Why Creative Content Matters In Today’s Digital Age

Published by Ashton Elder

Ashton has an M.S. in Marketing from Florida International University and has been working as a marketer for over five years. She is currently serving on the University of North Florida’s Department of Communications Professional Committee Board. Ashton has been a guest on several media and marketing panels throughout her career. She also holds a degree from the University of North Florida where she studied political science, journalism, and mass communications. Prior to working in marketing, she worked as a journalist for several news outlets and publications, including an internship at NPR where she produced several radio features. This site features a collection of her articles and radio features from her career in journalism. This site also features some of her insights and projects from her career in marketing. Ashton’s background in journalism has provided her with a solid foundation on which to build enhanced media and social media strategies to provide creative, innovative marketing solutions. Ashton also has first-hand experience with brand design and brand building. Ashton also works on an array of marketing projects from social media to email marketing and everything in between. View all posts by Ashton Elder

branding, content marketing, customer journey, digital marketing, email, email marketing, Marketing, omni channel marketing, SEO

In today’s digital age it is now more important than ever for marketers to be creative in their content choices in order to grab the attention of their target audience. I have been the Head of Marketing at a Florida real estate brokerage for five years. The real estate industry is very competitive, so any marketing that is “outside the box” and captures the attention of home buyers and sellers is always extremely valuable to a marketer in the industry.

Creative content helps push customers further along on the customer journey.

Audiences on their mobile phones consume a large volume of content daily, which in turn demands that marketers use digital content that quickly grabs their attention.

One of my first marketing projects was to create a company blog packed with content that would help reach the company’s key target audiences. I developed a content marketing plan which would appeal to the following audiences: homeowners, the greater Northeast Florida community, and those looking into moving to Northeast Florida.

When I began the process of creating the blog, Top of the Coast I leaned heavily into my background in journalism. My experience as a features writer and editor assured me that if the blog was done correctly I could not only create excellent content to elevate the company’s marketing program, but I could use the blog to draw the attention of their target audience. I drew a lot of my inspiration from city magazines. There was one city magazine, in particular, Maine’s Down East magazine, that had a brokerage sponsored section called Maine Homes, which inspired me during the brand-building process.

Top of the Coast provided an easy way to utilize small tidbits of content that would quickly grab the attention of our target audience across multiple digital channels, and the platform which hosts the blog, WordPress allowed for quick and seamless navigation for users from one channel to another.

Thanks to research that helped me build a psychological profile, I knew that people who were looking for homes would also be interested in the culture, neighborhoods, architecture, and small businesses that made up the area. My research also revealed that those who were more likely to purchase or sell homes would be more interested in content subjects such as home improvement, gardening, and entertaining.

Creative content that is localized, unique, and provides value is one of the best ways to keep customers on their smartphones engaged with your brand and your product and ultimately keeps them interested long enough to influence their purchase decisions. That is why I think creative content matters now more than ever in today’s digital age.