Crafting a well-structured creative strategy plan is an essential first step for any brand aiming to make a significant impact. Whether you have an in-house team or hire an agency, skipping this step would be a massive disservice to your brand. At Brighter Click, we’ve developed a unique approach to creative strategy, including extensive research and a 90-day testing plan to gather data, analyze results, and continuously improve our creative for clients. 

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In a marketing landscape that is consistently evolving, data is your best asset to drive consistent results. This blog will help you understand how we retrieve and use data to create Google, Meta, and TikTok ads that consistently meet our clients’ core KPIs. 

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What is a Creative Strategy Plan?

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To understand why we created our process, you first need to understand what exactly a creative strategy plan involves. A creative strategy plan is a comprehensive roadmap to guide marketing and creative efforts toward achieving specific business goals. It involves understanding the current market (which, when it comes to Google and Meta ads, is constantly evolving), identifying key brand competitors, and formulating a strategy that aligns with the brand's objectives and resonates with the target audience. 

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The plan typically includes a blend of qualitative and quantitative research, insights from client interactions, and strategic planning to ensure cohesive and effective execution.

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Why Brighter Click Use a 90-Day Creative Strategy Plan

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Having a 90-day creative strategy plan is crucial for several reasons. While it’d naturally be a lot easier to have a semi-annual or annual plan, that just isn’t realistic in digital marketing. The fast-paced nature of e-commerce and digital marketing means that long-term planning can often become obsolete due to rapid market changes. A 90-day plan balances between being short enough to remain flexible and long enough to implement substantial changes.

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Part of why we don’t change our plans every month (though we do reassess constantly) is that campaigns or tests need enough time to run so we can concretely qualify them as winners or losers. For example, a messaging angle that doesn’t work in the first 30 days may eventually take off and become a top performer. So, when it comes to planning and testing, it’s all about finding the right balance. Two other reasons why 90 day tough-points are so ideal include: 

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Building Rapport and Insights:

One of the primary objectives during the initial phases is to build rapport with the client. This rapport is foundational for open communication and ensures we understand the client's goals and expectations. 

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By focusing on a 90-day timeframe, we can continually refine and adjust our strategies based on ongoing feedback and market developments. We present our findings to clients, discuss how ads are performing, get their input, and readjust. Mapping out our broad goals and ideas for the next 90 days is a great way to check how they’re feeling and make sure our expectations are aligned.

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Setting Clear Goals:

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A well-structured 90-day plan also allows for clear goal setting. We use the insights gathered from research and initial client meetings to define what success looks like and outline the steps needed to achieve it. This keeps everyone aligned and focused on the same objectives. 

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It also allows us to be honest about what didn’t perform as well as we hoped, provide data and insights into why, and let them know how we plan to adjust going forward based on the results. Our 90-day plan framework offers a level of transparency that clients tend to truly appreciate and look forward to. 

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What Do You Need to Plan a Creative Strategy?

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Planning an effective creative strategy involves several key steps, each crucial for building what has become our 90-day plan framework. 

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Every step of our plan has come from needs we’ve identified over years of working with clients in the digital marketing space. Here’s what currently goes into our research and 90-day planning:

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1. Competitor Analysis:

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We begin by identifying and analyzing competitors. Clients provide us with a list of who they perceive as their main competitors, which we further refine based on factors like price point, positioning, and brand similarities. This dual approach ensures we have a comprehensive understanding of the competitive landscape.

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2. Website and Content Analysis:

Next, we examine these competitors' websites, focusing on key pages such as the homepage and about page. Here, we look for "motivators" — elements that drive a user to make a purchase. These can be emotional (security, comfort, etc.) or rational (quality, financial savings, etc.). 

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Understanding what motivates an audience to make a purchase will play a huge part in messaging strategy later on. 

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3. Testimonial and Ad Copy Analysis:

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Next, we scrape and analyze testimonials and ad copies from the brand and its competitors to understand how their customers perceive them and how they position themselves in their advertising. 

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This helps us identify the gaps and opportunities for our client’s strategy, shows us angles our client may currently be missing, and helps determine what sets them apart from others in the field. 

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4. Qualitative Research:

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While quantitative research gives us broad insights, qualitative research offers a deeper, more nuanced understanding. We explore platforms like Reddit and Quora to see how people discuss issues relevant to the client’s industry, what questions they commonly ask, understand purchase barriers, and determine what motivates them to purchase. 

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This is a great way to help us capture the authentic language and concerns of potential customers. Later, we make sure that language is reflected in our ads, so it feels like we’re speaking directly to a brand’s ideal audience.

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What Does the Plan Consist Of?

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When it’s time to present our 90-day plan to our audience, we include the following:  

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1. Extensive Research Findings:

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The first part of the presentation covers the comprehensive research we conducted. This includes all the findings from our competitor, content, testimonials, and qualitative analyses. 

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We present these insights to the client, ensuring we gather their feedback and incorporate their business context. Often, seeing this research helps them generate ideas or angles they didn’t think to bring up during the onboarding process. 

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2. Summary of Insights:

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We distill the most critical insights from the research into a summary that highlights key motivators, competitive positioning, and customer perceptions. It's designed to be concise and focused, providing a clear picture of the market landscape.

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3. 90-Day Action Plan:

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Based on the insights, we outline specific strategic recommendations and plans, with actionable steps designed to address the identified opportunities and challenges. They serve as the foundation for implementing creative initiatives over the next 90 days.

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This detailed roadmap includes the motivators we’ll test in ads, ideas for campaign themes and executions, and specific tasks, timelines, and responsible parties for each action item.

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Modifying Our Process to Fit a Client's Needs

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Flexibility is crucial in any strategic plan, and understanding your clients' unique needs and how they work will help make the plan even more successful. So, while we have a well-defined process, we recognize that each client is unique and may require adjustments to better fit their specific brand or needs. Here are some tips: 

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Understanding Client Context:

We pay close attention to the client’s feedback and insights during our initial conversations and presentations. This helps us understand their historical data, specific business challenges, and overall goals. Sometimes, we may need to tailor our process to fit their unique audience habits. 

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This also means talking to them about how they would like to communicate (email, Slack, Loom videos, calls, etc.) and how we can best collaborate. 

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Adapting the Plan:

If a client has done extensive research recently or has specific insights we might not know, we adjust our plan accordingly. For example, if a client provides new competitor insights or highlights a particular market trend, we incorporate these into our strategy. 

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With one recent client, we realized our framework of using ‘Motivators’ didn’t align with how their audience shopped – so we dropped it entirely and came up with a new approach that focused more on visuals than emotion. 

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Continuous Communication:

Ongoing communication with the client ensures that we remain aligned and can pivot as needed. Regular check-ins and updates allow us to address any changes in the market or shifts in the client’s business focus, ensuring that the plan remains relevant and effective. Sometimes, adjustments are needed earlier than expected – while the 90-day planning process generally works for all clients, there will always be specific cases where some adjustments are required. 

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Creating Your Own 90-Day Plan

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Formatting a creative strategy plan requires structured research, strategic thinking, and flexibility. Focusing on a 90-day timeframe ensures that our strategies are both actionable and adaptable, allowing us to deliver meaningful results for our clients – and you can do the same! 

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Whether you’re developing a plan for the first time or refining an existing one, these principles will help you create a comprehensive and effective creative strategy plan.

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