Picture a standoff between a one-year-old SaaS brand and one of the biggest sales and marketing software, like HubSpot. 

Who comes out on top?

GIF Source: Giphy

If it were a Hollywood movie, everyone would root for the underdog. But, as you can imagine, the winner is quite obvious already. 

So, the question now is… How? 

How does a startup or small business owner compete against the Goliaths of their industry?

How do they draw people’s attention when competitors with big bucks have had the center stage for the longest time? 

Our advice is simple: content marketing. 

But not content marketing as you’ve known it; a slightly jazzed-up version called creative content marketing. 

This marketing adaptation can be the key to you taking center stage. 

And you’re about to find out what it is in this guide. 

Here, we’ll do a deep dive into creative content marketing including types to consider for your next marketing campaign.

So, let’s get this party started!

What is creative content marketing? 

Remember the first time you heard a Gen-Zer talk about rizz?

What came to mind at that moment?

You probably became curious and intrigued to see what it meant. 

Why?

Because it’s vocabulary you aren’t used to. 

Creative content marketing is similar. It’s educating your audience using unconventional approaches to capture their attention and offer them value.  

In creative content marketing, you drop the traditional way of telling your brand’s stories (e.g. articles or guest posts) and embrace formats such as interactive experiences and podcasts. 

And the goal? To create memories with your target audience. Memories so great that people want to share them with their friends.

A good example of this is the popular Spotify Wrapped. 

Image Source: Spotify

This engaging content uses personalized data that offers users interactive experiences based on their music listening habits. It’s a memory many music lovers look forward to every year. 

You probably do too as it’s entertaining and engaging, and it keeps drawing in new users for the Spotify team. 

Simply put, creative content marketing helps you connect with people uniquely and that experience can take your brand awareness to another level.

But wait – there’s more. Let’s see some other reasons this content marketing strategy is great for business.

Why is creative content marketing important for your business?

Let’s go back to the Spotify Wrapped example. 

In an interview with Variety, Spotify’s VP Alex Bodman said, "It [Spotify Wrapped] was a loyalty play. I don’t think we had any idea that people would want to share it so much.”

That brings us to the first benefit of creative content marketing: It can help boost brand loyalty. 

Secondly, even though Wrapped was from a global corporation, Spotify still found a way to connect with its audience. Alex said, “We weren’t just talking about ourselves. We were giving people an interesting way to talk about themselves.”

That’s the second benefit of creative content marketing: It can increase audience engagement.

Essentially, the Spotify story shows that creative content marketing can:

• Give your brand a unique reputation. 
• Enhance brand awareness.
• Position you as a thought leader in your industry. 
• Increase organic traffic to your website or app. 

***

Considering you probably don’t run a streaming app like Spotify, what would creative content look like for you? 

Keep reading to find content types that are right up your alley.

8 types of creative content for your marketing campaigns

A regular content marketing campaign needs content, and this creative approach does too.

But the types of content that are effective here have a touch of real-life experiences. 

Here are some of them:

1. Interactive blog posts

Hold up, blogs?

That doesn’t fit into the unconventional approach you say creative content marketing is about. 

Hang on – look at this interactive blog post:

Source: Ceros

It perfectly fits the unconventional box, right?

Interactive blog posts are like traditional ones but with a twist—readers actively engage with the content. They move from passive to active viewers, interacting by clicking, scrolling, and hovering. 

In the example above, readers engaged by clicking and scrolling. Your blog can incorporate anything that ensures users contribute to the viewing experience.

So, how do you create an interactive blog? You can use Studio to produce content like this.

Tip: We have a guide to help you get started. 🤓

The idea is simple:

Create your article as you normally would, then move it to the Studio environment to add interactivity. 

Possible interactions include:

• Polls or surveys.
• Quizzes.
• Show/hide toggle.
• Clickable elements or hotspots.

And just like that, you have an interactive blog ready to publish.

2. Animations

Imagine one of your favorite cartoon characters getting featured in a TV ad. 

You’d be interested in watching, wouldn’t you?

Well, not just you though, 22.4% of marketers in a survey by BreadnBeyond use animations to boost their engagement rates.

