How Mind Mapping Helps Marketers Create Better Content

Mind mapping is a powerful method of forming ideas and linking concepts.

In marketing, it can be used for planning and strategizing, which can help streamline the content creation process.

Learn how you can use mind mapping templates to create and improve the content and conduct various marketing activities.

You can use Venngage’s Mind Map Maker to create a comprehensive mind map that will aid your content strategy.

What is mind mapping?

Mind mapping is an activity that involves visually representing and connecting ideas.

A mind map is a diagram that contains related ideas and topics that surround and link to a central concept or idea that is placed in the middle.

For example, the central concept in this mind map is marketing strategies, which generated main strategies (viral marketing, branding, video content, content marketing, and written content) and specific strategies (event promotion, sponsorships, etc.):

In a mind map. ideas or concepts are arranged by relationship, not by order or hierarchy. This resembles the way our minds organize information and understand concepts in a non-linear fashion, hence the name, ‘mind map.’

Why should marketers use mind mapping?

Mind maps are popular and effective tools for note-taking and brainstorming, but they also have significant uses for marketing, project management, and tasks like structured content modeling.

Marketers can use mind mapping to boost creative thinking, speed up the process of conceptualizing ideas, and improve team collaboration.

By thinking visually, you can provide a clear structure to your ideas, which can help you prioritize ideas that are viable and save those that require consideration for future use.

Creating a mind map presentation is also a great way to communicate ideas to clients or stakeholders.

Meanwhile, mind maps can be used to plan projects as well. They can be used to outline progress reports or delegate tasks to team members to help with project planning and management.

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What are the key steps in mind mapping?

Creating a basic mind map consists of 4 simple steps:

Choose a central idea

First, identify the main idea or topic that you want to explore. This will be the central idea and the starting point of your mind map from which other ideas and concepts will branch out. Write it down in the middle of a blank page and enclose it in a circle.

In this example, the central idea is the company strategy:

Draw branches to assign sub-topics

Next, come up with sub-ideas or sub-topics that can be associated with your main topic. Write them only as keywords and short phrases and spread them all around the central idea. Then, enclose them in slightly smaller circles or ‘nodes’ and draw lines or ‘branches’ to connect them to the central idea.

Based on our example, the central idea which is the company strategy produced three more segments which are marketing strategies, customer service strategies, and productivity strategies.

Add more branches to explore the sub-topics

Expand your mind map by creating more sub-topics or elaborating the existing sub-topics. As per our example, the three main strategies produced secondary strategies. The beauty of a mind map is you can keep developing it as you come up with more ideas and form relationships between concepts. Create more nodes and add more branches until you fill the entire page or once you’re satisfied with the ideas in your mind map.

Include visual elements in your mind map

Using visual cues like colors and images can not only make your mind map more attractive but can also help audiences make associations and process ideas better. Add icons, graphics, or illustrations in your mind map and color-coordinate related ideas to improve comprehension and easily grab the attention of your audience.

As you can see from our example above, ideas are grouped by color, and icons were used to represent specific strategies.

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How to create content using mind mapping

Level up your mind map by using it to brainstorm and map out content. Here’s how you can use mind mapping to create content:

Step 1: Choose a topic

For your central idea, pick a topic that is relevant to your target audience and also has something to do with the product, service, or company you are promoting.

In this example, let’s say you are creating content for a design agency or design platform. Your main topic can be broad (design) or specific (design thinking) as long as other ideas can branch from it:

Step 2: Come up with sub-topics to create the branches

From your main topic, extract possible content ideas and create your subtopics. As per our example, these can be ‘design thinking definition,’ ‘design thinking process,’ ‘design thinking applications,’ and other topics that flesh out the different aspects of the central idea.

Step 3: Divide the sub-topics into specific ideas to create more branches

Now, from your subtopics, add another layer of ideas that you can turn into actual posts. Following our example, ‘design thinking applications’ can generate posts like ‘How to use design thinking to improve user interfaces,’ ‘Benefits of design thinking for logo design,’ ‘Examples of design thinking in business,’ and other specific content.

Step 4: Add details like the type of content and where it will be published

Once you have exhausted your subtopics, decide and indicate which of the final posts will be a Facebook post, blog post, infographic, video tutorial, or another type of content and which channel will be the best avenue for each post. Consider the best practices for each channel and type of content. Now you have a full-fledged content plan!

How to make a mind map with Venngage

Using an intuitive online mind mapping software like Venngage’s Mind Map Maker can help you create a well-designed mind map in a matter of minutes, even without any experience in design.

To make a mind map with Venngage, simply:

Sign up to create an account
Choose from hundreds of free, professionally-designed mind map templates
Edit the template of your choice and easily change or add shapes, lines, colors, and text
Enhance your mind map design by selecting icons, illustrations, and images from Venngage’s library
Share your work online or download it as a presentation-ready PNG, PDF, or PPT file

Venngage also has a business feature called My Brand Kit that enables you to add your company’s logo, color palette, and fonts to all your designs with a single click.

For example, you can make your mind map template reflect your brand design by uploading your brand logo, fonts, and color palette using Venngage’s branding feature.

Not only are Venngage templates free to use and professionally designed, but they are also tailored for various use cases and industries to fit your exact needs and requirements.

A business account also includes the real-time collaboration feature, so you can invite members of your team to work simultaneously on a project.

Venngage allows you to share your mind map design online as well as download it as a PNG or PDF file. That way, your design will always be presentation-ready.

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5 examples of mind mapping for marketing

Here are some examples of how you can use mind mapping for your marketing initiatives:

1. Brainstorming and presenting ideas

Draw mind maps to generate ideas and present plans for a project. Here is an example of a mind map used to brainstorm ideas and outline plans for a web development project:

2. Building a brand identity

Mind mapping can help you produce creative ideas, which makes it perfect for developing a brand identity and brand building. You can use a mind map to list and showcase color palettes, fonts, logo studies, and other elements that can distinguish your brand from competitors.

You can also use a mind map as a guide for the brand-building process. Here’s a mind map template that you can use:

3. Developing strategies

Mind maps facilitate problem-solving by stimulating the thinking process, which can help fast-track the process of developing a marketing strategy or campaign. Here’s a project planning mind map that can help you easily identify the parts of your strategy or campaign:

4. Defining a target customer

Marketers can also use mind mapping to define a target customer. With a mind map, you can specify as many characteristics, traits, and statistics to help you paint a clear picture of your target customer.

You can use this mind map template and replace the labels to reflect the qualities of your ideal customer:

5. Content planning

Aside from forming content ideas, you can also use mind mapping to outline articles, schedule posts, or refine your content strategy. For example, this mind map listed popular forms of content. You can use it as a reference when planning content or create your own version with effective types of content:

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FAQs about mind mapping

What elements must a mind map have?

A mind map must have a central idea, branches, and nodes. The central idea is the core topic to which all other ideas are connected. The branches are the lines used to connect the sub-topics to the central idea. The sub-topics or nodes are the related ideas that are produced from the central idea.

Does mind mapping really work?

Mind mapping works great for brainstorming ideas and creating associations between different concepts. It also encourages creative thinking, problem-solving, and organizing information which can help in planning and strategizing.

Is mind mapping useful in communication?

Mind mapping can help you communicate ideas effectively, which can lead to better team collaboration and client presentations.

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Mind mapping improves the way marketers plan, organize, and generate ideas for content

Mind mapping can transform your content planning and creation process by improving the way you formulate ideas, link concepts, and organize information. Create your next content plan with Venngage’s Mind Map Maker.