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I love talking to creative people because they always notice details that I don’t. Like today’s master in marketing, who saw a boost in impressions from one tiny, seemingly insignificant detail: when their photo model bent their knee.
Today’s master in marketing isn’t proposing — but she does have some proposals to consider.
Grace Wells works with brands like Huckberry, Soleil Toujours, and Fur as a creative strategist and director
Oil and water. Hatfields and McCoys. Paid and organic. They rarely mix, and in at least one of those cases, it’s to everybody’s detriment.
Wells tells me, “The crossover [of] what’s performing at those two ends of the spectrum, paid and organic — that’s where you get the clearest and most interesting behavioral insights from your customer.”
When she works with brands, Wells says she’s always looking for ways to build collaboration between those two teams. At one brand, sharing data between teams revealed that “lifestyle photos that feature a bent knee perform better than a straight-leg, standing pose.”
And it’s those “little fine details that can really make a difference in how you’re presenting your brand.”
When she partnered with the beauty startup Fur, Wells worked closely with Ulta and other national distributors for its retail business. She also worked on the brand marketing for Fur’s B2B line, which markets to industry professionals like salons and spas.
“It was really interesting to see what professionals versus direct-to-consumer customers engaged with, visually and aesthetically.”
The professionals responded to a “very different visual representation and design aesthetic that was a lot cleaner and simpler” than what the D2C customers preferred. The industry pros wanted something that felt “consistent, serene, and easy to adapt into their salon aesthetics,” Wells says.
On the other hand, customers shopping at Ulta or other distributors responded to a “creative brand that feels contemporary and dynamic.”
It reminds me a little bit of staging a home for sale — you’re supposed to remove personal photos and effects so that potential buyers can envision their own families in the space.
Same kinda thing: Professional aestheticians creating a spa environment don’t want other brands to step on their style.
Wells sums it up: When you’re trying to get your customer to convert on something that “will ultimately be incorporated into their business, you have to make space for them to envision their business as part of yours.”
I ask Wells what‘s the biggest mistake she’s willing to cop to, and what she’s learned from it.
She tells me this story:
“I worked with a brand [whose] target customer was aging out of its target demographic. The new target customer was younger than [the persona] they had built their data comps off of and expectations on. And so we tested a few different ways of engaging the existing audience and bringing in a new one.”
Sounds okay so far, right?
The brand found a younger, cooler approach that engaged its new demographic … but it hesitated to fully commit to the new iteration. So that new approach didn’t get translated to the website — which was still built for the previous target audience.
“We missed an opportunity to lean into the new direction we were taking and fully realize it — instead, we created a mismatched experience,” Wells says.
“I think the biggest lesson that I learned from that is that you can’t remain in an in-between place in order to avoid taking a risk. That in-between spot feels safe in the present. But when you actually get to the other side, it’s limiting.”
“What’s one marketing hill you’ll die on… even if the data or the trends say otherwise?” —Ross Simmonds, Founder and CEO of Foundation Marketing
Wells says: It‘s not about how big you are, it’s about how connected your audience feels.
Buying followers is worse for your credibility than a small organic following. Avoiding events because they cost money robs you of essential customer interaction. Organic content and brand storytelling are what make conversion content work. I see so many brands get caught up in chasing an immediate conversion to scale as fast as possible, creating a bubble devoid of brand affinity that will eventually pop.
To get big you have to get connected to an audience that will champion your growth, and that takes soft skills.
What’s one thing you learned in your first-ever job that remains core to the businessperson you are today?
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