Is Creative Marketing The Best Strategy?

By definition, successful marketing is a product of creative disruption. In other words, ads are effective because they creatively break through the noise and grab our attention. The average American consumer sees as many as 10,000 advertisements a day! While placing an emphasis on creativity can help capture the spotlight, is a marketing strategy focused on creativity more effective than one based on data analysis?

Why Creative Marketing Matters

Creativity is originality. If your brand is creating creative content, that means it’s unique content. If it aligns with the needs and behaviors of your target audience, not only will it be effective but it will differentiate your business and brand. While you don’t necessarily want to be thought of as the brand with the creative ad, at the very least it will get your audience interested. If the rest of your digital presence can close the deal, you’ll have a solid inbound marketing strategy.

When it comes to content marketing, creativity is the difference-maker. It’s how you create and deliver content that really appeals to the folks you want to reach. Good content marketing matters because it can deliver the results to show tangible growth in your brand. That’s important because according to CMI, content marketing is three times as outbound marketing in generating leads. It also costs 62% less than outbound marketing! 

Creative content marketing means breaking from tradition and finding newer, smarter, better ways to not only find new customers but to let new customers find you. Again, it all goes back to how well you know your customers-and creativity can help you there as well! Finding creative ways to get honest customer feedback and source referrals through organic, word-of-mouth marketing can help your brand grow!

Why Data Analysis Matters

Before you get carried away with creating something unique and innovative, it’s important to look back on all the data available-including both big data and thick data. Be aware of industry standards, customer demographics, psychographics, and behaviors, even how each piece of the marketing mix affects how you gain new customers. Sometimes a reason things are done in a particular way-typically it’s because the data says so. 

That data analysis is integral to your inbound marketing strategy as well. Most inbound marketing programs will automatically collect data in such a way that makes it easy to glean insight. There’s no harm in striving for creativity, but don’t ignore what the data says. For example, if past data says a particular strategy doesn’t work with your target segment, even the most creative strategy probably won’t make inroads. 

While creativity might lead you to want to branch out your marketing efforts into uncharted endeavors, use the data available before you implement a plan. In fact, you should be using the data to develop, implement, and even make alterations to your marketing plan or strategy. If you can figure out how tweaks in strategy can make even small differences, you’ll be able to curate the most successful strategy, dollar for dollar. 

The Bottom Line

So is creativity or data more important when it comes to your brand marketing? The answer, of course, is both. They both play into how you develop your strategy for each segment of customers. They also dictate how effective your strategy will be in growing your brand. Sometimes, the most difficult part is figuring out when to be creative and when to trust data!

As with most things, moderation is the deciding factor. Overreliance on data analysis might not account for changing trends. Taking too much stock in creativity means you might not account for data. The bottom line is that the most effective marketing strategies utilize a perfect mix of creativity and data analysis. If you think creatively, you might even discover new data that can help develop a better marketing strategy.