Marketing has come a long way since the days of working until midnight and pushing out elaborate direct mail pieces. Now, a lot more than just creativity is needed to make your team successful. Only a decade ago a brilliant idea was enough to score awards, win over audiences and please clients. However, markets are now saturated, and people are advertised on an almost continuous basis. Marketing departments need to still have amazing creative and provoking, stand out ideas, but they can’t rely on that alone. They need the right processes in place, the right data to hand, and the right people steering the campaigns.
Agile processes
If a marketing team is going to do well, they need to be able to respond to last minute changes without any fuss. If a campaign was due to go live, and a huge problem occurs, there needs to be resource available to get it fixed instantly. When creatives are usually booked out for days on other jobs, this can be a tough situation. So, you need agile processes in place to enable last-minute changes to go through smoothly, without just hoping that your creative teams will work an extra few hours for you.
Insightful data teams
Data is getting more and more important. With it, you can create personalized campaigns that speak to your audience on another level. You can target the heart of what matters to them, and give them content and information when they need it. This helps push them along the buyer journey even faster, and means you can convert leads into customers. However, when you’ve got the data, what do you do then? Marketing automation is often the answer. Not only does it let you target your marketing more specifically, but it gives you the chance to free up resource and plan ahead.
Bold creatives
In a saturated market, your creatives need to be bolder and more imaginative than ever. They need to create collateral that not only works in print, but in digital formats too. They need to produce assets that stand out, with a sleek design, good branding, and entertaining copy. Long gone is the day of jargon and business buzzwords. Now, your teams need to push the boundaries and create content that people want to actively find and read. Likewise, they need to explore new grounds in digital: white papers and direct mail were once all the rage, but now video, infographics and interactive pieces are key to success.
Brave account managers
It’s all well and good producing creative assets, but if your client won’t use them – there’s no point. You need account managers who know how far they can push clients, and how far they can go to get the creativity needed to stand out. Persuading a client to push their brand guidelines and try for more exciting, adventurous concepts is hard – but it pays off incredibly well. It’s an art form to learn how to do it, but once you’ve got that permission, and you’ve shown that it works, you’ll have a loyal, happy client.
