As a fairly prolific content marketer, I’m constantly on the lookout for inspiration for my next blog post, webinar or email marketing campaign. I’m under no illusion that finding inspiration can be difficult – attendees at my regular marketing seminars tell me that they struggle with developing new content ideas more than anything else.
The good news is that marketing inspiration is everywhere if you know where to look for it.
I honed my content-generating skills a number of years ago while working as a freelance journalist. As a freelancer, I set myself the goal of pitching at least one new story idea every single day. I considered a day that didn’t generate a pitch as a lost opportunity. While not everything sold, this persistent approach to pitching enabled me to secure a reasonable number of commissions each month and make sure that my mortgage was paid. I’ve known better journalists than me struggle to make ends meet financially because they focused more on their craft as writers than on their sales and marketing skills.
My inspiration came from multiple sources, and I believe this approach can be adapted to suit the needs of the marketer. You simply need to adjust your mind-set to examine every conversation, every piece of media consumed and every experience for an angle that can be exploited.
Six Places to Find Inspiration
- The Newspapers: As an ex-journalist, of course I’m going to encourage you to read newspapers more often. While I’m a big fan of online versions, print titles lend themselves better to content discovery as you flick through sections you might not refer to digitally. And it’s not just news about your industry that will potentially ignite a campaign idea. Sometimes even the briefest and most random stories can spark an idea. The more you read, the better informed you become (about everything) and the quicker your mind works, connecting the dots, identifying opportunities, and building more useful and engaging content. Sometimes a great campaign idea can come from simply riding the zeitgeist.
- Your Customers: As a marketer, it is your job to help solve problems for this group of people. Instead of second-guessing their problems (you’ll more than likely get it wrong), why not go directly to the source and ask your clients what they would like to see as part of your marketing output? Chances are they will give you a list of items that will keep you busy and your campaigns flowing for months to come.
- Social Media: Every day, millions of conversations take place on the social web about your products, your services, your competitors and the wider industry in which you work. Tapping into the social web for marketing inspiration can be as simple as conducting a few keyword searches on Twitter on a regular basis. Has a competitor dropped the ball? Is a potential client asking a question that you can help with? Has someone shared an idea you can adapt, enhance and run away with as your own? It’s all out there for the taking.
- Industry Influencers: The Internet gives marketers unrivaled access to a vast range of industry influencers to inspire your next campaign. LinkedIn is a particularly rich resource for inspirational content, with many high-profile business leaders sharing their insight. Remember, simply sharing an inspirational quote/meme will not make you stand out from the crowd. Your marketing must be useful, have an objective and be supported by a clear call to action if it is to be successful.
- Competitors’ Emails: Your competitors aren’t just out there to make your life difficult. Sometimes they can come up with really good ideas that, with a little tweak here and there, can be made even better. Forget first-mover advantage. The person second in line can often learn from the predecessor’s mistakes and do a better job. If you feel uneasy about subscribing to a competitor’s list, invest in an alias via a Gmail account. You can bet your competitors are probably lurking somewhere on your list and capturing your best ideas.
- Everyday Life: Sometimes I’ll hear something on the radio, see a quote on the Internet or have a conversation with a colleague that just gets my creative juices flowing. When this happens, the secret is to not let those ideas slip through your fingers (good ideas are like gold dust). I’ve shared a number of ideas for capturing content ideas and ensuring no opportunity is lost.
Remember: There is a huge difference between taking inspiration and plagiarizing. Be careful to make any ideas you take your own by adding value (I like to think of this as adding your own brand of special sauce).
Where do you look for your email marketing inspiration? Share your comments below: