Having a process also allows you to think of ideas that may not be easily apparent. What's one thing you do to help come up with new ideas? How can you incorporate this into a repeatable framework (for yourself as well as those you collaborate with)?
My creative process is to research the topic, check what campaigns the competitors did around that specific topic and note down some keywords. Then I connect the dots and come up with my own idea.
It depends on the particular creative enterprise, but if I'm writing blog posts for businesses, I like to read as many well-written blog posts published by other businesses in the industry as possible.
My blog post creation process:
To generate ideas for the pain management blog I used to write and manage, I would first consider possible topics. The head content manager told me not to be repetitive, so if I wrote a blog post about back pain one week, I'd avoid writing about back issues for at least a few weeks. Next, I'd research other pain management blogs to create a shortlist of keyword phrases for various topics, and then use Neil Patel's free tool UberSuggest to see which one had the best chance to draw the most page views. At that point, I would take the "winning" keyword phrase, write a working title based on it, then research and write the blog post.
I go online and check out sites that get my creative juices going - Pinterest, Instagram, Behance etc. Derive bits and elements of things I find really interesting and it most times gives me a base to work with.
I enter this zone where I put bit and pieces in order to create a craft, at first i can be hesitant when i have an idea but at the end it was worth it.
When I need a new idea, I look at the marketing trends for my industry. I will read the latest article and even watch tik toks, but creators who ride motorcycles. I try to see how that trend can correlate with our dealership and how the customers will reciprocate the event. I think about what I just learned and wait for the juices to flow.
I read a lot, books and articles, and then watch other accounts in similar industries (and different). I also love going old school. A3 paper and colourful pens for a good brainstorm.
I read books, blogs and engage in various communities on social media every day. I noted the questions, lines or any important thing which I seem interesting in my notes app. This is the way I collect content ideas, I tweak these a bit to create many more content ideas from these.
I start with understanding the objective of the content. Then I understand the buyer persona. Deep dive into their needs, wants, aspirations and try to connect them to product offerings. Then I think about the lifestyle and what would be the most relatable way to reach the buyer. After this, I let all these thoughts simmer for a while and mostly an idea pops up.
I usually start with people I admire in the area I want my idea to be relevant to or compare competitors. I can apply this during the gathering raw material stages
For new ideas, I usually start by looking at the information that is there, an image, a video, an advertisement, etc. and then I think about what I would do differently and why. After that it just starts flowing and it can usually come from an adaptation of something else I saw in a movie or a conversation or somewhere else. inspiration is all around us, it just depends on how we adapt it to our goal.
Sometimes i come up with the ideas and sometimes I cannot. It affects my journey of creating content. I realize I cannot depend on suprising ideas which I do not know exactly when they come. I decide to put myself on the timetable. On which day I must have the ideas then on which day I process them. I note down some ideas I come up with on the way unexpectedly and save them for the next time.
