10 Ways Marketers Can Overcome Creative Blocks and Get Unstuck

Anyone who writes or creates content has been there. Staring at a blank screen, waiting for a spark of inspiration that just doesn’t seem to come. When the ideas aren’t flowing, and your creative well feels dry, it’s easy to feel stuck. 

Not to worry, though. Creative blocks happen to everyone, and there are plenty of ways to overcome them and forge ahead. Below, you’ll find some strategies to help break through those barriers and start generating fresh ideas again. 

Revisit Your Customer Journey + Buyer Personas

When creativity stalls, going back to basics can often lead to breakthroughs. Pull out your customer journey map and marketing personas to reconnect with who you’re trying to reach. What are these people’s pain points, motivations, and goals? Have they changed or evolved since you last checked in? 

Stepping into their shoes will spark fresh ideas that align with your customers’ needs.

studioID Tip:

Pick one of your buyer personas and throw out some new ideas to engage them at different stages of their journey, like awareness, consideration, and decision. How might you shake up your approach to surprise or delight them? 

Related Reading: From MQL to Customer: 7 Most Effective Lead Nurture Tactics

Leverage an Ownable Conversations Framework

If you haven’t heard of “ownable conversations,” it’s time to get familiar. “As ‘big ideas,’ they allow for a range of expert-driven discussions, industry nuances, and clear perspectives that help increase market awareness and build brand reputation,” explains studioID VP & Head of Strategy Lieu Pham.

Ownable conversations are editorial perspectives that highlight a brand’s unique value and category expertise to their audience.

Your brand doesn’t need to cover everything — just the stuff that matters most to your audience. An ownable conversation framework is a strategic tool that helps you own a particular niche conversation in your industry. And once you identify those key conversations (hint: the ones your customers are already having), you can start to deliver real value.

studioID Tip:

Take a look at your existing content. Are you focusing on topics that actually matter to your audience? If not, make a list of two or three conversations that you want your brand to dominate. Now, think about how you can create content with these themes top of mind.

Related Reading: What Are Ownable Conversations?

Tune Into Trending Topics via Social Listening

Social media may have started as a broadcast tool, but it’s also a listening post. And if you’re not leveraging it for social listening, you’re missing out on serious inspiration potential. By tracking hashtags and trending conversations, plenty of ideas are bound to come out of the concerns and interests you come across. One of which could even fuel your next campaign or stellar piece of content.

studioID Tip:

Use a social media tool to track trending topics and keywords that are relevant to your brand’s industry, mission, values, or ownable conversation. Pick an emerging trend and brainstorm ways your brand can join the conversation in a way that feels authentic.

Related Reading: The Power of Social Listening to Drive Conversations

Comb Through Customer Feedback for Fresh Ideas

Customers often communicate exactly what they need or want, but are you paying attention? Whether a complaint or a compliment, customer feedback can reveal user frustrations, needs, or desires you might have overlooked. And addressing their actual issues in your messaging and marketing efforts can help build trust and stronger relationships overall. 

Identify the key issues, conversations, and FAQs that matter to your audience by speaking directly with them. 

– Lieu Pham, VP & Head of Strategy at studioID

studioID Tip:

Review recent feedback, testimonials, or survey responses. What’s the most common pain point that comes up? Use it as the basis for your next blog, video, or social post. Tackle the problem head on, and you’ll be delivering real value.

Related Reading: The Psychology of Conversations: 5 Consumer Behavior Insights for 2024

Experiment with New Content Formats

If you’re used to churning out a particular type of content (like the same layout of a blog post or email blast) over and over, mixing things up can inject you with some new creative energy. Experimenting with newer formats like Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, or interactive polls on LinkedIn could be just what you need for a refresh that may reach and resonate with wider audiences.

