Content Brainstorming: Techniques for Ideating & Prioritizing Ideas

Good content is key to connecting with your target audience; if you want to catch and keep their attention, your content strategy needs to be on point. 

However, despite your creativity or your marketing team’s capabilities, you may sometimes find yourself scrambling for great ideas. It’s tough to keep a steady flow of creative ideas, but there’s always a need for fresh and engaging content—the struggle is real.

Content brainstorming tackles this challenge by bringing diverse perspectives and ideas together to create content. It’s a team effort where everyone shares ideas, sparks creativity, and creates innovative content.

We’ll show you ways to amp up your content strategy and overcome that creativity block sooner than you know. We’ll also introduce you to a handy tool that will help you in your content brainstorming sessions.

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The Benefits of Content Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a creative process where people get together and share as many ideas as possible to solve a particular problem. In content brainstorming, this collaborative exercise is done to generate content ideas. The aim is to generate many ideas without refining them at this stage. 

A brainstorming session lets you and your team freely share creative ideas within a set timeframe, promoting a free flow of thoughts. It encourages creative thinking and innovative problem-solving. While ideally, this activity should be done in a team for the most impact, content brainstorming can also be done individually. 

Brainstorming sessions for content ideas can have many benefits:

1. Generate ideas

Coming up with fresh ideas is the core of all brainstorming activities. It brings together unique ideas from people with different thought processes. Such sessions can help with idea generation as no ideas are shot down at this stage, and everything goes. Having a long list of ideas in a short time helps you then shortlist the ones to develop further. 

2. Collaborate better with your team

Brainstorming with colleagues or stakeholders gives you a list of actionable ideas to work with. When people with diverse skills like content, design, or marketing collaborate, they can bring up exciting ideas that one person alone couldn’t think of.  

3. Explore different points of view

No two people think the same way about one thing. Making room for different POVs (Points of View) lets you extract the best ideas from all minds, leading to more insightful and diverse content.  

4. Keep up with the market

One direct result of group brainstorming sessions is that you can evaluate the current market for all trending ideas and incorporate them into your content strategy. 

This way, you stay on top of market trends and the latest strategic developments.

5. Make better decisions

A decision made after thorough consultation is better than one made in isolation. 

Brainstorming lets us look at things from all angles, gathering insights from different perspectives. It’s like tapping into a pool of knowledge, setting the stage for smarter decision-making.

 Brainstorming becomes a powerful tool in shaping well-rounded, nuanced, and ultimately more effective decisions by considering all possible facets.

6. Be more creative

Brainstorming—alone or in a group—can get your creative process unstuck by encouraging a free flow of all possible ideas. You generate more innovative breakthroughs by not limiting yourself to ‘only good ideas’ and giving yourself (and other participants) permission to think out of the box. 

You now know how beneficial content brainstorming is for businesses and each member involved. The brainstorming exercise can pull in unique thoughts and chart the course of your content. 

Remember that strategizing is as important as content creation, if not more. Building a content roadmap will enable you to approach content creation systematically. 

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Content Brainstorming Methods

How do you implement a content brainstorming process at your workplace? Let’s look at some of the different content brainstorming ideas and methods you can try:

1. Use AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Artificial intelligence can read and analyze patterns faster than humans. 

If you are stuck in a creative rut, AI tools can help by generating content outlines, sparking creative ideas, or suggesting topics. If AI falls short, experiment with different prompts until you get the creative juices flowing. Add your individual creative touch to AI-generated ideas for the best results.

ClickUp AI is an extraordinary AI tool that delivers high-quality creative results for different use cases. It can ideate out-of-the-box content strategies and help you improve your current copy by making it more concise, clear, and engaging. 

