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COMMUNICATIONBREAKDOWN
HOW MARKETERSAND CREATIVESCAN GET ALONG
New survey research on what it takes to produce better content.
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As a discipline, content marketing is exploding. According to eMarketer,
more than $118 billion is spent annually on the production and distribution
of digital content. That number is projected to reach $300 billion by 2019.
At the same time, competition is on the rise because the size and content
consumption of the U.S. audience has plateaued:
The impact of this increase in competition is starting to be felt by content
marketers. For example, the Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 B2B Content
Marketing Survey revealed that the number of marketers describing their
organizations as effective at content marketing dropped to 30% (from 38%
in the 2015 survey).
To understand more about what it takes to produce content that’s effective
in this increasingly crowded space, we surveyed 789 marketers and creatives
to see how they work together. Read on to see what’s working, what’s not,
and how people on both sides of the creative divide can do a better job of
producing content that stands out.
INTRODUCTION
While a lot of things have to go right to be a successful content marketer, none of them matter if you don’t have good content.
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2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Other connected devices Desktop/laptop Mobile
Source: Nielsen
Hou
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DEFINITIONSMarketers consisted of people who identified themselves as “marketers
requesting content from writers and designers.” Creatives described
themselves as the “writers, designers and developers who create content
for marketers.”
Time spent per adult per day with digital media in the USA
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WHAT’S THE CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE?
Our study revealed that the relationship between marketers and their
creative teams isn’t always harmonious. At a high level, these were the
biggest observations:
Better communication is needed – especially when it
comes to briefing, feedback, and scoping projects.1Perception gap in key areas. Both marketers and creatives
have a rosier view of their own performance than their
counterparts – especially with delivering final content that
meets expectation or giving actionable feedback.
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Creative teams are understaffed. One thing marketers
and creatives agreed on was that creative teams don’t
usually have the personnel they need. Fifty-eight percent
of marketers with in-house teams turn to freelancers,
agencies and online services to scale their efforts.
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Each of these findings is based on a number of data points.
In the pages that follow, we’ll look at each of them separately.
The most common words used
when creatives and marketers
described working together.
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HOW CONTENT MARKETERS USE CONTENT
Content marketing is becoming more important because it can impact
almost any touchpoint in the customer journey. With that said, the biggest
focal points for marketers were acquisition, engagement, and brand building:
To move the needle, marketers relied on an array of content types. Emails
were still king and written articles were very popular—most likely because
they’re the easiest content to produce for most organizations. Higher level-
of-effort visual content like infographics, videos, and social microcontent
were also used by more than 50% of marketers.
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Engaging existingcustomers
Building a brand
Acquiring newcustomers
Sales enablement
Customer success
None of the above
83%
81%
81%
52%
33%
2%
In your function, which of the following goals do you use online content for?
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Microcontent forsocial media
Slide decksor presentations
Webinars or tutorials
White papers
Ebooks or guides
Interactive microsites
Videos
Infographics
Written articles
Emails 71%
68%
62%
60%
55%
49%
35%
34%
26%
25%
Of the following, which types of content do you typically use to reach these goals?
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ARE MARKETERS HAPPY WITH CREATIVES?
Despite the fact that content helps marketers meet a lot of their objectives,
it’s not always a smooth road getting from strategy to execution. Only 37%
of marketers were extremely or very satisfied with the work they
received from writers and designers. Almost 20% described themselves
as unsatisfied.
Creatives were more optimistic in their self-assessment. For example, 43% of
creatives viewed their work as extremely or very effective, while only 26%
of marketers thought the creative work they received was as effective. An
additional 9% didn’t know whether their work was effective or not—an early
sign that communication may not be effective as it could be.
And despite the low effectiveness ratings from marketers, 93% of marketers
are proud of the work that they do:
Typically, how satisfied are you with the content your creative team produces?
Typically, how proud are you with the content you and your team produce?
Extremely satisfied9%
Very satisfied28%
Satisfied44%
Not very satisfied18%
Extremely unsatisfied1%
Extremely proud13%
Very proud41%
Proud39%
Not very proud6%
Not proud at all1%
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WHERE DO CREATIVE TEAMS COME UP SHORT?
