Build Your Culture, Build Your Business: Notes From a Small Business's Marketing Department
Much of my day-to-day at Cat & Cloud revolves around marketing. I work with a two-person team that catches everything a traditional marketing department does. This includes organizing and running the web store, writing copy and taking product photos for coffee launches, designing and ordering merch, fielding design requests from other departments, and running social media and related communication channels.
A few tidbits:
Brand Guidelines and Design Guidelines are not the same thing
Your brand guidelines are your mission and values—your DNA as an organization. Design guidelines are things like the colors you lean into and how your logo looks. If your brand isn’t compelling, it doesn’t matter how beautiful your designs are. Pretty designs are a dime a dozen. Brands worth mentioning are rare.
Social media isn’t marketing
It’s more like reporting—sharing stories to build bridges of connection. These stories, if true, inevitably showcase your mission and values (read: your brand). These stories, if manufactured, might be popular but fail to build connection. We can all spot a phony from a mile away, and popular and meaningful aren’t the same thing.
Marketing made simple
The best way to make marketing simple (not necessarily easy) for your team is to have a strong sense of your cultural DNA and live your mission and values every day. If you do, you’ll have no shortage of compelling stories to share. The impact sharing your stories has doesn’t have anything to do with the physical size of your business or the amount of money behind it. Truth creates bonds that are deeper than money can buy.
Build your culture, build your business. Happy marketing.