20201019 ML Brief
Managing Content Marketing: Marketers Vs Creatives
New survey shows better communication between departments is needed to create better content
Content marketing certainly isn’t new anymore. A huge number of brands already have well-developed content marketing strategies and are creating great content on a regular basis. This means there is more content than ever before, and so brands need to publish compelling content to be able to stand out. As the below chart shows, content marketers are now using content to build brands, engage customers and increase sales.
Creating exceptional content isn’t easy, and to create content good enough to get shared widely and compete with the best in the business, you are going to need a creative team that can work well with your existing marketing department.
A new report from the content marketing agency Visua.ly shows what marketers think of the creatives they work with and what the creatives think of their marketing departments. It makes for interesting reading and gives some insights into how marketers can get the most out of their creative teams and vice versa.
What creatives think of their content:
Generally, the content creation teams are pleased with what they are producing. 93% were either proud, very proud or extremely proud.
What marketers think:
This wasn’t true of the marketers publishing the content. Only 37% were extremely or very satisfied with the content being produced, and 1 in 5 weren’t satisfied at all.
What Marketers think their creatives are good and bad at:
Marketers are reasonably satisfied with how their creative teams are doing in terms of consistency and responding to feedback, but have big doubts about their ability to anticipate problems and follow the brief. Less than 1 in 3 marketers thought the creatives had a transparent process, and even fewer thought their creative departments were good at keeping themselves adequately staffed.
What the creatives think marketers are doing well and poorly:
Creatives equally had a lot of problems with how their marketing departments were working. Only 1 in 5 thought the marketing team stuck to the original brief, and the vast majority thought marketers didn’t stick to an established process or brief projects clearly.
Perception Vs reality
Clearly both teams need to consider the others needs a bit better, and perhaps evaluate their current processes in light of feedback from the opposing team. If we compare how the teams rate themselves to what the opposite number thinks, we see big disparities.
Conclusion
Marketers and creatives clearly need to collaborate better and map out their processes in more transparent ways. Creating detailed processes manuals can go a long way to address this, and can also be helpful in the case of unplanned staff absence or talent moving. Listening to what the other team have to say and consulting them when major changes are planned in how content is created or marketed would also be wise. Imagine a deparment with no conflict between creatives and marketers. You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will be as one.
From our sponsors: Managing Content Marketing: Marketers Vs Creatives
