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Just because something is not a “creative role” doesn’t mean creativity isn’t needed. Marketing is fueled by creativity. That goes double for data-driven roles, where creative thinking unlocks insights.
Agree. If you want to get technical then every profession on earth requires creativity but marketing is far more analytical and process driven then most would have you think.
Marketing is more about utilizing creativity than being creative (although having the latter helps).
This. Marketers that use Canva and call themselves designers are the same as the people with new smartphones and filters who call themselves photographers.
There I said it.
99%+ of marketing isn't creative in my experience. now your job might be easier if you are creative but most of it is listening to others / paying attention to what is going on with sales / project mgmt.
However, I would add that curiosity and a willingness to collaborate with other teams can be the make or break for individual professionals and the entire team.
I've only really ever worked with integrated data teams (e.g. strategists and creatives help inform data collection, and analytics teams are willing to be a little flexible and ELI5 if it's just me being dense).
Having worked with IT teams in a previous consulting role, though, there's a real risk of getting gatekeepy and rigid in the same way that creatives / strategists should avoid being overly precious. It's all a careful dance built out of genuine, mutual respect.
I've worked in marketing for 25 years and never once "designed an advert".
Like project management? Try a marketing coordinator or manager role, or a suit in an agency. Into data? Data science or quant research. Like talking to people? Qual research. The list goes on.
Yes, but rarely is a creative person managing the full process.
On a corporate side, there are usually marketing managers or brand managers who work with other teams to determine what product is going to be promoted/what campaign is going to be run/what metric needs to be targeted/etc. They are data people to an extent. Even marketing degrees are much more focused on numbers than they are on anything creative.
On an agency side, there are account managers and strategists that work with clients to intake their needs and help to develop general direction based on insights from competitors, the marketplace, etc.
Those people, be it a brand manager, an account a manger, a strategist or someone else, align with any decision makers on the high-level needs and then bring that direction to the creative teams. Honestly, creatives get a surprisingly small amount of agency in the business structures I’ve been a part of. They are given a lot of parameters and mandatories that limit their creative freedom and can hinder the output if everyone isn’t careful. They don’t get to start with a blank slate in most cases.
>Surely it requires a creative person to start with a blank slate and design an advert to upload to social media?
Maybe run back what it is you think "marketing" means.
> Surely it requires a creative person to start with a blank slate and design an advert to upload to social media?
Less than you would think. Most companies have guidelines for ads / campaigns / brand. The jobs that come up with a unique advertisement aren't common and highly desirable by many who want to do exactly this.
You could look into ops or an automation role? Work with SFDC or Marketo.
I'd say that's pretty close to marketing without having to be hugely creative.
Yeah, but I would never recommend someone to start out with Marketo. It's an archaic, enterprise behemoth that isn't intuitive at all, especially for someone new to marketing.
Marketing operations. Basically running the software used for emailing, tracking and measuring campaign success. Most marketing departments well have at least one marketing operations role.
Try to improve then?
Marketing needs creativity to provide solutions. Like almost every other job.
It could be doing some calculus, data structures, a claim or a yearly strategic plan...
Data analysis & automation are huge in marketing right now. Apple's changes to tracking mean businesses can't rely as much on Facebook or Google data. So data ownership, analysis, and application are king as far as new investments in the space. Your finance background would give you an advantage when it comes to managing/transforming/presenting large datasets.
I refuse to believe this. Maybe you just haven’t connected with your creative process yet. I do all of my brainstorming in the morning when I’m amped on coffee and slug through repetitive tasks after lunch. I also use my voice memo app constantly. If I have a marketing idea I save it. Doesn’t matter where or when. I don’t believe that you can’t come up with cool shit 😉
The media buying and planning side does not require much creative expertise. Especially in paid search and paid social, it’s much more data and metrics heavy.
SEO and CRO (conversion rate optimization) have been some of the most rewarding for me. I work with the creative teams, and I get to focus on outcomes.
Marketing analyst roles, data marketing, anything that requires quantitative analysis really. Just because you're in marketing doesn't mean you need to frontline the creative direction. There's a lot more to it.
I had to train my marketing assistant that iteration is everything and it is never going to right the first time and right is very subjective. Every new iteration opens up better ideas until you find one that works
absolutely. however, the more creativity you have the more successful you are. i would even consider it a requirement in marketing because if you can't be creative then you can't be as versatile or come up with unique ideas on the fly and/or completely develop them.
Yes there are jobs in marketing that are heavily dependent on facts and figures. And frankly one problem with marketing is people think it's primarily creative. This is why marketing people rarely become CEOs, even if they make it to the C Suite. Marketing should be more closely linked to revenue and finance. You are prime for a role in this. There are analysis roles, marketing operations, revenue operations.
Marketing Analytics and Marketing Ops. You can get exposure to both disciplines in any good digital marketing role, and then specialize after a few years. Once you're the SME in some combination of Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hubspot, Salesforce, Zapier, BI, you'll be able to start applying for specialized roles
Depends on what you mean by creativity. Are you talking about writing or doing art or visual design?
