How to Get Out of a Content Marketing Rut

You know the importance of content marketing, but what if you can’t think of anything to create? Falling into a content marketing rut, or even experiencing writer’s block, can be detrimental to your campaign. After all, consumers pay attention to blogging and social media and make financial decisions from that content.

So, what can you do? Keep reading for tips to get out of a content marketing rut and create stellar work.

Content Marketing Inspiration: Pay Attention to Those You Follow

One of the best pieces of advice I can offer for inspiration is to pay attention to other content marketers.

Lucie Fink

One of my favorite content creators and vlogs to follow on social media is Lucie Fink. Lucie currently works at Refinery29 (another favorite of mine) and according to her website:

At Refinery29, she created and hosts the hit YouTube series “Try Living with Lucie” where she takes on social experiments for 5 days at a time, documenting her experience vlog-style. In addition to Try Living with Lucie, she has created a plethora of other video formats for Refinery29 that she hosts and produces – “Lucie for Hire” (where she tries doing another person’s job for the day), original pieces for Snapchat, Discover, Facebook LIVE and more.

When watching Lucie Fink’s videos or scrolling through her social media profiles, I find myself inspired and getting different ideas on how to approach social media posts, memes and more. One of the key takeaways I gleaned from her content is to post a variety of content. Here is a piece of my blog, Variety is Key: How to Make Vlogs like Lucie Fink:

As mentioned above, Lucie has multiple playlists on YouTube under the Refinery29 channel called, “Try Living with Lucie,” and, “Lucie for Hire.” Those two series are vastly different and yet entertaining. In, “Try Living with Lucie,” she takes on different lifestyles or challenges for five days including eating Paleo, vegan, not washing her hair and wearing no make-up, to name a few.

She also has a personal YouTube channel where she takes a more personal approach to her videos, including giving a tour of her apartment where many of her videos are filmed, and a look at her family life.

When posting vlogs, or even just social media updates, make sure you are posting a variety of content. As Entrepreneur stated, “The use of social media in your online marketing can breathe fresh life into your online advertising efforts. It is important to ensure that you do not fall into the trap of relying on the same type of social media content, or you could end up defeating your original purpose. While it is challenging to continually create new content for your social media posts, try focusing on rotating various types of social media content so that you are able to post a variety of content that is both timely and interesting.”

While, “Try Living with Lucie,” and, “Lucie for Hire,” follow the same model, each upload is unique and interesting. Consider creating a series like she did that will give you structure, yet creative opportunity for your content.

Who is your Lucie Fink? Even if you’re not in the same industry as someone you follow online, what about their content marketing tactics keeps you coming back for more? Even if you follow someone on personal accounts, rather than businesses accounts, take elements of what you like that they do and apply it to your content marketing tactics.

Pets Are Stars Too

Along with paying attention to who you follow on social media, it’s also important to think outside the box a little bit. Who would have thought that pets would be a driving force online? Sure, we all take pictures of our cute animals, but not all of us make money or have millions of followers from it.

As Three Girls’ Publicist, Sarah Metoxen, stated in her blog post, How to Turn Your Loveable Pet into a Social Media Star:

Celebrities aren’t the only influencers on social media. Enter the world of pet influencers – profiles of cute dogs, cats, hedgehogs and beyond with follower counts that rival their human celebrity counterparts. Like celebrities, these pet influencers can net serious cash for paid promotional posts; in 2017, the pop culture pup, Doug the Pug, had a net worth of $500,000.  Adorable animals are one of the few areas of the internet with universal appeal. You might even follow a few photogenic animals on your own account.

With the attention these famous pets are getting, marketers are starting to recognize just how valuable they are. “Everyone loves them, they make people happy, so then people like the brands as well, because the content is making them happy,” pet talent agent Loni Edwards, founder of The Dog Agency, told CNBC’s “On the Money” in an interview.

How can one pug be worth so much money? His owners took a chance and started a phenomenon (I am an avid Doug the Pug follower). If you have an idea, but aren’t sure if you want to follow through with it, try it and create a content marketing plan, establish desired, reasonable outcomes, track data and study the results. After all, they made a Grumpy Cat movie.

Content Marketing Inspiration: Watch TV

One of the most popular ways we at Three Girls Media find inspiration is by watching our favorite TV shows. Whether you love FRIENDS, White Collar or whatever else, there is always something we can take from those shows and apply to our content marketing work.

If you’re like many of us with a Netflix or Hulu account, chances are you probably put on The Office or Parks and Rec again when you don’t know what else to watch. Sound familiar? Don’t think of re-watching your favorite show again as a bad thing, in fact, there are content marketing lessons to be had from it.

3 Social Media Marketing Lessons from TV Reruns

1. Revisit Old FavoritesOne of the best parts of watching a season of your favorite show again is seeing your favorite episodes. These are episodes that are still as good now as the first time you saw them. When going through past social media posts, look for content that has high customer interaction. Posts that have lots of likes or comments are the types of content you should revisit. Repurpose the content to make it fresh and post it as new on your timeline. Changing up content is an important part of your social media marketing strategy. In addition to making you more efficient, it can help you keep your company’s branding and messages consistent. When you repurpose content you:
   1. Share what you’ve already created. Sharing your blog posts on your social media channels and in your e-newsletter is a great way to save time. Plus, repurposing your posts in this way will remind followers about helpful articles you’ve written and drive more traffic to your website.
   2. Add your commentary. Did you recently share an interesting article on your company’s social media channels? Think about turning it into a blog post or e-newsletter article by adding your own thoughts. Tell readers why you agree with the author, or what you would have changed had you written it yourself.
   3. Recycle old content. We live in a world overrun with information, so as long as it’s still relevant it’s perfectly fine to turn to share the same news again. Share an old blog post on Facebook for Throwback Thursday, or give it a fresh perspective on your blog. Depending on the social media network (like Twitter), you can even share the same post multiple times – just introduce it differently so your followers don’t start to think of you like a broken record.
2. Get IdeasWhat’s your favorite show to draw social media inspiration from?If coming up with new and exciting content is difficult for you, watching shows you like may spark your imagination. Use these new ideas to help you envision blog ideas and social media posts and contests. You never know what will ignite creativity.
3. Stay RelevantNo matter how old certain shows are, their content and messages remain as fresh as ever (my favorite classic show is Family Ties). When writing for blogs or social media, make sure that your content is useful down the road. You don’t want your work to be irrelevant and obsolete as soon as you post it. Data and facts may change, but strong writing endures.

Finding Content Marketing Inspiration

There are many more ways to find content marketing inspiration than just from looking at other content marketers or by watching TV. You can move, clean your home or have a family. The point is, no matter what you do, you can find inspiration in it. Sometimes, you may just need to unplug and get back to your campaign goals later with a clear mind.

If you’re still struggling with creating a solid content marketing campaign, contact Three Girls Media to learn how we create custom campaigns for businesses like yours.

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