MIA #07: How to Find and Keep Marketing Inspirations (+ Template)
How to organize a marketing resource library and swipe files that power your marketing machine with endless inspirations and templates.
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Do you ever stare at a blank page and wonder "What Now?"
I do.
Staying inspired in marketing is a constant battle. You churn out content, execute campaigns, and then... hit a wall.
What are those fancy words you call it? Mental block? Burnout?
This is not unique to marketers though:
Writers often experience writer's block, staring at a blank screen for hours, unable to find the words to bring their stories to life.
Artists face a creative block, where the canvas remains empty despite their best efforts to paint.
Software Developers encounter coding fatigue, struggling to solve problems they normally would breeze through.
Athletes hit performance plateaus, unable to improve their skills or break personal records despite rigorous training.
It happens to the best of us.
This is why you need to build some sort of machine that helps you work through a process to overcome these blocks. Call this machine a Resource Library, or a Swipe File.
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A resource library is a collection of materials, such as articles, books, case studies, communities, videos, podcasts, or other content, that can provide inspiration, guidance, or solutions to problems you may encounter in your work.
A swipe file, on the other hand, is a curated collection of examples, templates, or snippets of content that you can "swipe" or borrow from when you need inspiration or a starting point for your own work.
How I Keep Marketing Inspirations
There are numerous tools designed to help you find and organize marketing inspirations, like Google Drive, Docs, Notion, Gmail Labels & Filters, Apple Notes, etc.
However, inspiration is only valuable if you can find it when you need it. That’s why it is important to organize your inspirations in a way that makes them easily accessible.
Here are some best practices:
Keep a Resource Library
I maintain a resource library (basically a Google doc on the cloud) with links to:
Notion Templates
Google Sheet Templates
Google Doc Templates
Newsletters & Blogs
Podcasts
YouTube Channels
Marketing Courses
Marketing Communities
Marketing Products & Tools
Optimize Note-Taking Apps (Apple Notes, Evernote)
Create a Folder Structure: Main Folders and Subfolders.
Use Tags and Shortcuts: Tag notes for easy search and create shortcuts for frequently accessed notes.
Organize Emails (Gmail Labels & Filters)
Create Labels for different categories; e.g. newsletters you are subscribed to like “Marketing In Action”.
Labels enable you to organize the clutter in your inbox and narrow down your search when looking for specific marketing materials.
Use Gmail filters to automatically apply labels to incoming emails.
For example, you can create a filter to label emails from the sender: marketinginaction@substack.com, or with the keyword: marketinginaction.substack.com
Additionally, you can define rules for the filter, e.g. “never send it to spam”, or “categorize it as primary”.
Organize Your Cloud Storage (Drive/iCloud)
Create a Folder Structure: Main Folders and Subfolders.
Tagging and Color-Coding: Use tags or colors to quickly identify and differentiate between types of files.
Manage Projects and Databases (Notion, Airtable)
Create workspaces like Marketing, Growth, Content.
Use templates for repetitive tasks and set up different views (e.g., table, board, timeline) for better visualization.
Curate Media (YouTube Playlists and Watch Later)
Group similar content together in playlists for easy access and reference.
Use the "Watch Later" feature to save and queue up videos for later, without interrupting your current browsing session.
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TL: DR
Get a PDF summary of this article here.
Writers often experience writer's block, staring at a blank screen for hours, unable to find the words to bring their stories to life.
Artists face a creative block, where the canvas remains empty despite their best efforts to paint.
Software Developers encounter coding fatigue, struggling to solve problems they normally would breeze through.
Athletes hit performance plateaus, unable to improve their skills or break personal records despite rigorous training.
Building a resource library or swipe file can help overcome mental blocks and burnout.
Best practices include maintaining a resource library with links to various templates, newsletters, podcasts, etc.
Use tools like Google Drive, Notion, or Evernote to organize your resources.
Employ a folder structure with subfolders for specific categories.
Leverage tags and labels for easy searching within your system.
Utilize Gmail filters and labels to automatically categorize marketing emails.
Curate media using playlists and "Watch Later" features on YouTube.
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You might find these interesting:
What is a Swipe File? – Corey Haines’ guide to creating a Swipe File.
MIA Resource Library – A collection of Notion, Google Sheet and Doc Templates, Newsletters, Podcasts, YouTube Channels, Marketing Courses, Communities, and Marketing Tools.
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