Getting Outside of the Box: Break Free from a Creative Rut 

Does it feel like everything you’re doing at work is just the same thing over and over again? Has it seemed as if your work has stagnated? Is it a struggle to generate new ideas, ones that excite you (as well as your customers and clients?) That’s perfectly understandable. It comes with the work. As someone who’s been providing content for an SEO agency for many, many years, I know the feeling. These are some of the ways I get out of it. 

Perhaps the first, most important tip I can provide in this context is to not wallow in it. Don’t let it get to you. Start doing something. If it seems like you can’t come up with an idea, everything is “blah,” just start writing ideas down. Alternatively, you could record them into your phone, tell them to a colleague, etc. 

Sitting still, worrying, staring at a blank page and hoping for inspiration doesn’t work for most people. (If it works for you, great!) For the most part, the first step to doing something is to actually do something. Once you’ve done that, these tips below can help. 

Who Are You Talking to? 

If you aren’t sure what to say or do with your content, think about who you’re saying it to. Return to your audience. If you have customer profiles, be they detailed or not, look at them again. If you’re like me, there’s probably something that you haven’t focused on in some time. That can get you up and creating quickly. 

Or, alternatively, go back to your keyword research. What’s a keyword that’s important to your business you haven’t created content for in a while? Usually, when I do this, I find that there’s a major keyword that could use some attention. That brings me back quickly. 

The audience for your company’s content, it’s important to note, most likely doesn’t look at every single piece of your content first thing in the morning. Something that seems very “old” to you might seem very “new” to them. 

That doesn’t mean repeating the same thing over and over. But, it does mean that you shouldn’t abandon your core strengths, selling points, and the like, simply because you’ve iterated them in different ways multiple times. 

Consider who your content is for. Then, make it exactly for them. 

To use an example, I’m imagining writing this blog for someone very much like myself. A person who creates content, whether it’s for their business or someone else’s, and wants clear (but well-written) ideas on how to get away from writer’s block. 

Embrace the Irrational 

When you’ve been creating content for a long time, you usually have clear ideas on how to do things. You know what works best for this particular product, audience, service, etc. You probably have, if not a paradigm, then at least a path. A process. If you’re feeling in a rut, my advice, even if it’s just at a conceptual stage, is to do something that feels irrational. 

Write down ideas that you would never, ever do. Even if it’s just on a scrap of paper, think of something that would NOT be right for your company, your client. Maybe put down five to ten of these. 

What I find, almost invariably when I do this, is that I hit on something that I like. That doesn’t mean I use all of (or even any of) these. But, it gets my brain thinking in new ways. If you want to think outside the box, so to speak, you really, really do have to break “the box.” 

You don’t have to show these to anyone. You never have to say them out loud. But, by embracing that which feels incorrect for even a five minute span, you give your brain a different kind of “fuel.” With that, you can come up with something that’s creative and right for your company. 

When All Else Fails 

There’s one surefire way, I’ve found, to think of something different when I’m creating content. I’m very fortunate here at Website Depot to work with a great team. We have professionals in a wide range of disciplines. Google Ads, SEO, web designers, developers, you name it – if there’s someone who can help your company to grow, we have them on our roster. 

By being a member of a team, I have a lot of people I can talk to. Sometimes, when I need an idea, or I’m stuck on something, I read it out loud. I do so either to myself or to them. 

Reading anything out loud to yourself is a great idea. That’s true whether it’s an email, service page, novel, or anything else. Why? Because you’ll catch so, so much more than you would if it was just typed on a screen. You’ll find typos, grammar errors, and so much more than even Grammarly would miss. 

Reading it out loud to a colleague, on the other hand, can give you an entirely different perspective. To really find out how good the content is, I don’t necessarily listen to what they say so much as how they react. You can tell from someone’s face how they feel about your content.

That’s not to say that they’ll lack good notes or anything of that nature. Rather, it means that you’ll be able to see the real, emotional reaction to what you created in real time. If your colleague reacted in a certain way, it’s entirely likely your audience will as well. 

An SEO Agency That’s Here to Help 

Those are just some of the ways that you can get more out of your content, out of your thinking. Just taking a few minutes to entertain these can save you all kinds of time. To see how our agency can help, schedule a free consultation with us through our site or by calling.