Creativity in the Digital World
It’s not easy to be brilliant in a create-on-demand environment. During the 2020 B2B Marketing Exchange, creative experts, content creators and marketing masters converged to share theories, best practices and real-life examples of how we, the B2B marketing community, can overcome that. Author and Keynote Speaker Todd Henry shared a simple acronym (FRESH) for bringing your best ideas every day:
We need to eliminate the distractions that prevent us from doing our best work. Think social media, emails, chats, etc.
One-to-one and one-to-few collaboration helps us build upon ideas — or uncover completely new ones! These relationships are key to building our knowledge.
Are your current ideas serving you or holding you back? Creative “pruning” allows us to constantly look for new patterns, ideas and opportunities. (Pruning applies to relationships and personal activities, too!)
Prioritize valuable stimuli, such as new courses, guided workshops and more. You’ll only improve your craft if you invest in learning new skills.
Take a hard look at your calendar and determine whether you’re giving yourself the time you need to be creative. Get rid of what doesn’t matter.
Buyers act on information they remember. B2B marketers must create memories to be persuasive. In her highly memorable keynote, cognitive neuroscientist Carmen Simon, PhD, shared insights to create memorable content based on how the brain remembers — or, rather, forgets.
Carmen Simon, PhD MEMZY
Use movement to attract attention.
Relate to ideas we already have in long-term memory.
Use concrete words and concepts; blend with abstract concepts.
Deviate from an expected pattern with surprise, not novelty.
Use emotion.
Communicate a distinct message.
Sometimes you need to build the plane while you’re flying it. Christine Elliott’s team at JLL was doing just that in 2019 when someone came along and hooked a train to the plane with a hefty metal chain. Elliott, JLL’s Global Leader for Demand Center and Content Strategy, shared lessons and takeaways from her first year building a global demand generation machine at a company as big and complex as JLL.
241% increase in net-new contacts Up to 500 MQLs
Adopt a test-measure-optimize mindset.
Don’t let perfection get in the way of good.
Use every opportunity to educate stakeholders.
Be agile. Shift and morph your strategy as you go.
Celebrate early and often.
Do as much foundational work as you can while ramping up.
Be hyper-vigilant about building relationships and trust with the team.
Christine Elliott JLL
Immersive, interactive experiences allow brands like Bluecore and VMware Carbon Black to break free from the “mediocre middle” and drive tangible business results. These 5 types of digital content elements will help get you there.
—Ryan Brown, Head of Brand at Ceros
Copy, story, script, text, data
Images, graphics, photos, videos
Forms, maps, chat, embedded content/apps
Click, touch, hover-based actions, gamification, customization, surprise and delight
Triggered actions/animations, sound, content effects, dynamic layers
“If you were to put a competitor’s logo on a piece of your content, would you know the difference?”
Image courtesy of Ceros
See how interactive formats can help you get smart about content creation.
Contrary to popular belief, customer attention isn’t shrinking. But customers are becoming more selective in what they consume. They don’t want dense jargon, repetitive monologues or cheesy images.
Dive into the content that drove a marketing revolution at Aptos.
So how do you make yourself stand out? Dave Bruno, Brand Director of Aptos, shared six key ways your content must evolve:
Dave Bruno Aptos
A panel of content creators and experts shared their unique perspectives on the increasingly noisy media climate. Here are their quick tips for success.
“At Convince & Convert, we think like a TV network and have three types of content: binge-worthy content, which we do a few times a month; quarterly ‘specials;’ and our regularly scheduled programming, such as blogs.”
Anna Hrach Convince & Convert
“Don’t create piles of content garbage. Do less and have it mean more.”
Elizabeth Giorgi Soona
“Tying content to news topics that are very topical will catch people’s attention in a way that a white paper will not.”
Lynne Sampson Oracle (Modern Finance Leader blog)
Turn these tips into practical tactics that drive real results for your business. Let’s connect for a strategy session to figure out the best approach for your business.
Choose where you’d like to start:
“Mine our strategists’ expertise on how you can develop or expand your ABM strategies and create the targeted content you need to make big wins.
Our experts can help you build and support your strategic marketing foundations with content audits and gap analyses, influencer strategies, messaging maps, personas and nurture frameworks.
Our expert strategists can help you identify the best ways to reuse and revitalize the content you already have in your library – giving you more return on work you’ve already done.
