About Me
I’ve been collecting creativity tools since I first had the ambition to be a comedian and write my own material. That didn’t quite work out (nothing bad, just not for me) and I found that I wanted to write original stuff, So, I kept up a ‘tool chest’ of usable ideas to make myself more creative.
Once you start building your ‘tool chest’ and practicing the tools become instinctive.
Here’s 10 that I’ve used to varying degrees of success. So, pick and choose or use them all to help you increase being creative for anything including digital marketing.
Take any idea or lack of and apply all 10. Which one works best for you? Add that to your ‘tool chest’ and practice…
1. Put to other uses
I’ve had this idea but it doesn’t work the way I want it to.
- What other use could you put the idea to?
- Can you use it on a different social platform?
- If it’s content then can you change from copy to video or an image, infographic, cartoon?
2. Adapt
I have a problem or I need to adapt an idea.
- What else is like this?
- What does this idea suggest?
- Is this an idea from the past I can adapt into something new?
3. Modify
I have a campaign that worked.
- What new twist can I put on it?
- Can I change the audience, the platform, the media for more impact?
- If I changed one element of this campaign/idea what would it be and what could it achieve?
4. Magnify
- What can I add to make this idea bigger, go further?
- Should I add more time, more budget, do more frequently?
- How big can I make this idea?
- Should I exaggerate to create an absurd effect?
5. Minify
- What can I take away the idea still be valid or even quicker?
- Smaller, narrower, lighter; what can I streamline or split?
- Should I understate or be less frequent?
6. Substitute
- What element could I substitute for a possible greater return?
- Who else could I use? Is there a newer joint venture partner with a different demographic I can try?
- Should I substitute another tone of voice, another traffic source? A minimal landing page design or element that would make this idea more personal?
- Should I use a different time of day?
7. Rearrange
- Is the sequence of the campaign as optimised as it could be?
- What if I changed around this element with that one?
- What if this came from another place?
- If I changed the email send time of day would it increase open rate?
- What is the pattern we’ve created for our campaigns? What if I broke that pattern?
8. Reverse
- Can I reverse the campaign?
- If this idea was done in reverse would it make something new?
- What if I transposed the outcome from positive to negative, would I do anything differently?
- Could we send traffic in the reverse direction for something?
9. Combine
- What if I combined this idea with this? With someone else’s?
- If I blended this idea what would be produced?
- Can I make an alloy of ideas?
- What instead of one voice it was an ensemble.
- If I combined multiple content types what would we end up with?
10. What if…?
I keep saying it. These are the two best and most powerful creativity tools. It’s free association.
The nine ideas preceding are very formal (and they work, if you use them enough they’ll become automatic). But this is the big one because you can go anywhere.
Combine this with a quota. Start with five what if’s? Work your way up to many more (I go to 100 sometimes, it’s very exciting to find stuff you never would have come up with.
Creativity Tools Bonus Tip
If a social platform likes your content you’re likely to get greater reach with the next post. So, think in terms of series or serials to aid amplification.
*The main picture is from a play called ‘Once’ by a company called Derevo.
About Conversion Detectives Ltd
Conversion Detectives is a full service digital marketing agency near St Albans, Hertfordshire.
We find the best quality traffic for your website and convert more of that traffic into sales or sales leads.
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