In this episode of Modern Marketing Messages, our host is joined by Brittany Moreland, a seasoned digital marketing strategist and team lead at Amerianeagle.com. Brittany shares her journey into the world of digital marketing, insights on industry trends, and her approach to leading successful campaigns. From the importance of building strong client relationships to leveraging data and AI for personalized marketing, Brittany offers valuable advice for businesses looking to enhance their digital strategies. Whether you're interested in the evolving role of digital marketing or tips for career growth, this episode covers it all.
Introducing Brittany Moreland, Digital Marketing Strategy Team Lead
Brittany is a digital marketing strategy and team lead at Americaneagle.com. She shares her personal journey to her current role, explaining that she joined the company in April 2023 after spending 16 years in the marketing industry. After graduating from a small college in Virginia, she started her career at a direct response agency in Richmond. Later, she moved to Northern Virginia, where she spent eight years working at a small ecommerce agency. Brittany felt ready to make the leap to a larger agency, and through a referral from a former coworker, she found her way to Americaneagle.com. Reflecting on her transition, Brittany describes her experience with the company as a breath of fresh air and expresses how glad she is to be part of the team.
Brittany’s Journey into Digital Marketing
Initially drawn to traditional marketing through her interest in creativity and innovation, Brittany began with print and graphic design. At the time, digital marketing was still emerging, but she noticed the growing influence of digital channels like social media and email, which she saw as the future of marketing. This curiosity about what was next drove her to pivot toward digital marketing.
Interestingly, Brittany originally intended to pursue nursing and even started college with that goal, but when her school cut its nursing program due to funding, she had to rethink her career path. Encouraged by her college roommate's experience in business classes, Brittany shifted to business administration with a concentration in marketing. This change allowed her to combine her interest in creativity with business skills, ultimately leading her into the world of digital marketing, where she enjoys the variety and creative opportunities it offers.
Significant Changes in Digital Marketing Over the Years
Brittany highlights how the availability and use of data have significantly evolved since she started her career in digital marketing. She explains that in the past, data analysis was often limited to tools like Excel, with fewer data points to review. Today, however, advanced platforms like Looker Studio and Power My Analytics provide far more robust tools for gathering, visualizing, and analyzing data. These tools have greatly enhanced the ability to measure success and improve the overall effectiveness of digital marketing strategies, representing one of the most notable changes in the industry.
Responsibilities as a Digital Marketing Strategy Team Lead
As a digital marketing strategy team lead, Brittany works with different clients daily, not only managing her own accounts but also supporting the strategists on her team. Her role involves attending status calls, presenting quarterly business reviews, and providing guidance by reviewing presentations to ensure they deliver value. Since she and her team work remotely, Brittany emphasizes the importance of regular check-ins, both to assist with work-related tasks and to build personal connections. She strives to make sure her team feels supported and valued, noting that helping people is a core part of her approach as a manager.
Managing Client Relationships in Digital Marketing
When it comes to managing client relationships, Brittany focuses on ensuring that all recommendations from her team, whether in SEO, paid search, or paid social, align with the client's goals. She emphasizes the importance of justifying recommendations by ensuring they make sense and provide value. Brittany also handles day-to-day tasks such as providing status updates, reviewing deliverables, and optimizing strategies to enhance results. Her goal is to maintain clear communication with clients and ensure that the services they pay for are consistently delivering value.
Common Challenges Faced as a Digital Marketing Strategist
Brittany highlights some of the challenges she faces in her role at an agency, particularly the need to constantly switch between different types of clients across various industries. While she may have strong relationships with some clients, others require more effort to build trust and rapport. Another challenge is working remotely, as many of her clients are based in Illinois and the Midwest, making it difficult to meet in person for quarterly reviews or casual meetups, like grabbing coffee. Despite these challenges, Brittany finds working with a diverse range of accounts exciting and rewarding.
How to be Successful as a Remote Manager
To build rapport with clients, especially when working remotely, it’s important to foster a sense of partnership. Brittany emphasizes that while it can be challenging to connect without in-person interactions, small gestures like sending memes, birthday messages, or engaging in non-business conversations help strengthen relationships. Brittany believes in approaching clients as partners, not as one party working for the other, which builds trust.
