As a Graphic Designer, there are times where your expertise with visual representation is all that is needed in order to improve the brand, marketing materials, or website of your client. We use our knowledge and skillset to make a creative solution that will bring attention to a client and place them at the top of their industry, visually. But this isn’t always the case.
There are clients out there who need very thoughtful, visually stimulating, and impressive solutions, and we shouldn’t forget that we are creating experiences for humans – the people who are seeking a solution to a problem.
This is why it is important for designers to do thorough research and learn about the behaviors of our client’s audiences.We do this research in order to find out what leads to positive results based on our client’s goals.
I’ve found that the best way to learn about this is teaming up with the Digital Marketing Strategists, or the experts on my team at Three29, whose job it is to deep dive into data, and strategize based upon the actions of people in a way that helps reach the client’s goals.
Being able to work with a team of highly skilled Digital Marketers is an opportunity not to be missed. Below are just a handful of benefits I found while working with an insightful Digital Marketing Team.
Benefits of Collaboration:
- Analyzing and Deep Diving into Personas — Digital Marketers do a lot of a research in regards to the types of people who are looking at websites, social ads, newsletters, etc. They analyze the smallest of details such as what books/magazines they read, what kind of websites they frequent in their down time, how their family life is, and their financial situation. All of these details benefit both you (in design) and digital marketers (in creating campaigns). We immerse ourselves in the lives of the audience and really think about what visuals will impact them the most, and how they seek out information. This provides great insight into the human aspect of design and how these designs can be strategically done to connect and benefit the audience most.
- Learning How Data Can Aid Solution-Focused Design — Marketing relies heavily on data, anytics, measurement – the real results of any initiative- in order to find out what works, and adjust strategy to achieve client goals. Learning about actual data and the meaning behind them is a great opportunity for designers to see what parts of their designs are effective and resulting in positive outcomes. When we take a look at the numbers, it can help guide the design in a more solution-focused manner.
- Analyzing and Deep Diving into Client Competition – The best Digital Marketing Teams have methods and processes when analyzing the competition. They research and deep dive into the competitors’ strategies to see what is working well for them and what isn’t. This information can benefit all parties by providing insight on where we can strengthen our clients’ brand and the things we need to avoid. This will help dictate in the design what should be emphasized and help decide the visual hierarchy of information on every creative piece. With the marketing team’s expertise, designers can begin to catch the design differences with the competition and what visual elements are working and what are not in relation to the client’s goals.
- A Fresh Pair of Strategic Eyes – When designers look at our creations for many hours over many days, we start to lose sight of things that the audience will notice. By reaching out to your team of Digital Marketers, they can give a fresh new perspective on design work because they are viewing it as a new audience member. Digital Marketers also know what the audience of the client is looking for as well as what action the client intends for the audience to take, or how they want the audience to feel, when looking at a creative piece. Their expertise is highly valuable and benefits designers to expand their viewpoints and look at their creations in human-centered ways.
