Submitted by: Anusha Ray
When it comes to marketing activities, a lot of it depends on the visual appeal of the posts we share. Thus, we must share interactive and relevant graphic content on our digital platforms. Here I will share the various graphic requirements connected with different marketing activities and campaigns and tricks to stay on top of the same.
So, let’s take it from the top!
How to collect graphics for marketing campaigns and stay up to date
The first step to collecting the graphics is defining the requirements. I personally prefer to keep a buffer that enables me to keep the graphic artist aligned. This ensures that he is available to create graphic content on an urgent basis, if and when required, without feeling overburdened or leaving out other requirements. Here are the steps I follow:
Creating calendar
The best thing to do is creating calendars with categories of graphic requirements bifurcated clearly. In the marketing team, we have the following recurring needs:
- Feature Images for blogs
- CTAs for blogs
- Sliders and Infographics for blogs
- Birthday and Job Anniversary posts
- International and national festivals and important dates
All of the posts mentioned above are published on the website or our social media platforms. These are released on specified dates and can be created beforehand, keeping the release date in mind.
Now, why I mentioned calendars and not a single calendar is because these requirements differ in frequency.
The blogs are published regularly, and hence the feature images and the CTAs are to be created with the publishing date in mind. Since there are dependencies on the titles, preview links, and content availability, these are assigned weekly to the graphic designer.
The content team makes sure that they gather and share one week or two weeks of titles at once, which are then assigned to the graphic designer. The graphics made based on these titles are feature images, CTAs(once the preview links are available), sliders, and infographics for social media.
On the other hand, the birthday and job anniversary posts follow a particular format and can be created beforehand for several months. I prefer to keep a buffer for around six months at a time.
Apart from this, there are important dates and occasions such as International Mother’s day, Father’s day, Labour day, Diwali, etc., which can be scheduled beforehand with relevant content. Thus, depending on the date of publishing, the calendars should be ready in time.
Assigning a due date
The designer can’t be expected to deliver all at once. Thus, once the calendar is made, the respective team member coordinating with the graphic artist must assign the due dates and keep the priorities in check.
The deliverables must be made available within the due dates assigned. While setting the due dates, one must remember which are on top priority and which have dependencies on other team members of other requirements.
It is also to be noted that the marketing team may run quick campaigns or try out new things without prior planning, and the designer may have to work on it urgently. While assigning the due dates, one must ensure that there is always scope and flexibility for shuffling the tasks.
Cross-checking the graphics
The graphics are an essential part of webdew branding. They represent the name of our beloved agency on public platforms and are often the reason for traffic to come on our website. Thus it is essential for the team members creating and publishing the graphics to ensure their compliance with brand guidelines.
webdew is very strict about brand guidelines and the quality of content published on behalf of the brand. Thus, the coordinating team members must check the graphics in terms of brand colors, font, characters, text hierarchy, etc.
Only after they are finalized will it be eligible for sharing, and the task can be considered complete.
Creating a shared folder
It becomes really hectic for people to go to and fro, sharing and collecting the graphics or images for posting or publishing purposes. So, we tend to create a shared folder or upload them on click-up to public visibility where the content can directly be shared and collected from.
We must streamline processes to save time, maintain the hierarchy and maintain stable communication as the team expands. Thus, none of the graphic contents should be shared personally on Slack or other communication channels.
The only exception to this is graphic requirements that stem directly from the HR or the operations, in which case they should be mailed to the official mail IDs only.
Scheduling the posts
Once the content is created and collected, it must be ensured that none of it is left to rest on the given folders. There are features on various publishing platforms to schedule the upcoming posts accordingly. Thus, once the requirement gathering is done, the posts should be scheduled accordingly.
To sum it up
Creating graphic content and publishing them is an ongoing process and requires the participation of multiple team members. If the process thus defined is not followed correctly, it can cause confusion, leading to a delay in implementation.
To avoid any such discrepancies, team members are required to stay alert and coordinate accordingly.