The 5 Types of Writer’s Block in Marketing – and How to Overcome Them

Writer’s block is a phantom that can haunt or even halt productivity. Some say it doesn’t exist, some say it’s an entirely real entity, but the truth is it’s both. Writer’s block is a living paradox that exists in the dead space between thinking and acting. You know what you have to do, but you can’t seem to do it. Denying writer’s block, though, only prolongs the impasse; to defy it, you have to face it head-on because it’s all in your head. Fortunately, writer’s block only comes in a few forms, and when it suddenly appears, you can identify it using the list below, and break on through to the other side…

1. Self-Doubt Demons:

This is probably the most common manifestation of writer’s block. You feel like you can’t write at all because you fear that what you might write won’t be good enough. You don’t trust your creative abilities and so you spiral into a vicious circle of self-doubt. It’s a problem of expectations verses reality.

Don’t fret, this is actually pretty normal, especially in content marketing where Aberdeen research shows 92% of marketers believe creating high-quality content to be either valuable or very valuable to their organizations, but only 54% of the same group rank themselves as effective or very effective at achieving this goal. Perhaps self-doubt is one of the contributing factors to this discrepancy.

The means to exorcise the self-doubt demon form of writer’s block, however, is to simply understand that everyone has off days, or doesn’t always perform as expected, and in turn, regain the confidence and courage to push on and put pen back to paper.

2. Creativity Congestion:

What happens when you’re on a highway with too many cars and not enough lanes? You can go from 65 to a standstill in a matter of seconds. Like highway congestion, creativity congestion happens when you have too many ideas or concepts and not enough avenues to express them all at once. For marketers, in particular, it’s easy to have too much going on in a given moment to focus on any one thing. In fact, research from MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute highlights that the average B2B content marketer uses six social media channels, and the majority of B2B content marketers (over 57%) all actively employ ten or more different content types. Pair this with best practices like aligning content to specific stages of the buyer’s journey – which Aberdeen research shows to yield 73% higher conversion rates for those who use this tactic, verses those who don’t – and it’s clear how such considerations can congest your flow of creativity.

Just as highway backups break up after the bottleneck, to get by creativity congestion, you have to focus on one lane, namely just what you’re writing in the moment, and make solid progress before beginning to expand on other ideas.

3. Apathy Apparitions:

Whether you’re writing a novel for a publisher or a highly technical one-sheet for sales, you still have to feel invested in your work. In this apathy-induced form of writer’s block, you feel like you can’t write because you can’t feel anything in what you’re writing. Sometimes it’s just a bland day, sometimes it’s a seemingly bland topic. Whatever the cause, you’ve lost that writing feeling…

To fight this form of writer’s block, you have to search for a feeling that will inspire you. On a recent webinar, I heard Ann Handley recommend getting over this blockage through more empathic writing; in other words, looking at your writing from the reader’s perspective. Try focusing on pain points and challenges faced by your buyer personas to remember why what you’re doing matters to them. If you can’t find a feeling of your own, try things other people may be feeling. Music is another great way to get hooked on a feeling, pick up good vibrations, and kiss the writer’s block goodbye, but whatever it takes, in this case, you need to actively bring back that writing feeling.

4. The Tension Tar Pit:

You could also call this form of writer’s block death by deadlines, or getting cooked by pressure, but overall, this tension tar pit happens when you get stuck in stressful conditions and can’t freely create. The more you struggle with the stress, the deeper you sink into feeling trapped or hopeless. This can be worsened when the stress isn’t just an internal deadline or expectation, but an external trend or condition. For 45% of marketers, for example, their top two reported pressures are the increasingly competitive business landscapes in which they operate, and the increasing customer demands and requirements they face.

When you find yourself in a tension tar pit, just as you would in a real tar pit, it’s best to just stop everything, relax, and compose yourself before you sink any deeper. This may mean stepping away for a minute, taking a walk, grabbing a coffee, or whatever it takes to stop your mind for enough time to pull yourself out of this sticky situation. When you break free from the stress, then you can break through this form of writer’s block.

5. Running on Empty Information:

On the surface, it would seem like there’s really no excuse for this form of writer’s block. When you feel like you can’t write because you don’t have enough information, the simple solution, of course, is to do the necessary searching, testing, and research to get the information you need. However, it can get complicated when you don’t feel confident in the information you have at hand, or in your ability to convey that information.

Think of a car with an empty tank sitting at a gas station – there’s plenty of fuel available, but you still have to actively fill it up. Similarly, having plenty of information available isn’t going to get your writing in gear again until you’ve internalized it. Whether that means talking through the information you’ve found with someone else, reading an explanation from a trusted expert, or trying to connect new facts to familiar experiences, you have to process what you’ve learned before you can confidently communicate it on a page. Once you’re confident in the information you have and your ability to convey it, this specter of writer’s block simply disappears.

Even with these tips, writer’s block can still be a speed bump in your creative process, but it doesn’t have to be a stopping point. Do you have any tricks to conquering writer’s block of your own? Please share your own insights in the comments below.

For more information on how the Best-in-Class get over writer’s block and produce compelling content marketing, download Aberdeen’s free report, 5 Habits of Highly Effective Content Marketers.

The 5 Types of Writer’s Block in Marketing – and How to Overcome Them