Do you ever look at the marketing that’s done by a particular company and think to yourself: “It’s missing something.” Or, maybe what you see simply seems run-of-the-mill or unexciting. It’s hard to pin down in many cases because technically, it may have been executed the right way. The messaging appeared at the right time in the right places to the right audiences. But because it didn’t have that certain “thing,” all those efforts to market the company proved ineffective.

The reason: Marketing is sometimes not so much an exact science, as it is an “art.”

Its success may rely on any number of factors, some of which may simply involve luck and the combination of your audience research, creativity, strategy, and execution all coming together serendipitously. 

But understanding the art of it all can help. How do you do that? Here are a few steps you can take.

Step 1: The ‘Art’ of Knowing Your Audience and Empathizing with Them

How many times do we all see marketing that is company-focused, rather than audience-focused? Answer: A lot! In other words, the tone, attitude, visuals, and messaging reflect more the internal company approach (which is fine in cases where that matches the audience) but oftentimes the two are at odds.

The first step in creating an effective marketing strategy is to understand:

• • Who your customers are
  • What they want
  • What they find interesting
  • What are their challenges
  • When they’re receptive to messaging
  • What drives them emotionally

This requires a significant amount of research in many cases, including surveys, interviews, and data analysis. Obviously, the more you know about your audience, the more targeted and effective your marketing efforts will be across the board.

But it’s not just collecting the data, it’s understanding how to interpret what you see. Within the interpretation of that data and your implementation of the resulting lies the “art” of it all. To give an example, let’s say my business targets 18-to-25-year-olds and I know them well, including shopping habits, what social platforms they’re on, and what they value – all of the areas we mentioned above.

So now comes what I have to produce for them in terms of marketing. Well, I’m not one of them. The colors I’d choose, the look, and the visuals I might prefer would probably be completely off from what is required to create the most effective marketing for this audience. I might use a more “professional” tone, whereas the audience itself might require a more casual, friendly or trendy approach. In other words, for me to be successful in this business, I’d have to step outside my own personal bias and embrace the audience perspective – or hire someone who does empathize with my prospects and whose marketing approach reflects that audience. If I don’t, all the operational best practices in the world aren’t going to help me. The art, in other words, lies in the ability of my company to create marketing collateral that connects with the prospects in question.  

Step 2: The ‘Art’ of Being Creative

What makes something creative? We know it when we see it. But do you really know how to be creative? Do you know why? Those are hard questions for a lot of businesses. First, because, in order to be creative, you have to know what creativity is.

Let’s start there.

Unlike what many people generally believe, creativity, by definition, is not creating something completely new. It’s taking an established concept that’s shared/widely known, twisting it slightly so you can still see the original thing in it but now it is something a “little different.” That nuance is important because it’s that shared understanding of something upon which you can base your creative approach. Without it, you’re just creating something new, which likely won’t appeal to anyone as it lacks that original basis.

What does that imply for the art of being creative in marketing? A lot. A few things you can do:

• • Start by asking yourself, what are those shared understandings that you and the audience have about something, say in your industry?
  • What about those shared understandings in a tangential area? An area that is related perhaps directly or indirectly to what you do.
  • What does your audience find funny? What do they take seriously? How do they feel about your competitors, or their particular approaches?
  • Does your industry resemble another industry in any way? If so, what are the connections? Many of the most successful marketing campaigns are inspired by ideas from other fields, such as art, literature, and technology.
  • Are there things or quirks about your company that have parallels within history (historical figures, companies, events, or other famous or timeless stories)?
  • What about outside your industry?

In other words, there’s a lot you can start with but remember everything starts and ends with those shared understandings you have with your audience.

Step No. 3: The ‘Art’ of Creating Social Currency

Do you make your audiences stop and think? Do you make them laugh? Most especially do you create the type of content they might pass on to others? The latter is what’s known as “social currency” – it’s content that makes people feel smarter, interesting, funnier, or part of an insider club – something they can tell or show others. It’s a powerful marketing tool because it taps into people’s desire to feel connected and valued.

Social currency is an excellent outlet for creativity because it allows marketers to connect two ideas that may seem unrelated to marketing a product or service directly but actually serve to create even more conversation around a topic. To give an example, consider the famous case of Netflix. Several years ago, it ran a unique promotion for its show Orange Is the New Black, a series about female prisoners. To promote the show, Netflix did something really creative and original. It ran a native ad in the New York Times, with the title “Women Inmates: Why the Male Model Doesn’t Work” – a serious journalistic investigative piece about why current prison programs didn’t meet female needs. It basically got many people talking about the plight of female prisoners, which in turn reminded people of the show. That’s social currency. Never once in the article did say: “Oh, and watch Orange Is the New Black.” The only mention of the show was a small header at the top. (See image below).