What is Creative Content?
In today’s world, content is king.
You’ve probably heard this before. And you probably already know how important good content is to your marketing efforts but …
Well, what exactly is creative content?
If you’re looking to get more insight into the world of content creation to start producing more of it for your brand, then we’re here to help!
We’ll start with a simple definition. Creative content refers to any material or media produced and distributed to either engage, inform, or entertain a brand’s target audience. It’s more than just ads for products or services, though, this is content that is designed to grab attention in a unique way and leave a lasting impression on everyone who sees it.
It can come in a variety of forms but some of the most common are:
- Blog posts
- Whitepapers
- Infographics
- Podcasts
- Interactive content (quizzes, surveys, games)
- Video content (animations, explainer videos, ads, promos)
- Social media posts
Basically, anything that your brand produces to engage your audience. We’ll dive deeper into this in a bit!
What Makes Effective Creative Content?
But what makes truly effective content? The kind that’s a cut above the rest?
We find that the most effective type of creative content is unique and original. It catches your target audience’s attention and compels them to stop and take another look.
Of course, once it catches attention, it’s got to keep it. To be truly effective, your creative content must also be:
- Valuable: Whether the goal is to inform or entertain (or both), you’ve got to have valuable content that gives your audience a reason to take it in. Content with a storytelling element is particularly effective at achieving this.
- Accessible: Good creative content is easy to digest, easy to find, and easy to engage with no matter what device your audience is using.
- Visible: In order to reach more potential customers, your content must be optimized for SEO to increase your search engine rankings and drive traffic to your websites, landing pages, or social media pages.
What Goes into the Content Creation Process?
Now that we’ve gone into what creative content is and what makes it effective, let’s dive a bit deeper and get into how you should go about producing content.
There’s a bit of a process that goes into creating a piece of content for your brand, but often that process can be broken down like this:
Phase 1: Content Ideation and Brainstorming
The first phase is deciding just what kind of content your brand needs. This is going to depend on who your target audience is and what their pain points are, so different brands will focus on different types of content.
It’s best to conduct some market research as well as refer to your user personas to identify what topics and what type of content best resonate with your audience.
Consider their needs, interests, and preferences, and then use programs like SEMRush or Google Keyword Planner to see what related topics are trending and have a high search volume at the moment. This is helpful for telling you what related topics and questions people are Googling and trying to research online.
It also lets you see what your competitors are doing for some inspiration. If there is anything they’re currently doing that is resonating well with your audience, you can take note of content that could also work for your brand.
Phase 2: Developing a Content Marketing Strategy
Once you decide what type of content you should produce for your audience, you’ll need to plan it out.
Ask yourself a few questions:
- What kind of budget are you working with?
- What creatives or marketing employees are available to dedicate time to managing, creating, and distributing your content?
- How often should you release content and in what order would be most effective for guiding your customers through your marketing funnel?
- What are your goals? What will this creative content marketing campaign achieve? Is it increased brand awareness? A boost in sales? Promoting a new product or service?
- How will you measure your results? Choose measurable analytics that best align with your goals.
Set your budget, decide on a posting frequency, and then define roles and responsibilities for team members who will be involved in this process.
Then once everyone on your team knows what the goal is and what their role is to be, create a calendar for both content production and distribution that includes your goals and any key milestones you’ll hit on your way there (new location opening, new product, 10,000 followers, etc.).
Phase 3: Distribution
Then it’s time to release your content into the wild!
Select the distribution channels that align with both your brand and your target audience.
Is social media the way to go? Do the younger members of your audience live on platforms like TikTok and Instagram? Is Facebook where your demographic likes to share, like, and repost? Consult your persons and choose the platforms where you’ll have the most reach.
Or maybe it’s email marketing that would work best with your audience. If so, fire up that CRM system and start building out your lists.
Whether you create content for social media, email, your website, YouTube, mobile apps, or even print media, be sure you’re aiming where your audience already is in order to give your content the best possible chance of landing in front of the right set of eyes.
Once you’re releasing content, stick to a production and publishing schedule and, while you can definitely mix it up to keep things fresh, be sure that everything your brand produces is consistent and on brand.
Make sure your content is sharable too! The whole point of content marketing is to get your brand out there so make your content easy to copy-paste, use share buttons, and ask your customers to like, follow, and repost!
Phase 4: Monitor and Adjust as Needed
Once your content has been released, your job isn’t done!
Keep track of your chosen metrics to make sure that your content is performing as intended toward the goals you set. If not, we know it can be disappointing, but don’t let it get you down.
Simply adjust as needed if you see that a certain type of content or distribution channel isn’t quite working out the way you hoped. Content marketing is often a trial-and-error type of animal, so you might not get it right on your very first try.
Don’t expect results to always be the same either! Your audience is fickle and trends come and go!
