When we see a piece of great content such as this;
or this TripTease use of Pinterest;
it makes you wonder who is the brains behind the post?
It’s unlikely to be just one person, so who is responsible for the concept, creation and execution of such a piece?  Well, Rob Weatherhead has written a great post, Content Marketers Have No Excuse Not To Be Creative, an interesting concept if you are (or work with) a content marketer.
What’s interesting is Rob focusses on the creation of a piece using tools that are readily available. With the volume of companies offering free trials as well as paid tools, there is more scope for writer and marketers alike to create a piece that is more than just words on a page.
I agree with Rob – there isn’t any excuse for a content marketer not to be creative. There are so many examples of fabulous content out there that “marketing” should be the key word of focus, yet so many people get hung up on the word “content”.
Content is delivered in countless formats – text messages, charts and graphs, graphics, emails, and those which focus more on the visual styling than the wording which can sometimes pack a bigger punch. Whether it’s a whole piece that is created using infogr.am or simply some branded charts, it makes the difference to a content piece and that is what these tools offer, something more than the black and white formats we’re all familiar with.
The tools that are now available to help with the creation are like nothing previously out there, but I do believe content creation is a team effort and choosing the option which will provide the right quality is paramount to the success of this. As Rob rightly says;
“Then there is content format.  And this can be where the challenge lies.  Many content marketers do not have the design or technical capabilities to be creating the level of content needed to produce results.â€
Not all businesses have the ability to have a graphic designer on board so this gives a different skill set to the content marketing team. However, it needs to be considered as to whether or not the use of an in-house designer vs the payout for lots of different tools is more cost effective in the long term.
There is no longer any excuse for a content marketer not to be creative, and the research element of a piece is crucial – even if the tools are purely used for inspiration for what can be achieved. Whether it’s thought of and/or executed by the content marketer, the options now are endless as to how this is done – tools or humans.