When building a marketing team, one of the biggest challenges for hiring managers is knowing where marketing ends and creativity begins.
Do you need a strategist who drives growth?
A designer who brings the brand to life?
Or someone who can do both?
In a cost-conscious world where teams are leaner and roles increasingly overlap, the line between marketer and creative is getting harder to draw.
And yet, understanding the distinction is essential if you want campaigns that are both strategic and visually compelling.
The marketer
A marketer is the strategist. They focus on the “why” and “how” of a campaign, analysing data, segmenting audiences, and ensuring everything runs smoothly. Their day-to-day might include:
- Conducting market research
- Building customer personas
- Planning campaigns and timelines
- Measuring performance and reporting results
The ultimate objective of a marketer is growth—raising brand awareness and driving measurable business results.
The creative
A creative is the visionary. They take a strategy and transform it into something tangible that audiences can see and feel. Their work might involve:
- Designing graphics and video content
- Writing ad copy
- Shaping brand look and feel
- Producing assets that bring campaigns to life
The creative’s role is to capture attention and make a brand memorable through compelling, on-brand content.
Enter the “cre-arketer”
At Lets Recruit, we’ve noticed a growing demand for professionals who combine these two skill sets. As budgets shrink and expectations rise, many businesses want someone who can analyse the data and also design the visuals—a hybrid we call the cre-arketer.
The pros and cons
Hiring a cre-arketer can be cost-effective, especially for start-ups or small teams. But there’s a trade-off. Expecting one person to be a strategist, designer, analyst, and copywriter risks spreading them too thin. Larger organisations often see more success by pairing marketers and creatives to complement each other’s strengths.
Spotting a hybrid professional
So how do you identify someone who brings both sides of the equation?
- The T-shaped professional: Look for candidates with a deep core skill (SEO, design, copywriting, analytics) and a broad understanding of related areas.
- Beyond the portfolio: Don’t just assess visuals or data reports. Ask about the process:
- How did data inform your creative decisions within this campaign?
- What was the business objective, and how did you tailor creative assets to achieve it?
- Interview tasks: Consider giving a candidate a campaign to critique. Can they spot strategic gaps as well as suggest creative improvements?
Advice for employers
- Be clear in job descriptions: Avoid writing roles that demand the impossible. If you truly want a hybrid, state which skill is the priority and which is a nice-to-have.
- Structure collaboration: If you’re hiring for separate roles, ensure workflows allow marketers and creatives to feed into each other’s work.
- Watch for red flags: Expecting one hire to be an entire marketing department is rarely sustainable.
Advice for candidates
- Showcase your “T”: Make your core skill clear, then highlight how you’ve applied it in different contexts.
- Tell the story: Use your CV and portfolio to show not just what you made, but why you made it. Link creative outputs to measurable results.
- Balance confidence with focus: Don’t undersell your range, but avoid overselling yourself as an expert in everything.
Looking ahead
The line between marketer and creative will only blur further as AI, automation, and new platforms change the landscape. Instead of asking “Do I need a marketer or a creative?”, the smarter question is “How do we balance both skill sets to deliver the best results?”
At Lets Recruit, we help businesses answer exactly that. Whether you’re searching for a marketer, a creative, or a cre-arketer, we’ll help you define the role clearly and find the right match.
Ready to find the right balance between strategy and creativity? Get in touch with Let’s Recruit and we’ll help you hire the perfect fit for your team.
Tel: 0333 577 7157
Email: hello@letsrecruit.co.uk
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