For those of you who write promotional pieces, newsletters, emails, event invitations, etc., coming up with topic ideas is not always easy. Even the most creative of us experience brain freeze sometimes. So how do you stir up your creativity? Here are a few tips.
Track Ideas
There are times that a great idea for a promotional piece or the perfect choice of words pops into our brain when we are in the middle of doing something else. The trouble with things that just pop into your brain is that they pop out again very quickly and while you remember you had the idea, you can’t for the life of you remember what it was.
Carry a small pad and pen with you so that you can stop what you are doing and write it down.
If you are with a customer or at a time when you can’t write it down, silently repeat it to yourself three time to help cement it into a part of your brain.
Read promotional pieces from other companies and look for the things the resonant with you. They may be pieces from companies in complete different industries, but the ideas are good.
The Internet is a boon to creativity. If you have a vague idea of what you want to do, type the keywords into a search engine and see what comes up.
Laugh
There is a fair amount of research into the correlation between humor and creativity. The findings are that laughter and humor make us more creative. So next time you are stuck, turn on your favorite, funny YouTube videos and watch them for a while. As Clarence Darrow said,
“If you lose the power to laugh you lose the power to think.”
So perk up your thinking power by taking a few minutes from whatever serious thing your doing to laugh (and then laugh again).
Use shortcuts that work for you to tune up and turn on your creativity
A tip of the glass from me to you
E Column
by Elizabeth “E” Slater, In Short Direct Marketing
A recognized expert in the fields of direct marketing and sales in the wine marketplace. Slater has taught more wineries and winery associations how to create and improve the effectiveness of their direct marketing programs and to make the most of each customer’s potential than anyone in the wine industry today.
