We have seen that blogs are necessary assets in the world of Digital Marketing. There are many aspects that go into establishing a blog to suit your needs and your customers’ interests. One of the most important of these is sticking to your guns. Translated into the words of digital marketers, your blog has to follow its creative direction. It’s the bedrock of your investment in content marketing. If you stray too far from the blog’s theme, you risk losing readership.

What do we mean by “Creative Brief”?

In marketing, a creative brief is a document that describes the preceding research, plan, undertaking and, maintenance of a particular design project. Brainstorming ideas and talking with your team are the outset of a creative brief. Over time, it will eventually become your guide and reference throughout the designing stages and more.

The creative brief for your blog should answer these key questions:

• What will your mission be?
• How often will you post?
• What voice will the blog adapt?
• Who are you targeting?
• What key element will unify your posts?
• What variety of posts will you publish ?
• What length will they be?
• What style of image or graphic will you use?
• How will you measure the blog’s success?
• Who is your competition?
• Who will be the creative director?

Have clear answers to these questions before continuing to take the path to this blog’s debut. Companies and individuals fail most often in the beginning phases of a blog because they can’t keep things consistent. So the best way to stick to your blog’s creative brief is to have that brief ready before launching.

A creative brief won’t ensure immediate success

It’s always difficult to start a blog when there are so few followers in the beginning. In fact, it’s not uncommon to see very low engagement throughout the first couple of years. For example, ‘the selfie stick’ was invented many years ago, but didn’t take off until recently. Your blog could be looking at the same slow birth. But with determination, punctuality, and creative direction, your blog can and will reach your target audience.

How much wiggle room do you have?

Consistency. That’s the key. Be timely, write creatively, and try to wow your readers—but above all, be consistent. This can mean defining a set of content standards. Not every post has to be a 500-word essay. You can set up an editorial calendar to go on interviews, gather case studies, design infographics, and research the long-form word.

When your audience becomes loyal, they expect certain things from you. Changing too much too quickly is like jolting someone out of sleep: it isn’t cool. Somewhere down the road you may decide that your creative brief needs editing or an expansion. If this happens, make sure to transition slowly and always pay attention to the number of visits your blog is getting along the way.

Can you measure your blog’s creativity?

A creative brief encompasses everything about the blog except for how successful it could be. There’s just no way of knowing. Blogs, after all, take time. If within the first few months of your blog’s launch, you’re stressing over the low visitor count, take heart in knowing that every blog starts out that way.

Creative blogs inspire creativity in others, this effect can be measured by the number of shares you get. It’s important to keep an eye on engagement with your blog and shares on social media. Get yourself connected and use all those platforms to link back to your newest content.  Following your followers is the best way to find out what they love about your blog and what they want more of.

You can easily stick to your blog’s creative brief by maintaining consistent publishing schedules, posting standards, and quality content. Return periodically to the creative brief to ensure that your blog content is falling in line with its purpose. When you start to see gains, all that perseverance can finally be rewarded – with a pint of beer or whatever vice you like best!

Header image by Amieto2k on flickr.  Embedded image by amiefedora on flickr.