Marketing is like any other creative pursuit in that it commands constant freshness, innovation, and ideation. The moment you find yourself in a mental rut without any new ideas is the moment that you’re no longer effective. And, if you aren’t careful, these ruts can last for days, weeks, or even months at a time – putting your campaign, business, or even career at risk.
The biggest challenge of being a marketer is that these ruts are an ever-present reality. No matter how hard you might try, they will come from time to time. The key is to make them less frequent and to shorten their duration, so you can get back to being creative.
In this guide, we’re going to show you how to amplify your creativity in marketing so that you can consistently get better results. After reading, it’ll be up to you to implement. Let’s dig in!
How Creativity Works
As counterintuitive as it seems, did you know that deep concentration is actually the worst mental state you can have for truly creative thoughts and ideas? When you’re at peak levels of concentration, all of the electrical impulses in your brain fire on all cylinders. This is good, if the goal is to reduce errors and improve efficiency with the task at hand, but it’s bad if you’re trying to come up with a brand new idea. There simply isn’t enough freedom for your brain to wander off in a new and exciting direction.
Creativity prefers low-bandwidth brain waves. More specifically, it prefers alpha waves. And guess when alpha waves (a.k.a. “creative juices”) flow the best? During a normal wakeful state where you’re alert but resting.
Think about it: When do you get your most creative ideas? If you’re like most people, it’s during the strangest moments, like taking a shower, mowing the lawn, driving down the interstate, walking the dog, or drinking a cup of coffee on the porch.
When you’re relaxed and the pressure is off, alpha waves take over and your brain is free to create.
“The amount of alpha waves increases when the brain relaxes from intentional, goal-oriented tasks. This is a sign of deep relaxation, but it does not mean that the mind is void,” says Oyvind Ellingsen, a Professor of Cellular Cardiology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “This default activity of the brain is often underestimated. It probably represents a kind of mental processing that connects various experiences and emotional residues, puts them into perspective.”
Creativity can’t be forced, but it can be conjured. The problem is that most people go about it in the wrong way. Now that you understand how “creative juices” actually work, you can put yourself in a position to be a better marketing professional.
The Importance of Creativity in Marketing
Creativity is the underlying force behind marketing. It’s what sets successful campaigns and brands apart from unsuccessful ones. In fact, you could argue that creativity is the most important element of marketing.
If you think about it, marketing is simply the goal of putting your brand in front of people who have the ability to buy your products. The goal is to make them view your products more favorably so they feel compelled to buy them.
The biggest challenge in marketing today is getting people to pay attention. There’s so much noise and competition for attention that you can’t take a lazy approach. The only way to get customers to focus on you is by doing something creative that disrupts their normal flow or interrupts their expectations. When you do this, you earn the right to be heard.
The moral of the story? If you want your marketing to be more successful, you have to be more creative. And if you want to be more creative, you have to put yourself in situations where your creative juices flow more freely.
4 Ways to Unleash Your Creative Juices
Now that we understand the what and why of creativity, let’s dig into a few of the specific ways you can unleash your creative juices for optimal results. Take a look:
- Keep a Swipe File
Sometimes it helps to see what other people are doing and pull inspiration from their creativity. One way to do this is by keeping what folks in the industry call a “swipe file.” A swipe file is basically a collection of examples, illustrations, advertisements, screenshots, and other references that you can flip through when looking for inspiration.
In the past, marketers would photocopy advertisements and headlines they liked and put them in a physical folder or binder. Today, you can simply take screenshots or download PDFs and put them in a cloud folder. Depending on how organized you are, you can sort your swipes into different buckets, such as headlines, CTAs, landing pages, emails, Facebook ads, etc.
When it comes to using a swipe file, the key word is “inspiration.” You never want to copy what another marketer is doing. Instead, you want to deconstruct how they achieved something and then use those principles to influence your own approach.
- Spend Time Disconnected
If you wanted to, you could spend all 16 or 17 of your waking hours glued to a screen. But if you’re serious about being creative, you must make time for disconnecting.
Screens, as much as we love them, often zap our creativity. To activate those all-important alpha waves in the brain, you have to disconnect. Any of the activities previously mentioned can work (like taking a shower, mowing the lawn, driving down the interstate, walking the dog, or drinking a cup of coffee on the porch). Just make sure you aren’t putting pressure on yourself to come up with ideas. Your primary objective is to disconnect. The better you are at relaxing your brain, the more likely it is that an idea will come to you.
- Switch Things Up
Burnout is one of the biggest constricting forces on the flow of creative juices. And if there’s one thing that really drives the risk of burnout, it’s doing the same thing every day…over and over again. You can foster a greater sense of creativity by lowering the risk of burnout. Here are some ideas:
- Change up your daily routine. Do you always take the same route to the office every day? Try a different route with different scenery. Do you always work out in the evenings after work? Consider working out in the morning before work (or on your lunch break).
- Change up your work environment. Sometimes changing your physical surroundings can awaken new ideas in you. It could be something as simple as spending the morning working in a nearby coffee shop.
- Adjust the way you hold meetings. Try a standup meeting with your marketing team instead of a traditional sitdown meeting. Or perhaps you could invite non-marketing team members into the meeting to get their take on something.
- Exercise Daily
According to multiple research studies, people with active lifestyles tend to be more creative than those with sedentary habits. The effects of exercise appear to be both immediate and long-lasting.
In other words, going on a three-mile run will give you an instant boost in creativity that same morning. But if you consistently run three miles over many weeks, you’ll also experience ongoing benefits. Your brain will actually start tackling problems more creatively than it did before.
It’s always best to consult with your doctor when starting a new exercise regimen, but the general rule of thumb is 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous daily exercise. This may include any combination of walking, running, cycling, swimming, lifting weights, or playing sports.
Set Your Marketing Up for Success
Successful marketing isn’t about having the most money or gaining access to more marketing channels. The key – the gasoline to the engine – is creativity. And if you can learn how to put yourself in more situations where your creative juices flow unrestricted, you’ll be more successful in this industry. Pick one of the ideas from the list above and take action. Once you feel as if you’ve perfected that approach, add another one to the mix. Good luck!