It might seem odd that creativity should play a part in any form of marketing. Marketing, after all, is simply about selling products or services to customers in exchange for money. How can such a down-to-earth activity possibly have a creative aspect? Creativity, in reality, plays a major part in business, especially in the sphere of internet marketing. The OED defines creativity as: “The use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness:” If you are familiar with the workings of internet marketing the creative aspect of the business becomes crystal clear in the light of that definition.
The three crucial words in the above definition are “imagination”, “original“ and “inventiveness”. I would say that all three of them are of great significance in creative internet marketing. The actual mundane bit of the business, the buying and the selling, might not contain much in the way of creativeness but the process that leads to the transaction certainly does. An online business involves several of the creative arts too, not just one. So, let me draw your attention to some creative internet marketing ideas.
The visual arts play a role in many ways. Website design is a very important aspect of any online presence; it is the shop window. A good website welcomes visitors in and, ideally, keeps them occupied for, at least, several minutes. Hopefully, it will lead them to look at the products and services on offer and incentivize them to make that all important purchase or opt-in.
Rebranding products under licence also requires creative artwork. With a rebranding strategy a marketer can present an existing product in a unique version, just as supermarkets have their own, so-called, own brands. These are just existing products with the retailers own label and packaging. Internet marketers make a product their own with a brand new look..
The writing of a good, effective sales letter is an art-form in its own right. There has probably been more written about this topic than any other aspect of internet marketing. This is creative writing of a very specialist kind. A good sales letter will excite the readers, inform the readers, engage and even entertain the readers. If you can keep the reader involved in your copywriting through to the end of your letter without being distracted you are in with a good chance of making a sale. This takes imagination and technique.
There are many times in running an online business where copywriting becomes important. Copywriting is a term which the dictionary describes as “the text of advertisements or publicity material”. So, apart from sales letters and website content, we need to be equally creative in our writing of emails, newsletters, promotional articles, eBooks, reports and so on.
There is more specialised creativity involved with the making of video presentations for websites and other promotional material. These videos have become more and more prevalent in the last couple of years or so. Producing these requires yet another set of creative skills although some of the software now available enables the technical aspects to be easily dealt with in the spare room at home. So, there are a number of creative internet marketing ideas and skills which can greatly enhance any business.
If you feel that you are not a ‘creative’ person and would struggle with some, if not all, that I have written about here, do not despair. By using such online companies as “Fiverr” or “Upwork” you can find experts who can do it all for you – and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg either!