In the eyes of marketers, there was room for improvement across the board,
but a few creative duties received especially low marks. When it came to
staffing adequately, anticipating problems, or following a transparent
process, less than 30% of marketers thought the creatives they work
with did well. This assessment held true whether the creatives were part of
in-house teams, agencies, or freelancers.
Creatives also received low ratings in three areas related to the briefing
process. Less than 40% of marketers listed following the brief, asking
questions that make the brief better, and communicating concerns as
things their creative teams did well.
HOW MARKETERS CAN IMPROVE
Creative teams saw the dynamics of their working relationship a little
differently.
While briefing came up as one of the easier parts of the process, they
thought estimating the scope of work and agreeing on a timeline were two
of the most difficult activities (see chart on the next page). Both of these
activities flow directly from briefings and project kickoffs, so these results
suggest briefs aren’t as detailed or thought out as they should be. This view
may also signal that creatives don’t use briefings as an opportunity to ask
questions and get clarity up front.
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Consistency 53%
Responding to feedback 52%
Ask questions to get clarity 51%
Meeting deadlines 47%
Delivering final content thatmeets your expectations
46%
Communicating concerns 38%
Following the brief 36%
Feedback that makesbrief better
34%
Transparent process 29%
Anticipating problems 27%
Staffing adequately 24%
Which of the following does your creative team do well?
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Please rate the following parts of the creative process based on how easy or difficult it is to collaborate with marketers:
0 = Very easy 4 = Very difficult
1 2 3 4 5
Final delivery
Briefing
Initial draftsand review
Agreeing ona timeline
Feedback anditerations
Estimating thescope of work
2.52
2.63
2.66
2.84
2.97
3.13
2.52 2.63 2.66 2.84 2.97 3.13
Final delivery Briefing Initial draftsand review
Agreeing ona timeline
Feedback anditerations
Estimating thescope of work
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5
1.52 1.63 1.661.84
1.972.13
Final delivery Briefing Initial draftsand review
Agreeing ona timeline
Feedback anditerations
Estimating thescope of work
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Collaborating effectively is a two-way-street, though, and there were a lot
of opportunities for marketers to improve. Despite the fact creatives saw
briefings as a relatively easy part of the process, the results showed less
than 25% of marketers did a good job of: briefing well, sticking to the
brief, staying with the initial scope, or following established processes.
Also, less than 30% of creatives felt the marketers they work with gave
feedback consistently or on a timely basis.
The brightest spot in their assessment? Creatives thought the content they
create gets used, so their efforts aren’t wasted.
Which of the following does the marketing team you collaborate with do well?
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Sticking to the brief 18%
Sticking to establishedprocesses
23%
Briefing projects clearly 23%
Staying withinthe initial scope 24%
Giving consistentfeedback 28%
Giving timely feedback 29%
Setting realistic deadlines 32%
Sharing results 33%
Giving actionable feedback 36%
Reasonable timelines 38%
Responding toyour concerns 40%
Communicating priorities 42%
Sharing credit withyour team 43%
Actually using thecontent you produce 58%
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PERCEPTION VS REALITY: CREATIVES
While we saw that creatives could do a better job of communicating
earlier in the process and content marketers could do a better job of
outlining their needs up front, it’s also worth taking a moment to see
how each group viewed its own performance in the face of these
criticisms.
Both creatives and marketers tended to have a rosier view of their own
work than their counterparts. But for creatives, the discrepancies were
biggest when it came to delivering content that met expectations. Here
are the other areas where creatives’ and marketers’ opinions had the
biggest discrepancies.
PERCEPTION VS REALITY: MARKETERS
When marketers’ self-assessment is compared with what creatives
thought, a few new opportunities to improve the relationship emerge.
While sharing more credit with creatives might help boost their overall
positivity, marketers also overestimated their ability to give timely and
actionable feedback.
Delivering final content that meets
expectations
Anticipating problems
Asking questions to get clarity
Creating consistent content
68%
47%
68%
69%
Creatives who say yes
Marketers who say yes Disparity
46%
27%
51%
52%
+22%
+20%
+17%
+17%
Giving actionable feedback
Sharing credit with creatives
Giving timely feedback
Communicating priorities
Briefing projects clearly
55%
62%
46%
57%
38%
Marketers who say yes
Creatives who say yes Disparity
36%
44%
29%
42%
23%
+19%
+18%
+17%
+15%
+15%
Do creatives do the following well?