• 18.6% of them say they use it to improve their brand awareness.
• 13.7% use it to create a memorable experience for their audience. 
• 14.5% leverage it to simplify complex information to their customers. 

It’s an effective tool in creative content marketing. 

You can use it in a graphic or video format to capture people’s attention; educating them just how you intended. 

Here’s an example of animated content that we helped The Boston Globe create:

Image Source: Ceros

It’s a piece of content with playful illustrations and toggles that draw readers in to explore the content. Then, there’s animation upon toggle and data with other subtle animations to spark their interest. 

So, how do you create animations?

Here are different options:

• Use Ceros. You can find animation templates on our platform to edit and you’re good. Ceros also allows you to add interactive elements so the animation is more engaging.
• Work with 3D animation artists. You could go on sites like Upwork or Freelancer.com to find artists to create animations for you. 

3. Interactive infographics

Infographics are visual representations professionals use to share complex information. They use it to summarize long-form content into scannable materials so it’s appealing to people. 

A typical infographic usually looks like this:

Image Source: Vickie Sullivan

This looks great for a PowerPoint presentation; bright colors, timeline, and icons. 

But what if we told you there’s a better alternative? The kind that leaves viewers hooked to your presentations and makes them feel like they walked the research journey with you.

Cue… interactive infographics. 

These infographics boast eye-catching designs and interactive elements that make them captivating and engaging. Viewers can click on different parts of the content to unlock more information, enabling storytelling in a compelling way.

Take this interactive recipe infographic from Ceros, for example.

Image Source: Ceros

In this infographic, users can explore a delicious recipe by clicking on various ingredients and steps. Each click reveals additional tips, cooking techniques, or nutritional information, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the culinary experience.

If you had to pick between a traditional infographic and an interactive one, chances are you’d go for the interactive option because of how fun it is to interact with.

Wondering how to create an interactive infographic?

Ceros is always there to help out. You can either pick a premade template to edit or start from scratch in Studio. 

4. Podcasts

Want content that’s unique and also positions you as an authority in your field? Podcasts are the way to go. 

Ever since it skyrocketed a couple of years ago, it’s become a popular content format with over 40% of the entire U.S. population listening to it. 

Now, what makes it a creative content type? 

It’s primarily because of how it’s produced – you have multiple people talking about a particular topic in a conversational-like manner, and that’s fun!

In addition, people say it’s how they learn new topics. In a survey by Pew Research, 87% of people surveyed said they listen for personal development and learning about new topics. 

So it’s a good, engaging way to capture people’s attention. 

If you need inspiration to get started, you can look at Harvard Business Review’s (HBR) podcast page. 

To make your podcast unique, here are some creative ideas to help you stand out:

• Record a video version of your podcast so you can share snippets on social media platforms like LinkedIn or TikTok. 
• Research to find trends and pain points your audience is itching to hear. 
• Invite experienced guests who are true experts in their fields and are good communicators. 

5. User-generated content (UGC)

In 2015, Apple began the famous #shotoniPhone challenge to promote the iPhone 6. 

They wanted people to see how great pictures on an iPhone could be. The prize was a feature in an Apple ad or a free iPhone.

And so it began…

It’s been nine years and users are still posting pictures shot on iPhone with the hashtag on social media. 

Image Source: Instagram

Apple now has a repository of about 30 million posts from users they can run promotions with. 

That’s a great example of user-generated content. 

You get to leverage existing users to produce content for your campaigns. As they create and share it, you’ll get increased brand awareness, a growing loyal community, and interest from prospects like never before.

Here are some interesting stats showing why UGC falls in the creative content bracket:

84% of people are more likely to trust brands if they use UGC in their digital marketing efforts.

UGC content featuring brands drove 6.9x higher engagement than content that brands made themselves. 

So, how do you produce UGC?

You can use the same format Apple uses or chat with some of your key clients to create some for you.  You can also use client testimonials and case studies. 

6. Case studies

Case studies are detailed reports showing how your brand helped a client achieve a certain goal.

It covers their challenges, the approach used to overcome them, and the results achieved. 

