Marketers are often under a substantial amount of pressure to keep coming up with creative ideas in order to attract new customers and wow existing ones.
We understand that being the ‘idea’s person’ is hard. It’s a challenge to keep coming up with ways in which your company or brand can use marketing to help boost leads and increase awareness.
So, what happens when you have marketer’s block (which is similar to writer’s block, but just for marketers)?
A marketer with no ideas is just a recipe for disaster!
But don’t fret! The next time you need to generate ideas or have a block try out one or more of our hacks below:
Hack #1 – No idea is a bad idea
Stop believing the myth that big ideas come out of the blue. Also stop believing that true geniuses have singular, exceptional thoughts.
The best way to generate a great idea is to think about as many ideas as possible. You may come up with one hundred ideas, ninety-nine may be terrible, but then you still have that one winning idea.
Think about Einstein. He worked on hundreds of scientific projects and beliefs, however, he is only remembered for a few of them. It was the way in which he thought that made him a genius.
Hack #2 – Brainstorming sessions
The best way to come up with these ideas is to have a brainstorming session. Bring the team together and huddle around a whiteboard (or a big sheet of white paper).
Get the team to shout out ideas that are all written down. When we say all, we mean all! There should be no judgement during this exercise.
Think back to hack #1; no idea is a bad idea. Even if an idea sounds ridiculous, write it down! That idea could spark up other ideas.
No sniggering too! This should be a safe space where the team feels safe to be able to say anything.
Hack #3 – What are your needs?
We often forget about the small details because we are so engrossed in the next big idea. Start thinking about your needs and wants. Is there a gap in the market somewhere that you can fill?
Think about how Gmail came about. Before Gmail people had Microsoft’s Hotmail which had limitations. Gmail wanted to offer people a free email account, but with 500 times more storage than their main competitor.
Airbnb is another great example. This company exists because they wanted to offer a cheaper alternative to hotels. People wanted somewhere to stay cheaply and so Airbnb made this happen.
Hack #4 – Never forget an idea again
How many times have you woken up in the early hours of the morning with a great idea? Rather than writing it down there and then, you think to yourself, I’ll remember that in the morning. Morning then comes and for the life of you, you can’t remember that idea. Frustrating right? I bet we’ve all been there.
With technology nowadays, no one has the excuse that they didn’t have a pen or paper handy to write down an idea.
Phones come with note apps. Like to keep it old school? Then get yourself a pocket sized notepad and pen.
Use them and never forget an idea again!
Hack #5 – It’s all about trial and error
“Learn to fail with pride – and do so fast and cleanly. Maximise trial and error – by mastering the error part.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Unfortunately, not all ideas will be a success, but how do you know if you don’t try?
Too many people don’t pursue an idea because they are afraid it will fail. Failure is a part of life and it’s all about how you deal with it.
Learning from failures is also important as you know from experience what works and what doesn’t.
Failure is nothing to be ashamed off as, if you learn from it, that failure was an important step towards success.
Why not try reframing failure to thinking of them as experiments. If you run an experiment you won’t fail. You simply generate feedback based on the outcome that can inform a better next step.
Other quick idea generating hacks:
Hack #6: Doodling
– doodling has a bad reputation but did you know that it can improve cognitive performance on tasks such as memory retention?
Hack #7: Meet new people
– if you have the chance to go out networking then go! Meeting and talking to new and interesting people is a great way to come up with new ideas.
Hack #8: Read as much as you can
– see what other people are writing about and get inspired. PRO TIP: Read magazines and books that you wouldn’t normally be interested in. You’ll find that this can be a catalyst for getting out of old thinking habits, helping you to be creative.
Hack #9: Revisit old ideas
– was something missing to make this a success? Perhaps a new perspective will work.
Hack #10: Surf the web – a great website is stumbleupon.com. You put in your interests and then you will be presented with weird and wonderful sites to check out.
Give it a whirl
We hope that the next time you’re in a pickle with generating ideas for your marketing that you try one of the hacks above.
Everyone will have their favourite one that they keep coming back to. So, it’s worth putting the time into trying a few out to see what works best for you.
Thank you for reading and don’t forget, you can connect with us on Twitter (@birchprint) or email us at [email protected].
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