Do marketers do the following well?
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WORKING WITH EXTERNAL CREATIVE TEAMS
One problem area that both marketers and creatives agreed on was the lack
of adequate staffing. Only 24% of marketers felt the creative teams they work
with were staffed adequately. While creatives generally tended to evaluate
themselves more positively than the marketers they work with, this is one
place where they didn’t: Just 16% of creatives felt that they did a good
job of maintaining enough bandwidth to meet marketers’ demands.
These numbers mean that creative teams are frequently understaffed. Thus,
it’s not surprising to see a lot of marketers turning to external teams.
Digging a little deeper into these numbers, we found that 58% of the
marketers who most frequently used an in-house creative team also
relied on external contributions from freelancers, agencies, or online
services. Sixteen percent of marketers used two or more types of these
external resources.
In fact, 40% of marketers who have access to in-house creative teams relied
most frequently on external creative resources.
We were also interested to see whether marketers’ level of satisfaction
changed as they used different sources of creative talent. When looking
at these numbers, our sample size became insignificant, but there was less
than 10% variance in satisfaction ratings between the highest and lowest
performing types of creative teams.
DOES COMPANY SIZE MATTER?
In terms of company size, companies with 100 to 1000 employees were
most likely to rely primarily on internal teams (77%), while companies with
over 1000 employees were the group most likely to use an agency (41%).
What sort of creative team do you MOST FREQUENTLY work with to produce content?
What sort of creative teams do you work with to produce content?
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
An in-house team 75%
Freelancers 46%
An agency 38%
An online service 14%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
An in-house team 59%
Freelancers 18%
An agency 16%
An online service 6%
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SUCCESS & GOOD COLLABORATION GO HAND IN HAND
It’s hard to break apart correlation and causation on this point, but creative
teams that collaborated better with their marketing partners got more done
and produced more successful content.
The marketers who are most satisfied with their creative teams also think the
creative process is easier.
These same marketers considered every single part of the creative process
— from kickoff to final delivery—to be easier as well. A similar correlation
is seen with looking at the marketers who consider their content most
effective. Bottom line? Ease, effectiveness, and satisfaction go hand in hand.
All marketers
Typically, how easy is it to collaborate with the creative teams you work with?
Marketers who are very satisfied
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Very easy 24%
Easy 38%
Neither easynor difficult
26%
Hard 11%
Very difficult 1%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Very easy 42%
Easy 45%
Neither easynor difficult
9%
Hard 5%
Very difficult 0%
In company cultures where creative works well, design isn’t just seen as
people making things pretty. It’s viewed as the way marketers make their
ideas come to life. Good creative solves the same problem that marketers
are solving, but it does it on a different level.
“
JOHN HANSBROUGH, Art Director at Walmart and The Gap
CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE
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HOW TO WORK BETTER TOGETHER
To distill this research into something more actionable, the following pages include some guidance and best practices for building better relationships. Here
is a set of questions that address the biggest issues that affect most marketing-creative relationships. It’s a great place to start an internal self-assessment.
There are a ton of amazing ideas floating around marketing departments,
and there are never going to be enough creatives to execute on all of them.
It’s really incumbent upon marketers to prioritize and focus on the ideas that
will have the most impact for the business.
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JOHN HANSBROUGH, Art Director at Walmart and The Gap
CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE
1. Creative briefs and the briefing process:
� Do briefs truly communicate marketers’ intent?
� Do briefs take the full scope of the project into account? If not, are there
assets that briefs routinely overlook?
� Do creatives have the opportunity to give feedback up front?
� If they do, are they taking advantage of it?
� If not, do they have enough information to give feedback?
2. The overall creative process:
� Is there an established process?
� Is the process documented somewhere?
� Is there any attempt to measure its efficiency?
� Who owns the process, and how is it socialized?
� Is there a clearly-defined approver?
� Are there onboardings for new team members?
� Do marketers and creatives ever get together to assess and improve
the process?
3. Feedback:
� How is feedback usually given?
