B2B marketing isn't boring, you are.

Almost weekly I see someone post something along the lines of "B2B Marketing is boring."

And it is usually a B2B marketer.

So if this many people feel so strongly about it, and are all in a position to do something about it, why do we still see so much boring marketing? Safe ad campaigns, the same insanely generic illustrations style of wavy people, boring copy, it is everywhere.

Are they all just in denial?

Is there a secret spot these creative campaigns are all launching I don't know about?

I actually think it comes down to two things:

• Most companies and leaders don't give the space for their teams to take big swings and miss.

• Most marketing leaders don't understand the art and discipline of brainstorming enough to actually generate big or creative ideas from their team.

I could write a book on the first reason so for today let's just focus on the art of brainstorming. Think about how most marketing brainstorms go today:

1. They are usually in response to being behind the number, "We need some big ideas!"

2. Most people are afraid to throw out any true big ideas for either fear or they know the company would never actually do it anyways

3. There is no structure to it - so very little ideas get generated and the meeting ends up super awkward.

The end result is just a bunch of generic watered down ideas of what you were probably going to do anyways. We have all sat through these painful sessions at one point as marketers.

So what are the keys to running good brainstorms that can actually improve your marketing efforts?

1. Keep a normal cadence - people generally can't do their best creative thinking in crisis mode. the best time to do brainstorms isn't after you missed a quarter. Build a regular cadence for this exercise.

2. Lead by example - Throw out the biggest or worst idea to get people to understand this is a safe space. There are no bad ideas. There should be no negative feedback.

3. Quantity over Quality - The goal of a brainstorm is to generate a lot of ideas, focus on narrowing it down to just the good ones later. The more ideas get thrown out the more others can feed off of them and generate more ideas

4. Have a structure to the meeting - Don't just pull everyone into a room, stand in front of a whiteboard and ask for ideas. Try one of these formats instead.

   1. Set the stage for the goal you are trying to impact and Ask folks to come to the meeting with ideas already in mind.

   2.  Use the 6-3-5 method: 6 people generate 3 ideas in 5 minute—in just a half an hour you will have generated 108 ideas.

   3. Random matching - have people write down 10 random items ( a coffee cup or shoe for example). Then they have to take the list and tie it into a marketing idea. You will be amazed at the unique ideas that come out of this.

Most importantly, actually implement some of the ideas generated, report back on them and share the results. Nothing worse than a brainstorm where nothing comes of it.

Hope that helps and thanks for reading.