Marketing Creatives and Technologists

There’s been a lot of chatter on social media lately about the direction that marketing, and the necessary skills required for modern marketing, are headed. Campaigns now spread across many channels: email, direct mail, social media, and landing pages on web sites to name a few. New technology tools are are being used to implement campaigns and measure their performance, allowing marketers to do two very important things:

Justify marketing budgets.

Measurement allows an accurate ROI to be determined.

Continuously improve.

Measuring the performance of each channel, as well as the effect that detailed design and copy changes have on response rate allow marketers to consistently improve campaign performance.

Technology is Taking a Larger Slice of the Marketing Budget

While technical analysis of marketing statistics has been around for decades, until recently they were done in the back rooms at big brands analyzing campaign ROI. Compared to the creative side of marketing there were very few marketing technicians.

Today’s marketing campaigns and programs are very complex and have touches over numerous channels. They include some combination of:

• Email
• Direct mail
• Landing pages | microsites
• Blog posts
• Multiple social media sites
• Mobile apps
• Traditional advertising channels such as TV, radio, and magazines

The rise of marketing technology in no way diminishes the importance of traditional creative marketing skills. A poor design or bad copy will certainly lead to poor results. While technology is taking a bigger piece of growing marketing budgets, it is not expected that spend on design and copywriting will decrease, it just won’t grow at the same rate as technology.

The growth in the use of marketing technology is happening so fast, the Gartner Group expects that marketing departments will spend more money on technology than traditional IT departments as early as 2017.

Using these new tools require technical skills that traditionally have not been on marketing teams.

Building the Modern Marketing Team

To be effective in today’s world, marketing teams need a mix of creative and technical talents. Don’t expect to find both types of abilities and expertise in one person.

The creative is concerned with the design and content that will evoke the emotional response that creates desire, as well as creating a design that guides the prospect to the desired actions.

The technologist is concerned with implementing and integrating the channels used in a campaign. The technologist ensures that prospects have consistent user experience as they move across mediums and also how their interactions can be measured.

Crafting an effective and measurable campaign that crosses multiple channels requires collaboration between both the creative and the technologist. You also need someone that has a general overall understanding of the various channels, the creative process, and technical possibilities that can guide implementation from concept to implementation.

Large marketing departments have the luxury of having people that specialize in the various artistic and technical roles. Teams can be formed to plan, design, implement and measure the performance of each campaign.

Small marketing teams just aren’t able to have all the necessary skills on staff for effective cross media campaigns. Marketers in small departments need to leverage outside talent to remain competitive in today’s marketing landscape. If this sounds like you we can help! Contact your sales rep, email us, or call us at 503.223.4984. We’ll help assess your needs. We’ll be happy to recommend trusted resources to supplement your marketing team.