In today’s competitive market, your brand needs to stand out. From your messaging to the look and feel of visual assets, your marketing should engage with customers and effectively convey your unique value proposition.
The first step in differentiating your brand for lead generation is to develop a brand strategy that defines your business purpose and illustrates your advantages with consistent messaging across all sales and marketing channels. A strong brand strategy will serve as the foundation for all of your advertising efforts to help build credibility and trust with prospects.
As you approach an ad campaign, you can draw from your brand story, creative style guide and primary messaging to ensure each campaign appears to be a natural extension of your brand. However, some further refinement is needed before a campaign launch.
Here’s a closer look at the five components of well-crafted creative development for ad campaigns that will drive engagement, build brand awareness and, ultimately, convert prospects into loyal customers.
1. Manifesto
You discuss why your brand exists, what it stands for and even its vision in an ideal world within your brand positioning. Working this messaging into your campaign can evoke emotion in readers, connecting them to your brand and increasing the campaign’s effectiveness.
We recommend creating a mini manifesto that captures your company’s spirit in light of the specific direction of the program and why readers should care to support your brand by answering your call to action. Even a short paragraph can be sufficient to align internal teams around a concept and kickstart campaigns. Try experimenting with several and see which direction your teams like best.
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2. Creative development
Even a short manifesto can be greatly helpful to your designers by informing and inspiring your graphic development. Your ad’s creative should bring your ideas to life in a way that resonates emotionally with your audience.
Reference the fresh, new creative and style guide you developed in your brand strategy to maintain consistency. Your style guide provides structure and uniformity with colors, font and brand personality while the manifesto allows designers and writers to take a specific direction built on those pillars.
3. Ad-like object
Now it’s time to get to design. Starting with an ad-like object is an important first step in providing messaging and visuals to demonstrate what potential digital or print ads could look like. This design can serve as a sort of mood board to convey the elements of a campaign that can span across various channels.
Your ad-like object should capture attention, spark curiosity, and be an umbrella for all other elements of the campaign. It should also lead the prospect to click and learn more on a landing page that delivers on its promise. Note how the add-like objects pictured below relate in design and messaging to the website shown above.
4. Email
Eblasts offer another way to drive prospects and existing customers along their buying journey. Those who have already opted in to receive your updates are even more likely to convert. By focusing on an audience that has willingly chosen to receive communications, you can reach better open and click-through rates, ultimately leading to more effective marketing campaigns and increased sales. Also, respecting the customer’s consent strengthens brand reputation, fostering long-term relationships and loyalty.
Email copy and design should build off of the manifesto and ad-like object. Ensure you keep copy concise but compelling, include a clear call-to-action that leads to a landing page, send consistently and review performance.
5. Landing page
Emails and ads need to work together with landing pages. Landing pages should seem like a more in-depth extension of the messaging in the email and ads and lead the prospect to your offer.
Landing pages are critical, especially for search PPC and other digital campaigns. They should include a form for visitors and a phone number to assess the campaign’s effectiveness. And don’t forget to optimize pages for mobile visits! A targeted landing page ensures that your message is delivered directly to potential customers and that they are guided smoothly through the conversion funnel.
Once all elements are together, it’s best to progress through creative development systematically to gain buy-in from all appropriate departments and executives.
Best practices for working through creative development include:
- Developing direction options: Allow your team to explore several options for creative directions in the form of ads, emails and landing pages.
- Work into inbound and outbound marketing: After selecting a direction, utilize it across all inbound and outbound marketing for a cohesive, memorable brand experience.
- Maintain message consistency: Keep visuals and copy consistent throughout campaigns to reinforce brand identity and unify messaging for a stronger impact.
These three steps will help guide you through successfully developing and deploying your new creative.
The key to a winning ad campaign is a cohesive strategy that ties together all the essential components. A manifesto draws in readers through the brand’s mission and vision. An ad-like object catches eyes and entices clicks. Creative development brings concepts to life in a way that resonates with your ideal audience. Integrating an effective email campaign and a targeted landing page ensures that your message is delivered directly to potential customers and that they are seamlessly navigated through the buyer’s journey. With a strategic approach, you can create the marketing results you need to lead your brand forward.
Looking for assistance with your creative development? Schedule a free consultation with us!
