Episode 87 – Reach people where they are

My guest on the show today is April Reign, April practiced law for nearly twenty years, honing her talent for...

The post Episode 87 – Reach people where they are appeared first on Sideways8.

My guest on the show today is April Reign, April practiced law for nearly twenty years, honing her talent for public speaking and persuasive writing, but it wasn’t until she walked away from her legal practice that she found her true passion. April is now the senior director of marketing for Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization that leverages technology to make the business of art easier for artists and small arts organizations. She leads the marketing and branding of Fractured Atlas products and services while partnering with the engineering team on product development. 

Adam: [00:08] Hi, welcome to the Good People, Good Marketing podcast, a podcast about digital marketing and how to make it better so that good people and good organizations can have good marketing as well. I’m your host, Adam Walker, co-founder of Sideways8, a digital marketing agency and 48 in 48, a non-profit dedicated to hosting events that build forty-eight websites for forty-eight non-profits in forty-eight hours.

 

[00:28] My guest on the show today is April Reign, April practiced law for nearly twenty years, honing her talent for public speaking and persuasive writing, but it wasn’t until she walked away from her legal practice that she found her true passion. April is now the senior director of marketing for Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization that leverages technology to make the business of art easier for artists and small arts organizations. Reign leads the marketing and branding of Fractured Atlas products and services while partnering with the engineering team on product development. April, welcome to the show.

 

April: [01:02] Thank you for having me.

 

Adam: [01:04] That sounds like a pretty fantastic career – twenty years in law and then you move over to persuading people in a different way. I kind of love it.

 

April: [01:12] Yeah. It’s been an interesting transition, I think. In between that I created the #OscarsSoWhite about the lack of diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry and so that helped to be the bridge for me moving over from practicing law to using my marketing degree.

 

Adam: [01:32] Oh fantastic. And my main question about moving from law to marketing is, is there less paperwork?

 

April: [01:39] Absolutely. And part of that I think is because when I started practicing law it was 1994 and the Internet was sort of in its infancy at best. And so we definitely do a lot more online than we do with actual paper.

 

Adam: [01:56] I remember my mom was a lawyer and I remember as a kid she told me, “ Hey, you can be a lawyer and it’s great, but it’s a lot of paperwork and as soon as she said it’s a lot of paperwork,” I was like, nope, not going to do that! So that was the end of my law career right there. I don’t have the patience for it, it’s not my temperament. Let’s dive right on in. This is going to be a lot of fun. So question number one, related to digital marketing, can you tell us something that is working well for you?

 

April: [02:23] Sure. I think we approach digital marketing at Fraction Atlas from several different vantage points and right now what’s working really well for us is social media. We hired a social media specialist a couple of months ago now, his name is Molaundo Jones, and he has really dived into all of the different aspects so not just platforms, Facebook and Instagram and twitter – and we use all of those – but also blog posts, YouTube videos, and making sure that we are reaching people where they are with a different approach for each one.

 

Adam: [02:59] I love that – reaching people where they are, I’m going to write that down, with a different approach for each one. It sounds like you’ve got some kind of strategy and you’re building out content around each one. I’ve got to ask, related to that, how much content are you building out? You hired a social media specialist, does that mean he’s also providing and creating a lot more content for you?

 

April: [03:20] Absolutely. I think that Fractured Atlas a year ago was not producing as much as we wanted it to. And so that’s why we brought somebody on who specifically would handle this. We are an arts service organization, we have tens of thousands of members all over the country, and one of the things that we wanted to do was to promote and amplify their work more. So, Molaundo, one of the many things that he’s done is create a social media calendar so that we can say, well so-and-so’s having an art exhibit out in California or so-and-so is having a dress rehearsal for their new play in New York, come and see them. And that way we are providing additional support to all of our members. In addition to providing blog posts, as I mentioned, to talk about some of the business services that we provide. For example, Fractured Atlas is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and we act as a fiscal sponsor for artists and arts organizations. So in very simple terms that means we will help you to apply and receive grants so that you can finish that documentary film that you’re working on, and so we use YouTube videos, we use blog posts to explain to folks what we do and how they can best use our services.

 

Adam: [04:40] Considering the industry that you’re in, art, it’s just very social media friendly, right? I would imagine there’s just an abundance to share both visually and audibly and in so many other ways and so I feel like that’s a really, really smart move. And one thing that I noticed you said is you specifically hired someone to ramp up that effort, as in it would not have happened had you done it in-house. Is that kind of what I heard you saying there?

 

April: [05:09] Well, he is an employee of Fractured Atlas, 100%.

