How to Generate Marketing Ideas for Your Business

You know what’s the worst feeling? Writer’s block. You sit there trying desperately to come up with ideas for whatever you’re writing, but repeatedly draw a blank.

That feeling isn’t limited to writers, though. A lot of people have trouble coming up with ideas. Marketing is another area that’s heavily dependent on being creative and trying new tactics, which makes it frustrating when you aren’t sure how to generate marketing ideas for your business.

If that’s the position you find yourself in, you might be looking for some solid, reliable methods you can use to continuously find new marketing ideas. Thankfully, you’re in the right place.

On this page, we’ll go over five different methods for coming up with marketing ideas, including the following tips:

1. See what your competitors are doing
2. Get feedback from your customers
3. Look at what’s worked for you in the past
4. Research good marketing ideas
5. Look into trying the latest marketing trends

Keep reading to find out more about each one. Then be sure to subscribe to Revenue Weekly — our email newsletter — for more helpful marketing tips from the experts!

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1. See what your competitors are doing

One of the best ways to generate fresh marketing ideas is to simply look at what your competitors are up to. 

If you see your competitors doing something that’s really working for them, there’s a good chance that it would work for you, too. After all, the reason they’re your competitors is that you’re targeting the same audience.

That doesn’t mean that you should copy what they do exactly. But looking at their marketing is a great way for you to find new ideas for your own campaigns. 

For example, maybe you see that a competitor is doing a contest on social media where they offer one of their products as a prize. That might inspire you to do something similar, but instead of holding a contest, you do a sweepstakes giveaway.

2. Get feedback from your customers

At the end of the day, your marketing’s success is entirely dependent on how your audience responds to it. So, it makes sense that one of the best methods for coming up with marketing ideas is to ask your audience.

Well, okay, maybe not that directly. But, you can still generate marketing ideas by getting feedback from your audience. Send out surveys to learn:

• What they like best about your products or services
• What they wish was different about your products or services
• Which of your marketing materials left the biggest impact on them
• What they like most about your business as a whole

The answers to these questions will give you a sense of what to do with your marketing. For example, maybe you learn that users really love one particular feature of your product, but it’s a feature you hadn’t really been promoting before. That gives you the idea of building a fresh marketing campaign specifically advertising that feature.

3. Look at what’s worked for you in the past

They say, “Past results aren’t an indicator of future performance.” But in the world of marketing, that’s often untrue. Marketers frequently look back at what’s worked for them in past years to see what will be the most effective going forward. It’s not a perfect method, but it often yields results.

The same logic applies when you’re trying to generate fresh marketing ideas. If you’re stumped on what type of campaign to create next, look back at the types of campaigns that have been the most successful for you in the past. Often, those will still be the best ones to use in the present.

It’s not just about what type of campaign to use, either. You can also look back at what demographics and locations you’ve targeted, what types of products or services you’ve promoted, and more.

4. Research good marketing ideas

Another way to find new marketing ideas is to research them.

It might seem overly simplistic, but honestly, there’s nothing wrong with going to Google and typing in “good marketing ideas for [your industry].” If you’ve run out of ideas and you can’t think of anything else on your own, it doesn’t hurt to see if other people in your industry have listed some ideas you can take inspiration from.

That doesn’t mean you should make Google searches the bedrock of your new marketing idea generation strategy, but doing it on occasion is fine. Even if you don’t directly copy anything you find online, you may see ideas that inspire you to come up with other, similar ideas.

Of course, if you’re just looking for broad strategies to use, we can save you some time by recommending a few key types of marketing that every business should use. Those include:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
• Social media marketing
• Web design and development
• Content marketing
• Email marketing

5. Look into trying the latest marketing trends

Finally, it’s important to note that marketing is always evolving. Sure, there are some strategies (like the ones listed above) that are around for the long term, but there are also lots of other marketing approaches that change over time.

You can take advantage of this change by keeping up with the latest marketing trends. As new trends emerge, you may find that some of them are just what you’re looking for to freshen up your campaigns.

So, how do you keep up with these trends? Well, there are multiple ways to go about it, but one of the most reliable methods is to subscribe to some different marketing websites and blogs that regularly post fresh marketing content. Often, those sites will be the first to report on emerging trends.

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Take your marketing to new heights with WebFX

Sometimes, the work of constantly coming up with marketing ideas and putting them into practice can get overwhelming. That’s why it can help to partner with a professional marketing agency like WebFX. We offer a range of marketing services that we’ll use to help you drive revenue.

When you partner with us for our digital marketing services, we’ll handle all the work of managing your marketing campaigns while still letting you call the shots. We can help you generate marketing ideas and implement them on your behalf.

Interested in partnering with us? Just give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!