Confession time...some of you may have seen this blog before. But, it’s still so relevant now that it's worth sharing again. So here you are:
Marketing Expert No. 1:
Marketing is all about creating, appreciating, and inviting a change in mindset to garner better results. It is a form of art.
Marketing Expert No. 2:
Marketing requires repeat measurement and analysis, two words closely associated with science.
So which is it?
Marketing as Art
One of the biggest aspects of marketing is understanding human behaviour. When we create buyer personas, we consider all the things that make our target audience tick. The end result isn’t a caricature but an actual person, even if he or she is just in our head. This type of creation uses little or no science, although we base our assumptions on research and analysis.
Once the buyer is identified, marketers work hard to create campaigns that will reach that target audience. These campaigns involve copywriting and design, two distinctly artistic pursuits. As the general public receives the campaigns, changes can be made to achieve better results. Changeability isn’t something attributed to science, so even the fluidity of marketing materials falls into the artistic category.
Marketing as Science
Though creativity plays a large role in marketing, there’s no denying data is what drives results. A study of the people most likely to use products and services is the only way to develop an accurate buyer persona. After some testing, the buyer personas are tweaked and polished. Without data from testing, fluidity wouldn’t be possible.
Analytics are also important when deploying marketing campaigns, and constant tweaks and changes are made to determine what will achieve better results. Those tweaks are recommended to the writers and designers, who then use art to create new versions of the same campaign. Without that data, we would have no way to improve on what we’ve already done.
Striking a Balance
Where many marketers fail, is trying to stick with one or the other. A team of creators without any accountability for measurable results will call marketing “art” all day long. A team of analysts who understand how the marketing investments result in profit would scream at calling marketing “art”. Without the numbers to inform the creative development or providing data to measure the results, marketing simply can’t work.
If your team currently regards one more than the other, it may be time to re-evaluate your methods. Marketing is both art and science, at Sherpa we understand that and try to implement it in every aspect of our work.
Our door is always open – get in touch if you want to chat through anything above, your marketing needs or would like to come and meet the team.
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