How to Brainstorm 30 Marketing Ideas in an Hour [TEMPLATE]

Coming up with the perfect mix of content is tough when you’re creatively tapped. But you need a steady stream of fresh and interesting content to keep your marketing machine going. This is especially true in SaaS, where the sales cycle is longer and the average deal takes 84 days to close. You want to keep your audience nurtured and engaged, and content is the best way to do it. But how do you come up with marketing ideas that will connect with your audience? Well, you’ve come to the right place.

We know firsthand how tough it can be, which is why we have a few go-to tricks to come up with great marketing ideas quickly and easily. Today, we’re sharing them with you to help you brainstorm a month’s worth of high-quality ideas—with less stress.

30 Prompts to Come Up with Content Marketing Ideas

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C brand, you can use the same strategy we use to come up with content: Simply fill in a series of prompts. This is a great way to get your creative wheels turning, brainstorm topics around a particular theme, or simply mix it up. For the purposes of this exercise, we’re sharing 30 prompts (a month of content), and we’ve also created a free template you can use to complete this exercise.

You can use these ideas directly, tweak, or edit as you like. Best of all, they can be adapted to any business, any industry, and any audience. (Note: This approach is particularly helpful if you’re trying to build out a new pillar of content around a family of keywords.)

To start, take an hour to fill in the prompts. This can be stream of consciousness (aka the first thing that pops into your brain). You can also edit/tweak any prompts if you feel inspired.

30 Marketing Idea Prompts

5 Biggest Myths About ________
10 Biggest ________ Mistakes You’re Probably Making
25 Impressive Examples of ________
The 7 Biggest Lessons We’ve Learned in ________
3 Hacks That Make ________ Easier
10 Do’s and Don’ts to ________
The #1 Worst Mistake We Ever Made in ________
How to ________ in 30 Days
Everything You Need to Know About ________
The Simple Trick to ________
10 Surprising Statistics That Change The Way You Think About ________
3 Trends in ________ You Need to Know About
The Lazy Person’s Guide to ________
The One Problem That Nobody’s Talking About In _______
If You’re Not Doing ________ , You’re Missing Out
Why ________ Is Not What You Think It is
5 Times We Changed Our Customers’ Lives by ________
10 ________ Tips in 60 Seconds
What Our Competitors Don’t Want You to Know About ________
9 Ways to Save Time When You ________
5 Experts Answer Your Questions About ________
7 Ways to Do ________ Better
3 Things We Wish We Knew About ________
How to ________ Better Than Your Competitors
The Ultimate Checklist to Help You ________
5 Questions to Ask Before You Decide to ________
________ vs. ________ : What’s the Difference?
How to Makeover Your ________
The 5 Biggest Benefits of ________
10 Signs It’s Time to ________

Once you’ve done your first brainstorm, go back and refine the ideas. Think about your audience’s key pain points or areas of interest, then tweak your ideas accordingly. Whether it’s educational, inspirational, or entertaining, you want your content to provide value in some way. Then, you can choose the best format for your idea. Some content ideas work better in certain formats (e.g., article, infographic, video, etc.). If you’re not sure which works best, here are 13 types of formats that can help your brand tell a great story.

How to Make Sure Your Marketing Ideas Work

Coming up with marketing ideas is just one part of the process. If you want to be successful, you need to optimize every aspect of your content—and production.

Curate the right mix. Once you have your ideas locked and refined, schedule them out. (Use our free editorial calendar to get it all on paper.) It’s also important to curate a healthy mix of content (including educational, entertaining, and inspirational). Find out how to create that perfect mix to keep your audience engaged.
Tailor your content to multiple audiences. One piece of content can speak to multiple audiences, especially if you create additional supporting content on social media. Find out how a divisible content strategy can help you get more mileage from the content you create. You can also use an idea generator like Hubspot’s blog ideas generator to come up with additional angles.
Add emotion to your headlines. The prompts here are a great start, but you want to tailor headlines to speak to your audience directly. Adding an emotional hook is an especially effective way to grab their attention. (We’re especially fond of adding words like “easy,” “simple,” or “less stress” to provide value in the headline itself.) You can also try Coschedule’s headline analyzer tool to improve your headlines.
Improve your production process. One of the biggest blockers to creating strong content is actually producing it. Follow our tips to optimize every part of the process and create content more efficiently—with less stress.
Use a partner—if you need it. Creating content requires a lot of moving parts, and it can be very stressful, especially if you’re short on time, budget, or support. If you need help crafting an effective content strategy (or bringing your strategy to life), follow our tips to find the right creative agency, see our own agency FAQs, or reach out.

Above all, the best way to improve your marketing (and marketing ideas) is to stay educated about the latest trends and tools. Take a look at our free resources archive, full of toolkits and templates to help you work better. Remember: All good content starts with a good strategy, so make sure yours is fully documented and regularly revisited. (Download our free guide to build a better content strategy if you haven’t done this.)

Most importantly, if you want to create good content that connects with your audience, stay connected with them. Have regular conversations, engage them on social, and ask for their feedback. The more you get to know them, the easier it will be to serve the right content to them—every month.