Marketing teams don\u2019t have time or budget to waste. To achieve success, considerable thought must be put into what and how you do it. Here are a few pointers:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Make it goal-oriented and focused.\u00a0<\/strong>Your creative strategy should answer the\u00a0why,<\/em>\u00a0what,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0you will achieve a defined goal.<\/li>\n
- Be mindful of time.<\/strong> Include a timeline in your strategy so each team member stays on track and avoids any last-minute problems.<\/li>\n
- Share it with relevant stakeholders.<\/strong>\u00a0Achieving your marketing goal requires a high level of\u00a0collaboration, which means each stakeholder must see and understand how it aligns with their work, such as brand strategy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Remember, your creative strategy is your map or blueprint, but it shouldn\u2019t dictate every detail. Substantial wiggle room should be built-in so your team can adapt to unexpected changes.<\/p>\n
6 must-haves for building out your creative strategy<\/span><\/h2>\n
Let\u2019s dive into what your creative strategy should include, plus how to execute it.<\/span><\/p>\n
1. Clearly define your goals<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Understanding what you are trying to achieve is fundamental to writing an effective strategy.<\/p>\n
Before diving into action, take some time to write down what your main goals are. This will inform all of the subsequent steps you\u2019ll take, including budget and resource allocation, and messaging.<\/p>\n
For example, if your goal is to increase online engagement with customers, your strategy will look very different than if your goal is to boost lead generation by 20%.<\/p>\n
Share these goals with everyone who will be involved in bringing them to life. Complete team comprehension and alignment are crucial here.<\/p>\n
2. Write a creative strategy statement<\/h3>\n
A creative strategy statement is one or two statements that describe the purpose of your initiative or campaign, the value proposition, and the target audience.<\/p>\n
The statement should answer the question, \u201cHow can we get customers to buy our products or services over those of a competitor?\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Choose your KPIs<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Choosing the right KPIs is\u00a0an important step in developing your creative strategy, as they will indicate success or failure.<\/p>\n
Again, your KPIs will depend on what your goals are. For example, if your goal is to increase online engagement with your customers, some of your KPIs might be the number of impressions for social media posts, the number of likes\/comments, and how many mentions you receive in customers\u2019 posts.<\/p>\n
You will also need to determine how<\/em> to measure each of these. Do you want to reach a certain number of impressions by the time the quarter ends, or do you want to increase the number of impressions each week by a certain percentage?<\/p>\n
4. Determine on your messaging and marketing channels<\/strong><\/h3>\n
In this step, you need to decide what you are going to say, how you want to say it, how you will position it within the greater context of your brand.<\/p>\n
Other considerations include what the content will look like, and where it will appear (i.e. what channels you will use). The length, tone, and style of your messaging should be consistent with your overall goal, and make sense for the target audience.<\/p>\n
5. Set a budget<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Creating an\u00a0accurate budget\u00a0is an integral part of your creative strategy.<\/p>\n
To do this, you must first understand the scope of your initiative, including:<\/p>\n
- \n
- What kinds of deliverables you will produce<\/li>\n
- How much you will rely on paid marketing vs. organic marketing<\/li>\n
- The cost of paid services (including running online ads, paying vendors, and possibly buying new software)<\/li>\n
- The length of time you will need such services<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
6. Create a timeline<\/strong><\/h3>\n
A timeline helps you build a realistic budget, as well as enabling stakeholder alignment.<\/p>\n
When each contributing team member understands key deadlines and milestones, you can make sure the\u00a0project\u00a0moves forward smoothly.<\/p>\n
Creative strategy example: monday.com<\/span><\/h2>\n
We know turning conceptual tips into action can be difficult. To help, here\u2019s a look into our own creative strategy at monday.com.<\/p>\n
Goal:\u00a0<\/strong>Our main goal is to distinguish monday.com as the premier platform for managing creative workflows, projects, and teams of any size with ease.<\/p>\n
We want to show prospects and current users that monday.com eliminates the need to chase co-collaborators for updates on projects, prevents duplicative efforts, and ensures work never falls through the cracks.<\/p>\n
Creative strategy statement: <\/b>\u201cWe aim to distinguish monday.com as the choice platform for managing workflows, projects, and teams of any size with ease. Our campaigns demonstrate how flexible, intuitive, and visual the platform is, making it easy to use and elevating teamwork to the next level. Our target audience is managers who lead teams of 10+, but we also pay attention to individual employees, who can use our free trial and then recommend the platform to their manager.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
KPIs:<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
- \n
- Brand uplift: <\/b>we conduct localized surveys and measure website visits to understand how interest in our brand is growing over time.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Virality:<\/b> we measure engagement on social media, such as how many people share, like, and comment on our ads.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Messaging and marketing channels: <\/b>our messaging changes to fit each of our campaigns, but we always speak to our users\u2019 individual pains in clear and simple language. The tone is cheeky, casual, and light. <\/span><\/p>\n
In addition to online digital marketing channels, we run campaigns on billboards, metro ads, radio stations, and online streaming platforms, such as podcasts.<\/span><\/p>\n
Timeline and budget: <\/b>this is dependent on the specific campaign we are working on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Bring your creative strategy to life<\/span><\/h2>\n
By focusing on the key components we\u2019ve outlined above, you can construct a creative strategy that helps ensure you are spending your team\u2019s budget, time, and energy wisely.<\/p>\n
Part of carrying out your creative strategy effectively is ensuring your team is equipped to fulfill their roles with the\u00a0right tools. By empowering each team member to collaborate and stay on top of their work, you can execute your creative strategy while staying on track.<\/p>\n
How monday marketer can help power your creative process<\/h2>\n
We work with creative teams just like yours to help speed up their workflows, shorten feedback loops, and hit aggressive deadlines \u2014 all with our customizable platform, monday marketer<\/a>. Creatives use monday marketer to:<\/p>\n
Streamline the creative approval process from end-to-end: <\/b>Ensure that\u00a0all of the relevant information passes effortlessly from campaign managers to copywriters and designers with forms, annotations and versioning.<\/p>\n
![\"monday.com](\"https:\/\/monday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/monday.com-Creative-Request-Template.png\")
<\/p>\nManage your creative strategy with high-level overviews: <\/b>Get the visibility you need to monitor all of your ongoing creative campaigns so you can make strategic decisions about your company’s goals.<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/monday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Kanban-project-management-example-creative-process.webp\")
<\/p>\nAutomate your creative campaign planning to keep everyone aligned: <\/b>Keep your creative workflows running efficiently with automations. So you can notify the team of top-performing assets, campaign deadlines, and final approvals.<\/p>\n
![\"creative](\"https:\/\/monday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Untitled-2-1024x483.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ready to learn more about monday marketer?<\/p>\n
- Virality:<\/b> we measure engagement on social media, such as how many people share, like, and comment on our ads.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Brand uplift: <\/b>we conduct localized surveys and measure website visits to understand how interest in our brand is growing over time.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Be mindful of time.<\/strong> Include a timeline in your strategy so each team member stays on track and avoids any last-minute problems.<\/li>\n