of related ideas.
This makes it easier to see what has already been created, where there may be gaps, and what could be developed next.
Topics can also make a growing content library easier to navigate.
One Topic Can Support Many Types of Content
A content topic is not tied to one format.
The same topic can be explored through articles, videos, emails, social posts, guides, and other forms of content.
For example, a home organization business might use the topic decluttering.
That topic could lead to:
A blog article about how to start decluttering
A short video showing how to organize a closet
An email with a weekend decluttering challenge
A social post with five items to remove from a home office
A downloadable decluttering checklist
The topic stays the same even though the individual ideas and formats change.
Topics Can Be Broad or Narrow
Some content topics are very broad.
For example:
Marketing
That could include many smaller topics such as:
Social media
Email marketing
Content marketing
Advertising
Branding
Search engine optimization
Sometimes a broad topic is useful as a main category, while the smaller topics help create more structure underneath it.
The right level of detail depends on how much content a business creates.
A business with only a small amount of content may only need a few broad topics.
A business with a large library may find it helpful to organize content into more specific topic areas.
How Many Content Topics Do You Need?
There is no required number of content topics.
Some businesses may naturally have only a few major subjects they discuss regularly.
Others may cover a wider range of information.
A simple place to start is by identifying the subjects that appear most often in:
Customer conversations
Your services or products
Questions you regularly answer
Problems you help solve
Information your audience needs
You can always add or adjust topics as your content grows.
Your list of topics does not need to be permanent.
It is simply a way to give your content structure.
Topics Can Reveal Content Gaps
Grouping content by topic can also help you see where you have created a lot of information and where you have created very little.
For example, imagine a business has identified four main content topics:
Getting started
Product education
Customer support
Industry education
After reviewing its content, the business may realize that nearly everything it has created falls under product education.
That does not automatically mean something is wrong.
It simply provides information.
The business can then decide whether it wants to continue focusing there or develop more content around the other topics.
Content topics create a useful way to look at the bigger picture.
Topics Can Grow With Your Business
The subjects a business talks about may change over time.
New products may introduce new topics.
New customer questions may reveal information worth discussing.
A business may begin serving a different audience or develop new areas of expertise.
Your content topics can change along with the business.
They are meant to help organize what you communicate, not limit what you are allowed to create.
Start With the Subjects You Already Talk About
You do not have to invent content topics from scratch.
Think about the subjects that already come up naturally in your work.
What do customers ask about?
What do you explain often?
What problems do you help people understand?
What information relates directly to the work your business does?
Those recurring subjects are often your first content topics.
Once you identify them, each topic can become a starting point for many individual content ideas.
Over time, those topics can help turn a collection of separate posts, articles, videos, and emails into a more organized body of content.