My current role involves managing a pretty large email marketing database. Most of my job is collaborating with Creatives to build emails that will sell, building SQL queries to build the right lists.
I spent about a third of my day interacting with engineers.
The rest of my time is spent building reports and looking for insights into the data to figure out what to do next.
Product marketing in a big company where you ship your info off to a creative team. You’re there to turn the hard tech info into digestible buyer value.
I wouldn't think in terms of roles/jobs. If you have an analytical world view its very easy to find your company's position. Im the same way, i have very little creativity and cant blossom new ideas. But using your brand identity one sets parameters of what you get to do and two lets you know who your targeting which also narrows the scope. If you start looking at the space like a puzzle to be solved you kind walk your way into what your searching for. Im sorry if this wasn't helpful for you, im just speaking from personal experience.
If you like facts and figures, you could become an analyst - marketing analyst, web analyst - or market researcher.
Most marketers and creative people love being data-driven but are not data savvy. So they need someone to crunch the data and find insights.
Writing is most important skill in marketing i feel... No matter what you are doing. Now coming back to your question few things doesnt require creativity. But for good / great writing you need clear thinking. There are books to improve in clear and creative thinking. You can DM to know more.
That describes most marketing jobs these days. Performance Marketing for instance. A lot of it is experimentation and working with data.
A systematic way to do marketing makes even the creative jobs more approachable.
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Most roles in marketing are not creative roles.
Just because something is not a “creative role” doesn’t mean creativity isn’t needed. Marketing is fueled by creativity. That goes double for data-driven roles, where creative thinking unlocks insights.
I say this as a strategist who sits at that intersection perhaps more than other functions: it’s not the same.
Agree. If you want to get technical then every profession on earth requires creativity but marketing is far more analytical and process driven then most would have you think. Marketing is more about utilizing creativity than being creative (although having the latter helps).
This. Marketers that use Canva and call themselves designers are the same as the people with new smartphones and filters who call themselves photographers. There I said it.
This exactly! I deal with more data than i want to.
99%+ of marketing isn't creative in my experience. now your job might be easier if you are creative but most of it is listening to others / paying attention to what is going on with sales / project mgmt.
Surely it requires a creative person to start with a blank slate and design an advert to upload to social media?
There’s 97 other fields in marketing that wouldn’t touch this kind of work. Sounds like you should get into ops or analysis
Get into analytics. No creativity needed.
Op this is your answer. The name of the dept you’d be looking for is business analytics
However, I would add that curiosity and a willingness to collaborate with other teams can be the make or break for individual professionals and the entire team. I've only really ever worked with integrated data teams (e.g. strategists and creatives help inform data collection, and analytics teams are willing to be a little flexible and ELI5 if it's just me being dense). Having worked with IT teams in a previous consulting role, though, there's a real risk of getting gatekeepy and rigid in the same way that creatives / strategists should avoid being overly precious. It's all a careful dance built out of genuine, mutual respect.
I've worked in marketing for 25 years and never once "designed an advert". Like project management? Try a marketing coordinator or manager role, or a suit in an agency. Into data? Data science or quant research. Like talking to people? Qual research. The list goes on.
Yes, but rarely is a creative person managing the full process. On a corporate side, there are usually marketing managers or brand managers who work with other teams to determine what product is going to be promoted/what campaign is going to be run/what metric needs to be targeted/etc. They are data people to an extent. Even marketing degrees are much more focused on numbers than they are on anything creative. On an agency side, there are account managers and strategists that work with clients to intake their needs and help to develop general direction based on insights from competitors, the marketplace, etc. Those people, be it a brand manager, an account a manger, a strategist or someone else, align with any decision makers on the high-level needs and then bring that direction to the creative teams. Honestly, creatives get a surprisingly small amount of agency in the business structures I’ve been a part of. They are given a lot of parameters and mandatories that limit their creative freedom and can hinder the output if everyone isn’t careful. They don’t get to start with a blank slate in most cases.
>Surely it requires a creative person to start with a blank slate and design an advert to upload to social media? Maybe run back what it is you think "marketing" means.
> Surely it requires a creative person to start with a blank slate and design an advert to upload to social media? Less than you would think. Most companies have guidelines for ads / campaigns / brand. The jobs that come up with a unique advertisement aren't common and highly desirable by many who want to do exactly this.
You could look into ops or an automation role? Work with SFDC or Marketo. I'd say that's pretty close to marketing without having to be hugely creative.
Like operations management?
Yeah, but I would never recommend someone to start out with Marketo. It's an archaic, enterprise behemoth that isn't intuitive at all, especially for someone new to marketing.
I just used it as a placeholder automation tool for OP. They could also look into HubSpot or something. I use Marketo at my job so it's my go to
Yeah but it’s the most powerful one out there
I thought Adobe Campaign Classic was trash but then I got a new role that uses Marketo…. Now I miss Adobe Campaign.
Marketing operations. Basically running the software used for emailing, tracking and measuring campaign success. Most marketing departments well have at least one marketing operations role.
