5 Tips for Marketers: Get the Best Work Out of Your Creative Partner

When you think of “perfect pairings”, what typically comes to mind? It might be “peanut butter & jelly” or “milk & cookies”. How about “marketing & creative”? The most well executed advertising or marketing campaigns are born out of true collaboration between those with different, yet complimentary, skill sets. A good marketer lays a blueprint for how a vision will look, and a good creative provides the guidance and expertise needed to execute that vision.

Marketers, imagine you had a blueprint that never failed you, and a method for harnessing creative input into a toolkit that you could rely on again and again? As a provider of creative services, we want to give you a little cheat sheet on how to get the best results out of your creative agency or partner.

1. Agree on a Timeline

First things first. It is important to be clear about your deadlines. What are important milestones for your project, and when do you and when you expect to have certain deliverables in-hand? This will open up an important dialogue between you and your creative partner on what are realistic goals, and how rushed deadlines may affect your budget.

If you start your project with a clearly stated deadline, you are much more likely to achieve your goals.

2. Provide Examples of What you Want

A picture is worth a thousand words. Visuals can help to clearly communicate your vision and they provide your creative team with a great jumping off point. From there, your creative agency should be able to give informed input on the best way to achieve your goal and craft deliverables tailored to your brand.

3. Devise a Communication Schedule

How often do you expect to hear from your creative partner? It’s important to establish early on how often, and through what channels you would like to receive updates about your project. For example, is a weekly meeting via teams sufficient to make you feel comfortable or do you prefer to meet in person? Who from your team should be cc’d on email communications? Are there specific items you want addressed each meeting, or will you leave it to your creative team to guide the conversation?

By establishing your expectations, you can reduce the chances of any miscommunications. 

4. Keep a Written and Accessible List of the Scope of Work

This step is particularly important because it demystifies the end result. By specifically stating what digital and physical assets are required, as well as deadlines for each item, you can ensure that everyone on your team and the creative team are on the same page. If anything about your project changes, be sure to update the document so everyone is able to clearly see and adjust to the new goals. 

5. Centralize your Communications

Streamline your workflow by keeping a centralized repository for all your tasks, files, and communications. Working with an online project management tool will allow and your creative team to instantly see status updates, hold-ups, and newly- added files. Some project management tools to look into are:

• Google Docs
• Monday.com
• Smartsheet
• Asana
• Atlassian
• Hubspot
• Wrike
• Slack

Good luck on your next campaign!