Don’t let perfectionism paralyze your creativity. Set deadlines to prevent overthinking and look at each campaign or piece of content as an opportunity to improve.

studioID Tip:

Embrace the iterative side of marketing. Give yourself permission to fail and learn from your mistakes. Choose one content format you’ve never used before and give it a shot. Set a 30-minute timer and create a lo-fi, low-stakes test piece like a short video or live stream. If you choose to share, measure its performance against your usual content types. You might just be surprised by the results. 

Related Reading: 5 Trends Dominating Modern Marketing

Kickstart Your Writing with Prompts + Templates

The hardest part of the writing process is often simply getting started. When you’re in a rut, prompts and templates offer a quick and structured way to kick off your writing — freeing you from the pressure of starting something from scratch. Remember, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just get the gears turning, and your creativity will follow.

studioID Tip:

Try out an online headline generator or give yourself a prompt like, “What’s the biggest myth in [your industry]?” to come up with a few blog post ideas. Let those ideas be the launchpad for your next big piece of content. 

Working with a colleague can also uncover fresh ideas or help you see your work in a new light. But don’t just focus on the edits; see what new angles they might inspire.

Related Reading: Editing ChatGPT Outputs: 4 Essential Tips and Prompt Approaches

Gather Input from Non-Marketing Colleagues

When you’re stuck, bringing another person into the process can be just the spark you need. Your coworkers, even outside of the marketing department, have unique and valuable insights that can be gold for your creativity. Sales teams know people’s pain points, while product teams are aware of new features or updates. 

Considering how much they interact with your audience directly, collabing with customer service reps should also be a no-brainer.

studioID Tip:

Tap these resources to glean fresh perspectives you might not have come to on your own. To start, set up a quick brainstorming session with a colleague from another department. Ask them what they’ve been hearing most from customers, then use that info to brainstorm a few new content ideas.

Related Reading: 8 Tactics to Build the Ultimate Sales-Marketing Feedback Loop

Study the Success of Your Competitors

Your competitors can be a goldmine of inspiration. Whether it’s a blog post that’s gone viral or a campaign that’s generating buzz, analyze what’s working for them and imagine how those tactics might apply to your brand. 

The objective is to learn, not to copy, so only focus on strategies you can adapt and improve for your own audience.

studioID Tip:

Pick your top competitors and audit their best-performing content from the past month. What common themes or formats are they using? Make a list of insights and takeaways that could make a difference in your own marketing efforts. Then, test them out. 

Related Reading: springboard Top 50 Content Marketing Brands of 2023

Lean On AI to Get Your Ideas Flowing

AI tools like ChatGPT can be a powerful ally when facing creative blocks. As a starting point that saves time while refining your original ideas, they can provide content suggestions, structural outlines, and even generate potential headlines and social media captions — so your team’s resources can be spent on more important content development and other tasks. 

This is nothing but an amazing opportunity for all of us to work faster, to work better, to work smarter, to create more content in more ways. 

– Mark Bornstein, VP of Content Marketing at ON24

studioID Tip:

Use an AI tool to generate five blog post titles or social media captions for your brand. View the suggestions as inspiration and finesse your favorites to match your brand’s voice, tone, and style. Or, better yet, submit your original, work-in-progress titles and captions to an AI tool and ask it to come up with similar concepts that are more clear, concise, and engaging. 

Related Reading: Editing ChatGPT Outputs: 4 Essential Tips and Prompt Approaches

Stay Up to Date on Industry Trends

Sometimes creative blocks arise from good old-fashioned boredom or burnout. The solution? Simple: keep learning new things. Innovation often comes from exposure to new ideas and approaches. Staying curious and regularly attending marketing conferences, virtual events, reading industry blogs, and networking with other professionals in your field are sure to help keep your creativity flowing.

studioID Tip:

Sign up for an upcoming marketing webinar, workshop, or conference. After attending, write down at least three key actionable takeaways and think about how you can apply them to your current projects or implement them in your next campaign. 

Related Reading: Audience Snapshots 2024 — Insights Across 36 Industries