Healthcare marketing: Creativity on demand
Tips from a healthcare marketer’s diary
As a copy writer and creative team member in the healthcare marketing industry, I develop advertising that will motivate target audiences to take action (click a link, make a phone call, schedule an appointment). Our work is always time-sensitive because of client needs, budgets and media deadlines. Creating effective healthcare advertising – and doing it on demand – takes a disciplined approach to the creative process. So what happens when the ideas don’t come?
Inspiration: Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don’t
Sure, there are moments of inspiration, but most days the creative process is just plain hard work (for most of us it’s a labor of love and a lot of fun, too). Coming up with hundreds of ideas, recognizing the diamonds in the rough and polishing those gems ‘til they sparkle, all with a deadline looming large – this is the challenge of ‘creative on demand.’
And then, there are those times when nothing comes to mind. So, how do you overcome writer’s block? And more importantly, how do you deliver a successful marketing campaign on time and under budget? Here are a few more suggestions to get you started.
The deadline is looming. Where to begin…
• When struggling with a creative challenge, ask yourself: What am I selling? What makes this service different or special? Who is the audience? How can I make my message more relevant to the viewer and medium? What’s the single most important idea I want to get across? (That’s often the nudge that gets me back on track.) Once you’re grounded in the parameters of the task, you can turn loose the creative mind.
• Come up with lots of ideas: big ideas, small ideas, strategic ideas and ridiculous ideas. When brainstorming there are no bad ideas, so don’t self-edit, and write everything down. The first 50 may seem obvious, but the next 50 may be ideas that can change the game.
• When it’s time to write, write anything – write poetry, write in someone else’s voice – just write. Don’t be concerned with the finished draft, just get the words flowing. The secret to great writing is rewriting, so the first draft is just that; likely followed by a second, a third, and sometimes many more. So write.
• For the designer, it’s time to get visual. That may mean searching photo sites, creating thumbnail sketches to organize visual elements, or experimenting with composition, scale or color.
You have an idea. Where do you go from here?
The key to being creative on demand is simply to get started. Look for insights, have fun, see where your ideas take you, then make sure it fits your brand and your strategy. Great ideas rarely come preassembled, so it’s the creative team’s job to bring together all the pieces, arrange and refine them. Your goal should be to create something that’s never been seen before, something that resonates with the customer and makes a connection. (And if you can do all that, say by noon tomorrow, that would be great.)