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It’s a struggle to move your heavy fingers across the huge keyboard…every idea you come up with seems to have been done a million times over…and you’re wondering whether those cookies you like are in the refrigerator. You’re feeling a little lazy, uninspired…detached. What’s happening to you? After you’ve been in the content marketing scene a while, you can start feeling a little…blocked, where the ideas just aren’t flowing. In short, you’ve hit the dreaded slump. It’s understandable, you’re human after all. But with an audience who relies on you, it cannot go on.
So how do you get out of your slumpy doldrums and bounce back into the light? Well, just like any relationship, you’ve got to keep the romance alive! This means changing things up and maybe shifting, pruning, and adjusting your process as you need to. We’re going to share 9 techniques that you can try on to keep your content as fresh as the morning dew.
1. Review Your Demographic
Are you still in line with your audience? Has your demographic changed? Who have you gained or lost, and do you know why? Review your metrics and make sure to adjust the goals of your content accordingly.
2. Engage More With Your Audience
Try engaging with new up-and-coming players in the scene, or with people out of your geographical zone, which might mean a different city, state, or even country. You never know what you, and therefore your audience, might learn from a different perspective, and engaging with your smart, devoted, enthusiastic followers will re-energize you.
3. Spice It Up
If you’ve never tried a video, a podcast or infographic before, you’re missing out! Don’t be afraid to venture out of your comfort zone with a survey, a scavenger hunt, or a contest. Technology is truly on your side, and it can make your audience more excited and eagerly anticipate what’s coming next.
4. Take Time Off
If you’re feeling just plain burnt out and aren’t sure you can look at your screen another minute, give yourself permission to take a few days off. Go do something completely un-work related that inspires you, like dancing, hiking, cooking something NOT out of a box, or a trip to the nearest art museum. DO NOT think about work. Block those thoughts from your mind, because this is your recharge time. Soon, you will find yourself feeling refreshed and fairly brimming with new ideas.
5. Don’t Forget the Beginners
If you have newer devotees, sometimes their needs can get lost in the shuffle while the interests of older, more experienced followers take precedence. Try a back-to-basics post, explaining the lingo, key players, and important strategies of your topic. Your newbies will breathe a sigh of relief and feel more welcomed, and you may even usher in outside newbies who were too intimidated to get involved before.
6. And Now For Something Completely Different
In the content marketing world, sometimes it’s difficult to NOT write about what everyone else is writing about. While trying to stay current and relevant, a lot of the same topics are covered, until even just reading another headline about social media may turn your customers off, and you probably don’t want to write it either. Staying original is a constant challenge, so try something completely crazy and out of the ballpark, something that makes you a little nervous. Dive into a different area which may be more of an outlier for your audience, and see what their response is.
7. Work A Different Way
Something as simple as changing your location can get your energy and creativity flowing again. Do you usually work at an office, a coffee shop, a bookstore, with other people? However you normally work, do the opposite! Try working outside, or play classical music in the background and see what the difference is.
8. Guest Posts!
So naturally you’re in contact with key players in your field, but have you asked them to do a guest post or offered one up yourself? Why the heck not? Introducing a guest will not only change up the content on your site, it can help a fellow business owner or blogger out too, and a helpful new partnership could develop in the meantime.
9. Monkey With Your Site
Everyone has THAT issue on their site that IF ONLY they could get it fixed, their life would be a million times BETTER and they would have more TRAFFIC and be WAY more productive…that probably won’t happen. But, giving your site a some TLC will definitely make you feel better, and the little extra panache will definitely please long-time readers as well as newbies.
Remember that inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere, so do what feels right for you. Make a change and you will be surprised at the corresponding ripples that can grow from it, and your audience will pay back your efforts a hundredfold.
