How to Be More Creative With Your Content Marketing
Being creative is easier said than done. You might now be looking for ways to shake up your existing content marketing strategy but you’re in a bit of a rut when it comes to creativity, so what can you do?
Here’s a list of ways to be more creative with your content marketing, even when you’re not feeling in a particularly creative mood.
Copy people
Hold the phone - copy people?! Yes, we really said that. But we don’t mean it exactly how you might be thinking of it right now.
Creativity is not always about having completely incredible original ideas all the time. Sometimes, it’s about taking inspiration from those who inspire you and innovating on top of that.
Take for example a content format you see performing well in your industry right now - that could be a TikTok style video, a blog series or a podcast topic. Ask yourself questions like:
- How can my team recreate that format within our own personal style and tone of voice?
- What is it in particular about that content that sparked your reaction? How can you recreate that in your audience?
When you understand what makes you react to that content in particular, you can go ahead and take that inspiration but create your own unique take.
Be more human
When it comes to content marketing - sometimes loosening up and being more authentic as a brand can be a great way to get more creative. Content that is easily understood and related to is going to resonate most with your audience, so writing how you would speak is a great first step.
Being human in your approach to content marketing also gives you a better chance at sharing things that spark actual emotional responses from your audience, which really is the golden ticket to better engagement. Once you widen the scope of what your brand’s tone of voice can include, you’ll have more opportunity to explore your creativity within the formats and content you can create.
Nowadays we see more and more content that plays on shocking headlines, funny images and even the rise in ‘meme marketing.’ Now more than ever before, it’s a good time to evaluate your boundaries as a brand and therefore open more doors when it comes to the content your brand can share.
Practice creativity-boosting activities for your team
This one is not only helpful, it’s fun! Your marketers are probably staring at a screen for most of the day, which isn’t exactly the most conducive environment to creativity.
So to remedy that, try to build in some creativity-boosting team activities into the day where you can. Brainstorming together as a team about upcoming projects is a great way to do this, whether your team is in-house or remote. Another creative way to share ideas could be to work on a moodboard together for a project, so that everyone in the team has the opportunity to visualise exactly how they see upcoming content being presented.
Here are some tools that are great for creative collaboration:
Get professional help
All the ideas in the world are no good if your team lack the capacity or the training to execute on them properly. In certain situations, your content marketing strategy could be really improved with some more professional support.
To improve the quality
Being a graphic design agency based in Manchester, we’re most passionate about this when it comes to graphic design. Most marketers don’t also have graphic design degrees, so the content that they can create in-house won’t ever stand up next to competitors that are prioritising this key component of content.
Free online tools and templates, whilst they can be very helpful, run the risk of looking very similar to a lot of the content you see online. In an increasingly busy landscape, unique and professional graphic design is a must to be noticed. On the other hand, sloppy graphic design that has been rushed could really affect the overall trustworthiness of the brand you’ve worked hard to build.
To scale up
Sometimes all your content marketing strategy might need is more of the good stuff - and that can be the challenge! If your team is already at capacity, outsourcing is a way to scale up whilst the demand is there to do so without having to commit to a long term in-house team member. Understanding when your team is handling as much as possible in-house is crucial to identify the cause of a potential bottleneck in your content marketing workflow. Instead of letting the wuality of work slip because your team needs to rush through higher volumes of work, or letting your content lose originality because the team don't have the time to think creatively through ideas - look at getting additional support.
For more support on graphic design support from professional UK-based designers, check out how our graphic design subscription plans work here.