Skills Needed to be a Successful Digital Marketing Manager
She also discusses key skills for her role as a digital marketing strategist and team lead. For strategists, taking risks, thinking outside the box, and focusing on both short-term and long-term goals are essential. Digital marketing allows for testing and iteration, which makes risk-taking more manageable. From a management perspective, Brittany highlights the importance of empathy, being a supportive leader, and allowing team members the freedom to grow, even if that involves learning through failure.
Why Taking Risks Pays Off in Digital Marketing
Convincing clients to take risks in digital marketing can be challenging. She notes that being a risk-taker often comes with experience, but it's essential to back up any proposed strategy with data that demonstrates why a risk is worth taking and the potential rewards. Brittany explains that some clients are more conservative and prefer to stick with familiar strategies, while others are more open to experimenting and testing new ideas. Ultimately, understanding which clients are receptive to risk and how far to push boundaries depends on the individual client and comes with experience.
Process for Developing a Digital Marketing Strategy for a New Client
Brittany outlines her process for developing a digital marketing strategy for a new client, emphasizing the importance of starting with a strong foundation and making a good first impression. Her approach begins by understanding the client's goals, ensuring they are actionable and attainable, and keeping those goals central to all recommendations. She also focuses on analyzing what has worked or failed in the client's previous efforts and learning from those experiences. Additionally, Brittany examines competitor strategies to identify competitive advantages. Throughout the process, she emphasizes the importance of tying everything back to the client's goals, laying out a clear roadmap, and using data to measure success and adjust as needed.
How to Measure the Success of a Digital Marketing Campaign
Measuring the success of a digital marketing campaign involves both tangible and intangible factors. Tangible metrics include conversions such as revenue, form submissions, and phone calls, which are key indicators of success. However, Brittany also emphasizes the importance of intangible factors, such as client satisfaction and their willingness to expand services, renew contracts, or increase retainers, as a measure of success.
She notes that while results are critical, it's equally important to consider client sentiment. She shares a personal story about a Black Friday email campaign that underperformed in terms of revenue but ultimately left the client happy because of the team's willingness to take risks and think outside the box. This experience led to a highly successful Cyber Week campaign, illustrating that learning from challenges can lead to long-term success. Brittany stresses the importance of not being solely results-driven and considering both client happiness and the overall strategy when measuring success.
Tools and Resources for Success as a Digital Marketer
There are several tools and resources that enable Brittany and her team members to do their jobs effectively. She mentions using platforms like Google Analytics 4 (though she admits missing the older Universal Analytics), Google Search Console, and Semrush as key tools for data and analysis. However, Brittany emphasizes the importance of collaboration, noting that bouncing ideas off colleagues and seeking feedback are just as valuable as technical tools. She highlights the culture at Americaneagle.com, where people are intelligent, competent, and genuinely willing to help. This collaborative environment fosters teamwork and ensures that no one feels isolated, ultimately benefiting both employees and clients. Taylor agrees, pointing out that the marketing team often works together like a group project, with multiple minds contributing to better outcomes.
Common Mistakes Businesses Make with Their Digital Marketing Strategies
Similar to many other aspects of running a business, there are common mistakes to be made within digital marketing. Brittany emphasizes the importance of setting realistic, attainable goals, as having unrealistic goals sets businesses up for failure and disappointment. Brittany also points out that lacking a clear direction or trying to cut corners can hinder success. One of the biggest mistakes she highlights is the failure to gather reliable data, which is crucial for personalization – a key trend in digital marketing. Without trustworthy data, digital strategies are likely to fall flat. She praises Americaneagle.com's analytics team for helping clients gather and utilize data effectively, which is essential for making informed decisions and achieving marketing success. Taylor agrees, reinforcing the need for data to make smart, targeted decisions.
