Welcome to the Marketing Landscape. (Watch Your Step. It Shifts.)
Let's navigate the ever-changing branding strategy and digital marketing landscape together, and share a few personal stories for much-needed humor along the way.
I started my consulting business a year after my second kiddo was born. I came to terms being a stay-at-home parent wasn’t a good fit for me. I realized making massive Thomas the Train track designs, folding laundry while watching Daniel the Tiger (when the kids were napping), and staving off hangry moments (mostly my own) with a snack cup of dry Cheerios at the local park often left me feeling empty.
Did I love being with my kids? Absolutely.
Was I counting down the minutes daily for the bedtime routine to start? Usually.
Was I craving something more? Yes.
After spending more than 15 years working in higher education, corporate, and NPO event planning, I decided to pick up from where I left off and became an event design and planning consultant, and offered marketing on the side. Before leaving the 401(k) Benefits world, numerous positions I held included branding and marketing responsibilities so it was a natural fit - and what event doesn’t need some sort of marketing?
It was also clear social media was becoming all the more influential as a connection point for brands, so I figured why not jump on board and learn along the way?
By the end of my second year as a consultant, the majority of my contracts were in social media marketing - and subconsciously I wasn’t putting the needed effort into event planning RFPs. While I loved event planning and had been carving out a small niche within its DIY space, it was simply becoming less appealing as I needed to store a growing list of supplies, track vendors, and chase down payments. And with the kids still small, the hands-on time needed to prep massive DIY-type projects and execute said events was a challenge.
On the flip side, once a social media contract was signed, all that digital marketing required was a laptop and phone; a notebook and pen felt like bonus supplies. The time to focus was still needed but easier in some ways to figure out. So I switched gears - easy to do as a team of one - to focus on digital marketing, specifically social media at the time. And unknowingly, this change ended up being my saving grace when we moved from Seattle to Portland a year later; a story for another time.
Since that switch, I’ve had the honor of working with a range of brands in various industries - food, beverage, fashion, real estate, health, wellness, beauty, community resources, and so on. With each contract, each client and team I’ve worked alongside, and each conference I’ve spoken at, I’ve researched, practiced, and deepened an understanding in what it means to create a brand’s strategy while keeping its digital aspects accessible, and at times personal, for its audiences.
The social media landscape, and a brand strategy’s elements overall, has significantly changed since I first set up my desk by the kitchen over a decade ago. We’re not talking about small tremors, but massive earthquakes creating entirely new vistas. I’ve learned what was an option yesterday may be gone tomorrow. And it’s ever-evolving, especially as we continue to deal with the pandemic’s societal and digital impacts and as AI emerges.
So Why Am I Here?
It’s a lot for any brand to figure out their branding strategy’s digital marketing elements:
What works best for them and their audiences;
Why some elements work and others don’t;
How to bring all the elements together to tell a cohesive, lasting story;
When to create, execute, review, and most importantly reflect on a strategy’s objectives and plan;
Who is the audience they’re trying to reach with any piece of content: internal and/or external partners, clients/consumers, community, or someone who is simply curious.
And when you toss in the differences of NPO, B2B, and B2C strategies… it creates a lot of (digital) clutter to sort through.
I’m here to help you focus on what’s important while cutting through the noise of trends and random hacks.
I’m here to acknowledge the challenges of creating, executing, and reviewing a brand strategy, and all of its digital marketing nuances, in today’s world - and to remind you of the rewards.
I’m here to share the load with compassion, a sense of humor, and, at times, get real as we navigate this together.
And I hope this space can serve as a reminder you’re not alone. At times this work can feel like we’re Matt Damon in The Martian, shoveling through a lot of crap in order to plant and grow substance.
Please Subscribe!
I’d love for you to subscribe and allow me be your guide as we make the journey through this ever-changing landscape.
Whether you’re new to the industry or a long-time veteran, I hope you’ll join me. All posts are free with paid add-ons (possibly) coming soon.