Content marketing should be an integral part of an any complete marketing strategy - this is something every marketer should already know. However, before you start creating content, be sure you take a few minutes to reflect on your overall digital strategy and what you want to accomplish with your online presence. Keeping those goals at the forefront of your mind will help shape your blogging content strategy and ensure that your content ideas mesh with your larger marketing strategy and goals.

And just like the content you read here at Planet Ocean, great blog content should be interesting, resourceful, informative, and sometimes even entertaining. The quickest way to alienate an audience is by not giving them content they can use, learn from or enjoy...so keep that in mind as you develop and fine-tune your content strategy.

It's best to vary your blog content between posts that talk specifically about your business with those that address larger industry trends or other related information. You want to keep readers engaged and coming back for more and by delivering information that entertains and informs, you'll boost your readership in no time.

Of course, it's one thing to develop a content strategy-and it's a whole other challenge to identify content ideas and keep yourself writing on a regular basis. With that challenge in mind, I thought I'd share some of my favorite content creation resources with you to help spark some ideas.

Top 4 Resources for Content Creation

1. Listen and Observe. One of the best ways to identify content ideas is to listen and stay observant. Your customers and prospects and sometimes even your employees (think customer service staff here, as well as your sales team) - will tell you what they want and need - you just need to be paying attention.

   What common questions can you answer? What part of your brand's story can you share? What kinds of questions do you get from client...