Successful Digital Marketing Campaigns by Americaneagle.com
Brittany shares a case study of a successful digital marketing campaign she led for a client in the pizza industry. The client initially approached Americaneagle.com for SEO and content support, starting with a pilot program in their Michigan stores. Their ambitious goal was to rank highly on Google's search results for competitive keywords like "pizza," "pizza near me," and "pizza delivery" – keywords with high search volumes and difficulty, competing against major brands like Domino's and Pizza Hut.
Brittany's team implemented on-page and off-page SEO recommendations, made content updates, and optimized the homepage. As a result, the client moved from appearing on pages 5-7 of Google’s search results to ranking on the first page. This significant improvement brought them much closer to their goals, and the campaign has since expanded to other locations in Florida. Brittany highlights how rewarding it was to see their hard work pay off and how enjoyable the collaboration with the energetic client has been.
Approach to Personalization and Targeting in Digital Marketing
Personalization plays a critical role in digital marketing and is the key to the success of any marketing strategy – whether digital, traditional, or print. Brittany explains that personalization not only increases revenue but also reduces customer acquisition costs. However, personalization is only effective if it’s backed by reliable, clean data. Mistakes like addressing someone by the wrong name can harm a brand's reputation. Brittany advocates for collecting as much data as possible, ensuring its accuracy, and using it to personalize customer experiences across channels, such as websites and emails. She points out that businesses need to keep up with the trend, as personalized marketing is now widespread and expected, noting the seamless targeting of ads across platforms like websites and social media. Americaneagle.com, she adds, assists clients in gathering and utilizing data effectively for this purpose.
Emerging Trends in Digital Marketing
Brittany expresses her excitement about the future of digital marketing, particularly the role of AI and predictive analytics. She explains that AI's potential lies in its ability to predict future customer behavior, such as identifying when a customer may be about to churn or determining their propensity to buy. By using predictive analytics, businesses can target customers with the right message at the right time, improving retention and sales. Brittany describes this as having a "fortune teller" in the marketing process, allowing companies to make data-driven decisions. While acknowledging that these predictions may not always be perfect, she sees AI as a powerful tool for optimizing customer engagement and is enthusiastic about its potential.
Advice for Businesses Looking to Enhance Their Digital Marketing Efforts
When asked for advice for businesses looking to enhance their digital marketing, Brittany emphasizes the importance of setting clear goals and, if needed, partnering with a trusted digital agency or consultant. She stresses the value of working collaboratively with a partner that genuinely cares about helping the business succeed. Both Brittany and Taylor agree that digital marketing should be viewed as a partnership, not a handover of control, with mutual understanding of goals and strategies being essential to success. Brittany highlights the need to build strong relationships with clients, ensuring that their needs and desires are well understood.
Resources to Continue to Develop Skills as a Digital Marketer
To support her role as a digital marketing strategy, Brittany uses AI technology as somewhat of an “additional team member” for tasks such as brainstorming, overcoming writer’s block, and rephrasing ideas. While she acknowledges that there is more potential for AI, her current use revolves around idea generation and improving efficiency. Brittany appreciates how Americaneagle.com has embraced AI, exploring ways it can help both the team and clients, while some companies are hesitant to adopt it.
Advice for Pursuing a Career in Digital Marketing Strategy
Brittany offers advice for those looking to pursue a career in digital marketing, emphasizing the importance of building strong relationships and networking. She acknowledges that networking can be uncomfortable but stresses that it opens up opportunities, helps with staying current on trends, and is vital for career growth. Brittany also advises against burning bridges, explaining that maintaining positive relationships, especially when leaving a company, can be crucial in the future, whether due to career changes, layoffs, or unexpected situations. Building and preserving good relationships is key to long-term success in the industry.
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- Resources: Americaneagle.com Digital Marketing Services
Brought to you by Americaneagle.com, a digital marketing and web design company, Modern Marketing Messages discusses the latest and greatest in both online and offline marketing tactics, strategies, and trends. We take a deep dive into anything and everything marketing, speaking to the best and brightest minds in technology and marketing. Episodes will cover different areas of focus, from advanced SEO to paid search, personalization to influencer marketing, and everything in between.
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