Top Dog Words

Marketers are a funny old lot. We work in a creative job while adhering to the world of business. While traditional creativity and business success are not fundamental opposites, they do work in different ways. Art is all about expression; it’s free flowing. The best pieces are created without the creator facing any pressure or expectation to perform. On the other hand, business is driven by growth, targets and performance metrics. 

I grew up around a lot of artists. In a way, I am one myself. Now working in marketing, I’ve found a lot of aspects of the job don’t always follow a creative best practice. I truly believe this is at a detriment to great marketing campaigns. 

So, here’s a list of five attributes we can all learn from artists which will help us create more engaging and impactful work! 

Honesty

One of the things that really grinds my gears is what I’ll call ‘cowboy marketing’. Like a snake oil salesman, a cowboy marketer will twist and manipulate content for mass appeal. Sometimes this will work. But, in the long run, you won’t be attracting the right audience to build a loyal client base. You’re also more likely to be faced with unhappy customers as your product’s USPs don’t align with what was sold to them. 

The hallmark of a great marketer is knowing and respecting the product they are marketing. Consumers have grown wise to quick fixes and over promises so lets start working honestly and build a foundation of trust.

Being open minded

Artists are incredibly open minded people. They’ll experiment with form, medium, process, everything!

Working for a company, we have to be smart with resources but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be open to trying new things. One of my previous bosses was famous for asking ‘why’ to everything we did. If the answer was ‘because that’s how it was done before’, then you can forget about it.

Explore all outlets and opportunities to find the ones that’ll resonate with your target audience. There must be a reason behind everything you do. Artists are always on the lookout for inspiration from all aspects of life and we should be doing the same.

Patience

If you’re used to ‘quick win’ marketing but are looking for a change, then you’re going to have to learn patience. This isn’t always easy, particularly if you have targets to meet, but it will lead to more substantial creations with longer term impacts.

Unfortunately, many businesses don’t have the proper metrics in place to capture and research audience activity. Clicks and sales are valuable things to know, but so is audience perception. 

Marketers should never stop talking to their target consumers both in and outside of official research and feedback activity. As your knowledge builds, so will the quality of your outputs. But understand, this will take time. 

Attention to detail

Whether an artist is working on a realistic oil painting or a cubist creation, every detail is noticed. Messaging can be loud and it can also be subtle. Neither is better than the other. 

While their purposes are different, a memorable order confirmation email can be just as impactful as a billboard ad. All aspects of the customer journey should be carefully considered when planning or revamping marketing activity. 

People want to connect with the products and services they use. They also need to remember who you are and why they bought from you in the first place.

 It’s no longer enough just to sell, sell, sell. The future is community.   

Fun

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, marketers need to have more fun! 

We have the pleasure of shouting about how amazing different products are. We want and need to feel the enthusiasm of the people who created them. Get out there and talk to anyone and everyone involved in the product’s or business’ creation. Once you know a product’s story, it’s time to lock yourself in a room and (metaphorically) throw paint all over the walls. 

Creativity needs breathing room to thrive. This means allowing yourself the freedom to come up with the most ridiculous and unachievable ideas. Often, at the heart of those ideas is a little nugget of gold that could be the key to an effective marketing campaign.