Think of it as a way to help prospective clients understand what you’ve got to offer. 

However, here’s the thing. Creating case studies the traditional way is boring. It’s usually just blocks of text, stats, and maybe a couple of images.

A more creative way is to make it interactive (using a tool like Ceros 😏) where texts appear as you scroll, stats show when users hover over them,  icons are animated, and more. Just like this example:

Source: Ceros

It’s a case study showing how a consulting firm revolutionized their marketing campaign with interactive content.

To make the report engaging, we added catchy images and interactive elements such as animated icons and hotspots that displayed hidden information when a user hovers over it.  

Case studies designed this way are beyond creative, they help you hold people’s attention from start to finish.  

If you’d like your case reports to look like this, feel free to hop on the Ceros train, find a template, and edit. 

7. Interactive video content

Creating interactive videos instead of regular videos can be a game-changer for your content marketing campaign. 

It gives your audience something to look forward to whenever they think of your brand. 

With interactive videos, viewers become active participants, deciding where the story takes them. 

This makes the experience unique and engaging, heightening suspense and interest.

Here's an example from Deloitte showing how captivating interactive video can be:

GIF Source: Kaltura

8. Client testimonials

Testimonials are like endorsements from existing clients that prospects can count on your brand. 

It can be in different formats such as video, text, or a social media post. 

Just like the kind you see on G2.

Image Source: G2

The goal is to build trust with your target audience. 

Now, you’re thinking testimonials are regular, everyone does it. How can I make client testimonials creative?

Here are some ideas:

• Create a feed wall on your website where new client testimonials appear. 
• Design a before-and-after gallery if applicable. 
• Do a mini-documentary for social media like those a-day-in-the-life posts showing how customers use your product or service daily. 
• Invite customers to a webinar or testimonial to share their experience. 
• Create a timeline showing a client’s journey before they started using your product or service.

Where can I get creative content ideas? 

You’re thinking of producing creative content but it’s been a struggle. You open Google Docs to put down some ideas but nothing comes to mind. 

We’ve all been there. 

If that’s you, here are some places to draw inspiration ideas from when you’re in a fix. 

Social media channels

If you know where to look on social media, you can find creative ideas for your content in no time.

It’s an idea-generation hub, and with the right keyword string, you’ll never run out of examples to follow. 

For example, take Pinterest, the visual inspiration platform. All you’d have to do is type in a related keyword to what you’re looking for and it’ll send a ton of ideas your way.

Reddit is another helpful channel for finding inspiration. 

Here, you just need to find a subreddit in your niche and start scrolling through to find ideas. 

And there’s TikTok, a video-sharing platform. To uncover ideas, search for competing brands to see what they’re doing. 

Collaborate with influencers and content creators

Influencers and creators are social media personalities who’ve built a community of people in their niche who trust them.  

They’ve interacted with them for a while and as such, have a good idea of what type of content they’ll like. 

By collaborating with these community leaders, you could see what’s trending in the space. 

This way, you know what content idea will be relevant to them and create one accordingly.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Subscribe to newsletters in your niche

Have you signed up for any top email marketing campaigns in your industry?

That’s another way to get ideas, and you just might hit gold with the wealth of info you could find. 

Here are some newsletters to help you get started:

• GrowthWaves newsletter dedicated to brand growth.
• VeryGoodCopy newsletter designed for people who want to become better copywriters.
• Copyblogger newsletter to help content marketers improve their marketing skills.

Brainstorm and collaborate internally

Get your team together on a team hurdle to brainstorm and come up with ideas for your content marketing strategy. 

Brands like Google already use the design thinking approach to collaborate and generate content ideas. 😉

***

As you go on this creative journey, there might be times you don’t get the kind of outcome you’re looking for. 

If you ever get to that point, here are some action marketing tips to deploy in those moments.

Creative content marketing strategy best practices

If you want to ensure your content marketing efforts pay off at the end of the day, here’s a list of things you should do. 

• Know your audience – The first thing to do as you begin this journey is to identify your target audience. It’s always easier to speak to one person than to everyone. This way, you can create high-quality content they truly like. 

