What a Content Marketing Course Taught Me About Coming up With New Ideas
The Ideation process made simple
Humans are always coming up with new ideas. Whether we’re just laying in bed, commuting to work, or going out for a run, our minds have a seemingly endless ability to generate new ideas. But as natural and easy as this process may sometimes feel, it gets tricky when your job depends on it.
A writer doesn’t have the leisure to have an “off day”. Your content ideas fuel your work. Should you run out of gas and your content initiatives will stall.
“An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements” — James Webb Young
That’s why Hollywood producers pitch new ideas as “Jurassic Park meets Jaws” and entrepreneurs describe their startups as “the Uber for dogs”.
All ideas are made up of different, seemingly disparate, elements to produce something new.
Follow these simple steps of the ideation process.
Gathering Raw Material
Great writers read and consume content from a wide variety of places. They are endlessly curious and fascinated by a lot of different topics. The raw materials — the facts, concepts and stories — float in your mind in a sort of suspended animation.
“Curiosity, and the will to act on it, is a helpful prerequisite for any content marketer” — Guillaume Delloue
Be curious. Read whatever you can, whenever you can.
Develop an appetite for content and consume it regularly — good, bad, old, new, popular or nice.
Consume history, poetry, science and art. Read the magazines on top of Snapchat stories. You might be surprised what will come of it.
Digesting the Material
In this second stage, you’re going to be digesting the material. The goal is to bring those disparate ideas together and see how they fit.
You’re looking for connections and combinations. The goal is to synthesize those ideas in interesting and compelling ways.
Brainstorm.
Unconscious processing
Stop trying to bring those ideas together and do something else entirely. Go listen to some music, go for a walk, go to the gym, watch a movie or go to the beach. Anything to take your mind off the process.
Sometimes you have to let your mind rest and organize itself on its own. The mind is incredible in many ways we will never understand.
The best thing you can do is go to sleep. Sleeping increases your brains capabilities of data analyzation.
“Sleep, it seems, does something to improve memory ( that being awake does not do.” — Robert Stickgold and Jeffrey M. Ellenbogen
The “EUREKA” Moment
Suddenly, out of nowhere, you are at the groceries shop buying carrots and an idea pops into your head.
“It will come to you when you are least expecting it” — James Webb Young
What it happens, write it down. Millions of ideas have been lost by people who thought “I’ll remember”.
This process isn’t anything new or surprising. It’s how all of us come up with ideas. But as writers and content creators, it’s valuable to be aware of each step so you can work on them and improve.
It’s especially important to spend time gathering raw materials. You have to be willing and able to read voraciously and consume content from all places.
