Whether creating content for websites, social media, infographics, PPC ads or emailers, copy and design go hand in hand. However, many agencies have now gone fully digital, and that means creative teams and copy teams often no longer work within the same building. If they do, great. If your digital agency is more online than onsite though, and these two departments work apart in different locations, how do you ensure that your marketing products are created to impress your client when thinking minds aren’t sat at the same table.
Whether all done in-house or making use of outsourced web design and outsourced copywriting services, how do you ensure that these teams work together to create a coherent piece of marketing mastery? Also, how do you ensure that copy relates to the creative and vice versa? How do you allocate the design and the copy – is copy done first and then given to creatives to design around it or vice versa? Or does your creative inspire your copy?
What comes first when it comes to copy and design – the chicken or the egg? Our answer – neither should. Instead, you should put both the chicken and the eggs in one basket at the same time. Sure, working remotely may see creative and copy teams running into communicative difficulty, but there are enough online communication channels to allow for real-time collaboration. Sending a creative brief first to your internal or outsourced design team will mean a delay in the process, with the copy team having to wait. And vice versa. Having your copy team create the copy first may result in the design team now having to create an even longer graphic visual or a website design that does fit the copy but doesn’t fit the client’s brief.
Just Because It’s Virtual, Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Collaborate Virtually
When it comes to landing pages, website development, and other copy-design-combined marketing products, both sides must collaborate at the same time. And just because we’re in the virtual age, it doesn’t mean your departments or external resources can’t collaborate virtually. Make use of what the online world has to offer in terms of communication, real-time tools, and get your teams working together. Why? Well, because if the egg comes first, or the chicken – the basket you’ll be left with is one that is not only delayed but may not be the basket the client likes.
Furthermore, ensuring the design and copy are done together will speed up the process and will ensure a more cohesive end product. Virtually it is practically possible to brief both teams at the same time, to hold online strategy meetings, and to get relevant parties involved in the marketing project communicating through every step of the process. In our experience, if your team is not doing this, it’s because they don’t want to do it, not because they can’t do it. Join our White Digital Marketing Reseller Program now.
