With the rise of content marketing, more and more brand marketers are being asked to do creative work. From writing blogs, to filming YouTube videos, to recording podcasts, creative work isn’t just for designers and copywriters anymore. If you’re just dipping your toes into the content marketing pool, you may find yourself struggling to “get inspired.” None of your ideas may seem particularly good or interesting enough to share with others. What do you do when you have a creative task but you aren’t feeling particularly creative?
Tactics to get Creative When You Feel Uninspired
Just Write.
If a best-selling novelist only wrote when she was feeling inspired, she would never finish writing a book. Most of what you write is going to start off sounding like crappy when you read it out loud. You need to soldier on and get through the piece anyway. Just write. Write whatever comes to your mind, even if it doesn’t make sense in context of the rest of the piece. When you’re done writing, go back and edit. In the editing process, you can refine the raw stone that you initially created into something polished, professional, and interesting.
Brainstorm.
If you’re having trouble coming up with an idea, just start writing out anything that your campaign may make you think of. So if you’re writing a blog entry on lawnmowers, write down all of the words that lawnmowers might make you think of, like this:
-Grass
-Yard
-Father’s Day Gift
-Engine
-Blade
You get the idea. Eventually, you’ll hit on something that maybe hadn’t occurred to you before. Lawnmower blades need sharpening. How do most people do that? Is there a way to sharpen your lawnmower blade yourself? Suddenly, you have a topic for your blog.
Take a break.
I know, I know, you need to focus and get this project written/produced because it’s due on Monday. But if you’re really feeling stuck, it might be helpful to take 30 minutes and do something totally unrelated. Go for a walk. Get a cup of coffee. Check sports scores. When you’re feeling relaxed, come back and get back to your creative work. Giving your mind a break is a great way to get the creative juices flowing again.
If all else fails, you can always repurpose old content for new content marketing success. Learn how here.
