Do you need to think about new creative strategies? Try brainstorming in the marketing department!
Conducting these brainstorming sessions can be effective in finding a solution in a creative and participatory way, especially in this area, which produces content for blogs, videos, social media posts, and emails, among others.
In this article we are going to explain how this technique arises, its rules and how you can apply it in the marketing department.
What is brainstorming?
Brainstorming means brainstorming in Spanish. It is a tool that stimulates the creation of new ideas to solve a specific problem or think about multiple aspects of a topic.
It can be done both individually and in groups. Although from its beginnings it emerged as a group technique.
It was a proposal created in 1941 by Alex Osborne, an American publicist, who pointed out that conventional business meetings inhibited people’s creative processes.
To provide a solution to this problem, he proposed some rules that could give people the freedom of mind and action to unleash and reveal new ideas.
Its objective is to stimulate participants’ creativity (ability to generate new ideas from associations and imaginative processes). Let’s see what those rules are:
Rules for brainstorming in the marketing department
Know the rules you must follow to carry out brainstorming in the marketing department:
1. Have an objective or goal to achieve
Just as an investigation or strategic plan can lose its direction without an objective, the same thing happens within a brainstorming session.
For this brainstorming to produce useful products, a common goal must be established.
This could be diagnosing a persistent problem in the marketing department, finding a solution to a problem, designing a content strategy, searching for ideas for an advertising campaign, etc.
It is important to establish an objective so that the members who are participating in the session do not lose focus and contribute ideas that do not correspond to what is wanted. This objective can be created from a question to which you want to find an answer.
For example:
Question: Why are blog visits decreasing?
Objective of brainstorming in the area of digital marketing: Determine the causes of the drop in traffic on blogs
2. Set a time
Brainstorming cannot last more than an hour because it becomes tedious for its participants. Furthermore, it will not generate the effect that is really sought: stimulating creativity.
All participants must be aware of the total duration of the brainstorming and avoid going over that established time.
3. The team must be multidisciplinary
For a brainstorming session to be truly effective, and for powerful ideas to emerge, its participants must belong to multiple disciplines or work areas.
In the case of the digital marketing department, a brainstorming session can be made up of the community manager, graphic designer, art director, content strategist, SEO analyst, etc.
The different angles and perspectives that each person can contribute, depending on their academic and work career, is very valuable for the exercise.
4. Write or record the sessions
All the ideas generated in the brainstorming session must be written down, or failing that, recorded for future consultations and meetings.< /span>
It usually happens that brainstorming can arise from a previous session, so to land those first ideas that have already been formed, it is important to write or record the fundamental contributions of the sessions.
5. Title the ideas
Those good ideas that emerge from the session should be titled and presented as brainstorming products.
Continuing with the example of web traffic, a possible idea could be: the keywords are not being used as they should. Therefore, this idea can be titled: misuse of keywords.
6. Previously investigate sources and references
The brainstorming sessions and their objectives must be organized and planned in advance so that all the people who are going to participate in it can investigate previously and bring ideas that can be supported with studies, success stories, statistics, etc.
The ideal thing is that each idea has a justification and there is a reference to raise it.
7. You cannot criticize ideas
When the founder of brainstorming Alex Osborne established the rules for how it should be done, avoiding criticism was one of the most important. a>
This means that no idea should be judged or used as an example of mockery within the session. All ideas are valid.
Also, it is recommended that your team forget about budget or constraints of any kind. Although some ideas may seem impossible, when complemented by other ideas, they can be transformed into something feasible or serve as a basis for contributing new ideas.
8. Ideas have no owners
The brainstorming when done in groups translates into teamwork. Therefore, all the ideas that arise belong to everyone and not to a specific person.
The products generated in each session correspond to it and not to a particular member.
A person cannot appropriate these ideas, since they are property of the company, the department or are part of the strategy to be used.
9. It has to be participatory
A brainstorming session must be 100% participatory. By this, we mean that no one should be left without speaking and everyone has to contribute something.
If they are there, it is surely because what they think and do is very important for the development of the activity, which is why they must express what they believe.
Here is the importance of it being multidisciplinary (as we already mentioned) and democratic, that is, everyone has the same opportunity to speak and contribute something.
10. Ideas must be associated and new ones built
Among the objectives of brainstorming, the association of ideas to build others with much more power and meaning stands out.
Therefore, this practice must be present throughout the activity and must be carried out by the members themselves, that is, they must be the ones in charge of contributing or complementing new ideas based on what their colleagues said.
11. There can be no distractions
This rule is very important. In a brainstorming session, there cannot be people checking email or social networks, responding to messages, taking calls, etc.
During the time the meeting is established, all people must be focused on fulfilling the purpose. The distractions:
- They delay the process.
- They interrupt creativity.
They generate group unrest.
12. Have a moderator
Although brainstorming is a technique to stimulate creativity and freedom of thought, there must be a moderator in the session who is be in charge of leading the session.
To achieve this, you must write down the ideas on a whiteboard and supervise that all the rules we are mentioning are met, such as: intervention times, respect for the ideas of others, equitable participation, etc.
In conclusion, to do a brainstorming session in the marketing department, all these rules must be met so that the technique does not lose its effectiveness and is really useful.
The use of work methodologies facilitates processes and outlines the path to success. Therefore, within brainstorming, this series of steps represents fundamental pillars that must be used so that the products of the session are assertive.
