4 Ways to Kickstart Content Ideation with Your Team

4 minute read

Upland Admin

Content ideation is not only the backbone of your marketing; it’s essential for building a living, breathing brand that keeps pace with customer preferences. It’s also one of the most challenging things for businesses to do regularly—especially now that social media has ramped up the amount of daily content required to stay competitive.

More than nine out of ten marketers say that a constant, steady stream of ideas is crucial to effective content marketing. And when you break down the stats for B2B marketing specifically, B2B marketers need 67 ideas per quarter to be successful.

While it may seem like you’re fighting a losing battle with the interwebs, fear not! There is a way to create a process that allows your team to brainstorm and leverage on-target ideas that can quickly go from seed to execution.

B2B marketers need 67 content ideas per quarter to be successful

To keep a healthy balance of fresh ideas flowing, use these four simple tips to engage your team and pull together valuable suggestions throughout the month, rather than shifting directly into time-crunch mode.

1. Identify an Internal Thought Leader and Loop Them into the Content Ideation Process

Someone with a big-picture vision should provide relevant, fresh ideas regularly. An internal source who’s tapped into all aspects of the business can offer diverse insights that tie back to key business goals while keeping an expanded view of your team’s overall strategy. Insight from an internal thought leader also ensures that all aspects of the business have a voice in the marketing mix, which is essential for addressing diverse customer needs. Consider your thought leader an internal “crowd sorcerer” who saves you time and effort and provides vetted information.

2. Choose Monthly Marketing Themes for Ideation Focus

Looking at a huge landscape of marketing possibilities can feel overwhelming, so why not choose a monthly marketing theme for content ideation? This narrows the focus and provides a simple platform for more creative ideas within a niche. It also allows you to plan out themes for the whole year ahead of time. With this approach, the whole team knows what’s coming up and can track any inspirations they have to the appropriate months. It also helps build momentum while honoring the creative spark, which often strikes at random.

3. Take Brainstorming outside the Office

Always hosting content ideation sessions while staring at the same four walls? Why not take a field trip and see if creative inspiration strikes with a different set of stimuli? Maybe it’s a breakfast meeting at a different spot each time or a physical activity like bowling that will get things rolling. You can also schedule regular sessions and invite team members to pick the place, building engagement and investment in the content development process.

4. Repurpose Old Ideas with a Fresh Twist by Integrating Feedback from a Customer Survey

There’s no sense in spinning your wheels to come up with something completely new every time—especially when repurposing content is not only an effective marketing tactic, but a time-saving one.

On average, 75% of ideas are turned into a content asset, published once, and never reused or repurposed again.

To give your ideas a second life, tap into your existing customer base. Create a short customer survey that asks specific questions about recent marketing campaigns and collect feedback on which ideas worked and which ones faded off with a whimper. This may also provide direction on how to rework “just okay” ideas to make them more customer-friendly.

By using a combination of these four simple tactics you can empower your team to be more effective at brainstorming and help them have more fun at the same time.

The brainstorming process is the most essential part of marketing success. The more dynamic you can be while creating a simple structure to work within each month, the easier the high-quality ideas will flow.

Reliable products. Real results.

Every day, thousands of companies rely on Upland to get their jobs done simply and effectively. See how brands are putting Upland to work.

View Success Stories