The Role of Creative Writing in Marketing

What do you think of when you hear the term “creative writing?” Typically, fiction, stories, novels, poetry and scripts are what come to mind when faced with that term. However, this list is missing one crucial association–marketing. While creative writing may not seem to have a place in the marketing realm, it is currently integrated into marketing more than you may think. In order to stay ahead of the competition, you need not only creative thinking but creative writing to make your company stand out. Below are the two main areas that illustrate the role of creative writing in marketing.

Approaches to Content

When approaching content, thinking of a written piece as regular copy versus a creative writing piece creates a drastic difference in the writing process. Now, this does not mean that your marketing content should sound like a poem or a short story. However, by taking a creative approach to the content you can make the writing more engaging. How does this work, though? While changing the way you view your content won’t automatically change the writing itself, it is the first step of the creative process.

Creative Writing in Marketing: Storytelling

Now that you have adapted your approach to your marketing content, you can begin the writing process. One of the key aspects of creative writing is telling a story. Storytelling is crucial in marketing as well because it organizes your content in a way your audience can easily follow. We commonly communicate by telling stories. Therefore, you should adapt the storytelling approach to your marketing writing.

In telling a story, you will use the common storytelling structure of having a plot, characters and takeaways. While you won’t have these aspects in the traditional storytelling sense, all of these aspects will help you create a narrative. Think about your call to action as being the key takeaway from your content. Then, you can work backward and look at what your audience needs to know to logically get to making that action. By having a narrative structure to your content, you can guide your audience to reach the conclusion you desire.

Creative Writing in Marketing: Originality

Originality is crucial to marketing. No one wants to see the same content over and over again. Therefore, by approaching your content as a creative writing piece instead of regular copy, you can more easily write original content. Without this approach, it would be easier to go with the flow instead of pushing yourself to think outside the box.

Content that is not original typically lacks emotional appeal. As the writer, you need to believe what you are writing in order for your audience to believe it themselves. Appealing to your audience’s emotions is an age-old persuasive tactic. This tactic becomes even more powerful when you use a narrative structure. In doing so, you will be able to pull your audience in and hold their attention instead of them skimming through or avoiding the content entirely.

Types of Content

The types of content you use also illustrate the role of creative writing in marketing. While some forms of content lend themselves to creativity more organically than others, there are a number of content types that align with or benefit from creative writing.

In Bhavik Sarkhedi’s article, “6 Different Types of Creative Content Writers Should Know,” at Entrepreneur he discusses creative content writing and its forms. According to Sarkhedi, writers should be fluent in creative content in these areas: press releases, emails, ads scriptwriting, ghostwriting, video content and podcast scripts. Some of these types of creative content align more with what we first think of with creative writing and others do not. For example, creativity and press releases typically would not be used to characterize each other. However, as Sarkhedi discusses in his article, you can garner more attention from the media with a creative press release plus, you will be more able to shape the story yourself using this approach.

The types of creative writing content in marketing are not limited to Sarkhedi’s list. Depending on your brand and marketing strategies, you can take the creative approach to almost any kind of content.

Creative writing has a prominent role in marketing. From storytelling to originality, creative writing will help your marketing content stand out from your competitors’.

Interested in learning more about the role of creative writing in marketing? RedMoxy’s team has you covered! Connect with us today to learn more.