When you first put your content marketing action plan into motion, you’re raring to go, highly motivated and brimming with ideas.
However, this initial burst of creativity is tough to uphold, especially if you’ve forgotten to create a content calendar and have exhausted your list of inspiration in the first couple of weeks.
Over time, you may find the formerly constant stream of ideas slows down, and then dries up altogether. You are in the throes of a creative drought, and you cannot find a way out.
When a creative block makes its presence known, the blank page before you swells to the size of a sheet. Each tick of the clock gets progressively louder, and the frantic typing of your colleagues gets more infuriating by the minute.
You know you need to get back in the game. So how can you get ideas flowing so fast that they break the dam of fruitlessness and flood all over the page?
Just start writing
When you’re tasked with creating content, there is nothing scarier than a blank page, so eliminate the problem by getting some words on the page. Any words around the topic will do; let your stream of consciousness take over. The simple act of noting down a few relevant words or sentences can generate an idea which could be destined to become a great article!
Mine social media sites
Social media is a great way to find out what people are talking and asking questions about in your field of expertise. Creating content based on this is not a bad shout – you can rest assured that since people are searching specifically for content on that topic, it is highly relevant and has a better chance of being seen.
Turn to Google
Another good way to unearth what people want to know is to type, say, ‘content marketing’ into Google. Scroll right to the bottom and take a look at the related searches to spark a brainwave. You can also set up Google alerts to get relevant content sent straight through to your Gmail, which is a great source of inspiration if you’re suffering from a creative drought.
Refresh old posts
Rehashing old content isn’t something you should be doing on a regular basis, but if you have something valuable to add on the same topic it is likely to be of use to your readers. For example, if you published a post about the launch of Vine on iOS in January, you could add to this by doing something on Vine for Android.
Call in the troops
One man works while another relaxes – so it makes perfect sense that one man has ideas by the truckload while the creative block of another is sending him quietly mad. Ask people to pitch thoughts across the office and you may end up with a whole list of ideas you can work with.
Jenny Maclean
