Staying updated on the latest trends and insights is part of being a successful copywriter. Your clients rely on you for the most current information and the most effective digital-marketing strategies.
The right tools not only help you create relevant and engaging content, but also keep you ahead of industry changes.
In this article, I share five tools that will keep you informed and make you a more valuable resource to your clients.
1. Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool that provides insights into the popularity of search terms over time. You can explore trending topics, compare search terms, and analyze real-time and historical search data. With features like related queries and geographic breakdowns, you’ll see what people are searching for and when.
When you do a search for two terms, Google Trends will show you how they compare based on search volume. Here’s an example of a comparison between searches for ChatGPT and AI Tools over the last 90 days. The graph tells us ChatGPT gets way more search volume and that search volume reliable drops off on the weekends.
Use Google Trends to identify rising topics and keywords gaining traction in your industry. Monitoring these trends helps you find fresh content ideas that align with your audience’s interests.
Additionally, historical data lets you spot seasonal patterns in search behavior. For instance, if searches for “holiday marketing strategies” peak every November, you can plan your content calendar around these predictable spikes for maximum engagement.
Here are a couple more examples of how you can use Google Trends to plan your content…
If “remote work productivity” is trending, you can create blog posts, social media updates, or emails offering tips and tools for working efficiently from home.
Additionally, you can use Google Trends to capitalize on breaking news related to your market.
For example, if there’s a sudden increase in searches for “new social media platform features” — like when Threads debuted earlier this year — you can quickly produce content discussing these events and their implications.
This keeps your audience informed and positions you as an authority who’s on top of current events.
2. SEMRush
SEMRush is a comprehensive digital-marketing tool that provides insights into SEO, paid traffic, social media, and content marketing. It offers features like keyword research and competitive analysis to help you stay informed about industry trends and improve your digital-marketing strategy.
SEMRush’s Competitive Research tools are invaluable for understanding what your competitors are doing. By analyzing competitors’ top-performing content and keywords, you can identify gaps and opportunities in their approach.
For instance, if a competitor’s article on “remote work productivity tips” is popular, you can create content on related topics like “remote work-life balance” or “tools for remote team collaboration.” The key is offering unique angles that set you apart.
The Keyword Magic Tool in SEMRush allows you to identify trending topics and popular search terms. For example, if “sustainable fashion” is gaining traction, you can develop content around this topic.
There’s also the Topic Research tool, which generates content ideas based on popular subtopics and questions. This tool helps you broaden your content to cover more topics related to your audience’s interests.
For example, a search for the topic “learning a language” returned 18 broad topic suggestions…
And then for each broad topic, the tool offers several headlines and questions you can use as a starting point for your next content piece.
SEMRush is a paid tool, but if you share your name and email address, you can access limited versions of their top tools for free. And even the limited versions can be very useful. For example,
3. Search Engine Land
Search Engine Land is a leading industry publication that provides the latest news, insights, and trends in SEO and digital marketing. It’s an excellent resource for staying updated, since this industry moves quickly.
Search Engine Land offers a variety of content, including news articles, in-depth analyses of SEO trends, algorithm updates, and best practices. The platform also features expert opinions and contributions from industry thought leaders, offering diverse perspectives on digital marketing. Different perspectives are critical, because what works in one industry may not work in another.
Regularly reading Search Engine Land can inspire new content ideas.
For instance, if an article discusses a rising trend in voice search optimization, you can create in-depth content that shares the relevant information with your audience.
Sharing this information with your audience keeps them informed and positions you as an expert.
Search Engine Land also provides insights into related fields like content marketing and social media.
4. Exploding Topics
Exploding Topics is a trend research tool that uses data analysis and machine learning to identify emerging and trending topics on the internet. It sifts through online conversations, search trends, and content engagement to highlight topics gaining traction, often before they peak in popularity. This tool lets you stay ahead of the curve by discovering trends early.
The Exploding Topics database contains over 1 million trending topics, so you can quickly identify emerging trends relevant to your industry.
You can filter trends by category (e.g., beauty, finance, food) and growth status (Exploding, Peaked, Regular) to find the most pertinent topics.
For example, if you wanted to explore trending topics about Marketing, here are a few you would find…
Using the “Track Topic” feature, you can save interesting trends to your dashboard and monitor their growth status over time. This helps you decide when to create content or adjust your strategy based on a trend’s trajectory.
Early identification of trends can significantly benefit your content strategy.
For example, if you identify a trend like “CBD shampoo” early on, you can create in-depth articles, product comparisons, or how-to guides before your competitors, establishing your brand as a thought leader in the beauty industry.
Discovering untapped keywords related to emerging trends allows you to optimize content for search terms with growing popularity but less competition, which can potentially improve your search rankings.
This is another tool with free and paid options. Check out the free options to see how helpful you find them. If they prove useful, you may want to give the paid version a go.
5. Feedly
Feedly is a powerful RSS feed aggregator that allows you to collect, organize, and read content from various online sources in one centralized location. It’s an easy way to follow websites, blogs, and publications relevant to your interests or industry.
To curate a personalized feed, use Feedly’s search function to find and add relevant industry publications, blogs, and news sites to your feed. You can organize these sources into categories or “boards” for easy navigation and reading.
Add Google News feeds to track specific keywords or topics related to your niche. This way, you can follow email newsletters directly in Feedly, helping you declutter your inbox while staying informed.
Regularly checking your Feedly dashboard lets you quickly scan headlines and summaries from all your curated sources, so you stay updated with the latest industry news and insights.
Feedly’s “Power Search” feature helps you find specific articles or topics across all your sources. You can save interesting articles to boards for later reference or to compile research on different topics. Setting up keyword alerts lets you know about emerging trends or specific issues in your industry.
Give Your Writing Business Leverage
Staying updated on the latest digital-marketing trends is crucial.
Leveraging tools like those mentioned here can help you find fresh insights to share with your audience. You’ll be ahead of industry trends, positioning yourself as a knowledgeable and forward-thinking professional.
Explore these tools and use their information to improve your content strategy.
