In this episode of Let's Talk Marketing, host Katya Allison interviews Jennifer Sutton, founder of Bright Marketing and OrangeWIP, about aligning marketing strategy with business goals for sustained growth. Jennifer shares her extensive experience in helping businesses, particularly small businesses, scale through intentional branding and marketing. They dive into key strategies for overcoming common challenges, like dealing with inexperienced vendors, aligning teams, and effectively using data and insights to drive better marketing results. Jennifer emphasizes the importance of balancing creativity with strategy, and the role of marketing in supporting business development.

Listeners will walk away with insights on:

• Marketing is about aligning business strategy with communication and brand execution.
• Avoiding reliance on inexperienced vendors is crucial to long-term marketing success.
• Successful marketing requires focusing on brand differentiation and understanding the target audience.
• Overcoming misalignment in marketing strategies can save time and resources.
• Data and insights should drive marketing decisions, not just subjective feedback.
• Small businesses should start with foundational brand clarity to guide their marketing efforts.
• Embrace the importance of transparency and honesty in managing client expectations.
• Building marketing strategies is a long-term game that requires proper frameworks and intentionality.

This episode of "Let's Talk Marketing" explores how to harness creativity to elevate your brand and marketing strategy. Host Katya Allison interviews Emily-Jane Saroff, a business alignment coach, about how creativity plays a central role in building authentic brands that resonate with their audiences. Emily-Jane shares her journey from network marketing to coaching and how creative problem-solving, emotional intelligence, and brand storytelling are essential for modern marketing success. The conversation delves into how to integrate authenticity into marketing efforts, tap into creative energy, and the importance of aligning with your true self in your business. Emily-Jane also discusses how to manage creative blocks, avoid burnout, and cultivate a marketing approach that feels true to your brand’s voice and message.

Listeners will walk away with insights on:

• Creativity is a superpower in branding and marketing, helping brands stand out authentically.
• Authentic storytelling builds trust and helps create a stronger emotional connection with your audience.
• Tapping into your creative side requires shifting from a logical mindset to a more fluid, expansive state.
• Creative energy can be unlocked through routines, rituals, and taking intentional breaks to reset.
• Creative problem-solving in branding involves connecting seemingly unrelated ideas to create unique marketing strategies.
• Creative confidence grows with practice, just like building a muscle, and it's essential for personal and brand growth.
• Balancing creativity and business strategy ensures that marketing efforts are both innovative and aligned with business goals.
• Allowing yourself to evolve and pivot in your business is necessary for embracing creativity and staying true to your brand’s essence.

In this episode of "Let's Talk Marketing", host Katya Allison explores how marketers can use AI tools to streamline their day-to-day work. She shares her personal experience and favorite AI tools, including Anyword, Jasper, ChatGPT, and Otter AI, to improve productivity, efficiency, and content creation. Katya also discusses the importance of prompt engineering and how using AI effectively can save time and enhance marketing results. The episode provides a deep dive into how AI can be integrated into various marketing functions, from content generation to research and strategy refinement. If you’re curious about how AI can become an essential part of your marketing toolkit, this episode will give you actionable tips and insights to get started.

• AI tools like Anyword, Jasper, and ChatGPT can significantly speed up content generation processes.
• Prompt engineering is crucial for getting AI to produce clear, accurate, and relevant outputs.
• AI is great for extracting and summarizing information, making research tasks more efficient.
• Time-blocking and using AI for routine tasks helps marketers focus on creative and strategic work.
• AI tools like Otter AI make transcription and summarization easier, saving valuable time.
• AI can be used to tailor content for specific audiences, enhancing engagement and relevance.
• Continuous learning and experimenting with new AI tools keep marketing strategies innovative and effective.
• Delegating tasks to AI can help marketers free up time for higher-level creative thinking and decision-making.