Hitting the Refresh Button on Your Brand Marketing with Kayla Rice

“Brand marketing” may sound like just another branding buzzword, but this episode tackles this concept as a real strategy with data behind it. Kayla Rice, Senior Manager of Brand and Creative Studio at SpyCloud, joins the pod to discuss brand awareness, brand marketing strategy, refresh vs. rebrand, and so much more about all things branding. Learn how to make brand marketing a part of your marketing growth team, how to handle a big or small brand refresh, and how to balance your messaging across platforms.

Timecoded Guide:

[03:20] Deciphering Kayla’s title: Senior Manager of Brand and Creative Studio

[07:48] Focusing marketing team members on seeing brand as influencing the pipeline

[15:39] Comparing and contrasting brand refresh and rebrand

[23:59] Understanding the phenomenon of debranding

[34:28] Balancing your brand messaging across social media platforms 

[40:58] Looking at metrics from a brand-growing perspective
 

How do you get non-brand-focused marketers to see brand as influencing a sales pipeline?

Focusing your marketing team on branding can depend on the size of the organization, according to Kayla. In smaller organizations, there are pieces to branding that every member of the marketing team can appreciate. Smaller teams also encourage members to work together to create the best experience for audience members and product launches, whereas teams at larger organizations can have less interconnectedness and less role appreciation.

“Whether it be launching a sponsored report, whether that be podcast ads, organic, social, there's so many levers your company can pull to really make people understand who you are, what you stand for, what you're trying to solve, and the people who are backing all of that.”

 

What’s the difference between a brand refresh and a rebrand?

Some marketing teams think they’ve changed the color palette or logo and they’ve rebranded. Unfortunately, Kayla explains that this is not the case. A rebrand happens in situations when you experience an acquisition or you’re truly renaming your company. In contrast, a brand refresh is more of an evolution of your brand. It’s taking from what you’ve learned in your brand marketing campaigns and growing upon those lessons with your team.

“It really is so much more than just updating a logo or color palette, it's really digging into: What is your messaging framework? Who are you going after? It’s being able to speak to them where they are, meet them where they are, and then, dangling that carrot in front of them of what could be.”

 

How do you balance your messaging across social media platforms?

Kayla believes that balance across social media platforms requires staying flexible and adaptable. Marketing teams can and should adjust their tone depending on the channel and messaging. Social media should be more of a place to experiment and see what works with your brand and audience, as well as what doesn’t. Do your market research, adjust your content across popular social media platforms, and see where each step takes you.

“It's been really exciting to see and it's ever-growing, and always new ideas and new things that we're going to do.”

 

What metrics should you look at from the perspective of growing your brand?

While metrics should be measured in different ways depending on the source, Kayla explains that website metrics should involve visits, time on the page, and click-through rates. From a social media perspective, follower count matters, even if it feels like a vanity check. More followers and visitors equals more eyeballs on your content and a larger potential user base. Kayla also advises not to forget about reposts, reshares, and interactions with your paid ads.

“If we're opting to do paid ads or podcast sponsorships, for example. Okay, what is their viewer or their listenership? What does their audience look like? How many times are we a participant in that? How many downloads were there?”

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Links: 

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