� Is there a routine?
� Is it given in a transparent way via a permanent medium?
� Is feedback consistent with the requirements in the original brief?
� Is feedback consolidated before it goes to creatives?
� Does the feedback give actionable criticism?
� If not, is it too vague?
� Or are there inconsistencies in feedback from different stakeholders?
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BUILDING BETTER BRIEFS
Writing a creative brief is an exercise in definition. In addition to giving
creative teams an actionable way to start fleshing out content, taking
time to write (and vet) a good brief also forces marketers to really think
through their campaigns. The brief is a chance to explore every aspect
of your project, from audience to tone, core message to takeaway.
“Marketers always have good intentions, but the scope of projects tend
to change. In the rush to get the creative brief out, not all the possibilities
are captured,” said Hansbrough. Carefully planning all the nuances of a
campaign keeps projects on schedule and gets a better final product.
“The quality of your end product kind of lives and dies with your creative
brief,” said Sean Zinmeister, Director of Product Marketing at Infer (a
platform that helps companies predict which leads will go on to become
great customers).
In addition to describing the goals of the project, the deliverables, and
the target audience, Zinmeister thinks marketers should give creatives
more inspiration via concrete examples. “Sometimes it’s really hard to put
into words what you want a creative project to look like. But it becomes
a very easy task when I can hand the designer three or four examples so
I can say, ‘look, it needs to not quite be like this for the following reasons,
and this takes it too far for these reasons, but if we can find something
that really marries it in the middle, that would be awesome.’”
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THE CREATIVE BRIEF CHECKLIST
Creative briefs can vary tremendously, depending on the nature of the
project and its deliverables. For example, a brief preparing two different
banners for A/B testing requires a lot less guidance than a brief for a
two-minute explainer video.
With that caveat, here’s a distilled checklist of the information that’s
most likely to be needed in a creative brief:
Description: A sentence to a paragraph describing the project and its
objectives.
Your audience: Describe them briefly, give key demographic
information, and provide any insights about what they’re trying to
achieve (and how your campaign or product will help them achieve it).
The core message and 3-5 proof points or benefits to the audience.
The primary call-to-action or takeaway message.
Themes or ideas, the final creative should embrace. Make sure to be
clear about how closely (or loosely) to follow these themes.
Specific goals or examples of what success metrics look like (website
traffic, sales, etc.).
Examples of similar work to emulate (or that has been successful) in
a similar format (videos, infographics, etc.).
Brand and style guidelines: The fonts, tone, colors, logos, and other
elements that need to be incorporated to keep the content on brand.
This information doesn’t need to be in the creative brief necessarily,
but the brief should at least link to additional guidance.
Any specifications for the final product: sizes, formats, file types,
technical requirements, etc.
A full list of deliverables. Will the promotion need a banner? A blog
post? Copy for social media promotions? Scope creep is an easy way
to get projects derailed, so marketers should make sure to include all
the little pieces—not just the focal points of a campaign.
Timelines: Clear information about both launch dates and due dates
for drafts. If there’s flexibility, let the team know.
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STAGING BETTER KICKOFFS
The goal of the kickoff is to make sure everyone is aligned on a project’s direction, timelines, and deliverables. In a perfect world, the kickoff is the meeting
where work on the project really begins. It’s where the brief is presented to the creative team, timelines are committed to, and creatives ask questions to
get context and make sure they have everything they need to get things right. Once the brief is in good shape, here are a few key things to think about
in planning the kickoff:
It depends on the company and how things are done, but being at the table
early is helpful for getting as much context as you can, and it makes quick
turnarounds more manageable. Just hearing some of the thought process
that informs the marketing team’s discussions makes a big difference.
“
JOHN HANSBROUGH, Art Director at Walmart and The Gap
CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Timing: The kickoff shouldn’t happen until the creative team is about
ready to start work. Kicking off too early can create a sense of unrealistic
timelines, and it makes it easy for details from the kickoff to be forgotten.
Attendance: All the direct stakeholders in the project should be at the
kickoff. Anyone who is unable to attend should have had the opportunity
to give feedback on the brief in advance.
Roles: Whoever is driving the project on the marketing side should
present the brief, but everyone should be free to give feedback.
