Ever notice that all of our articles look… really similar? It’s by design (literally).
We use templates and structures to make sure that our team knows what to do, how to do it, and how long it will take. It also allows our audience to know what to expect, where the information is, and how to find it quickly.
This is a version of “cutting corners” that actually makes sense. Find a reliable template, keep it consistent, and produce efficiently.
But this doesn’t work in every scenario. So how do I know when I need to make something new?
Let’s say it’s April. Or December. Or October. Let’s… just say it’s [insert what month you do your budget discussions with your team here].
You want to redo everything. Does this mean your website? Email marketing templates? Are you going to develop new social assets? And how do you actually build a budget for creative work?
We consider a few things before every quote. Ask yourself these questions to get an idea of how big the scope of your project is:
– is it the amount of work an expert can do in a day? A week? Or a year?
– how long will I be using the deliverables for? Are they one-and-done or do they need to be evergreen?
– how much of my existing work do I want to be echoed in the deliverables? Can it be fresh or does it have to be familiar?
While these aren’t exact prices (you can always call us to consult on that!) if you think it’s going to save you a month of work, and you need a serious eye for detail on the task, you can probably do some math of your own to get in the ballpark of the budget.
The most important thing is being aware of the expectations of the creative. It doesn’t matter if it’s a photography project or a web design project, you need to account for lead time. Feedback cycles take time, templates need to be dynamic, and the real value is in the time you save in the long run, and the consistency your audience sees.
You have your budget laid out. (If you don’t – check out our article on budgeting for marketers).You give the work to three different contractors, and it all comes back looking… different.
Or, you give all of the work to one person in-house, and weeks later it barely looks any different than what you had assigned to them in the first place.
The third option is that you push everything into your favourite AI-content engine, and it delivers more than you could have ever imagined. But a week later, you notice your biggest competitors have the exact same imagery, exact same layouts and content, and your customers can’t tell you apart.
These are the situations that usually happen right before someone books a meeting with us. By that point, you’ve been drained of budget, inundated with work you can’t use, and frustrated with the situation you’re stuck in. You still need a solution.
While we’re always happy to help, we also do our best work when we jump in on day 1, help build the plan from the start, and can put our best shoes forward.
We want to be involved early because your content needs to be recognizably yours – and it takes time to get to know you. We work with you to build strong, recognizable, strategic, and branded templating that doesn’t take away from your brand’s trust or value. Spotify Wrapped, when copied by anyone else, is still called a “[insert brand name]” Wrapped.
The Giant Shoe Approach
At Giant Shoe, the question we start every project with “why do your customers choose you” and “how do we remind them of that.” Real creativity that earns attention because it’s real. That’s not a slower or more expensive approach. It’s a more effective one.
Tired of creative that could belong to anyone? Let’s make something unmistakably yours. Contact us today!
Budgeting for your creative marketing and advertising is a balance of following your brand strategy, investing in high-quality work, and knowing where to rely on templates and your team. If you’re hiring in-house, the rule-of-thumb is 10%-20% of your team’s efforts should be on growth (marketing!). If you’re hiring an agency, allocate the budget of one team member to start and scale from there.
Marketing isn’t as simple as good and bad (but we have seen both!) Start by asking if your work is efficient. Efficient creative has a clear point of view and uses smart systems to produce it quickly. Cookie-cutter creative removes the point of view to save time. The first scales well. The second erodes brand equity over time.
Check whether your content is getting engagement that goes beyond passive scrolling. These are things like saves, shares, direct responses, comments that reference specific things. If your best metric is impressions, the emotional layer probably isn’t doing its job.
Not necessarily. A strong brand system that includes clear visual identity, defined voice, and documented creative standards actually makes production faster and cheaper over time. This is because all of the big time-consuming decisions are already made. The upfront investment will pay back dividends in time saved and more effective advertising.
