How to use creativity for authentic marketing

You’re a creator. As a business owner or entrepreneur, you’re acting on a vision and bringing into the world a product, service, or way of working that didn’t previously exist.

You may be like many other women in that you’ve left the traditional workforce to launch your own practice in a desire to work your own way. In this new role, you have to trust your own authority – and it can be an adjustment. 

As a result, we may seek validation from those around us, including clients, consultants, peers, or other outside sources such as social media. Community is critical, especially when working alone, but if we’re continuously seeking validation or confusing others’ opinions with our own, we can lose touch with what feels authentic for us. 

When it comes to marketing, I often see women trusting others' opinions over their own or looking to outside sources to define their voice or their marketing efforts. This can get you into a directionless place and one where you’re running up against “shoulds,” fear, and imposter syndrome. In this place, it’s easy to get stuck. 

How do we get back on track, and how do we reconnect with what feels authentic? 

Using creativity as a tool

If you’re asked to picture a creative, you may visualize an artist or musician. But anyone generating something new is a creator. For each of us, there are times when we’re highly in tune with our craft and other times when we feel like we’re struggling with the unknown or uncertainty. In those moments of struggle, tapping into your own creativity is one of the easiest ways to reconnect to your instinct and inspirations.

Writing

For me, writing is my creative vehicle of choice. It allows me to get out of my head and tune into what my gut is telling me. When I feel conflicted or start looking for outside validation, sitting down to journal is one of the best remedies. 

If writing is where you feel strongest, dedicate 30 minutes to simply allowing yourself to write whatever comes to you. You’re not writing for a purpose as much as writing to allow things to flow through you.

If you’re looking for a prompt, though, here’s a place to start: 

• What am I grateful for?

• What am I letting go of?

• What does my soul need to tell me?

Visual

If you’re more of a visual person, find yourself a blank piece of paper and paints or pencils. Set aside 30 minutes for yourself to just paint or draw intuitively. Before you start, though, pose a question to your inner self around what you’re struggling with. Don’t actively seek the answer but allow yourself to work through your painting or drawing and see what comes up. You also don’t need a problem to make this a routine exercise.

In the strategic planning process, I often have clients, who are more visual, use a large piece of paper and their writing tools of choice to do word bubbles or visual mapping exercises. 

Audio

If you’re more of an auditory learner, you may be more responsive to music as a creative vehicle. One suggestion is to find music where you’re not focused on the words, and then find a way to be in motion. Take 30 minutes, for example, to walk or dance. Again, ask a question around something you’re struggling with – not expecting an answer – and see what comes up.  

Clearly, we can each use all three mediums. You don’t need to feel strong in painting or drawing, for example, to choose a visual channel for your creativity, but there may be one medium in particular that feels more instinctive. Consider also choosing something you can put into practice daily or several times a week.

Using your creativity to inform your content

When it comes to marketing and communications, all channels are not created equal. 

We need to first think about our goals, who our audience is, and where they’re spending their time in order to define where you need to be spending yours. 

However, there’s also an additional component of understanding where our strengths and comforts are. For example, if your audience is on TikTok but you’re not comfortable (yet) creating videos, you know that there are hurdles you’ll need to overcome in order to stay consistent with creating marketing content for that audience. However, if you’re on Instagram or LinkedIn where you could post video, blog posts or graphics, you have options for how you want to be creating content that reaches your desired audience. 

Sometimes getting over the fear is just a matter of starting to post, but choosing a medium that feels more natural can also make it feel easier. Here are content examples that align with your creative vehicles.

Writing

Consider writing a blog post for your website and breaking it up into shorter form content — including written posts, videos and graphics — for social media channels.

Blogs can be one of the greatest forms of thought leadership and you can break down concepts into actionable tips and takeaways for your audience. It’s also a great way to tease content apart in different ways in order to deliver value and drive traffic back to your site.

Visual

If you’re a visual learner or creative, there are many different vehicles for displaying information. Canva makes it especially easy to turn content into static or dynamic visual images.

Again, if social is one of your primary channels, graphics are the primary source of content for Instagram and Facebook, and engagement through LinkedIn is stronger with visuals. Outside of social, though, e-books are a great way to lay out information in a highly visual way. Again, it depends on who your audience is and how they’re consuming information.

Audio

For audio, social channels are increasingly going towards short-form video as entertainment and education.  Not everyone is comfortable with videos – and that’s ok – but if you are, you can experiment with different formats that work well based on the information you’re delivering. You just need to spend 5 mins on TikTok or Instagram to see different examples of this. Video is less common on LinkedIn, but it can be a good way to help you standout. 

Similarly, public speaking might feel more natural. Hosting a podcast, where you’re sharing your thought leadership or interviewing others around topics that align with your work, might feel like a compelling direction to go in.

Keep in mind that it needs to be consistent to be impactful. You also want to be sure you have goals and your audience in mind, but there are more and more tools available to make this accessible to potential podcasters.

Reconnecting with what feels heart-felt

Tapping into your creativity can serve many different purposes, but it’s finding opportunities to create without purpose where you may find the greatest joy and connection to your work. There is a balance in both doing and creating – our businesses can’t run if we’re not doing the work or basic operations to sustain it – but as creators, we need to honor and prioritize the time when we need to be free of obligations in order to be in flow and reconnect with our purpose.

What is your heart telling you? What are you being called to bring into the world? When are you setting aside your 30 mins to find out?

Does marketing and communications feel hard? You’re not alone — and our communications coaching might be able to help. Let’s chat.