Inspiration is all around us. If you know where to look specifically for marketing, because it is out in the open today, we're going to explore how to use swipe files, competitor insights and trends to fuel creative ideas and generate great copy content and marketing tactics. By the end of this video, you'll have practical tools to gather and upcycle ideas for fresh, unique approaches to your content and marketing needs. Alright, let's talk about the age old tool that you need to have for your marketing efforts, and that is a swipe file. Now, it doesn't matter if you have a product or service or what it is that you're trying to get out in the world and get some conversions and response on, you've got to have your eyes open and be looking at your industry. Plus, and this is the one that a lot of people don't do.

They spend a lot of time looking at their competitors, but they don't spend a lot of time looking at other niches and other areas of business, which is oftentimes personally where I find the most inspiration. Now, lemme just stop this video right here and say, I am not telling you to copy other people, plagiarize or otherwise steal things. I'm talking a discussion. We're having a discussion here about seeking inspiration, tactical guidance, and looking at formatting and frameworks. And by looking out across all of the world where marketing is evident, pretty much everywhere we can start to learn and get inspiration. So that's what we're discussing today. We're not plagiarizing, we're not stealing. So swipe vials are collection of content, ads, visual phrases, copywriting, layout, colors, tactics, and anything like that that looks like it might function or at least inspire you as it relates to getting your marketing done.

Okay? So you want to build a swipe file library. You can categorize that any way that makes sense to you, images by copy, by design and so forth, and start collecting that stuff. I will tell you that I go all the time and ask to take menus and print material from businesses all over that I visit and keep bringing them back here to the office, and we have a gigantic cabinet of that stuff. So we sit down with clients and we're looking for inspiration or we're struggling with a project to come up with fresh new ideas. Sometimes we throw all that stuff out on the desk, so that's what I'm talking about. It's not all digital necessarily, and you may be in a position where print is important, but I like looking at print because a lot of times more time is spent on those pieces.

So that's a little tip for you here, okay? You're going to use these references when you're stuck on ideas and you need stimulation for new creative direction. They let you see new angles and how others might be approaching similar concepts or challenges in their marketing. Okay? This is basic stuff that everybody in this business is doing, but you can be doing for your business. You're going to want to look at competitors or industries and see what's working and how they're engaging their audience. And one of the things that you have to start training yourself to do is when you are presented with a piece of marketing or marketing piece, could be print, could be digital, could be video, could be display, it could be photography, could be social media. It doesn't matter. You have to look at the piece, but then you have to look through it and what the triggers are and start noticing how you're affected by it.

Why did it make you pause? What about it is engaging? What is the call to action? All the basic elements that we discuss here on this channel need to be evaluated and noticed. So you have to look at marketing outside in the world with a conscious, conscious view about what is going on, not just a consumptive view, okay? Because two sides to our mind, the one that is being influenced and the one that is evaluating. As a marketer, you need to reside in the evaluatory side of your brain when you're looking out for inspiration and you want to be seeking to spot patterns and looking at what's working. And one of the best ways to see that is to see campaigns and so forth that are consistently repeated. Typically, campaigns that are consistently in repetition are working, and if they're working, there's something about them that is functionally the right thing to do, and that's where we want to zero our focus in.

What about it is work? Okay, so I think one of the fun ones that I like to think about is flow from progressive. She's had a whole career of doing these funny little skits with Progressive because it's working. And if you look at that one just as an example, you start to realize that there's a couple of things there that are really valuable to markers, and I think a great lesson in that one. Each one of the little ads kind of has a storyline that we can remember. Like remember the funny one where she was on the camping trip. Remember the one she's at, the boating dock. Remember the one where she's messing around and pretending she's riding a motorcycle? All these different areas that progressive services for insurance, they did skits about and placed her in these different circumstances where she's kind of a badass biker and then she's this and that.

So the lesson in all that is, hey, can I tell stories around all these different areas that my product services, the problems that we solve, the progressive basically has created skits around every problem that progressive insurance solves. Risk is the problem they solve, risk in vehicles, houses, so on and so forth. Okay, so that one is great to look at and is a perfect example of something that's been ongoing for years and years and years is clearly bringing them leads and business and brand awareness and reaching a wide demographic. They're funny. Young people can enjoy them, old people can enjoy them. They're universally appealing. So lots to take away from just that. One example, which I'll let you know, I just spitballed right here, didn't even have it in the notes, but this is what I'm saying. It's all out there for us to notice.

Use your competitor insights to enhance your ideas and create more value for your audience, and therefore more engagement and more conversions. Okay, let's talk a little bit about trend surfing. Now, this is a good age. Old tactic's been going on for, I don't know, probably a hundred years as a business person and especially as a marketing person or somebody that's trying to grow a business to stay aware of current trends, and that can really help your content stake timely and relevant. So you're going to use tools like Google Trends, social media insights and trending hashtags to track what's popular, and also just keeping your head up and not getting too buried in your own stuff. You need to be societally aware of what is in movement at this time. And today as I make this video, a big piece of what's trending in the technology space and in the lifestyle space is artificial intelligence.

So if that in some way intersects your life, having that in your titles and your content and your marketing and maybe as part of your product development is clearly very relevant to most buyers right now because there's a lot of interest in buzz around that. That's just one example. But there's trends everywhere and sub trends and very niche niche trends that may be where your business resides, but it's really important to stay conscious and be ready to serve those when you can take advantage of it. And how do you do that? You look at ways to customize those trends to match your brand style, which not only helps with authenticity, but also helps with relevancy. Okay? So you're going to use those trending ideas to refresh your content, bring new perspective, but also to attach and ride the wave of the trend to get more awareness, potentially open up more demographic and markets for yourself and to position yourself and your company as staying on with the now.

Not getting left behind is also a really important piece for services and products. People don't want to buy the old stuff. They want to be the new cutting edge things, so keep that in mind. Okay, let's wrap this one up. You're going to build an inspirational toolkit consisting of a swipe file, competitor insights, trends, and go-to creative ideas. That could be visual layout, graphics, media, videos, colors, competitor and or other industry tactics and so forth and mechanics that could and maybe will help support your marketing efforts. You're going to start building this swipe file and gathering all of that starting today. And then as you build and build and build, you learn and learn and learn, and you have resources for yourself and your team within those swipe files. Now let me know if I missed anything or if you guys have something to contribute down in the comments or how you're going to find inspiration for your marketing and your business. I'll love to see you on the next video.