Remember that the kickoff is about alignment, not just the marketer’s
grand vision.
Preparation: Time permitting, everyone should have the opportunity to
review the brief in advance. Doing so means people will come in with
good questions, have a chance to think about competing priorities, and
be more likely to have a meaningful discussion.
Next steps: Everyone should emerge from the kickoff with a clear sense
of what they’re responsible for, what the next steps are, and what the
timeline is.
Keep in mind that having a seat earlier in the process makes creatives more aware of what’s coming down the pipeline, and it gives them an opportunity to start thinking about solutions in advance. It also helps with scoping, foreseeing obstacles, and making the final ask more feasible.
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GIVING BETTER FEEDBACK
When marketers give feedback, the single goal should be to give creatives
the information they need to get from their draft to the perfect finished
product. Unfortunately, egos and miscommunication can make getting from
point A to point B kind of tough.
According to creatives, less than 30% of marketers do a good job of giving
feedback that’s timely or consistent. And only 35% give actionable feedback
well. Here a few ways to give feedback that gets everyone over the finish
line together:
1. Lead with positives: Finding a few positives (even if it really requires some
digging) respects the skills and effort of the creative team. By framing the
positive first, it also makes them more receptive to unfavorable feedback.
2. Set the stage: Don’t ambush creatives with drive-by feedback. As tempting
as it may be to stop by someone’s desk or pick up the phone, schedule a call
or a meeting. And make sure to be prepared with a list of feedback.
3. Ask questions first: Before demanding specific changes, make sure to ask
creatives about their intent. Developing this back and forth will give you more
perspective, and it might help you see things differently.
4. Be specific: Identify specific qualities that are problematic. Vague feedback
forces creatives to be mind readers—and leads to more revisions. Both
higher-level observations (like “this doesn’t convey the benefit as strongly as
it could” or “I think we need to be clearer about this point”) and focused
criticism (“the headline seems too small”) need to be presented in actionable
terms.
5. Focus on the work: Feedback should be given in terms of the work, not
the person. “You used the wrong font” is an accusation, while “This looks like
the wrong font” gets the same message across without making it personal.
Also remember that the project is not being created to satisfy your personal
tastes, but the tastes of your audience. Instead of saying, “I don’t like this
language,” say something like “This language seems too informal for our
customers.”
6. Put all feedback in writing: To save everyone headaches, make sure to
document feedback. Not only does it give marketers a leg to stand on if
revisions aren’t addressed, but it also serves as a reference for creatives
in case their memory of the conversation falls short.
7. Deliver everyone’s feedback at the same time: It’s really hard for a
creative team to respond to disparate feedback from different sources.
And when the feedback isn’t aligned, it can be impossible. Make sure all the
feedback flows through one person to keep it consistent and timely.
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When you’re a marketer, the relationships you have with your creative team
can ultimately dictate whether you’re successful. You can develop amazing
insights and figure out a brilliant strategy, but it won’t matter if your creative
team can’t execute.
Good communication means better campaigns, more bandwidth, and maybe
most importantly, fewer fire drills, headaches, and frustration. Good luck
using this data and guidance to take your creative to the next level!
AWESOMECOLLABORATIVE
REWARDINGFUNLOVE
WISH
POSITIVE
EFFICIENT
ENJOYABLE
PARTNERSHIP
SUCCESSFUL
TEAM
PRODUCTIVE
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The most common words marketers use to describe the creative process
when they are very or extremely satisfied with their creative team.
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SURVEY METHODOLOGY
Between July and August, we surveyed almost 800 people in the U.S. The
people we surveyed self–identified as:
1. 220 content marketers “who request content from writers and designers,”
or
2. 559 creatives, defined as “writers, designers and developers who create
content for marketers”
Survey data was collected and analyzed using SurveyMonkey. The surveys
were delivered to respondents in the following ways:
� They were sent through email to anyone with a Visually account
� They were posted and promoted on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook
� About 300 responses were purchased from the SurveyMonkey Audience
panel service, which uses charitable donations as incentive to solicit
survey responses.
Based on a 95% confidence interval, these results have a 5% margin of error
for creatives, and 7% margin of error for content marketers.