5 questions that say a lot about your creative strategy
In terms of marketing, creative strategy is an intentional guide to how you create verbal and visual stimuli for your brand - including how your assets look and feel.
It taps into the emotional drivers that connect your audience to your brand and for it to be carried out successfully, your team needs to be totally on board with your purpose and have the right tools (budget, time and resources) to do the job.
Taking creative strategy one step further, we can also apply it to how we welcome our audience. Do you pull them in as paying customers or have a more long-term view and welcome them as guests?
If you’ve read this far you may be nodding your head in agreement because creative strategy sounds like a great thing to have doesn’t it?. But the question is how well is the theory being applied in your business?
Now in case you’ve not met me before, I’m a straight-talker and don’t mind asking tough questions to help clients take action. I’ve put together this list of 5 key questions that you might find difficult to answer - but that’s good. Think of it as a diagnostic tool to help you work out where to put your focus!
1 Can you tell me WHY are you in business?
Even people who have been in business for 10 years often find this hard to answer. In essence, it's the elevator pitch you use to tell people about your business. More than that it should be the truth barometer through which you pass every question.
Why are creating a new product - how does it uphold our purpose?
Why are we running this event - what is the outcome and how does support our purpose?
2 Are you on top of your social media profiles?
It’s not uncommon for large organisations to have a channel for each department or a charity to have lost access because an intern set up the profile. Multiple channels are like silos and do NOT offer a united brand voice. Just a few reasons this is not ideal:
Multiple channels increase workload
Your audience would be confused - who should they follow? Where do they go for info?
Presents disharmony - aren’t you all in this together?
3 Do you do your own marketing or events?
Despite having an internal marketing or events team, do you lack confidence that they can deliver something extraordinary? Some follow up questions I might ask are:
Do they have a brief?
Is there a plan - with a measurable objective?
Are there resources - word bank, content pillars, guidelines?
Have you told them what you like and what you don’t like about previous work?
4 Do you have an asset list?
This applies to digital and IRL assets. Time spent looking for things, or hiring things you already have is money wasted. The sort of things I am talking about here are:
Do you know the full capabilities of the spaces you own?
What technical equipment do you have?
Are your safety testing and technical specifications up to date?
5 Are you proud to show off your office/studio/space?
Perhaps your marketing sparkles on the page but does your physical space reinforce your message, your purpose or your brand? More than that, do you think you're making the most of it?
Have you viewed how your customers see your space?
Is your space welcoming, easy to find and simple to navigate?
Do you have wasted space?
I would challenge ANY business to read that list and to be able to say YES to all 5. That’s understandable because it’s a lot to take in. Creating a creative strategy is the easy part because it is theoretical. Execution of the creative strategy is harder because it requires constant mindful application.
Creative strategy with a difference
Together with my good friend Amy Gale, I have put together a creative strategy service that will help you to communicate verbally (that’s me) and visually (that’s Amy) about your business.
With over 40 years of combined experience in marketing, sales, events, production, design and performance, we have a very practical approach; full of systems and processes, to help your team apply the creative strategy. Some applications might include:
Redesigning a retail space and hosting a launch party
Running ideation sessions to generate new marketing or event ideas
Conducting an audit of available event spaces
Mapping out a customer experience
If any of the 5 questions resonated with you, get in touch to find out how we can help you get more creatively strategic and build an audience of raving fans.
