All marketing experts agree that there is no successful marketing campaign without an attractive design. (Tweet this) Still, there are often conflicts between designers and marketers. This is not surprising for several reasons.
For starters, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to measure the ROI provided by the design, which is something marketing experts don’t really like. Next, the creative ideas may easily miss the target groups, thus ruining all the hard work put into the product or service. Finally, it’s very difficult to give designers a task with measurable goals, but a lot depends on the understanding between designers and marketers. And that’s the key point – collaboration.
Since a good design solution communicates the brand, raises its visibility, drives conversions and reinforces messaging – and those are all the things marketing experts crave –the only way to reach the common goal of having a great product or service visually presented in a great way is to have designers and marketers work as a team.
Tweet this: A good design solution communicates the brand, raises its visibility, drives conversions and reinforces messaging.
Overcoming problems
It is said that one of the most common breakdowns in communication and understanding occurs between designers and the marketing team. This is normal, since their work is not measured by the same metrics but they still have common goals. While marketers are obsessed with content, conversion, funnels and branding, designers are governed by purpose, emotions and aesthetics.
In order to bring these two groups of people together, the project manager has to be fully aware of the differences in the approaches and evaluation and keep reminding everyone that they are working together, as a team, towards a common goal. The project manager is also in charge of creating an efficient and understandable organisational structure so that everyone involved is fully aware of their responsibilities and deadlines.
source: Pexels
How to build a team?
As we’ve said, the greatest responsibility lies with the project manager who needs to provide both the organisational structure and strategy. Unless there’s a clear organisational structure in place, accompanied by attainable goals, there’s no chance of success.
Tweet this: Unless there’s a clear organisational structure in place, accompanied by attainable goals, there’s no chance of success.
Another element that is of the utmost importance is time management. The project manager has to come up with a realistic plan with deadlines and checkpoints along the way in order to make sure that the project doesn’t fall behind, and everyone needs to be aware of what is expected of them.
What else should the project manager do?
Unless there are regular feedbacks, updates and reports, the project will surely go in an unwanted direction. The people need to know if they are on the right track and what, if anything, they need to do to improve their performance.
It’s vital that the project manager has constant and open communication with both the designers and marketers and encourage cross-team collaboration so that no important issue goes unaddressed. That will also increase the sense of belonging to the same team and raise their spirits.
source: Pexels
How to facilitate collaboration?
Long gone are the days when members of a team had to be physically close to each other in order for their project to be a success. It’s now possible to move project asset management and communication to the cloud so that it’s available to everyone at any time. A suitable online collaboration tool allows updates in real time, which means that team members can work from physically remote areas without any problems, and everyone can stay in the loop.
Conclusion
Tweet this: There is no success without a functional, collaborative team
Even though there are many realistic obstacles when it comes to designers and marketers working together, they can be anticipated and, consequently, an appropriate action can be taken to remedy the situation. If the project manager can create an environment in which people can actually learn from each other and if there are open communication channels among the team members, the project in question is very likely to be successful.
Depending on the project, the number of people working on it can vary at certain stages, but what is really important is that they all have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and what the final product should look like. Needless to say, they should also be aware that they are all working towards a common goal and that there is no success without a functional, collaborative team.
Oscar is a writer and one of the editors at Bizzmarkblog. He writes about the latest developments across various industries, usually relating to marketing, business, and technology. To stay updated with Oscar’s latest posts, you can follow him on Twitter.