how to develop creative content marketing

Our content manager, Kristina Parshova, was a speaker at the All-Russian Student Forum PRKIT, aimed at fostering professional communication between media industry experts and university students from Russia and CIS countries. Her talk focused on the topic: «How to develop creative content marketing».

Content offers a wide range of formats, each suitable for generating creative ideas:

1. — text-based: articles, posts, newsletters, landing pages;
2. — video: clips, reviews, live streams, webinars;
3. — graphic: photos, illustrations, infographics, GIFs;
4. — audio: podcasts, audiobooks, music, jingles;
5. — interactive: polls, widgets, AR/VR content, quizzes.

By combining these approaches, you can expand your audience reach, enhance engagement, and boost brand perception.

Generating ideas is just the beginning. It’s crucial to adapt them for the format and specifics of the channels where they’ll be delivered:

1. — blogs;
2. — social media;
3. — email campaigns;
4. — niche media outlets;
5. — external platforms.

The ultimate goal of content marketing is to grab attention. Achieving this requires a user-focused, step-by-step approach, starting with audience research.

Analyze:

1. — socio-demographics;
2. — lifestyle;;
3. — interests, information environment, and favorite brands;
4. — pain points and needs;
5. — professional activity.

Next, we need to study competitor content, evaluating their successful and unsuccessful strategies.

When developing a content strategy, we rely on insights from audience and competitor analysis.

Resource organization is the stage that enables the implementation of the strategy:

1. — build a team;
2. — explore platforms;
3. — prepare content;
4. — launch distribution.

The process doesn’t end there. The final step is analyzing the results. Each channel has its own metrics. For example, blogs are evaluated based on target actions, traffic, and content quality, while social media is measured by reach, engagement, and website clicks.

Without creativity, no strategy can fully deliver business results. Creativity helps capture attention through:

1. — uniqueness;
2. — emotional appeal;
3. — personalization;
4. — multi-format approaches;
5. — trend alignment.

Any professional can develop their creativity using simple methods:

Random word method: choose a random word and connect it to your product or task.

Ask:

1.How could this work together?

2.What could it symbolize?

Freewriting method: set a timer for 5-10 minutes and write on a specific topic without stopping or judging your ideas.

These techniques can break creative blocks and generate fresh ideas.

Enhance content with relevant trends:

1. — authenticity;;
2. — EGC content;
3. — nostalgia;
4. — collaborations;
5. — UGC content;
6. — newsjacking;
7. — clarity;

For instance, the ICU team actively participates in collaborations, including one with 19agency84. Through a mix of creativity, emotion, and humor, we explored the concept of "have/have not" with creative directors of both agencies. Find out more about the collaboration via the link.

Creating content often means becoming trendsetters. Inspiration is essential and can come from the world around us or personal experiences.

At the end of the talk, Kristina invited students to develop creative, New Year-themed content ideas for ICU to put the lecture into practice. The three students with the most interesting implementation were given merch from our branding agency.

You can access the lecture materials via the link.