ClickUp AI is the best brainstorming partner that helps with:

• Campaign strategy: Building campaign strategies in minutes for your next big marketing push
• Survey writing: Crafting intuitive questions in moments so you can accomplish your goals faster
• Marketing taglines: Amplifying your creative thinking with support from a highly creative marketing tagline tool
• Content topics: Generating ideas for blogs and videos so you can quickly scale content production
• Blog outlines: Apart from generating ideas, it can even help you structure the first outline of your blog, save you precious time, and develop a large content database in a short period

With this trusted partner, you can accomplish much more from your content plans. 

2. Draw mind maps

Pictures speak where words fail. Use visuals to help develop new content ideas and connect the dots better. 

You can use mind maps to draw connections between existing half-developed ideas and take them near completion. One way to do this is by using a simple sheet of paper and drawing a mindmap. 

However, you can do this more effectively with mind mapping tools such as ClickUp Mind Maps, which have features like drag-and-drop nodes to map your workflow or connect ideas. These will help you connect the dots and come up with foolproof strategies. 

You can use the blank or task modes based on your requirements and exercise your brain. 

Also, try ClickUp Whiteboards, which offer an excellent way to perform the same activity while collaborating with your team. Choose from either a pre-existing whiteboard template or create one of your own. You can add images, files, etc., to the Whiteboard using ClickUp Docs. Here’s an example of a ClickUp template that you can use to map out all your ideas and present them visually:

Download Template

3. Research your competitors

Download Template

Researching your competitors helps you keep abreast of their marketing strategies and stay in the loop with the latest market trends. Use competitive research tools to uncover everything from competitor email marketing to SEO strategies. 

ClickUp helps you leverage competitive research to analyze strategies for success and stay ahead of the competition. 

ClickUp’s Competitive Analysis template helps you with:

• Competitor analysis: Gain insights into the competitor landscape and cover the ground for potential threats
• Growth and expansion: Uncover the areas that have the potential for growth and expansion
• Unique standpoint: Understand how to differentiate your product or service from the others in the market 

4. Use brainstorming templates

Sometimes, we need a little help to get the brainstorming process started. That push can come in the form of brainstorming templates. Using brainstorming templates is like using a stencil to organize your thoughts better. 

ClickUp provides a range of brainstorming templates to fill up your content calendar, such as:

• Brainstorm ideas template: This is a simple template that helps you brainstorm and list down content ideas collaboratively with your team
• Brainstorm tips template: Focuses on fundamental principles to educate you on the best tips for brainstorming and organization
• Business brainstorming: Allows you to categorize brainstorming into four categories–what you love, what you know, what the world needs, and what people will pay for

Download Template

5. Create a handy idea folder

Generating creative ideas consistently can be a challenge for anyone. There are days when we don’t feel creative or are just plain tired and unable to come up with something new. So, relying solely on spontaneous ideas may not always help.

Instead, have regular brainstorming sessions with your content marketing team. Keep a handy folder where you and your team collect impactful blog posts and campaigns or jot down ideas for use later. Store everything that strikes you in this swipe file, regardless of immediate relevance. 

You can use this folder as a reference point whenever you want to create something new and need a little inspiration. Consider adding customer feedback and engagement to this file as well.

6. Research customer opinion 

When creating content, the goal is to connect with customers and boost business. And since the customer point of view is integral to content ideation and prioritization, why not loop in what they have to say too?

Before brainstorming new ideas, a great starting point is finding out what your customers have to say about your brand. Browse through the comment sections of top-ranking posts, skim through online reviews, comb through customer support tickets, and run customer surveys. 

By the end of this research, you’ll better understand your customers’ needs and be able to address them with your content strategy. Further, remember to explore platforms such as Quora and Reddit to do keyword research and find out what your target audience talks about.

7. Indulge in rapid ideation

Sometimes, spontaneity can fail you. That’s why a rapid ideation technique can prove effective in many instances. 

All you have to do is start a timer or a stopwatch and allow yourself/your team a brief timeframe, say five minutes. During this time, think of as many ideas as possible and keep jotting them down without worrying about fleshing them out. You’ll be surprised at what you accomplish with this exercise. 

