In this episode of the Strategy & Creative Podcast, I chat with Katie Skelton, a seasoned email marketing consultant and trainer who has found her niche in helping businesses nurture relationships and drive sales through effective email strategies.

With a background in the media industry and a passion for writing, Katie describes her journey from copywriter to email marketing expert, highlighting the moments that led her to discover her true calling. She opens up about the challenges of self-doubt and the importance of investing in oneself to accelerate growth and attract clients.

Throughout the episode, Katie emphasizes the importance of consistency, commitment, and showing up for your audience. Her insights on personal branding and the role of human connection in email marketing serve as valuable reminders that people buy from people, not faceless companies.

Whether you're a seasoned marketer or just starting out, Katie's journey and expertise will make you think differently and challenge some of the assumptions you’ve made about email. Katie is proof that with the right mindset anyone can make email a core channel.

Key Takeaways:

• Daily emails can increase subscriber engagement, trust, and sales, despite initial concerns about unsubscribes
• Personal branding is crucial for creating authentic, human-like email communication that resonates with audiences
• Investing in yourself and seeking guidance from experienced professionals can help overcome self-doubt and accelerate growth
• Consistency, commitment, and showing up for your audience are essential for building relationships and attracting clients
• Email marketing is a powerful tool for nurturing one-to-one relationships and driving business growth when done strategically

Follow Katie on LinkedIn for daily updates.

In this episode of the Strategy & Creative Podcast, host Daniel Plume sits down with the Brand Weaver, AKA Tim Weaver. A branding specialist who has delivered rebrands for industries as diverse as local beer breweries to independent schools.

In the show Tim shares his experience and journey to brand strategy via stints as creative director and lead designer across huge global accounts. We tap into Tim’s expertise and discover key strategies to help you differentiate your brand in competitive landscapes.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Transformative Brewery Rebranding: Discover how Tim helped a local brewery redefine its visual identity, harnessing nostalgia, local heritage, and British essence to expand beyond its regional market, leading to early success and remarkable growth.
• Strategic Storytelling: Learn how Tim captures local history, landscapes and stories to transform bottle labels and website graphics into an engaging journey that resonates with consumers across physical and digital environments.
• Balancing the Alchemy Triangle: Tim explains the necessity of balancing business strengths, consumer needs, and competitive analysis to create a differentiated and engaging brand strategy that drives growth.
• Personal Evolution in Branding: Tim shares his career journey from band member to creative director to independent brand strategist, and how following his passion led to establishing his own agency, the Brand Weaver Agency.
• Real-World Examples & Insights: Delve into Tim’s work with diverse clientele, including prestigious independent schools and barbecue and tattoo brands, revealing the power of authentic brand articulation and overcoming resistance to change.

Find Tim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrandweaver/

The Brand Weaver website: https://thebrandweaver.co.uk/

Explore Vale Brewery case study: https://thebrandweaver.co.uk/vale-brewery

Vale Brewery Website: https://valebrewery.co.uk/

Follow Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-plume-content-strategy-marketing/

In this Strategy & Creative Podcast episode, I interview Helena Traill, an acolyte and proponent of creative co-design and the founder of the growing creative design agency Nooh Studio.

In the show Helena shares her unique journey from art school to agency owner - bucking the trend of seeking creative employment at some large enterprise - and how her vision for collaborative design is the foundation for the agency's meaningful work for clients and its growth.

This episode is awash with valuable lessons and a fair few personal anecdotes that will resonate with anyone interested in strategy, growth, positioning, and the stories behind successful ventures.

What you'll hear in this episode:

• Reaching potential through Co-Design: Helena lays out the impactful process of co-design with clients, citing design sprints and stakeholder collaboration as key elements. She provides a real-life case study of working with young individuals on a brand project, demonstrating the iterative nature of co-design and how everyone gets involved.
• The journey to Nooh Studio: Helena narrates her path from a graphic designer working on a personally meaningful book to founding Nooh Studio, an agency focused on collaborative design and storytelling. Learn how a childhood comfort blanket named "Nunu" inspired the agency’s name and branding.
• Efficiency of co-design in healthcare: Helena discusses her work on a healthcare design consultancy with the NHS, emphasizing how co-design leads to more efficient and clear decision-making processes in healthcare storytelling.
• Challenges and triumphs: Helena opens up about the challenges she faced, including working with ADHD and using a team of virtual assistants. She also reflects on the critical advice that helped her succeed in sales and networking.
• Engaging personal content: Despite her preference for detailed storytelling on LinkedIn, Helena's personal video updates have proven to be effective in growing her audience.

This episode is a must-listen for creative minds seeking to leverage co-design for impactful change or exploring new ways to deliver distinctive content and visual work.

Follow Helena on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenatraill/

Check out Nooh Studio’s website: https://noohstudio.com/