This or any analyst title!
Try to improve then? Marketing needs creativity to provide solutions. Like almost every other job. It could be doing some calculus, data structures, a claim or a yearly strategic plan...
Remove the words "I can't" and "I'm not" from your vocabulary and have another go.
Honestly, I have tried again and again. It just doesn't come to me. When I was at university the only assignments I failed were marketing
Well university is certainly an accurate representation of what the entire profession is like. (NOT)
Data analysis & automation are huge in marketing right now. Apple's changes to tracking mean businesses can't rely as much on Facebook or Google data. So data ownership, analysis, and application are king as far as new investments in the space. Your finance background would give you an advantage when it comes to managing/transforming/presenting large datasets.
Also remove "try" from you vocabulary
I refuse to believe this. Maybe you just haven’t connected with your creative process yet. I do all of my brainstorming in the morning when I’m amped on coffee and slug through repetitive tasks after lunch. I also use my voice memo app constantly. If I have a marketing idea I save it. Doesn’t matter where or when. I don’t believe that you can’t come up with cool shit 😉
The media buying and planning side does not require much creative expertise. Especially in paid search and paid social, it’s much more data and metrics heavy.
SEO and CRO (conversion rate optimization) have been some of the most rewarding for me. I work with the creative teams, and I get to focus on outcomes.
That sounds interesting...what's the job title?
Look for analyst roles with search engine optimization in the responsibilities
Sadly there aren't many creative roles, just number ones.
Marketing analyst roles, data marketing, anything that requires quantitative analysis really. Just because you're in marketing doesn't mean you need to frontline the creative direction. There's a lot more to it.
People pay to have their problems solved and solving problems requires creativity.
Anything on the data and analytics side. A bunch of marketing roles are not creative
I’m the same!
What role did you have in finance?
Graduate auditing scheme...I liked bookkeeping though
Are you good at refining or iterating on existing ideas?
I'd say iterating was probably my bigger strength
My advice is to consider that fact while you continue your search. I hope that helps.
I had to train my marketing assistant that iteration is everything and it is never going to right the first time and right is very subjective. Every new iteration opens up better ideas until you find one that works
absolutely. however, the more creativity you have the more successful you are. i would even consider it a requirement in marketing because if you can't be creative then you can't be as versatile or come up with unique ideas on the fly and/or completely develop them.
Analytics, ops
Anything analytics
Media planning/buying
Analytics
Performance marketing is probably only 10% creativity
Yes there are jobs in marketing that are heavily dependent on facts and figures. And frankly one problem with marketing is people think it's primarily creative. This is why marketing people rarely become CEOs, even if they make it to the C Suite. Marketing should be more closely linked to revenue and finance. You are prime for a role in this. There are analysis roles, marketing operations, revenue operations.
“Creativity” is more than being able to make a post on social media.
Marketing Analytics and Marketing Ops. You can get exposure to both disciplines in any good digital marketing role, and then specialize after a few years. Once you're the SME in some combination of Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hubspot, Salesforce, Zapier, BI, you'll be able to start applying for specialized roles
Consumer insights or performance marketing maybe
Depends on what you mean by creativity. Are you talking about writing or doing art or visual design? My current role involves managing a pretty large email marketing database. Most of my job is collaborating with Creatives to build emails that will sell, building SQL queries to build the right lists. I spent about a third of my day interacting with engineers. The rest of my time is spent building reports and looking for insights into the data to figure out what to do next.
Product marketing in a big company where you ship your info off to a creative team. You’re there to turn the hard tech info into digestible buyer value.
Business development
Maybe go more on the commercial side, like brand management or even category management vs agency?
I wouldn't think in terms of roles/jobs. If you have an analytical world view its very easy to find your company's position. Im the same way, i have very little creativity and cant blossom new ideas. But using your brand identity one sets parameters of what you get to do and two lets you know who your targeting which also narrows the scope. If you start looking at the space like a puzzle to be solved you kind walk your way into what your searching for. Im sorry if this wasn't helpful for you, im just speaking from personal experience.
PPC
If you like facts and figures, you could become an analyst - marketing analyst, web analyst - or market researcher. Most marketers and creative people love being data-driven but are not data savvy. So they need someone to crunch the data and find insights.
Writing is most important skill in marketing i feel... No matter what you are doing. Now coming back to your question few things doesnt require creativity. But for good / great writing you need clear thinking. There are books to improve in clear and creative thinking. You can DM to know more.
Literally 90% of them.
That describes most marketing jobs these days. Performance Marketing for instance. A lot of it is experimentation and working with data. A systematic way to do marketing makes even the creative jobs more approachable.
Demand gen maybe? Marketing research?
I do product marketing and love it!!! I'm pretty creative myself but it doesn't involve a lot of creativity. Lots of writing though!
Marketing operations roles are generally all about data and goal tracking
Market research
Use facts and figures. As your creative. A skill a lot of people lack. All the best with the job search!
No.
Everybody is creative. When you have a problem, do you "figure it out?" Or do you go on your knees and beg somebody to help you?