Defeating Content Boredom

Sometimes, creating content for digital marketing initiatives can feel like you’re stuck in an endless cycle of the same old thing, over and over again. Graphics for Instagram, hashtags for Twitter, case studies for LinkedIn: it’s a steady march of content creation cycles. Inevitably, most digital marketers will experience a form of burn out or lack of creativity.

This stage of content boredom can hit anyone. As something akin to writer’s block, you may feel disillusioned with what you’ve created or have a complete lack of new ideas for upcoming projects. When your work depends on it, this can be a paralyzing situation.

We’ve created a list of 8 ideas for when you become burnout, feel empty of creative mojo, or just aren’t sure how to implement new ideas. ​

Rework Evergreen Content:

If you’re really in a pinch for content, one of the quickest ways to turn new content around is to rework evergreen content. Look to your best performing social media posts, email blasts, and blog posts to see which had the highest levels of engagement. If possible, update the content so that it is still timely and repost, share, or send that content out. New followers or contacts in your database will surely find the same information useful.

Consistent Scheduling: ​

If you find it difficult to come up with content creation ideas, sometimes instituting a creation system can help. If you don’t have a content calendar with a schedule for content over the next several months, creating content in bulk is an easy way to stay ahead of your schedule. Tuesdays can be for one type of recurring theme, for example. Or maybe blog posts are always published on Mondays. No matter what kind of schedule you create, having a framework for inspiration and the types of content you need to work towards is more helpful than building from scratch all the time.

Inspiration from Competitors: ​

It may seem odd to look to your competitors for inspiration, but new ideas often come from unusual places. Monitoring the competition’s social accounts, blogs, and other content isn’t just a good way to keep an eye on them from an overall marketing perspective. You may also find a spark for your own content as well. ​

Most social media management tools have a monitoring function, to keep an eye on competitors. Use those tools to see what they post, how often they post, and how their followers are engaging. If you see something that catches your eye, how can you retool that to work in your favor instead?

Use a Topic Generator: ​

If you’re looking for more general sources of ideas for content, something as simple as a content generator can be a great tool to use. Take HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator, for example. Using important key words and topics that pertain to your business or products, these generators help come up with blog topics, email posts, and social media content. ​

You’ll have to do most of the work yourself, to take the ideas generated online to actual fruition, but it’s an easy way to get the wheels churning towards new ideas.

Community Involvement: ​

The great beauty of the Internet is the ability for anyone and everyone to share what they like. For digital marketers, that means that there is an entire trove of content out there, just asking to be shared. ​

If you have a good rapport with your business’s community, you should be interacting and sharing their content as well. Hold a social media contest on Instagram with a custom hashtag and repost entries. Tweet out to your followers asking for FAQs or topics that they’d want to see you cover in future blog posts. Repost on Facebook or LinkedIn from followers and provide commentary on pertinent issues. This has the dual benefit of helping you have content to use and interacting with the digital community.

Shift Format: ​

Did a recent blog post gain some traction? Why not use key quotes as tweets and inspiration for Instagram posts? Retooling content into various content forms not only allows you to share that information across multiple platforms, but it is a simple way to generate content quickly.

This can also be used for larger content like white pages, eBooks, webinars, etc. Taking small bits of information, quotes, or graphics from long form content can be repurposed effectively as short form content while still driving traffic to the original sources.

Look to FAQs: ​

Frequently asked questions make great SEO content on your website, but they are also an excellent place to look for content ideas. Short answers to FAQs make sense on a pillar page, but a more extensive answer can make a great blog post. FAQs can also lead to other long form content like eBooks and white pages. It could also be enough content for a webinar or other type of presentation shared digital with leads and customers.

While you may know the most basic FAQs that potential customers have, it’s never a bad idea to reach out to the community to hear about other potential FAQs. The interaction should produce new insight and content ideas for your website, blog content, and other long form content ideas, while answering popular questions that can convert leads into customers.

Timely, Seasonal Inspiration: ​

When all else fails, look to your calendar. Creating timely content based on holidays or seasonal changes is an easy way to appear engaged with your community while also showing a more informal approach from your business. You can start with something as generic as national holidays or try something even more informal like National Taco Day or Pizza Day. Depending on your company’s brand guidelines and tone, it may not make sense to work with content for less recognized holidays though.

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When you’ve burned through all these ideas, you can always try a brainstorming session. Working through ideas with a group of fellow marketers can get the creative juices flowing. Even if you are the lone marketer at your company, talking with another co-worker about what they’ve been working on or their ideas may give you inspiration. And if you are a one-person operation, then bring it up with other entrepreneurs or friends. Coming up with content ideas isn’t limited only to digital marketers after all!

Are you a business owner or marketing leader looking for help when it comes to your digital marketing strategy? That’s exactly what Four Tens is here to help with! Get in touch with our team about having a CMO Consult completed or chat with us about what kinds of help you currently have for your marketing needs.