A girl jolts awake in the dark, 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 take a look at. Aircraft crash survivors on a distant island grapple with their new circumstances.
Every sentence is the beginning of a brand-new story. And by some means, in a single sentence, these tales have the ability to seize our consideration and spark our curiosity—one thing content material entrepreneurs intention for with each piece they create.
So, what’s the important thing to efficiently capturing curiosity in business audiences? Creativity.
How can we get artistic with content material advertising?
As a content material marketer for a B2B tech firm, I understand how burnout feels and the way onerous 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.
For those who share this sentiment, we’re not the one ones. The truth is, analysis finds that 61 p.c of creators are experiencing burnout.
Entrepreneurs can’t produce their greatest work in the event that they’re burnt out. And in case your content material doesn’t stand out out of your competitors, it gained’t flip your prospects’ heads. Content material high quality is a significant factor for potential consumers evaluating manufacturers with comparable merchandise. Research present that poor-quality content material decreases the chance of a sale by 40 p.c.
Your model’s content material wants to seize consideration, or your prospects will go elsewhere. How do you make that occur? With extra creativity in advertising belongings.
3 methods to embrace artistic content material advertising
For now, let’s overlook about search engine marketing, analytics, firm objectives, and deadlines. As a substitute, let’s concentrate on alternative 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 faculty of thought applies to your organization’s model.
You could be pondering, “Clearly! I’m a marketer. It’s my job to dwell and breathe our model.” Even when you clearly perceive your merchandise, firm values, and goal persona(s), doing a intestine examine in your model is crucial. Even veteran staff and model creators must ask themselves, “Is that this consultant of who we’re?” at occasions.
Does everybody in your crew share the identical understanding? If not, it’s time to make sure everyone seems to be on the identical web page. You may’t produce artistic content material with out one key ingredient: Consistency.
Your model wants to face for one thing, and your artistic 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 submit or whitepaper you write is drastically totally different from the one earlier than it. The truth is, the definition of creativity is solely “the usage of creativeness or unique concepts.”
Is now the time to redefine your model or convey new concepts to the desk to current a artistic however unified new entrance? A re-vamp may assist make your content material really feel extra recent and thrilling. Or, perhaps your crew simply wants richer documentation and model requirements, so everyone seems to be rowing in the identical route.
2. Experiment with totally different media
Virtually each firm with a content material advertising operate covers a number of core areas. The most typical embrace an lively weblog, social media, long-form belongings (like eBooks and whitepapers), electronic mail newsletters, and buyer case research.
Don’t get us improper: You want all these belongings. They’re the bread and butter of content material advertising. However creativity in advertising is about bringing novel concepts to the desk. Slicing-edge thought management is one method to stand out. However are you able to go even additional?
Along with fascinated about the “what,” take into consideration the “how.” How are you going to use totally different media to current artistic content material in a method that few others are leveraging? It’s 2023, and there are such a lot of methods we will relay data from one individual to a different. For instance:
Multimedia content material: Movies, infographics, podcast
An estimated 3.63 billion folks worldwide will watch digital video content material in 2023. But solely 12 p.c 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 hearken to, multimedia content material can relay extra digestible content material extra effectively. The truth is, it’s estimated that one minute of video is price 1.8 million phrases.
Interactive content material: Quizzes, embedded shows, dynamic charts, and graphics
Content material shoppers need one factor: Worth. For those who can reply a query they’ve or resolve an issue, you’ll earn their loyalty. Participating, customized, and interactive artistic content material is an effective way to do this.
Interactive content material, like a quiz that tells you the place your group may greatest profit from AI, additionally encourages prospects to share their views with their networks.
3. Strive a hub-and-spoke content material technique
You may’t generate artistic content material with out killer concepts. Sadly, generally these concepts don’t come to you whenever you want them. If you really feel caught, lean on the ability of a great brainstorming method. The hub-and-spoke technique is considered one of our favorites.
What’s hub and spoke?
Image a bicycle tire with a hub within the middle 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. Usually, this is able to be a bigger content material asset, like a video course on lead era technique or an eBook about rising cybersecurity dangers. From there, the spokes are items of artistic content material that increase upon concepts inside the core asset, similar to brief video clips on social media, a weblog submit, or an infographic.
Hubs and spokes are nice for creating an enormous splash marketing campaign from one sturdy, artistic 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 concerned with a particular matter to do a deep dive into your model.
A hub-and-spoke brainstorming session nearly all the time yields wonderful outcomes on your crew. It lets you 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 lets you develop artistic content material that includes distinctive views in supporting items, similar to interviews with inside stakeholders.
Put your most artistic foot ahead
The nice, large world of content material is your oyster!
By creating content material that prioritizes creativity, you can also make each piece 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 artistic content material advertising ideas delivered straight to your inbox each week? Subscribe to The Content material Strategist e-newsletter immediately!
Picture by
rawpixel