As a group task, the same activity can work in rounds where everyone takes turns rapidly coming up with ideas, one after another. Follow either a clockwise or an anticlockwise circle, with each person contributing something spontaneously, and you’ll have long lists of exciting thoughts ready in minutes.

8. Build on each other’s ideas

Sometimes, all it takes is a little insight from someone else to complete that brilliant thought you’ve been working on. You’ve got everything except that one little thing that’s missing, and someone else comes along to help you finish it off. 

With this technique, you must ask everyone to write their ideas on paper or a shared Google Doc. These ideas are passed on to one person after another, each adding something to build on the original idea. 

Keep at it until everyone on the team has added to the document. The payoff? A web of ideas and contributions that would be challenging to create individually. 

9. Look up your past performance 

What’s a good way to improve performance? By learning from the past. 

Before you roll out fresh content, take a moment to revisit what resonated with your audience and what didn’t quite hit the mark.

Figure out why. Was it a specific topic, writing style, or something else that grabbed their interest? This insight will guide your approach to this new project.

10. Ask your audience 

Since you are creating for your audience, what’s better than getting content ideas directly from them?  

While studying customer feedback and reviews is good, there’s nothing like interacting directly with your customers for insights. It may not always be possible to speak with customers, but you can reach out and ask them what they want to see next. A good way to do this is by asking for content suggestions at the end of a blog post, video, or social media post. 

Another way is to search your published content for audience comments and questions. This method guarantees good results since you’ll uncover actual audience inputs.

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How to Prioritize and Score Content Ideas

You’ve put in the hard work and brainstormed successfully. Now that you have all the ideas, it’s time to prioritize and score them.

Remember, while every idea may look appealing, you should only shortlist the ones that are a perfect fit. Make room for better ideas and cut out those that do not align well with your brand. 

Prioritize your ideas using these easy proactive steps: 

1. Define your goals

Start by setting clear goals for your content brainstorming. Figure out what you want to achieve and how your content marketing strategy can help you.

As you do this, establish success criteria to gauge if you’ve hit your goals. This helps weed out bad ideas that don’t immediately serve you.

2. Score the ideas

This is an objective way of choosing the perfect idea. Establish criteria to score each shortlisted idea based on relevance, cost-effectiveness, feasibility, potential, effort, originality, urgency, and more.

This exercise moves you away from tricky subjective interpretation, giving you a solid foundation to analyze whether an idea is worth pursuing.

3. Analyze demand and competition

Once you have your shortlist of preferred content ideas, prioritize them according to expected impact. 

To do this well, you should analyze:

• Search volume for the topics identified and what kind of content ranks for them
• What are competitors doing for these topics, and how is their content performing
• What content formats resonate most with your audience
• What topics are already generating organic search traffic for you
• The relevance of each content topic for your target audience
• Other market trends or ideas that can play a role

Your final priority list would also depend on your KPIs —does your content need to generate leads, build engagement, or drive purchases? Are you aiming for traffic or conversions? 

4. Test and validate

Now that you have your content priority in place, it’s time to put it to the test. You can validate your ideas through polls, campaigns, prototypes, content pieces, interviews, and experimentation. This can give you a quick read on the idea’s potential before investing valuable resources to bring it to life—especially if it is a resource-heavy piece like a video series.

When it comes to lower-effort content pieces like blogs, social media posts, emails, etc., validate by analyzing their performance consistently to keep learning what’s working well, so you can do more of that. 

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Use ClickUp for Your Next Brainstorming Session

Content brainstorming demands time and patience,. It can be mentally exhausting but is one of the most exciting activities for a team, unlocking unexpected creative possibilities for your business.

With the right brainstorming techniques and tools, developing a content plan need not be daunting anymore.

Sign up with ClickUp today and unlock the tools to spark inspiration, generate ideas, and get your content strategy started right.