When it comes time to brainstorm a campaign idea, unleashing your creativity can be easier said than done -- especially if you’re brainstorming in a group setting.
In order to keep the ideas flowing and have more productive brainstorms, you need to account for different personality types, points of view, and preferred ways of learning. On top of that, you also need to be thinking about your potential customer’s pain points, preferred content formats, stage in the buyer’s journey, etc.
To help you conduct a better brainstorm session for your next campaign, consider the following tips:
Invite a diverse group of people. Invite new people from other teams to your brainstorms -- people with different skill sets and experiences to help get you out of your rut and see things in a new way. It’ll give you that great mix of new perspectives and contextual knowledge that’ll help you land on ideas that are both original and doable.
Provide context and goals well before the meeting. Offer any pertinent information at least two business days in advance so people have a fighting chance at actually being prepared for the brainstorm. By asking group members to bring a few ideas to the table, you create a launching point for more ideas to surface. To enforce this, you might want to pass around a spreadsheet for collecting ideas prior to the meeting.
Don’t be afraid to say “no” to the bad ideas. Squashing bad ideas could lead people to fear speaking up, missing out on good ideas as a result. But if you’re giving every idea equal due regardless of merit, then you get off-track real fast and end up down a bad idea rabbit hole.
Provide a place for anonymous submissions. For some people, the “right” format might be an anonymous submission. Provide a place for anonymous idea submission both before and after the meeting. People might have some ideas that they’re reticent to bring up in front of the group.
Check out the tips outlined in this quick video.