8 Brainstorming Tools Marketers Need to Try in 2023

We’ve all been there: staring intensely at the screen, with anxious thoughts racing through our minds. When words or ideas aren’t flowing out of our mind or fingers, we know we’ve entered writer’s block.

This is where brainstorming tools come in. By helping us generate and organize ideas, they can help both individual marketers, or teams who are always brainstorming,

With features like virtual whiteboards, mind maps, and voting systems, today’s brainstorming tools promote efficient idea generation and collaboration among team members, regardless of their physical location.

In this post, we will cover:

AI brainstorming tools

HubSpot AI Content Writer

Get started with AI Content Writer

HubSpot AI Content Writer is a brainstorming tool that can help you when you’re stuck. If you need to create content, whether it’s an email, landing page, blog post, or social post, you can tell the software what audience you’re writing to and the message you want to convey. are, its length, and the tone you want to convey.

For example, I used this prompt to brainstorm ideas for a blog post about how to set up an e-commerce shop. In return, I received a list of blog post ideas I could pursue.

You can also use the AI ​​Content Writer to create outlines, headlines, and content ideas in a jiffy.

price: HubSpot AI Content Writer is available as part of CMS Hub, which offers a free version, Starter at $23 per month, Professional at $360 per month, and Enterprise at $1,200 per month.

Collaborative Brainstorming Tools

LucidSpark

If you like sticky notes, LucidSpark might be the brainstorming tool for you. The software is an interactive whiteboard that supports real-time collaboration by allowing you to chat, leave comments, react with emojis, and vote on ideas. You can simply type your ideas on a sticky note, or use the drawing tool to mark something, and draw or share your ideas on the canvas.

LucidSpark also offers customizable brainstorming templates for brainwriting, concept summaries, storyboarding, mind mapping, and wireframes. Lucid supports basic Excel import for personal and team accounts.

Price determination: Free version available. Individual at $7.95, Team at $9 per user, and custom pricing for Enterprise.

miro

Like Lucidspark, Miro is a collaborative brainstorming tool that promotes an open teamwork style with a whiteboard user experience. It also offers over 200 brainstorming templates, including stickies, user story maps, and brain writing. Additional features like chat, comments, sticky notes, and video allow you to share ideas and gather feedback from your team.

Miro can also import data from spreadsheets and integrate with popular tools like G Suite, Microsoft Teams (and Excel), Slack, and Zoom.

Price determination: Miro offers a free version, Starter at $8 per member per month, custom pricing for Business and Enterprise at $16 per member per month.

milanotte

Milonote is another online whiteboard that enables you to collaborate with teams. You can write notes and to-do lists; Upload images, Excel documents and design files; Save text, images and links from the web; And add notes and photos from your phone.

Unlike similar whiteboarding tools on this list, Milonote is geared towards design and creative teams with the ability to support design files.

Price determination: Milonote offers a free version with paid plans starting at $9.99 per person per month and a team upgrade starting at $49 per month (billed annually).

note taking brainstorming tools

Brain

TheBrain is a note-taking brainstorming tool with AI features. It aims to digitize your ideas and organize everything you need for brainstorming in one place by enabling you to take notes and save files, web pages, images and emails on the platform. Although it’s note-heavy, you can also structure and visualize writing by using outline views, idea icons, and embedding images, videos, and links in your notes.

You can also create outlines and content by taking advantage of TheBrain’s AI capabilities.

Price determination: Free version available. Pro Service $15 per set per month, Pro License $219 outright, and Pro Combo (license and cloud services) $299 per seat per year.

Evernote Teams

Evernote Teams is a note-based collaboration tool with brainstorming features. You can access shared notebooks and spaces and collaborate in real-time by editing notes with team members.

Evernote Teams integrates with Google Suite, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.

Price determination: Free trial available. Pricing available upon request.

Free Brainstorming Tools

HubSpot Campaign Assistant

HubSpot Campaign Assistant is a free AI-powered brainstorming tool for marketing campaigns. If you’re running into constraints, Campaign Assistant can help you brainstorm marketing campaigns, whether you need copy for landing pages, marketing emails, or Google Ads.

You can share details about your campaign and choose a tone of voice that suits your brand. With just a few clicks, you’ll receive copy that highlights your selling points and includes your desired calls to action.

For example, when I used this tool to create an email marketing campaign for an online Halloween sale at a costume store that also sells Halloween home decor, I gave the tool a description of what the campaign was about, Key aspects that my audience should know about, a call-to-action, and a writing style.

In just seconds, Campaign Assistant generates a ready-to-use email with an upbeat and humorous tone.

Price determination: Free.

Google Docs

You’re probably already familiar with Google Docs. It’s a classic brainstorming tool that enables you to collaborate with your team by typing out ideas and sharing documents.

I use Google Docs on an almost daily basis – in fact, I wrote a draft of this blog post on Google Docs. Before diving into a blog post, I’ll create a separate document to brainstorm a good outline.

Google Docs also integrates with other popular brainstorming tools, making it a helpful complementary software.

Price determination: Free

brainstorming templates

Brainstorming can be intimidating, especially when you’re staring at a blank slate. This is how brainstorming templates can help.

Brainstorming templates are pre-designed frameworks or structures that guide and organize the brainstorming process. These templates provide a starting point for teams to generate ideas and encourage structured thinking. Whether in the form of a mind map, SWOT analysis, or decision matrix, these templates help individuals and teams explore different angles, foster collaboration, and ensure that no important areas are overlooked.

By using brainstorming templates, teams can streamline their thought process, stay focused, and ultimately increase their chances of generating innovative and effective solutions.

Here are some brainstorming templates:

Brainstorming vs Mind Mapping

Brainstorming and mind mapping are two different techniques employed in the creative process. While brainstorming focuses on generating large amounts of ideas without any evaluation or organization, mind mapping involves visually organizing and establishing connections between these ideas. In brainstorming, ideas can be random and diverse, allowing for a free flow of creativity.

On the other hand, mind mapping Uses a central point as a starting point and branches out to connect related sub-topics and ideas, creating a structured and hierarchical visual representation. Brainstorming is the initial stage of idea generation, while mind mapping facilitates organizing and understanding these ideas for further development and implementation.

Get started with brainstorming tools

From capturing and organizing ideas to leveraging artificial intelligence for content creation, brainstorming tools have become essential. With their intuitive interfaces and powerful features, brainstorming tools empower you and your team to unleash creativity, think outside the box, and find unique solutions to complex problems.

Get started with a tool like HubSpot’s AI Campaign Assistant.