For some time, businesses have assumed that it is not possible to run marketing campaigns that are both data-driven and creative. Fortunately, companies in current times understand the value of both and are learning that they no longer have to choose between the two.
If you are ready to drive your marketing campaigns to greater success, it is important to learn how putting data-driven and creative campaigns together can benefit your company tremendously.
How Important is Data-Driven Marketing?
The answer to this question revolves specifically around how important data is, in general. Let’s say you want to open a Thai restaurant in your home town. You find the space to do so and get everything lined up. Immediately, you begin putting a marketing campaign together. It looks great and sounds good, so you send it out yet no one responds. Too late you learn that the residents of your home town do not like Thai food.
Similarly, someone decides to open a daycare and children’s center in a nearby town only to find that the town is full of retirees, not parents with young children. Both scenarios could have been prevented with simple data. In short, marketing campaigns that are created without data are similar to an artist trying to paint with no paint brushes or paints. Marketing is art but art is not made without supplies and tools.
Unlikely Connection Between Creatives and Analysts
It often seems as though creative people and analytic people are completely opposite and separate. Many people feel that they have nothing to do with one another and that you cannot have both types working on one project. That is absolutely not true. Though the two are quite different, both are necessary, and they both have major contributions to make. The more data available, the more creative campaigns can be. And the more creative the campaign, the greater the need for data.
Another factor that many people overlook is how much a fresh set of eyes can bring to something. For instance, analysts may often work with data, but they can also bring some great ideas to campaigns. Creatives are mostly accustomed to being creative, but that does not mean that they cannot see patterns in the data. Specializing in an area does not mean that is the only area in which one is skilled.
A Holistic Skill Set- A Data-Driven Creative Approach
Steve Babcock, the former Chief Creative Officer at Vayner Media, stated that “Creativity without data is just art. But data without creativity is neglect.” Both are important, and trying to work with only one of them is like trying to put a puzzle together with only half the pieces.
Most people are aware of the difference in “right-brained” people and “left-brained” people. Each group has amazing strengths, but imagine what would happen if they both worked together. The results would be a force to be reckoned with. That is the foundational idea behind this integration. With the two powerful departments working together, the results can be phenomenal.
How Does the Integration of Creative & Analytics Fuel Growth?
Integrating creativity and analytics opens up a lot of doors. Because this integration means that marketing campaigns are not put into a box, i.e. either data-driven or creative, the campaigns will be more effective. With data providing the building blocks for marketing campaigns, employees can work much more quickly and efficiently. Additionally, they can push their campaigns out to more target markets.
The more efficiently one works and the farther a company can share its brand and campaigns, the more the company will grow. This growth is not only in sales, however, but also in the number of client accounts and the relationships with enterprise clients.
How Can This Integration Drive Revenue?
Though it should not be the only priority, increasing revenue is a priority in any company. As such, it makes sense to only put to work strategies that can increase it. The integration between creativity and analytics can drive and grow revenue with the simple mechanics of the process.
Analysts focus on uncovering the triggers and interests of the target markets while creatives focus on presenting campaigns that play on those triggers. As this decreases the time needed for one group to focus on the campaign, integration provides the much faster implementation of the marketing campaigns. Faster implementation, as well as the broader sharing of the campaign mentioned above, both increase revenue potential.
There is no need to draw the line between data and creativity when they both have so much to offer one another. Take a look at previous and/or current marketing campaigns. Were they data-driven or heavily creative? How well did they do with your audience? Ask yourself how much better those campaigns might have performed if data were at the center of creativity.
Consider how putting both data and creativity to work together could make each campaign more effective. You might find that it is worth the work to edit and then re-run some of those same campaigns.