One of the best ways to know your audience is to go through your competitor’s follower list on social media or their comment section and try to find out what kind of people are there. 

Find out their age, gender, job, origin, favorite content format, and pain points.

• Repurpose existing content – If a piece of content is doing well, don’t just leave it on the platform where you published it. Update and republish it elsewhere for people who may not have seen it the first time. 

Repurposing content can be creating social media graphics using content from a blog or creating a video podcast trailer to publish on social media.

• Track metrics, test, and improve - After publishing your content, monitor its performance to see how it’s doing. How many people are engaging with it? How many leads has it generated? Any conversions? 

If you used Ceros to create the content, you can also track the performance from the Analytics dashboard. There, you’ll see the number of visitors by device, page views, time spent on the content, number of social shares, interactions, clicks, and more.

But aside from monitoring, you also want to test different ideas to see which one has the best result and iterate till you find the best idea for your brand.

• Focus on authenticity – One of the pillars of creative content marketing is being authentic. As such, you need to ensure people can tag you as genuine. 

71% of consumers in the U.S. say authentic brands give them a confident feeling. So, you want to make sure you’re creating valuable content at all times and using terms they can relate to.

• Be consistent – If you want to see great results in your marketing campaign, you have to be consistent. That’s the only way it’s going to work. Create a plan of when and what to post and stick to it. 

To do that, you need a content calendar indicating the days you’ll be posting, the content format, platforms, and who’s responsible. Wondering how to do that?

CoSchedule is a content marketing tool that can help you do that with templates you can edit.

Now besides CoSchedule, there are other tools you can count on for different aspects of your creative content marketing campaigns.

Let’s talk about some of them before we wrap up.

What tools can I use for creative content marketing?

Well, there are different types of tools you can use to nail your creative content marketing efforts. But here, we’ll just touch on a few of them.

• Ceros – By now, you probably know a thing or two about what Ceros does. It’s a digital platform that lets you build interactive experiences without any coding experience. You can use a template or start building from scratch. With Ceros, you can monitor interactive content, publish it, and monitor its performance. Best for: Producing interactive content without having to worry about writing code.
• Hubspot – HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing tool where you can manage all your marketing endeavors without leaving the app. You can launch marketing campaigns, manage sales, communicate with clients, and more. HubSpot also lets you monitor your campaign and see if your efforts are paying off. Best for: Providing resources and tools for business growth. 
• Mailchimp – Mailchimp is an automation platform that can help you launch an email newsletter campaign. You know, where you can send personalized emails to potential customers. It can help you draw in new leads, generate great content for the email campaign, and segment your email lists into new, repeat, or potential leads so the campaign is more effective. Best for: Automating email marketing campaigns.
• Insense – You can use Insense to launch an influencer marketing campaign or find influencers and UGC creators to produce user-generated content. It works by creating a brief indicating what kind of influencer you need and the content type you’d like them to create and they’ll find creators that match your brief. Best for: Finding UGC creators and launching an influencer campaign.
• Hemingway – Creative content means you can consistently produce the best content for your brand. With Hemingway, you’re one step closer to doing that. It’s a digital tool that helps make your written content better by highlighting areas for improvement. Best for: Making text clearer and easy to read. 
• Ahrefs – Ahrefs is a tool that caters to all your search engine optimization (SEO) needs. It helps with keyword research so you know what people look for when creating new content. Ahrefs can also audit your site to identify content gaps and monitor its overall SEO performance. Best for: Researching keywords and improving organic search traffic.

***

Alright, it’s time to draw the curtains on this guide.

Over to you!

We’re pretty sure you’re buzzing with creative, quality content ideas now. And we love it for you.

But you know what can set you apart in your industry?

Creating interactive content!

According to the Content Marketing Institute, this kind of content can attract and hold visitor’s attention way better than traditional content.

Your audience can go in-depth with your content, engaging and gaining valuable information in a way they never have. 

And who better to help give your esteemed audience such an experience than Ceros? 

We’ve given you a peek into what Ceros can do for you.

But how about you see things for yourself before making a decision?

Schedule a demo with Ceros today.