14 tips to boost your creativity (possibly)

There are a lot of clever marketers out there.

And they know more best practices than you can shake a USB stick at.

And, unfortunately, a whole bunch of these clever marketers are trying to get people to pay more attention to them and less to you.

Which is why a common theme on this blog is lifting yourself above the morass to stand out – literally and figuratively – when a lot of others are also already doing the “right things”.

That’s where creativity comes in: ideas and images, copy and campaign concepts, subject lines and new designs that draw attention and drive response.

But there’s a problem with being creative: how exactly do you do “be creative”?

As a writer and marketer, creativity is a big deal for me, but I never consciously explored exactly where ideas come from for articles, phrases, subject lines, websites etc.

So I sat down today and wrote out, based entirely on personal experience, those tips, tactics and actions that have helped me “be creative”.

Perhaps they resonate with you, too?

I very much hope you’ll reveal your own ideas or instructive resources in the comments, so we can crack this problem together. What helps you or your team be creative and so be competitive?

1. Let yourself be inspired

It’s hard to do something genuinely new, but intelligent adaptation or combination of existing ideas is creative in its own right. Harry Potter draws on a range of existing concepts, but nobody would deny that it’s a creative masterpiece.

I collated inspiring resources for email designs and tactics here, and for subject lines here.

2. Astonishingly, what they say about practice appears to be true

The more you create, the better you become at it.

3. Don’t be intimidated into creative inaction by the amazing skills of others

The Internet is terribly good at reminding us – daily – how our meagre offerings compare pitifully to those of the best bloggers, designers, marketers etc..

We can’t all be Vincent van Gogh. But we don’t have to be to do our job well.

Besides, Van Gogh may have been good at painting sunflowers, but could he sell them using 50 characters or less?

4. Use dead time to let your mind wander

Most of my posts are sketched out on the S45 train between Hernals and Heiligenstadt (the route to and from my youngest’s school).

Use “lost” time in planes, trains and coffee queues to work on new ideas. Creativity is hard to turn on, mind, so don’t get frustrated when it doesn’t happen. Otherwise you’ll be very frustrated.

5. Play to your creative strengths

I have the visual design skills of a lobotomized jelly fish. So I stopped worrying about the creative skills I can never have and focused instead on what I can do: text.

If you need creative gaps filled, get others to do so.

6. Unless there is some other pressing task, let the brain run free when it’s being creative

Those golden moments don’t turn up so often, so don’t stop them until you have to. Our tendency to leave the here and now, lose focus and let the mind wander is often a bad thing when you’re trying to get things done. But it serves us well when it comes to creative thinking.

7. Bounce ideas and concepts off people who know nothing about the subject

Just talking about it helps you clarify the value of the ideas.

8. Bounce ideas and concepts off people who do know what they’re talking about

But filter their opinions for:

1. Those who are positive because they’re trying to be nice
2. Those who are negative because they don’t like to see others come up with good ideas

9. Open up

Read a lot. Watch a lot. Experience a lot. Participate a lot.

Some of my blog posts started life as comments to something someone else wrote.

But get out of your comfort zone, too. Read what you normally read, read what your audience normally reads and read some things that neither you nor your audience read. I’m a technophobe, which is why I use a smartphone.

10. Beware the pull of mediocrity

A lot of mediocre work comes through the safety of numbers. Do what other people do and it’s hard to be criticized. And if it proves a mistake, at least there are lots of others in the same boat.

Fight that reasoning if you can.

11. Don’t be disheartened if you get it wrong (unless you regularly get it wrong, in which case you might want to change jobs)

Failure is a great teacher.

Besides, it’s hard to know what will work and what won’t, otherwise we’d all have come up with viral marketing campaigns that got a trillion hits on YouTube.

Some of my “best” creative efforts bombed, and vice versa. There are no guarantees, although if you can work the words Facebook, Bieber, integration, multichannel and Harry Potter into an article title, you have a good chance.

12. Listen to your audience

Absorb their comments, responses and creations. Let them inspire you.

13. Never rest on your creative laurels

When you build a positive image or reputation for yourself or whatever you represent, people tend to cut you some slack and put a positive slant on what you come up with next.

But goodwill doesn’t last forever. It needs constant recharging with creative success. Always look to improve.

14. Write or record it

Creative thoughts strike at unexpected moments. Write them down before they’re lost forever. I carry a pen and paper at all times (others prefer an appropriate mobile device) to take notes when one of the ideas sleeting randomly through the air hits my brain.

I just carry a sheaf of paper or a notebook with perforated sheets. Then I only remove the sheets with notes, leaving the rest behind. That way there’s always paper to hand: notebooks are easily removed from a pocket and not returned.

Use paper that’s as big as practical. When your notes reach the bottom of a page you hit a psychological stop point. Big sheets leave room for more ideas.

Use your camera phone to take photos of ads, text, scenes etc. that “gave you an idea”.

Keep a file permanently open on the PC/laptop for noting ideas, concepts or text that pop up during other tasks. There are specific web and desktop applications that can manage the notetaking task (like Evernote), but I’m still happy with a simple text file.

OK, how about you?

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