Too often people feel stuck in a rut when finding inspiration. Yet there are mundane places all around you where you could reach or look for this inspiration. It doesn’t matter whether you need this inspiration for marketing, new products, content, or anything else- the following are key places to find it.
Friends, Family, Co-Workers
Instead of getting frustrated when other people offer you advice about your business, you should listen, pay attention, and thank them. They are offering you valuable advice for free which can be used as inspiration for many types of aspects of your business. You shouldn’t dismiss their advice simply because they aren’t trained in business or marketing. If you look at it in that way, you are probably missing out on a lot of good ideas.
Commercials, Movie Previews
If you watch television, you should pay strict attention to the commercials. If you go to the movie theaters, you should pay just as much attention to the previews shown before the actual movie begins. These often forgotten items are incredibly valuable in finding marketing inspiration. Since these are other advertisements, they may help you to come up with new ways to advertise your own products, services, or company. Just remember to never copy an advertisement exactly. Always put your unique spin on things.
The Mall
If you need some serious inspiration for marketing or branding your company, just take a few hours to stroll around the mall. Nearly every type of promotion or marketing technique you can imagine is in use there. Pay attention to what types of advertisement are being used in the stores which are most crowded. This can help you to assess which forms of marketing actually work and which do not. You may want to further this research by taking notes of the stores with the most customers and then checking out their websites to see what virtual marketing techniques are also being used.
Search Engines
Search engines are the perfect place to find content ideas. A quick search for a general topic idea (say, marketing content or parenting content) and see what other articles have been written on the topic. It’s okay to use the same basic idea for a piece, but like everything else you should take great care to give the content your own unique spin. Add more information, use your favored tone, and add a slightly different view.
Your Home
Take a look around your home and you will see hundreds of ideas for marketing, content, branding, products, and services. What products do you purchase? What first attracted you to those products? What services do you subscribe to? Why? Think about things on the opposite side of the spectrum as well. What products will you never purchase? Why? What services will you never subscribe to? Why? This can give you great ideas on what you should and should not do in your own company.
Social Media
Connecting with your competition on social media can give you plenty of ideas on what you should or should not do with your own business. Take a look at what types of posts the competition has put up on social media. Which items gained a lot of engagement? Which ones did not do as well? Which ones were a total flop and gained no engagement whatsoever? Take notes and apply this to your own social media marketing campaign.
Conclusion
With so many mundane places you can fall back on, there is no reason to ever run out of inspiration for your company. All of these places are easily within your reach. All you have to do is pay attention to the ordinary every day places you go and things you do.
