The more your brand is disseminated on social media and with the help of digital marketing, the greater the chance that your customer base will remember you. Offering viewers a high quality and easy to recognize an online presence is important. A successful marketing campaign doesn’t just invest in functionality, but also in what visual elements will appeal to your target customers. A graphic designers’ focus isn’t just on offering flyers and newsletters, but also on designs that are engaging, accurate and beautiful. Even in person marketing and networking events are great ways for companies to convert potential customers into brand fans. But first companies need to find ways to bring the right audience out to their events. Here are a few ways that Graphic Designers and Marketers may run into problems when working together and solutions that will lead to a successful marketing campaign, whether it’s online outreach or an in-person marketing event.
The Different Responsibilities of Graphic Designers and Marketers:
The role of a Graphic Designer and the role of a Marketing Manager offers a different set of pressures that each has to deal with. As a Marketing Manager, you’re used to working within certain guidelines, whether it be financial restraints, deadlines, restrictions or you’re dependant on specific resources. Marketers want to be as efficient as possible, which limits their scope. Everything must be measured, researched and strategic. The purpose of a Marketing Manager is to deliver quantitatively or qualitatively positive results and proof that the customer’s experience is improving.
On the other hand you have the Graphic Designer who is given the same constraints as the Marketing Manager, however, Designers are more in tune with emotional and ethereal results rather than what’s tangible. A great Designer will place their self in the shoes of the consumer as their research and will consider what triggers their instincts and will naturally persuade them to make purchasing decisions. Designers are more interested in aesthetics and the user’s emotional experience. Designers will focus on what the consumer’s expectations and needs are, whereas Marketers focus is on the company that’s selling products or services.
When Things Get Loss In Communication:
A Marketer and Graphic Designer may experience miscommunications because it’s usually the Marketing Team that has direct contact with clients and needs to relay updates and messages to the Design Team, who’s usually behind the scenes. If a client demands modifications to a project the Marketer will pass the requests on to the Design Team, and sometimes changes won’t be received well or might be poorly communicated. Changes to a project sometimes result in the greatest disconnect between Marketers and Designers, especially if the changes aren’t fully explained. Marketers might feel as though Designers lack practicality, while on the flipside Designers may feel inclined to resist amendments that compromise the quality of their work.
How to manage human resources is a big challenge for me because in a media company, you have so many talents, and all of them are very individualistic.
Yang Lan, Media Proprietor, Journalist, and talk show hostess.
How can Marketers and Designers Collaborate?
First: to avoid too much miscommunication, it may benefit Marketers to bring Designers into a direct conversation with the client. One of the most off-putting requests that a Graphic Designer can receive is changes to a design without understanding why that change is being asked for. It’s possible that the Graphic Designer can get to the root of the problem, and instead of simply making the change, the designer can take a more physiological approach and offer a different solution to the problem than what client might have thought of.
Second: rather than thinking of Designers and Marketers as opposites, both parties should focus on the consumer that is being targeted and what the user’s experience is like. To ensure a successful marketing campaign, both disciplines should bring their points of view and expertise forward from the beginning. Both Marketers and Graphic Designers have strong collaborative skills that can work together to solve complex problems; just like the right and left sides of the same brain.
Third: consider the fact that Marketers and Graphic Designers are usually working together for a common goal, so there shouldn’t be a hierarchy on the direction that works flows. Instead of taking a linear direction, all team members should bounce ideas off of each other. Designers need freer ways of thinking to offer alternative ways of meeting a target. Design can inspire a marketing campaign rather than take direction from it. You might be amazed at the mutual respect that a more positive co-operation relationship can form.
Fourth: it’s can really off-putting if a Marketing Manager insists on following the outline in a “Creative Brief” down to every letter without allowing the Graphic Designer any flexibility and creative freedom. It may be more effective to release some of the control and to bring the Designer into discussions with the Client from the start so that they can better understand what the client wants to achieve.
Fifth: everything should be documented and noted, including phone conversations. You can follow up with the client through email with a bullet point list of what was discussed. At all times, everyone should be on the same page so that if a problem arises, all parties can go back to look at the documentation to figure out what was agreed upon. Although some problems are still going to be unforeseen, this will reduce miscommunications and help you know what to add to future contracts to assure clarity about the scope of work that’s being performed.
Sixth: both Marketers and Designers can also streamline tasks so that they are performed with efficiency each time. Once a protocol is established for a task, that task can be performed multiple times without too much-wasted effort. This will contribute to a better relationship for both Marketers and Graphic Designers and will help all parties maintain an orderly process.
Seventh: finally, contrary to all the other tips in this article, there simply comes a time when Marketers and Graphic Designers need to celebrate how they are different from each other. If Marketers want to keep designs unrestrained then they may need to let go of statistics like audience reach and conversions so that the skills of the Graphic Designers aren’t undermined. Sometimes people simply need space and isolation, however, it’s a balancing act. Allow Creative Repute to help your business become more harmonious and balanced, contact us today to reap the rewards of good teamwork.
