Creative thinking in marketing: how to come up with creative ideas
Table of contents
Knowing your audience on a deeper level
How and where to look for inspiration
You don’t need to be a creative genius to come up with marketing content that resonates with your audience and drives results. The secret? It’s not about reinventing the wheel—it’s about understanding your audience deeply and knowing where to look for inspiration.
Some small businesses struggle with creating content that feels fresh and relevant, but I’ll let you in on a secret: the key to standing out isn’t chasing trends or mimicking what others are doing. It’s about building a foundation rooted in your target audience's preferences, interests, and routines. And once you know who you’re speaking to, you’ll never run out of creative ideas.
In this blog, I’ll share two critical elements that will unlock your creative potential in marketing, along with examples from my own brand and how they’ve shaped my most successful campaigns.
Let’s dive in.
Know your audience
Understanding your audience is the foundation of any successful marketing strategy. To truly connect with them, you need to go beyond surface-level demographics like age, gender, or location. Instead, get to know them as real people: their values, routines, aesthetic preferences, favorite brands, and even the movies or pop culture references they love.
This is where buyer personas come into play. A buyer persona is a detailed profile of your ideal customer that helps you step into their shoes and craft messaging that resonates. For example, here are two buyer personas I created for a brand I worked with:
Buyer personas for Glowness, a UK-based skincare brand launching in 2025, by Kyau Bureau.
When building your buyer personas, dig deep. Here are some questions to guide your research:
What are their values and beliefs?
What brands do they admire and why?
What movies, TV shows, or books do they love?
What does their daily routine look like?
What are their biggest challenges and goals?
Once you create personas like these, you’ll start to see patterns in what resonates with your audience. This understanding becomes the foundation of your marketing strategy and makes it much easier to come up with content that clicks.
Common mistakes to avoid
Assuming without research: Basing decisions on what you think your audience likes instead of what they actually value. Everything should be backed by research (I take you through audience research step-by-step, including exactly where to look, in my guide).
Being too broad: Trying to appeal to everyone dilutes your messaging. Be unapologetic about who exactly you’re targeting.
Audience knowledge and brand positioning
Understanding your audience not only sparks creative ideas but also strengthens your brand positioning. Positioning is about carving out a distinct space in the market where your brand resonates deeply with a specific group. By aligning your content and branding with your audience’s values, preferences, and routines, you ensure that your brand stands out.
For example, my brand, the founder’s vault, is positioned as the go-to solution for small business owners who can’t afford to hire a branding or marketing agency. Everything from my messaging to my visuals is designed to resonate with young women entrepreneurs who value creativity, affordability, and authenticity.
Know where to look for inspiration
After you’ve defined your audience, it’s time to find creative inspiration that aligns with their preferences. Here are three ways I’ve implemented this strategy in my own marketing:
a) Take inspiration from their favorite brands
Your audience’s favorite brands are a goldmine for creative ideas. By analyzing what those brands are doing, you can adapt similar strategies to fit your own business.
For example, I know that my audience appreciates fashion and minimalist aesthetics. So, I looked at Charles & Keith’s marketing campaigns for inspiration. They had a specific post I loved, and I reimagined it to promote my guide. The result? It became one of my highest-converting creatives. It’s all about taking inspiration and making it your own while staying true to your brand.
The inspo (left) vs. my content (right):
b) Use pop culture references
Pop culture is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience because it taps into shared experiences and nostalgia. My audience loves early 2000s and 90s references, so I infuse those into my content whenever I can.
For instance, I created a post featuring an edited image of Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City holding my guide. It immediately resonated with my audience because it played into the nostalgic vibes they love while positioning my guide as something aspirational and stylish.
Even my newsletter introduction follows this principle. When you get an email, the first thing you see is “Alright, let’s get into it,” paired with a picture of Carrie Bradshaw typing on her laptop. It’s a small touch, but it creates a mood and aesthetic that my audience finds relatable and fun.
c) Tap into their routines
Think about your audience’s daily routines and how your product or service fits into their lives. This can be a great source of inspiration for relatable and impactful content.
One of my most successful ad creatives was inspired by the simple act of jotting down goals in the Notes app. I created a post that said “2025 Goals” with a list:
Launch my own brand.
Create a brand strategy.
Develop a visual identity.
Build a marketing plan.
Grab the Streamlined Guide to Branding and Social Media Marketing.
This post worked because it reflected a habit my audience already has, making it feel personal and relatable.
Everything I’ve shared above—understanding your audience, knowing where to look for inspiration, and aligning your content with their preferences—forms the backbone of my approach to branding and marketing. And it’s exactly what I guide you through in The Streamlined Guide to Branding and Social Media Marketing.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
How to create your brand: From defining your brand strategy (including brand pillars and product pillars that double as content pillars) to developing a visual identity that resonates with your audience.
How to build a content strategy that never runs out of ideas: Create a system that ensures your content is consistent, engaging, and aligned with marketing principles.
How to craft content that converts: Understand key marketing concepts like the rule of seven, buyer journeys, and buyer types, so your content resonates at every stage of the sales funnel.
This isn’t just about coming up with ideas—it’s about creating a foundation that ensures every piece of content you create serves your business goals. The guide also includes Emma, your AI-powered assistant, to help you implement everything faster and smarter
Conclusion
Creative marketing isn’t about doing more or spending hours brainstorming ideas. It’s about understanding your audience deeply and drawing inspiration from the things they already love and resonate with. The key is to combine that understanding with a solid marketing strategy so you can create content that feels effortless yet drives results.
If you’re ready to take the guesswork out of branding and marketing, grab The Streamlined Guide to Branding and Social Media Marketing. It’s packed with everything you need to build your brand and market it with confidence, from strategy to visuals to content creation.
Don’t wait for inspiration to strike, create a system that fuels your creativity and converts your audience.