Just because something is working this month doesn’t mean it will keep working forever and vice versa! Just keep monitoring your analytics and changing as you go to keep your content fresh and keep your audience engaged.
Examples of Creative Content
Need some ideas for creative content you can start producing for your brand? Again, results will vary for everyone but here are some ideas to get you started.
- Blog Posts — These are online articles where you can share valuable information, insights, thought pieces, or stories related to your industry or interest.
- Videos — Engaging video content can range from how-to guides to explainer videos to product demos, ads, and more!
- Interactive Content — Think fun and shareable surveys, quizzes, or polls to get your audience involved and entertained.
- Infographics — These visually appealing graphics can help you convey complex information in an easy-to-digest format. Infographics are particularly useful for sharing data and statistics in a way that doesn’t make your audience fall asleep.
- Social Media Posts — Keep your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn followers engaged with updates, news, and all of the amazing content you’re producing.
- eBooks — When you need to go more in-depth than a blog post, an eBook is a great way to explore a specific topic or provide helpful information to your customers.
- White Papers — Like eBooks, whitepapers go more in-depth than a blog and are based on extensive research on their topic. Excellent for establishing your brand’s authority on a particular subject.
- Case Studies — People love a good success story. These real-life stories share the positive impact your products or services have had on your customers.
- User-generated Content (UGC) — Nothing is more authentic and relatable than content sent in by your loyal customers. Engage with your social media followers and encourage them to create UGC content for your brand. This might include unboxing videos, reviews, testimonials, or even artwork or photography inspired by your products.
- Email newsletters — Keep your subscribers informed and engaged about your brand with regular email updates and exclusive content.
- GIFs — These animated images add a touch of humor, connection, and excitement, particularly for your social media content.
Ways to Use Your Creative Content
Creating high-quality content for your brand can enhance your digital marketing efforts in so many ways. Here are some of the many ways you can use your creative content.
Enhance Brand Awareness
Well-crafted creative content helps expand your reach and make more people familiar with your brand.
Building up that brand recognition is what you’re after so be sure to put yourself out there on social media and email lists for your current customers to share your content and help you create a larger and more loyal customer base.
Position Yourself as an Authority
When you consistently produce valuable and insightful content, you demonstrate your unquestionable expertise in your industry.
The right kind of content helps your brand gain authority and a positive reputation. And when it comes to choosing a source for information and guidance, who are potential customers going to go with?
A brand they don’t know? Or one that is constantly providing insight and demonstrating their proven track record?
The answer should be clear.
Engage With Your Audience
Creative content is a two-way street, friends.
It should be valuable, and it should also encourage your audience to participate, comment, share their thoughts, and start a conversation (with each other or with you!).
By engaging your audience, particularly on social media, you can build a community around your brand, strengthen customer relationships, and encourage brand advocacy.
Boost Visibility
By consistently creating and sharing content online (and making sure that content is optimized for SEO) you can greatly improve your visibility.
Search engines like Google also reward fresh and informative content that people click and visit often and for long periods of time by ranking it higher in search results.
Keep putting your content out there and using the right keywords and phrases and, over time, your brand will become more discoverable to potential customers who are actively Googling for the solutions you offer!
Generate Leads and Drive Sales!
Of course, the ultimate goal of content marketing is to convert your interest into action.
Valuable and informative content can help you do that. Whether it’s signing up for newsletters, subscribing to email lists, requesting more information, or making an online purchase, it’s your content that will sway your readers and casual viewers to answer that call to action!
Done right, it’s a win-win situation! Your customers get the solutions or information and guidance they need and your brand achieves its marketing goals!
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An Expert Touch
But no one said content creation was easy (and if they did, they’re a lying liar).
It’s hard work and if you're a company on the smaller side you might not have the time, the skills, or the resources to devote to getting it done.
Sure, you might try your luck in the freelance marketplace, but that often isn’t as easy as it seems. You’ll still have to know what skill set you need in your creative talent as well as give up the time you’ll need to source and manage those creatives yourself.
Alternatively, you can partner with Designity.
Designity is made up of the top 3% of US-based creative talent, including graphic designers, copywriters, branding experts, video editors, animators, and more who can produce all of the creative content your brand will need to achieve its digital marketing goals.
Plus, every Designity client has a dedicated Creative Director on their team, acting as a project manager and handling everything from sourcing the right Creatives to building out timelines and keeping all projects on schedule.
They’ll take all of your marketing projects off of your plate and into their capable hands, leaving you to focus on doing what you do best. All you’ll need to do is give direction and approve deliverables.
Browse through our portfolio to see the content we've been able to create for other brands. And if a partnership with Designity sounds like a plan you can get behind, then why not set up a demo call today? Sign up and try us out for a no-obligation two-week trial to see if we’re the perfect fit for your creative needs.
How is your creative content helping you meet your goals?
