Five ways to get inspiration for your edtech blog content

It’s an exciting time to be working in edtech. After the school shutdowns of spring and the massive shift to online learning, the world of education has changed in profound ways. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle – digital learning is here to stay. 

If you’ve got an exciting project or product to share with learners, it’s important to get your voice out there. Regular blog posts are a great way of connecting with potential clients, building your brand, underlining your expertise and sharing your enthusiasm with your community. But even the best writers sometimes struggle to come up with good ideas for content. 

So when you’re staring at a blank screen, why not try one of these ways to generate some ideas? 

1. Listen to what your clients are saying 

Keep an eye on what your clients are asking you about. Their FAQs can be a great source of inspiration for content. For example, if you find that they are repeatedly asking about privacy when using your product, you could write an article offering guidance on how learners can stay safe online, and how your product protects its users’ privacy. 

You can also find inspiration from your clients and audience online.

“Turn to social media platforms to hear from your audience: search on Twitter through the use of hashtags and also note trending topics; and if you are targeting younger audiences in Gen Z, TikTok is the platform to approach,” says Jaron Soh, co-founder and COO of digital marketing platform Traktion.

AnswerThePublic is another good source. Enter a term and it produces real-world search queries, questions, ideas and lots of inspiration. Click on the images below to expand and see some examples:

If you enter the term “edtech”, one of the questions people ask is “Can edtech replace schools?”

This anxiety around tech replacing teachers could make for a really interesting topic for a blogpost, for example: 

• How teachers can use (our product) to enhance the learning experience

2. Translate trends into content 

Stay abreast of the current trends in your industry – it’s a good way to get inspired. Big news stories in the edtech world in 2020 are personalisation, mobile tech and online assessment, to give just a few examples. So how can you translate these trends into content? 

Try to connect each trend with your product. For example, when it comes to personalisation: 

• How important is personalisation in education – and how does your product reflect that? 
• How is your product personalised? What features set it apart from competitors in this regard? 
• What difference does personalisation make to the user experience of your product? 

This way, you’re showing that your edtech offering is part of the zeitgeist, answering the current needs of your learners or clients. 

You can discover edtech news stories in publications like the EduTechTimes, by following relevant hashtags on Linkedin and other social networks, and signing up for newsletters like the Holoniq weekly newsletter. And if Google News is available in your country, you can sign up for edtech alerts. 

3. Be active in online communities 

One way to generate great content ideas is to be active in online communities, such as on Facebook and Slack, to keep abreast of the latest comings and goings in your space. Be a part of marketing communities such as Online Geniuses, as well as education communities: 

• Join the Edtech community on Reddit, with 12.5k members. 
• Get involved in the EdTechUK Slack channel. 
• The EdTeck Hacks group on Facebook has over 10k members.
• There are a few different edtech groups on Linkedin – EdTech Startups is one of the biggest, with over 23k members. 
• And there’s even a dedicated edtech marketing group on Linkedin which you can join.  

Being part of these communities is a good way to get an idea of trending topics and news. Remember, when you’re writing a blogpost, you’re not writing in a void – you’re taking part in a conversation that is already happening around you. 

4. Write for your wider audience 

Consider your audience and what their interests are. If you’re working in edtech, your audience are likely to be educators, students or parents of students. So what are they interested in? What would they like to read about? 

Research some pedagogical trends or movements, and then have a think about related content. For example, playful learning has been one of the big pedagogical movements of the last couple of years. How does your product relate to that? Some potential posts could be: 

• The best new edtech for playful learning
• Why playful learning works for all ages 
• How edtech bridges the gap between play and learning 

5. Do some market research 

SparkToro is a leading market research tool that helps you find out what your audience is reading, watching, listening to, and following. You can enter terms which your audience often speaks about — and in the case of education marketing — terms such as “hybrid teaching” and “exams preparation” can yield interesting results.

You’ll be able to see the websites they visit, the podcasts they listen to, the social media where they spend time – and this research will help to inspire you to put your own spin on topics of interest. 

For example, when you enter “exam preparation”, Tes.com is one of the top results. A quick visit to their blog shows that their most-read posts this week are:

• Why we’ve created a blending learning co-ordinator 
• 6 ways hybrid teaching has boosted learning 
• 3 lesson disasters: from tied-up pupils to tech woes

So how can you put your own spin on these topics? Well, you could talk about how your edtech product can support blended learning, or why hybrid teaching is the perfect opportunity to try out some new edtech, with examples of how your product could work in class. You could even talk about early versions of your product and “disasters” that you’ve since resolved. 

Find out more

So there you have it – five ways to get inspiration, and eleven solid blogpost ideas. Not bad for a five minute read! For more great ideas, have a look at our article on generating content for your social media channels. We’ve also got some practical advice on setting up a content calendar, and our ebook is full of tips which will help you to get the best results from your content marketing strategy. 

And of course, we’re always here for a chat if there’s anything we can help you with. Our talented team of writers are on hand for all your content marketing needs.

Hubbub Labs is a content marketing agency that helps startups and education companies grow. Book a 15-minute chat with us to talk about your marketing needs.