In today’s hyper-competitive world of business, when it comes to stand-out marketing campaigns, creativity truly is the oxygen. The most successful brands of today are those who have worked hard at building and implementing a creative marketing strategy that not only connects with their target audience but converts them too.

It’s no longer enough to simply have a great product or service and hope customers will flock to it. The digital era of today means that brand loyalty is lower than ever. According to McKinsey, 58 percent of consumers are not brand loyal. This is perhaps not surprising considering the vast amount of options readily available to today’s consumers at the click of a button. One simple Google search will provide shoppers with thousands of results, and only those brands that connect with the consumer in some way via creative marketing will win that much sought after attention.

So, what exactly is a creative marketing strategy? 

A creative marketing strategy is essentially a blueprint that is devised before the launch of a new marketing campaign or project. It outlines details such as core messaging, customer personas of who you wish to receive the messages and in what tone, and the goals attached to said messages. An organisation’s creative strategy should act as a guiding light for the marketing team, helping to develop and deliver engaging strategies that meet the set goals.

Vital things to consider when developing a creative marketing strategy

So, you have your product or service ready to hit the shelves — and now for perhaps the most important business decision you will have to make: how you decide to introduce it to the world. For many businesses, the marketing strategy surrounding a launch can either make or break the brand. Even after a successful launch of a product or service, how a brand’s image is continued to be presented on an on-going basis is truly the determinant of its long-term success. 

It’s true that developing your brand’s creative marketing strategy requires a whole lot of investment in time, energy and budget. But the benefits you will reap in return will make it so worth it. Here are some components to consider when it comes to planning your brand’s creative marketing strategy.

Identifying and understanding  your target market

If “content is king”, then distribution is unquestionably its all-important queen – and she definitely wears the trousers in the relationship. You can spend all the time, money and resources in the world producing incredible marketing content, but this could all go down the drain if it fails to reach the right audience.

You must spend time learning about the customer personas you’re trying to reach, their perceived values, what drives their decision-making process, and the problem they’re facing. The better you understand your target market, the better you’ll be able to tailor your marketing efforts and create content and campaigns that resonate with your target audience and thus captures their attention. The results? Higher conversion rates, better ROI and understood, happy customers.

Defining your objectives and success metrics

At the core of any successful creative marketing strategy is a list of clearly defined objectives. Marketing objectives are otherwise known as a businesses goals which outline the intentions of the marketing team. They provide clear direction for employees to follow and often consist of both short- and long-term objectives and how they interact with your overall business goals.

So, why is this important? Well, without clear objectives, a brand is likely to struggle to achieve overarching business goals as it won’t be clear on what exactly needs to be achieved and the steps required to achieve this. 

Once marketing objectives are outlined, the next step is to explore how to measure the success of them. Successful goal setting involves attaching KPIs (key performance indicators) to your plans that enable you to track progress and assess results along the way. Without these, you’ll have no way of knowing if your marketing efforts were successful or worthwhile. 

Your brand’s style guide a.k.a the Holy Grail

A style guide should be an integral component of your marketing strategy, whether you’re a large and well-established organisation requiring a much-needed modern rebrand, or a fresh and an exuberant startup early on in its journey.

A style guide is essential to ensuring your brand identity is consistent and easily recognisable from both a graphic and language perceptive. It encompasses details such as brand colours, font, logos and style as well as the tone of writing in your communication materials.

Having all this information clearly explained in a style guide allows for successful collaboration from multiple parties when creating content, ensuring whatever is produced is always in line with your branding. Since a style guide defines the guidelines for maintaining your brand’s identity, it’s important to spend the time and resources to ensure its right.

Consistency is key

So, we’ve just discussed the vital role of your brand’s style guide. Now comes the stage of putting it all into practice… consistently.

Consistently practising what’s outlined in your style guide will ensure your target audience is being exposed to core messages, visual branding, and other brand elements repeatedly, which will help to solidify brand recognition. With this, comes the building of trust – an incredibly important factor when it comes to selling your product or service. According to Forbes, presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23 percent. So it really is vital that your branding is spot on at all times.

Taking a creative approach to marketing is important in so many ways; from learning how best to understand our target audience, to coming up with memorable solutions to help land us sales. It’s essential to remember that marketing is a journey, and not a standalone, one-off activity. It is made up of various different elements that are vital throughout each and every stage of a business’s journey; from way before that first sale is made to long after. 

Need help with your brand’s creative marketing strategy? For a free branding audit and consultation, send a request to hello@growwithhde.com