15. What's Your Creative Process Like? Follow These Steps.

When it comes to creating content, 

Sometimes you have to do nothing so you have something to work with. I know how this sounds but hear me out.

When you are a content strategist or marketer, one of your priorities is to generate quality content ideas. Sometimes this can be an uphill task and this is exactly why you need a system to doing it. 

Let's first talk about how you can generate quality content ideas that'll definitely inform your quality content pieces. 

You can generate content ideas on your own or with other people. 

First things first, you have to think like your customers or consumers. Those who consume your content have pain points. They have things they struggle with and would like to get new insights on how to handle them. 

This can be your first point of content idea generation.

Secondly, you can visit online forums and ask specific questions about your niche. For example a place like Quora would be a perfect idea generation tool. What to do? Visit Quora and type in your keywords. 

Just like that, you'll begin to see questions from people who fit the persona of your ideal consumer. These questions are gold and through them, you begin to get an influx of ideas on what they'd like to read on. 

Next, you can visit Buzzsumo and check out the best performing content from content creators already creating your type of content. This can be very useful in helping you with ideas. 

Another way to generate these ideas is to spy on your competitors on social media. Chances are, they are already creating the type of content you want to create. What are they doing? Spy and recreate or repurpose for your audience. 

The above are good. But they can definitely get better. Two heads are better than one. Many heads are even better generators. You can do a brainstorm. Call together a few people. Have an agenda so the purpose of the meeting isn't lost. 

Those who attend this brainstorm must not be members of your marketing team or even content marketers. They can be regular people. What you need is their fresh ideas, as many as they can give. And this can be achieved. 

In the process of having a creative process Let's call the above the Ideation Stage. What you're doing is getting your ideas on paper so you can filter. 

The second stage is your attempt to filter your given data into something meaningful that you can work with and this is a personal thing. You have to take your time and pour as much material as you can on paper in an attempt to make them into something solid.

Next, just lime the first line suggests, leave the work and go take a run. Watch a movie. Sleep. Completely let it go. This is the eureka moment which is the last step. It makes sense that when you let it go, it comes to you when you least expect it to.

Then make sure you WRITE IT DOWN. If you don't, I assure you, there's 90% chance you will forget. Don’t miss this part. 

Hope you loved reading this post? Tell me if you did.

Tomorrow will be better than today. 

Take care, bestie. 

-Vivian.