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"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

Those are the poet Maya Angelou's words, and I agree. More and more, though, it looks as if creativity in the marketing landscape has run dry.

Marketing has transformed in the digital age. There are more channels than ever—and , more ways to reach your audience. But there are also more things to measure, more metrics to meet, more pressure to show ROI.

Those changes aren't all bad, but they've led too many marketers toward bland, high-volume content and away from value and their first love: creativity.

When Boring Content Takes Over

My company conducted a survey of 1,000+ marketing, PR and design professionals. Some 40% of those professionals are in B2B marketing. And though we learned a great deal from our research, one finding was particularly telling: One-third say their own company's content is boring.

How do we expect the audience to get excited about our content if we, as creators, think it's boring?

Today's audiences are savvy. The Internet gives them infinite choices, and they're not afraid to close the tab and find something more engaging.

Boring content pushes the audience away from our work and our business. It gives the impression that we don't care about attracting customers and championing our product or service.

Low-value content sends a message that our company is low value, too.

I have empathy for marketers because I walk in their shoes. And after 25 years in marketing, I believe the pendulum has now swung too far from the creative work where I got my start to a stale process shackled to an overreliance on data and the constant strain of metrics.

Marketers should take back their creativity. I think they miss their opportunities to be creative. I think they want to have fun, take risks, and delight their audience. I know (em>I do.

Nearly all (98%) of the marketers we surveyed said their marketing teams value design, and 85% said their teams value creativity. They deserve a return to design to make engaging, creative, powerful pieces that become a destination for their audience, no matter what channel they use to reach it.

That return to creativity isn't just for the marketers, though. Valuable content can help accelerate time to purchase, whereas mediocre content does little to deepen your relationship with the buyer.

The average number of touchpoints in a deal cycle has increased from 17 to 27, almost all done virtually, Forrester's 2021 B2B Buying Study found. High-quality, relevant content not only gets a buyer's attention but also holds the power to foster an emotional connection while giving them the information they're seeking.

Giving Design Its Due

Interactive content's focus on design is a powerful antidote to the monotonous world of boring content.

Interactive content's defining feature is a reliance on active engagement from its audience, making it a dynamic experience. It often uses motion and animation, and it offers multiple touchpoints for the audience to engage and explore.

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How B2B Marketers Can Avoid the Bane of Boring Content

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Jamie Gier

Jamie Gier is the CMO at Ceros a content creation platform. She has extensive experience scaling and growing businesses by creating effective brands, designing revenue-generating go-to-market strategies, and leading high-performing teams across product marketing, corporate communications, public relations, digital marketing, and demand creation.

LinkedIn: Jamie Gier