How to Use Brainstorming to Creatively Market Your Business

People often connect with the imagery and messages of brands because they see a part of themselves within the marketing of those brands. One of the best ways that businesses reach out to their ideal audience is by carefully choosing the way that they express their brand messages in the marketing of their products and services.

For example, if you are a t-shirt designer and you design t-shirts that are hip and trendy, then most likely your images and messages for your marketing will be directed toward teenagers and young adults. So if you were to use imagery of older adults wearing your t-shirts, you probably will not sell as many t-shirts than you would if you used imagery of younger adults. This is an obvious example, but you see my point that it is important to always to think about what imagery and types of messages will attract your ideal clients and consumers.

To explore farther beyond the obvious example that I gave above, remember that you are not just marketing a product or service, but also the experience of using the product and doing business with you. Your ideal audience wants to know that you know them. You must use imagery and verbal messages that speak their language. This may seem obvious, but this is not always easily done. There is much to think about when deciding what is going to be the right visuals and words that will attract your ideal clients. You'll want to consider the age group, ethnicity, whether your clients are typically male or female, and what your ideal clients care most about. This may take much time to research the specific characteristics of your ideal clients, but it will be much easier for you to come up with effective and creative marketing ideas when you know the characteristics of your audience.

So, how do you come up with creative ideas of marketing to your audience once you know their characteristics, values, concerns, and desires? I suggest starting by conducting a brainstorming session. Brainstorming can be done individually or in a group and there are benefits to both individual and group brainstorming sessions. I recommend doing both. When brainstorming alone, you tend to produce a wider variety of ideas, however, you may not be able to develop ideas in as much depth as you would with the help of a group.

Brainstorming sessions in small groups (three to seven people) can produce some wonderfully creative results because you have the background and experience of a diverse group of people. Once one person has a creative block, another person can chime in and develop the ideas further.

To generate ideas for marketing and reaching out to your audience, begin by brainstorming ideas for photography and images that are suitable for attracting your ideal audience. If you plan to use imagery of people within your advertising messages, you'll want to consider showing a diverse group of people. To give a straightforward example, let's say that you are in the business of managing a daycare. In the images that you use as part of your marketing, you may want to consider using images of children of all races, ethnicity, cultures, and relevant ages.

In addition, it can be helpful to brainstorm relevant words related to what you are. For example, if I take this recent example of the daycare, I might brainstorm words that relate to the daycare and the experience of attending the daycare. These words can include: fun, exciting, educational, playful, and so on. By brainstorming words and phrases, you will be able to put your marketing messages together more easily and effectively.

Tip: After brainstorming a list of words, take out a thesaurus and expand on those words. This will give you a richer list of words from which to choose when you are putting the different brand materials together for your marketing.

By Lisa Hromada a personal brand designer.