12 Old School Ways to Find New Content Ideas

When it comes to thinking up ‘new’ ideas, ChatGPT, SEO tools and competitor media are go-tos for many marketers. In fact, more than half (54%) are now using AI to generate ideas. Which begs the question, are these digital methods, really the best source of original ideas?

Yes, they may help you figure out what your customers are thinking, doing and talking about. True, they’ll help you tag onto the latest social media trends. Indeed, they’ll keep you up-to-date with the big conversations happening in your market. But recycling the same old topics, formats and messages (even if you do it really well) is unlikely to set the world alight. 

Whether you’ve milked all other avenues of creativity or want to unlock a genuinely new idea, turning to the methods of geniuses (think Leonardo Da Vinci, Dickens and Spielberg) is a good starting point. 

#1 Listen to music

Brains love music. From the moment you press play, almost all areas of the organ light up. A relaxed, happy mood, a reemergence of memories and enhanced concentration are just some resulting effects. You might already have a go-to work playlist, but switching up your tunes, taking in a whole album or more deeply focusing on the instruments or lyrics can give your brain a new stimulus. 

If you’re trying to think of content ideas for particular formats, then choosing the right music can help.  For example, shutting your eyes and shuffling a ‘TikTok Emerging’ playlist could help you think of new ways to hook onto growing trends. Or turning on new rap artists can inspire new ways to phrase your copy. 

#2 Ask your sales team

I know, you might think entering the lion’s den is a drastic step. But your sales team is in regular, close contact with your customers. So who better to ask what they’re thinking, how they’re feeling and which factors are currently influencing their behaviour?

Plus, if you struggle getting wider business buy-in, understanding where the pressure points are in the buying journey and using content to fix these problems can help. Listening in on sales calls or looking at anonymised feedback can also help you capture your customers’ voices in its purest form. 

#3 Buy a newspaper or mag

No doubt you’ve signed up to industry-specific newsletters or media, but perusing general news and lifestyle in print can open your eyes to how your work fits into the wider world. Reading it in a physical rather than digital format gives your brain a break from the screen-scrolling norm. This may inspire new ways you can capture attention, tell a story or share information. 

#4 Embrace the random and rubbish 

Not every idea may be original, but none of them are ‘bad’. Note down your shower thoughts, type out a line you hate but can’t get out of your head or save graphics that just aren’t working for you. It’s all material you can return to and rework later. 

As professional creatives, you hold your own work to the highest standard. Ironically, most geniuses only create their most iconic pieces after several rounds of redrafting. Just doing without putting any restrictions or rules on yourself is the first step to finding great original thoughts.

#5 Read a book

This doesn’t mean forcing yourself to trawl through books you should read, but picking up what interests you and spending an hour or two getting into it. Even if you’re a visual artist, reading has been shown to expand creative thinking. From asking questions to making connections and solving problems, making reading into a regular practice can help you get better at them all. 

#6 Chat to internal experts

Experts love what they do and want to tell everyone about it. If you’re prepared to listen to them, you’re sure to find nuggets of wisdom and information that will inspire your own work. Initially, you might feel at risk of being bored to death. But, in our experience, specialists (some might call them nerds) are the most enthusiastic team members in every business. Trust us, it’s infectious. 

#7 Get to an event

Don’t panic, it doesn’t have to involve networking, although studies have found a reciprocal correlation between the strength of social connections and creative freedom. The events don’t even have to relate to what you do (Glastonbury, anyone?) to inspire fresh ideas or reinvigorate your imagination. Any event that piques your interest will add to your inspiration library of experience and knowledge.

#8 Browse some art

Photography, 17th century landscapes, architecture… choose any visual that takes your fancy and look at it for a little while. Analysing pieces for their meaning has been shown to increase blood flow to the brain and stimulate embodied cognition. This forms connections between our conscious and subconscious thoughts, helping us process emotions and make sense of the world in a creative way. 

#9 Go for a walk

Ideally, choose a route through a natural environment. Heading into outdoor spaces has been shown to free our minds as well as our bodies. Even in urban environments, we loosen ourselves from the limits of everyday life and become more flexible in our creative thinking. This psychological freedom can open up lots of new, diverse ideas. In short, getting your steps can get you out of a creative rut. 

#10 Get personal

“Write what you know” is how the expression goes. That’s because our brains make sense of the world by pulling on our remembered experiences. One study found that even an unusual one-off experience (in this case, an underwater nightclub) can stimulate the imagination. By pulling on your own personal feelings, thoughts and past live events, you can find a new, inspiring perspective. 

#11 Try out mindfulness

Thinking without judgement gives our minds the freedom to be more creative. Mindfulness practices, such as meditation and breathwork, are the quickest way to tap into this thought process. 

Even ten minutes of observing the world around you can expand your openness, empathy and capacity to find new responses to a question you’ve been wrestling with. Doing short exercises on apps like Headspace or Calm can also help you refocus and gain clarity during a busy day. 

#12 Scribble, doodle and draw

Without stimulation, your mind will fall into its default circuits. The acts of scribbling, doodling or drawing absent-mindedly can keep your subconscious ticking over. This could be annotating a piece of stimulus or just letting your brain actively wander on a blank page. Before you know it, you could find yourself making previously unclear connections and creating or gaining clarity on your ideas.