A lady jolts awake at the hours of darkness, awoken by a thud from downstairs. A wizard, who’s been coaching within the magical arts since he was a boy, is about to face his first nice check. Aircraft crash survivors on a distant island grapple with their new circumstances.
Every sentence is the beginning of a brand-new story. And one way or the other, in a single sentence, these tales have the facility to seize our consideration and spark our curiosity—one thing content material entrepreneurs purpose for with every bit they create.
So, what’s the important thing to efficiently capturing curiosity in industrial audiences? Creativity.
How Can We Get Artistic with Content material Advertising and marketing?
As a content material marketer for a B2B tech firm, I understand how burnout feels and the way arduous it’s to generate new concepts. There’s round the clock stress to create new content material—whether or not the objective of that content material is to recruit for an occasion on social media or promote a brand new product on the weblog. Generally, I really feel extra like a content material machine than a content material strategist.
If you happen to share this sentiment, we’re not the one ones. Actually, analysis finds that 61 % of creators are experiencing burnout.
Entrepreneurs can’t produce their finest work in the event that they’re burnt out. And in case your content material doesn’t stand out out of your competitors, it received’t flip your prospects’ heads. Content material high quality is a significant factor for potential consumers evaluating manufacturers with related merchandise. Research present that poor-quality content material decreases the chance of a sale by 40 %.
Your model’s content material wants to seize consideration, or your prospects will go elsewhere. How do you make that occur? With extra creativity.
3 Methods to Improve Creativity in Your Content material Advertising and marketing
For now, let’s neglect about web optimization, analytics, firm targets, and deadlines. As an alternative, let’s deal with other ways to spark creativity with content material to gauge curiosity and engagement.
1. Develop a Deep Understanding of Your Model
The traditional Greek aphorism “Know thyself” suggests that is the very best type of data. The identical college of thought applies to your organization’s model.
You is likely to be considering, “Clearly! I’m a marketer. It’s my job to reside and breathe our model.” Even in case you clearly perceive your merchandise, firm values, and goal persona(s), doing a intestine test in your model is crucial. Even veteran workers and model creators have to ask themselves, “Is that this consultant of who we’re?” at instances.
Does everybody in your group share the identical understanding? If not, it’s time to make sure everyone seems to be on the identical web page. You possibly can’t produce inventive content material with out one key ingredient: Consistency.
Your model wants to face for one thing, and your content material must make noise in your business.
However with out a constant model underlying all of your content material, your most good concepts will confuse your viewers.
“Creativity” doesn’t imply each weblog publish or whitepaper you write is drastically completely different from the one earlier than it. Actually, the definition of creativity is just “the usage of creativeness or authentic concepts.”
Is now the time to redefine your model or convey new concepts to the desk to current a inventive however unified new entrance? A re-vamp might assist make your content material really feel extra contemporary and thrilling. Or, perhaps your group simply wants richer documentation and model requirements, so everyone seems to be rowing in the identical course.
2. Experiment with Totally different Media
Nearly each firm with a content material advertising operate covers a couple of core areas. The most typical embody an energetic weblog, social media, long-form property (like eBooks and whitepapers), e-mail newsletters, and buyer case research.
Don’t get us flawed: You want a majority of these property. They’re the bread and butter of content material advertising. However creativity is about bringing novel concepts to the desk. Reducing-edge thought management is one strategy to stand out. However are you able to go even additional?
Along with desirous about the “what,” take into consideration the “how.” How will you use completely different media to current content material in a manner that few others are leveraging? It’s 2023, and there are such a lot of methods we are able to relay info from one individual to a different. For instance:
Multimedia content material: Movies, infographics, podcast
An estimated 3.63 billion individuals worldwide will watch digital video content material in 2023. But solely 12 % of entrepreneurs really feel like they’re utilizing video to its full potential. There’s an enormous alternative right here. Whether or not utilizing visuals to assist inform a narrative or creating content material that prospects can take heed to, multimedia content material can relay extra digestible content material extra effectively. Actually, it’s estimated that one minute of video is value 1.8 million phrases.
Interactive content material: Quizzes, embedded displays, dynamic charts, and graphics
Content material customers need one factor: Worth. If you happen to can reply a query they’ve or resolve an issue, you’ll earn their loyalty. Participating, personalised, and interactive content material is a good way to try this.
Interactive content material, like a quiz that tells you the place your group might finest profit from AI, additionally encourages prospects to share their views with their networks.
3. Attempt a Hub-and-Spoke Content material Technique
You possibly can’t generate inventive content material with out killer concepts. Sadly, generally these concepts don’t come to you while you want them. If you really feel caught, lean on the facility of a very good brainstorming approach. The hub-and-spoke technique is one among our favorites.
What’s hub and spoke?
Image a bicycle tire with a hub within the heart and a myriad of spokes branching out of it. The hub-and-spoke content material technique comes from that visible.
When devising a hub-and-spoke technique, you want one core content material piece from which all different items will derive. Sometimes, this might be a bigger content material asset, like a video course on lead technology technique or an eBook about rising cybersecurity dangers. From there, the spokes are items of content material that develop upon concepts inside the core asset, corresponding to quick video clips on social media, a weblog publish, or an infographic.
Hubs and spokes are nice for creating a giant splash marketing campaign from one robust, inventive core concept. It additionally retains readers in your website longer, as each bit can hyperlink to at least one one other, or all items can roll off from a core pillar web page. It’s a superb alternative for prospects excited by a particular matter to do a deep dive into your model.
A hub-and-spoke brainstorming session nearly all the time yields wonderful outcomes in your group. It means that you can create an inventory of associated concepts and use solely the most effective ones. Maybe one concept you thought could be nice is a useless finish. Nonetheless, one other concept takes off and means that you can develop content material that includes distinctive views in supporting items, corresponding to interviews with inner stakeholders.
Put Your Most Artistic Foot Ahead
The nice, massive world of content material is your oyster!
By creating content material that prioritizes creativity, you may make every bit of content material you produce an attractive, wealthy story that captivates your readers and immerses them in your merchandise, your group, and your core values.
Would you like content material advertising ideas delivered straight to your inbox each week? Subscribe to The Content material Strategist e-newsletter as we speak!
Picture by
rawpixel