How marketers & designers can go hand in hand

The designer: Yes, finally done with the event creative. Let me grab a cup of coffee.

“As he tries to get up, someone pats his back”

“The designer turns back and sees a guy sweating profusely”

The marketer: You’ve got the creatives done wrong, the campaign goes live in 15 minutes. Need the re-work done now!

The designer [mutters]: If only I had a gun right now.

This is the case I can relate to, when the marketers and designers aren’t on the same path. As a designer looks for creative freedom, the marketer is focused on brand strategy and messaging. Well both, work towards an organization goal. Keeping them on the same track to achieve a goal can however be challenging.

Let’s try and understand the differences and how to ensure they work in harmony.

Understanding the difference

Let’s start off by looking at the basic definition of a marketer. The person is responsible for identifying the right set of customers for marketing the goods on behalf of the company. The marketer is a promoter, also sometimes responsible for maintaining public relations. They talk about content, brand tonality, visitors and conversions.

Coming to the other guy in this story, Designer is the person who creates or modifies design objects. Designers can be working in an array of fields ranging from fashion, architecture to graphic design. They focus on alignment, emotion, balance and tone.

While working on a project, marketers understand the client needs, message to convey, the target audience and create a strategy accordingly. They work to define the goals and measuring the Return on objective (ROO) to show the effectiveness of a project undertaken. The Designer works on the psychology of attraction and focuses on design for print and web work. The marketer presents a strategy to the client which the designer will turn into a visual reality. Both need to reach the finish line and close the deal.

The Marketer’s concern:

• Researching about the client: This is as easy as visiting the company’s website to get an overall idea of the current look and feel. The Designer can consider it as a homework which can be done to achieve good results in the final test.
• Discussing the brief: When a brief is explained. Don’t be hesitant to ask out questions. It can be the requirement of style guide or a something which seems difficult to understand.  
• Having a clear objective: Designers can easily lure into the artistic world, though there is a need to understand the clear business objective and work towards it.
• Stick to a timeline: There is nothing better than delivering work on time and meet the client’s expectations. If a deadline seems unrealistic it is better to discuss it beforehand. Exceeding deadlines may undermine the credibility.
• The Choice paralysis: Too many iterations may cause doubt and delay in selecting the final set of visuals. The Designer needs to use his expertise to select the final version along with the ‘why’.

The Designer’s concern:

• Show the requirements: If a project needs to be successful, the objectives must be clearly defined. Sit down to discuss about the project and what are the requirements.
• Foster a sense of involvement: To ensure things between the two parties are clear, ensure decisions are taken, keeping all the stakeholders on the same page. Brainstorm about the concepts, the things which are liked and removing the unnecessary items.
• Specify the needs: There is no need to use terms like ‘spruce it up a little bit’ or ‘use peppy colors’. The clear and precise a pointer is; the better implementation can be done.
• Approvals: If a client has rejected something, let the reason be specified. Getting work delivered on time calls for implementing the changes done as per feedback. Don’t rush in a day before deadline to make out the changes.
• Rushing through: To deliver well on time, don’t rush into things. For a project to be successful, it requires the combination of both great visuals and copy. If a copy has been well thought of, the design process also happens after considerable thought process.

Bridging the gap

A marketer or designer work towards convey a message to people who can remember it easily and spread the word around as well. Achieving business objective requires both the marketer and the designer to come into play and work together as a team. So how can the disconnect between the two be addressed? We look at the ideas.

1. Communication

Conflict is bound to arise, if the two-way flow of thoughts lacks between the designer and the marketer. Communication is vital to reduce the barriers and reap the benefits of increased productivity.

2. Recognize the same goals

Know that you share the same goal of completing the project. Talk about agreeing on what the goals are and communicate as frequently as possible. Stop guessing about what your goals are, assumptions may convert into confusion.

3. Brainstorm & Encourage creative process

Sit down to brainstorm about the creative process. It opens the gateway to seeing objects in the Light of various perspectives. It speeds up the creative process and makes way for greater returns.

4. Working on a template

Creating a template related to the design can help in speedy production. The marketer can present it to the client for approvals and with clearly defined deliverables, the work can be completed on time.

Communication and collaboration is the essence of the relationship between the marketer and designer. So are you ready to build out a better relationship?