“Even if you’re not a genius, you can use the same strategies as Aristotle and Einstein to harness the power of your creative mind and better manage your future.”
There was a post on a study guide resource site that I saw a while back that described how some of the smartest people in the world look at the world. While the list is more focused on the sciences, it can also be specific to paid search and online marketing.
- Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)
This is one of the most important and probably why it’s also #1. Especially in the business world, we hear phrases like “think outside the box” which are used so often the actual meaning gets partially lost. To make this tactic successful, you have to try to forget the rules as you’ve learned them and then look at a problem. Doing this can allow you to come up with ideas that you may have easily disregarded. - Visualize!
Using other senses can help with the first point. If you write out your ideas or better yet, put them into some type of graphic or diagram, it can be easier to expand upon it, correct any inaccuracies and also look at it differently. When creating a strategy, this might be just to create an outline of your first, second and third steps. This way, it will get you to think about what you’re doing more and also will allow you to see your plans in case any adjustments need to be made. - Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.
You can’t get anywhere without doing. Maybe I’m remembering this article when I thought of this example, but when I think of productivity and genius, I think of Thomas Edison. He had lots of inventions that didn’t work, but the ones that did were huge. There are plenty of people who have lots of ideas, and they may even sound great, but if they don’t do anything with them, then a) you won’t see any results, and b) you’ll never know if they even work. A bonus benefit of producing is that each time you create something, you’ll use what you learned from your mistakes to improve the design. Launching a search campaign is much easier if you’ve done it 100 times than if you’ve never created one before. You’ll be sure to turn off content right away and have other little trick in the back of your head. - Make novel combinations. Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.
This one I love. There’s a lot to digest in the paid search industry, and even more if you start including affiliate marketing, SEO, social media, web design, etc. etc. There’s no one stopping you from taking an idea from SEO and using it in paid search. People get so entrenched in what they do on a daily basis that they never take a step back and (like #1), look at things differently to see the whole picture. You can use the previous and following points together to make a unique combination. The reward is being able to advertise or market in a way that noone else is doing which = $$$. That’s pretty much the whole point of affiliate marketing - at least to me. How else are you supposed to compete against hundreds if not thousands of other people who are getting paid the same or maybe even more than you are without having a novle approach? - Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects.
Home Depot noticed that every now and then, their sales within their stores would drop significantly. I’m not sure if it was an immediate insight or if it was one of those “a ha” moments, but someone at Home Depot also was able to link those same drop in sales with the weather. Each time it would rain, the store would sell less of it’s products. Hearing about this makes it seem obvious - when it rains, it’s a lot more difficult to do any type of home improvement work if a roof hasn’t yet been installed. Yet, knowing that this is the case, Home Depot is able to use the weather to determine how many employees it needs in it’s stores and also can predict how sales will be for that day. - Think in opposites.
This helps you think differently and create new ideas. Use what Google tells you about their quality score along with what you see to create your own conclusions on what’s important. Google only tells you so much (and they definitely won’t tell you any faults or weak points with their QS), so to be better than the next guy, you need to do your own testing and see what’s important. - Think metaphorically.
This is similar to making connections between dissimilar subjects but can also be between objects that resemble one another. If you’re able to say that one thing is like another, even if it doesn’t appear to be, it will help you take a different look at your campaigns. This is very important in conducting a thorough - and accurate - analysis. You can give to search marketers some data and you may end up with two very different conclusions. In order to make sure your conclusions are correct, you need to make sure you’re looking at all the data, the right data and also make sure you’re making the right connections, especially if they’re not right in front of you. - Prepare yourself for chance.
A lot of things are out of our control. We may not have all the right data, maybe there was a huge incident and your brand is getting a lot of bad press or maybe there’s a new, and better product available. Whatever it is, instead of waiting for something bad to happen, you need to be “proactive” to ensure that even if it does, you will be ready or at least have a backup plan. If one door closes, look for another that’s open. If you can’t find another door, try the window.
Related posts
