Hiring a Strategic Marketing Partner vs. a Graphic Designer

Hiring outside help with marketing is on your To Do list. Maybe your scaling company has experienced a decrease in sales and you are looking to refresh your website or email marketing materials, or you have a new service line or product that demands an update to your branding.

Whatever the case may be, you are thinking about whether to hire a graphic designer or a strategic marketing partner. While the price point and the timeline differ, so does the final result, and here’s how.

5 Benefits of a Strategic Partner:

1. Marketing Know-How — Graphic designers aren’t marketers. They focus on making individual projects visually appealing, not promoting your company in a strategic way that differentiates you from the competition.
2. Scalability! — A strategic marketing partner can be with you for the long haul, offering solutions to marketing problems as opposed to fulfilling short-term project requests. Getting to know the company deeply, they are an extension of your team with the bandwidth and stamina to stay engaged as long as necessary.
3. Ability to Elevate the Brand — A good graphic designer will adhere to the brand style guide, but a strategic marketing partner will be able to work within the established brand guidelines while also elevating them in a new way. A way that is sophisticated, authentic, and breaks through all of the noise.
4. Message & Visual — A strategic marketing partner has a built-in team who is well-versed in developing creative concepts that integrate copy and visuals. They can combine beautifully written brand statements, headlines, and body copy with bold imagery and graphics. It’s a true blend rather than a segmented, linear process where a designer drops in copy that may not connect with the visuals.
5. Resources for Brand Cohesion — Once the creative direction has been established, the next critical step is integration across various marketing platforms so the user experience is cohesive and will yield the biggest impact. A strategic partner has expertise and close connections to get this done whether it is a printed viewbook, a digital ad, reskinning a portion of the website, or a sales video.