How I Never Run Out Of Ideas (My Favorite Swipe Files & Inspo Sources)

As online marketers, business owners, and copywriters…

We are ALWAYS looking for inspiration to fuel our marketing efforts. 

The only problem is…

Where the heck do we find it?!

And why is it that every time we see something GENIUS, we can never seem to find it again?

Or we screenshot it, and it get’s lost somewhere in our thousands (or in my case, tens of thousands) of photos on your phone…

In this video, I’m going to show you all the places I love to look for marketing inspo…

Plus I’ll give you some tips so you can build your very own swipe file and have endless inspiration on-demand anytime you need it. 

Hey Posse, what’s up? It’s Alex.

Coming at ya this week with another blog to help you become a better copywriter and marketer… 

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Now as much as I LOVE copywriting and marketing…

Let’s be honest, something the ideas just aren’t… idea-ing. Lol. 

And it’s in those times that a swipe file really comes in handy. 

Sitting down to “research ideas” ends up taking hours. 

Plus we both know you’re going to get distracted going down a rabbit hole (or two 👀)… 

And before you know it…

2 hours have gone by, you still have no clue what you’re putting in tomorrow’s email, and you’ve just totally wasted all of that “research time”. 

So if you don’t already have a swipe file… trust me, you need one! 

Now, I’ll admit… I don’t love the term “swipe” because it implies stealing, which is DEFINITELY NOT waht I’m talking about…

But for the sake of using “standard industry lingo,” I’ll call it a swipe file, but just so we’re CLEAR, what I’m talking about is…

A resource or collection of resources that is filled with juicy ideas, great copy, and inspiring marketing to get your creative juices flowing. 

That’s why I like to call it an “Inspo File.”

So how do you even go about creating a swipe or inspo file?

Well, let me show you right now…

Starting with 5 tips to help you build your own swipe file as soon as TODAY.

And at the end, I’ll list off some of my favorite done-for-you swipe files in case DIY isn’t your thing…

How to Make a Swipe File

1. Create an inbox into folder
2. Notice copy in the wild
3. Save captions and/or post ideas
4. Save Facebook ads
5. Save stories you hear

#1 – Create An Inbox Inspo Folder 

Alright, starting with the obvious one… your inbox!

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again and again…

Your inbox is a *literal* gold mine of copywriting and marketing inspiration. 

Every single day, your inbox is filled with content emails, promotional emails, newsletters, and big announcements.

Which is a great opportunity to see what other people are doing in their marketing RIGHT NOW. 

So resist that urge to “delete delete delete delete”… 

And instead, get into a routine where you spend 5-10 minutes every day scrolling through your inbox and watching what other marketers and business owners are doing…

In fact, some of the BEST marketers I know do this (and then they tell me about it)…

Like this email, I just got from my friend and CEO of Smart Marker, Molly Pittman where she says, “I’m watching your event campaign like a HAWK wow this is one of the best campaigns I’ve ever seen…. it is SO SMART—definitely watching and taking notes”

Btw – Molly is a speaker at my upcoming event Posse Fest and if you don’t already have your ticket yet, what are you waiting for… grab yours below before they sell out.

So make sure to get on the lists of your favorite business owners and marketers… and WATCH what they are doing…

Then create a new folder in your inbox and title it “Inspo”. 

And as you’re going through your inbox, ask yourself…

Do any subject lines capture my attention? That’s a good sign! Add it to your inspo folder. 

Do you click and read any emails – start to finish? Another great sign! Add it to your inspo folder. 

Or maybe you don’t read it all the way, but something in the email interests you…

Maybe you loved the story they used or the way they pivoted from story to sale…

Add it to your inspo folder!

It might seem a little overwhelming in the beginning – especially if you aren’t used to sitting down and going through your inbox…

Or if you’re one of those people with thousands of unread emails… 😬 (No judgment I’ve been there before too lol)

But I promise this will get easier and faster if you stay consistent. 

And the inspiration you’ll get will be WELL worth it. 

Whatever you do, don’t just leave it in your main inbox. 

Because I can almost guarantee you won’t be able to find it when you need it.

Alright, tip #2 to help you build your inspo file…

#2 – Copy in the Wild

This is one of the easiest and most practical ways to build your swipe file.

And the best part is it takes almost zero effort on your part. 

Because copy is EVERYWHERE you go.

All day, every day, you’re surrounded by copywriting and marketing material. 

• Billboards…
• The packaging on products in the grocery store…
• Ads on the side of buses…
• And even those cute little sandwich boards outside your favorite cafe. 

When you’re out and about start NOTICING what’s around you. 

Notice what catches your eye… and why.

