How do you set and communicate clear expectations and goals for your content marketing designers?

A successful content marketing strategy requires a deep understanding of your target audience and their needs at each stage of the marketing funnel. You can equip your content marketing designers with various tools, such as customer personas and brand style guides, to help them align their work with your objectives.

At Write Right, communication is king. I ensure my content ninjas know what’s up. And at Dad of Ad, where creativity flows like the Ganges, I make sure my designers are clear about what's expected. I keep goals transparent and do regular catch-ups – like a fam. After all, it’s about weaving stories through content and design that make hearts sing.

Make sure to prioritize collaboration. Foster a collaborative environment where designers can work closely with your marketing team to receive feedback and iterate on their designs.

A well-defined and documented content strategy is essential to the success of any content marketing campaign. It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of content and whether it is meeting the desired objectives in the absence of a clear strategy. Hiring or assigning content marketing designers should come after you've determined your content marketing goals and objectives. Content marketers are in charge of bringing your brand's visual identity and messaging to life, but they must first understand your goals, target audience, and content channels in order to create compelling content that resonates with them.

Before you create any content, you need to know who you're creating it for. What are their needs, interests, and pain points? What kind of content do they prefer? Once you know your audience, you can tailor your content to their specific needs. Conduct a content audit. Take some time to audit your existing content. What's working? What's not? This will help you identify gaps in your content strategy and focus your efforts on creating the content that your audience actually wants. Create a content calendar. It will help you stay organized and ensure that you're publishing content consistently. It will also help you to see the big picture and make sure that your content is aligned with your overall marketing goals.

Setting SMART goals is critical for guiding your content marketing designers and ensuring that the content they create is consistent with your overall content strategy. Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals (SMART) for each content project helps your content marketing designers understand what is expected of them. You can help your designers prioritise and plan their work by defining the scope, purpose, and criteria for each project, and ensuring that their efforts are aligned with your content marketing objectives.

In addition to SMART goals, integrate the concept of micro-goals. Break down larger projects into smaller, achievable tasks. This not only makes goals more manageable but also enhances motivation and a sense of accomplishment as designers complete each micro-goal.

Establish a feedback loop where designers can receive regular input and insights from your marketing team. This collaborative approach not only ensures that your content aligns with your objectives but also fosters a sense of ownership and pride in their work.

Brand guidelines are helpful for letting your designers know what rules not to break. But leave some wiggle room for them to come up with something brilliant. Your designers usually have more visual imagination than you do.

When you're communicating your expectations and guidelines to your content marketing designers, be clear and concise. Don't leave any room for interpretation. Whenever possible, provide examples of the type of content you're looking for. This will help your content marketing designers to understand your expectations and to create content that meets your needs.

Yes, remind your designers what they did right, or what you're happy or pleasantly surprised with. Not just what they did wrong or need to change.

When you're giving feedback, be specific about what you liked and what you didn't like. This will help your content marketing designers to understand what they need to do to improve. Don't wait too long to give feedback. The sooner your content marketing designers receive feedback, the sooner they can make adjustments and improve their work. Even if you're giving negative feedback, try to focus on the positive. This will help your content marketing designers to feel good about their work and to stay motivated.

When I oversaw a larger team we would leave a lot of room for play, unlike performance marketers and digital marketers, often marketing designers are driven by creating innovative and exciting visuals and flexing their creative muscles. To keep the culture of collaboration alive as well as help the newer team members learn how to accept constructive feedback we would often make up very outlandish products like ( for example: snow shoes for polar bears) and take turns presenting a brief 15 min ad or campaign design. This would allow team mates to offer feedback on each other's work in a fun setting to foster rapport and also allow us as managers to see mental and stylistic capabilities within our team that we wouldn't normally get to see.

Encourage your content marketing designers to collaborate with other members of your marketing team. This will help them to share ideas, get feedback, and create better content. Offer them opportunities to learn new skills and stay up-to-date on the latest trends. This will help them to improve their skills and create more effective content. Don't be afraid to encourage your them to experiment with new ideas and approaches. This can lead to some amazing results.

Be flexible! Content marketing is a dynamic process, so don't be afraid to evolve and experiment with new ideas. Stay agile and open to change, and continuously refine your content marketing design based on real-world feedback and market dynamics.

When you're reviewing and measuring the results of your content marketing, use data to make decisions. This will help you to see what's working and what's not, and to make adjustments as needed. Failure is a part of the learning process. Don't be afraid to experiment with new ideas and approaches, even if they don't always work out. You'll learn from your mistakes and come back stronger. When you achieve a goal, take some time to celebrate your success. This will help you to stay motivated and to continue to create great content.

The value of a good content designer is often underestimated. Not every creative or art director likes doing content. Sometimes they get bored with it, and they express this by doing a half-assed job. But if someone gives you good work, diligently, let them know you appreciate it.