Many companies have all the ingredients needed to create a great content marketing team. There are excellent writers, marketers, graphic designers, and developers. Despite having this expert team, they often fail to create the perfect website. Learn how designers and marketers can collaborate to maximize client value and support consumers.
The Problem of Working in Silos
The marketing department and the design department can make or break the success of any company’s content. Graphic designers and developers may develop the best themes, interactive designs, engaging images, and inspiring background music.
The writers and marketers may also do a fantastic job of providing informative elements, exciting insights, and hiring data.
- Then how is it possible that the website lacks good content?
- What can designers and marketers do to ensure maximum client value?
- How do designers and marketers develop captivating content?
Here are some steps that you may take to ensure the success of your design and marketing team. Keep reading to learn how designers and marketers can collaborate to maximize client value and support consumers.
Communicate the “Whys”: Make Designers and Marketers Collaborate
Marketers, writers, and designers need to have a clear and precise understanding of the ultimate goal of their work. They should be provided with specific information about the products, services, marketing agendas, deadlines, and deliverables before the start of the project.
A lot of time, money, and energy is saved when marketers and designers have a distinct knowledge of company expectations.
Any new project will get a terrific jumpstart if the questions, doubts, and ambiguity are solved initially by designers and marketers collaborate and work together.
Communicate the “Whos”:
Both marketers and designers must have a clear idea about their target audience. The written content, as well as visual designs, need to be in sync with the people who are going to be using it.
Marketers should share product, end-user, and demographic details with content writers and designers. If the website targets niche clients, content developers and designers should have a clear idea about it. Only then will they be able to create an attractive platform for the client?
Project management software such as Slack can make it easier for leaders to create processes that inherently support and value collaboration between different teams. This alone can bring about groundbreaking innovation in your company.
Content is King: Make Designers and Marketers Collaborate
Often, companies cannot develop the perfect content as they rely too much on graphics and imagery. Even with the best designs and attractive visuals, the website’s effectiveness will not be possible if the written content is not good.
Companies should never forget the words of Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Corporation, “Content is King.” The first step towards better content is that writers and marketers must provide their design team with written content as a backbone for design development.
If the graphics and designs are developed considering the written content, their effectiveness will improve substantially. Excellent written content is the secret to fantastic graphic designs.
Better collaboration:
Each department is looking to maximize its functions. While designers focus on creativity and visual aspects, marketers aim to improve bottom lines and meet deadlines. It is tough to bridge a balance between both. This leads to a lack of information and collaboration.
Lack of communication between the different departments ultimately results in decreased productivity. Nothing is more frustrating for writers and designers than having to re-work their assignments due to a lack of information by designers and marketers collaborate and working together.
Seamless collaboration between marketers and designers results in great content. It is essential to have a continuous free flow of information taking place. The marketing team should have an idea about the creative aspects, while the design team should have clarity about the expectations of the marketing team.
Using software can significantly enhance collaboration between departments. Technology allows better team collaboration, website management, and client management to take place together.
Duda, for example, was built for agencies to maximize scalability and establish a clear division of labor. The platform includes solutions for automating client-facing communication like CMS onboarding, analytics reporting, and project milestone alerts.
It also helps to streamline workflows from mockups to launch, with team-shared libraries of design elements, granular role management, editable style sheets, and comment threads that can be pinned to specific spots on prototypes.
Collaboration leads to consistency and seamless flow of the website. The website developers and marketers should share and explain technical terminology with the designers.
The creative team should also explain creativity nuances to marketers. Effective collaboration ensures that each group understands the other.
Cross Responsibilities: Make Designers and Marketers Collaborate
In current times, a lot of companies are creating crossover departments for better teamwork. Crossover departments are very helpful in creating positive synergy between different departments.
Marketers learn about different design concepts when they get involved with the design team. It gives them an idea about the challenges faced by the design department. They can get a better understanding of creative aspects.
Also, designers who work closely with the marketing department get a deeper insight into the products, services, and customers. The designers better understand customer preferences, their likes and dislikes, and seasonal choices.
Creating cross-responsibilities helps in solving deadlocks and problems and better troubleshooting. Even if graphic designers and content marketers don’t always work together, developing crossover working conditions at regular intervals is essential. Also, if you are working with freelancers, you must update them on changes, developments, and issues.
Regular Follow-up to Maximize Client Value
Regular meetings and follow-up sessions are essential for ensuring the smooth running of this system. A one-time meeting may not be enough to solve and resolve problems in the long run.
Regular follow-up sessions may be encouraged so each department can share its problems and challenges. Such sessions help the teams to convey issues regarding aggressive deadlines and unbearable workloads. These follow-up meetings are also crucial for clearing doubts and uncertainties.
Marketing will not be effective without stunning designs and eye-catching visuals. And beautiful designs will fail to succeed without engaging word content. Unity between writers, marketers, designers, and developers is the key to a well-performing website.
The maximum and effective output directly results from greater collaboration between departments.
Henry Ford has beautifully summed up the importance of greater collaboration, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is a success.” I hope you did learn how designers and marketers can collaborate to maximize client value and support consumers.