And if you think it’s funny or genius or something you want to remember later…

Go ahead and snap a quick photo of it and add it to an “Inspo” album on your phone. 

Okay, tip #3… I used this one ALL of the time…

#3 – Save Captions and/or Post ideas

Thankfully Instagram makes this super simple. 

Anytime you see an ad you love or a post idea you want to piggyback on all you have to do is hit that little “save” icon and you can add it to an Inspo Folder “collection” right there on Instagram…

Like this “Reel inspo” collection we have.

And anytime you want to refer back to it…

• Just go to your profile.

• Click the 3 lines in the upper right-hand corner.

• Go to “Saved”.

• And voila! Your Inspo Folder is right there. 

Alright, and now onto tip #4… 

#4 – Save Facebook Ads

So I love to save the Ads I see on Instagram as soon as I see them…

But Facebook is a bit different because even though you can technically copy & paste the ad link…

Ad links have been known to stop working after a little while. 

Which can be super frustrating when you want to go back to reference it.

That’s why, I don’t save FB ad links. 

Instead, what I love to do on Facebook is screenshot the ads I love and add them to an Inspo folder specifically for ads – you can keep this either in your phone or in Dropbox like I do. 

But another really awesome feature of Facebook is that you can do a super deep dive into a specific brand…

And see ALL of the ads they’re currently running. 

I love sitting down to do this when I have more time to work on strategy. 

Let me show you how to do it…

• Go the brand’s Facebook page.

• Click “about”

• Scroll down to “page transparency”

• Click “see all” 

• Then scroll all the way down to the bottom and click “go to ad library”.

You can see when a brand is currently running about 40 ads. And you can just scroll through the whole library and check out what another brand is doing. 

This is a really great research tool. 

Alright, my last tip to help you build your OWN inspo file…

Then I’ll give you a list of swipe file websites where you can find thousands of marketing examples… 

#5 – Save Stories You Hear

This one is probably one of the more complicated ones… since typically you’re listening and not reading, it’s not as simple as taking a screenshot. 

What I love to do is add a very quick summary or description of the story into a note on my phone. 

If I’m driving I use the voice-to-text feature in my Notes app on my phone. 

For example…

One time I was driving and listening to a podcast about “evil books” – which of course piqued my curiosity.

One of the books talked about was called the Codex Gigas (aka “the Devil’s Bible”).

I immediately knew I wanted to keep that story in my back pocket…

So while I couldn’t jot down the entire story, I COULD quickly record a voice memo about “the Codex Gigas – devil’s bible”. 

And then I’d be able to hop online and do more research on the story later once I was ready to incorporate it in somewhere. 

And that’s exactly what I did. 

Now I know this all sounds like a lot of work…

But I promise you, it is WORTH it. 

And if you can get into the habit of quickly saving things as you find them… 

Before you know it, you’ll have an ENDLESS treasure chest of inspiration you can pull from any time you need it. 

And if you have a team and want a collaborative inspo file, you can create a shared Dropbox like we do and invite your team to share inspo they find online!! 

We have our collaborative inspo folder broken down into multiple categories…

• Copywriter resources
• Emails
• Events pages – that’s a new one…
• Landing pages…
• Presentations
• Products
• Sales Pages & Funnels

This makes it even easier to locate something when you’re looking for it and to share ideas with your team.

BUT if you don’t want to DIY your own swipe file, no worries… 

There are plenty of websites and resources out there that have already done the work for you. 

Popular Swipe File Websites

Here are 7 of my favorite places to check out when looking for inspo:

• Milled.com –  for ecommerce email inspiration, in case you don’t already have enough haha…

• Swiped.co – for sales page inspiration and even some old-school sales LETTERS… 

• Grow My Newsletter – this one has examples of landing pages specifically for newsletter opt-ins.
  
  It even tells you the conversion rate for each one and where the main traffic source comes from. So cool!

• Ad Age / Creativity – this is a great place to get a pulse on what’s going on in marketing right now. From TikTok trends to insights into other brands, commercials, and more… 

• Swipefile.com – you’ll find a great mix of everything – emails, sales pages, newsletters, and just about anything you can think of… 

• BuzzFeed – I love scrolling Buzzfeed for headline and hook inspiration. These are very clickable titles… 

• And finally… Cosmo – another place with great headlines and hook inspo…

And if you’re looking for Inspo for your content and want a whole bunch of fill-in-the-blank hooks for social media captions, headlines, and even email subject lines…

Make sure to grab your free copy of my Hooks Guide with 99 hooks you can copy, paste, and go. 

I hope this was helpful! What are your favorite websites for finding inspiration? Drop it in the comments below and let’s help each other out!

Until next time, I’m Alex. Ciao for now.

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