It isn’t always easy to come up with ideas. When you’ve generated your business idea, you can often feel like you’re done in the creative department. However, that’s often far from the case. Instead, you have to be able to come up with new, fresh, and interesting ideas on a regular basis. Not only for your product development but also for your marketing.
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Even if you’re the most talented marketer on earth, you may find that your idea-generating juices dry up from time to time. And when that happens, what are you meant to do?
First of all, you’re going to need to find some inspiration. But knowing that is only half the battle. You then need to know where you’re going to get that inspiration from.
Whether you’ve always been awful at trying to come up with new ideas, or you’re usually pretty good, but you’re getting busier, and your brain is burning out, you need some foolproof avenues to explore whenever an idea is in need. And that’s where this post comes in.
Let’s take a look at fourteen different sources that you can turn to when you need some inspiration for your next big marketing idea.
Search For Marketing Ideas
Now, this one might sound obvious, but we still had to include it in case it’s so obvious, that you’ve kind of overlooked it! But searching for inspiration works.
Get yourself over to Google, or your preferred search engine and start searching away. Not only should you look up all things “marketing” but you could also use a keyword tool to see what topics are trending to also spark some creativity in you.
Online Magazines
From here, your next choice is to head to some of the world’s most popular marketing magazines. Whether it’s The Drum or Marketing Week, or any other kind of online magazine, make sure you start reading these sites regularly.
They post stories on campaigns, news, and even case studies, and you never know what’s going to give you that genius marketing idea as you read.
Books
But don’t forget about good old-fashioned books. Although modern information is always online and is constantly getting updated, don’t forget that some of the best ways to market your business are the most traditional. And you never know what kind of ideas you’re going to come up with when you’re reading about how the experts do it.
So pick up one of the best marketing books of all time and swot up to get your creative juices flowing.
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Now we’re going to talk about the social sites that you’re going to want to head to. Because believe it or not, all of the best content isn’t always kept on set sites.
Marketing magazines (and even blogs) and businesses can also share and post really interesting content on their Facebook page that you’re not going to want to miss.
This kind of information could be what it takes to get your brain ticking and ideas generating.
But don’t discount Twitter. The kind of content that you’re going to find on Twitter will be really different from that you’ll find on Facebook, as both have different audiences.
So, you may find that you’re able to see some great ideas or something that sparks one in you.
Also, when you’re on the platform, you may see some evidence of really great social marketing campaigns that you can take inspiration from too.
Snapchat
Next, there’s always Snapchat to think about. Although you may not find the kind of stories and case studies you can online here, you’ll be looking for a different kind of inspiration. Namely, what others are doing.
Because there are some brands that are absolutely killing it on Snapchat and don’t you want to see why they’re such a success? By taking on board what others are doing, it might inspire you to start your own Snapchat campaign, or even apply key takeaways to other areas of your marketing strategy.
And, of course, there’s always Instagram to consider too. If you’re really trying to drill down on some excellent online marketing ideas, you definitely need to see some influencer marketing campaigns in action.
And to do this, you’re going to want to be looking at what makes an influencer so influential, and also how brands harness their power to benefit their business. It’s a kind of magic that can further inspire your own marketing ideas.
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Podcasts
Do you listen to podcasts? Whether you listen to comedy or stories, you should also be turning to these beauties for inspiration too.
There are so many different marketing podcasts that could just contain that one piece of informational gold to spark your next big idea. But you’ll also find that entrepreneurs have their own podcasts too, which can inspire ideas for the rest of your business (for more business and marketing podcasts you should also check this list, as well!)
Blogs
From here, you’ve always got blogs. Because the big magazines aren’t the only guys that have some really awesome marketing thoughts, insights, case studies, and results to share with you.
If you really want to ensure that you’re giving your brain the best chance at coming up with some incredible ideas, you need to cover a wide range of information and blogs offer you that.
You get similar insights but from a completely different perspective.
Quora
You might not have used Quora before, but you’ve probably seen the site pop up in search results before.
Quora is a site to ask questions on, then experts or businesses can provide you with their experienced answers and insights.
The marketing section is definitely somewhere you should be checking in with regularly if you want to be able to find further insight and ideas.
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Conferences
But there are also some really great offline sources of inspiration that you could look to too, and conferences are always one of them.
Whether you’re chatting to someone about their business, reading up on case studies of other businesses, or even heading to a conference on marketing itself, you may find that you’re able to really get your mind in gear and see these offline, in-person events as a super-strong way to generate new ideas.
Competitors
And have you ever thought about what your competitors are doing? You probably keep an eye on them, just to see where you are in comparison to them, but do you also study their marketing activity?
Although you’re not going to want to imitate everything they do, you may get a really good idea based on something you’ve seen them do. And, after all, you really do need to keep up with them, or better yet, beat them!
Colleagues
Then, you’ve also got your colleagues to turn to for inspiration.
Whether you have your own business with staff that can inspire you, or you work freelance, and you turn to your close support network, you can often find that other people may really inspire you. And if you’ve not got that support network in place yet, you need to get yourself online and start networking like a pro.
Forums
And finally, you’ve always got forums to turn to. When you’re really lacking in inspiration, turning into a really relevant discussion can help.
For this, you’re going to want to head to any one of the best marketing forums available online and either read away or even join in on the conversation.
You never know what kind of ideas can come from mutual collaboration and conversations online. There are a lot of sources and references around to give you good ideas. So get searching as soon as possible!
