Consumers of today have set the bar high when it comes to expectations from businesses. High quality, personalized creatives are now necessary to appeal to your audience. The amount of time and resources required to accomplish this objective is unreasonably high… well, at least if you still use traditional methods. Creative automation technology is a solution for scaling your production, while also maintaining brand compliance and ensuring error-free creatives that are optimized towards your target audience.

With these ever-increasing demands, it is practically impossible for some creative teams to keep up with the pace and accuracy required to be competitive in their industry. This is of no fault of your team members; rather, it is the result of automative disruption. No matter how talented your creative team might be, it is simply unrealistic for them to compete with the volume of content that AI-powered software can generate. This is not to say that traditional creative professionals are obsolete – in fact, it means that they are now required to possess a much “smarter” skillset in order to manage such tools and utilize them effectively to generate the kind of results businesses are looking for. 

If you find some of the indicators in this blog to be relatable, you might want to consider researching design software which can help you evolve your business to meet growing demands.

How you can tell if your creative team is overworked

Updating live creatives is time-consuming 

Can your creatives be rendered in different visual styles, sizes, and content? This enables creation to suit different platforms and lets you experiment with how the creatives look. It’s almost a pre-requisite for competing with industry leaders when it comes to authoritative advertising. Besides this, updating live creatives should be a process that is so straightforward that you can even assign it to an intern.

If your team has to budget time for such minute tasks, it just goes to show that the business infrastructure is not developed optimally. Your team could greatly benefit from using creative automation tools, since it would significantly improve your overall productivity. 

Your creative production is at the mercy of select few people

Sure, you have hired the best talent for the purpose of handling creative production – but what if they happen to fall sick? Or what if you need some more manpower at the last minute? Is your production process simple enough for people with non-technical backgrounds to be able to contribute (at least to some extent?) If no, then it should ring an alarm that your creative team is carrying a burden larger than you’d imagine. If they stop working, production will fall flat.

This is where automation tools come to your teams rescue. Did you know that some creative automation tools let you convert spreadsheets into videos? No kidding! If you have the ability to use a platform that requires minimal technical expertise, it doubles up as a safeguard against unforeseen circumstances (or you could lend a hand to your hardworking creative team members, leading to increased productivity)

You lack sufficient capacity for testing

A/B testing of dynamic ad variants is essential to gauge what works and what doesn’t. If your team is unable to experiment with ad variants it is a significant handicap in the campaign process, potentially leading to lost revenue and clicks. 

There never seems to be enough “time”

If your team is only able to produce the bare minimum when it comes to generating creatives, it is a surefire sign that you need to look at creative software. Generating static creatives or simple banners are just not good enough for catching the eye of your audience. 

Remember: scaling means increasing output without increasing input. Sure you could hire more team members – but would it be the most effective investment? You should look into software that allows you to empower your team members to contribute more instead.

Your creative team is lacking…. creativity

One of the most overlooked aspects of creative production is ironically creativity. Businesses of today are infatuated with pumping out countless ad variants. Quality ends up becoming an afterthought.

If your team is expected to generate dozens of creatives in a week, how can you expect them to produce a high calibre of content? After all, creativity has no formula and takes time. It is only natural that your team will feel burned out and unable to produce the content you desire. Even if they do, it is likely that it will be uninspired and low-effort.

To give your team members the opportunity to focus on smart tasks like conceptualization and ideation versus working on mundane tasks such as manually creating copies of static creatives, it is absolutely necessary to implement creative automation software.

Finalizing campaigns is a long process

Simply generating creatives is not enough. There is also a huge amount of reviews, approvals, alterations and general back-and-forth that must be done. This is a significant time sink that needs to be fixed, not only because it will delay your campaigns but also exhaust your creative team. Tools which provide cross-functional, role-based collaboration streamline project workflows and make campaigns much more likely to succeed.

Conclusion

The most obvious indicator of problems in your creative workflow is stagnation. If your business has been struggling to grow or improve margins, it is incredibly important to conduct research on creative automation software. It is not simply a tool that helps your team members but has a direct and measurable impact on your companies revenue. We hope these indicators were useful to you, and you can use this list as a checklist to consider how urgent it is for you to take the leap and begin a new chapter of growth in your business.

Ayush Parti

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