 

Adam: [05:13] No, of course. I meant you didn’t tack it onto somebody else’s work.

 

April: [05:16] That’s exactly right. There wasn’t anybody whose full-time job it was to run our social media platforms and so folks, out of the goodness of their heart, were doing it when they could, but it’s hard when that’s not part of your job description. And so we recognized that there was a space that we could fill and that we had enough content that it made sense to bring someone on full-time who could focus on those issues.

 

Adam: [05:41] I love that. That’s really smart and very few organizations are willing to do that, but it’s critical if you’re going to move the needle in social media, it has to be someone’s primary focus. Maybe not all of their focus, but definitely their primary focus because if it’s a secondary focus or a third focus, it’s just never going to happen.

 

April: [05:59] That’s right. And we see how important social media is, and we use it as I mentioned in different ways. Instagram is a very visual art forum, a platform, and so we’re using pictures there to tell the story as opposed to Facebook where we can use more language, actual verbiage, to get across our points and Molaundo is doing a great job at all of that.

 

Adam: [06:21] That’s great. Question number two, related to digital marketing. Can you tell us something that has not worked well, that we can learn from?

 

April: [06:28] I think something that hasn’t worked well for us yet is doing email blasts, and part of that might be because of who we are because we’re an arts service organization and again, art can be very visual and tactile, and people want to engage with it so putting information out in email form isn’t as productive as putting something up on social media. We’re still working that through to see if there are ways that we can better manage that because again, we want to get the information out about what our artists are doing all around the country and so we’re going to tweak that a little bit, but so far we haven’t found the perfect balance of how to get that across. Again, I think that may be specific to the kind of work that we do. I’m definitely not saying that email is bad at all, but we’re still going to manage that a little bit better to figure out how we can best use it.

 

Adam: [07:34] Well, it’s all about what you focus on and what you test and learn from too. It sounds like right now you’re focusing on social media and you’re probably just crushing it with social media versus email is probably taking a bit of a backseat. You’re probably not able to do as much testing or spend as much time and obviously it’s not going to be as effective because of that. So I think it sounds to me like you’re on the right track and I agree social media for what you’re doing probably is the best first step. You can always add email down the road and really ramp it up and iterate from there.

 

April: [08:00] That’s exactly right.

 

Adam: [08:01] That’s fantastic. And last question related to digital marketing, can you tell me something you are excited about?

 

April: [08:08] We are excited about rebuilding our website and completely redesigning it. We think that this is going to tie directly into digital marketing. When we put something on social media, we have some type of blast and people want to go and find out more about Fractured Atlas. Our website right now, it’s not as current as it should be, and I think it needs a little more tweaking to make it easier for folks to manage, for folks to navigate through the site and to sign up to become a member. And so we are working on revamping our website, bringing it absolutely into the 21st century and completely current on all of the different pages and we’re excited about how that’s going to hopefully help and assist our members going forward.

 

Adam: [09:00] That’s great. I’m a big believer that the website for a non-profit is the hub of the marketing wheel, really everything ends up pointing back or pushing into the website in some form or fashion. And so if your website is antiquated or dated, it tends to hurt all of your marketing as a whole. So I think you’re really smart to move in that direction, make sure that the website is really solid and that it can support and hopefully amplify all of your other marketing initiatives as well.

 

April: [09:28] That’s exactly right and we want to make sure that our website is just as vibrant and dynamic and bold as our posts on social media are. And so we’re just bringing everything into balance.

 

Adam: [09:39] Yes, that’s fantastic. I love that. And your website can be really used to tell your story in a very compelling way that’s just different than you can tell in other mediums and it’s a little more static in some ways, more dynamic and others but I think it’s really important to really consider that as an organization. I’m excited to hear that you’re doing that. Most of my work is centred around websites.

 

April: [10:01] And when people google Fractured Atlas, for example, or people that aren’t on social media, you know, the three or four in the billions in the world that are not on any form of social media, when they google or find out about Fractured Atlas, they want to know more, we definitely want them to have a fantastic experience when they find us that way or if they’re coming to us from a specific social media platform. And so we’re just ramping it up a little bit, making it fresh, making it new, highlighting some of the things that we do, and we’ll also have more on the website about and for our artists who are members. And so we’re really looking forward to that refreshing.

 

Adam: [10:43] I love that, that’s really fantastic. Well, April, let me see if I can recap what we talked about so far to give our listeners a good takeaway. So for what is working well for you, you mentioned social media, you hired a specialist and you’re not just focused on platforms, but you’re also going beyond just platforms. You’re looking at blog posts, YouTube videos, and really reaching people in creating content for where people are in ways that can showcase the artists and artwork that you’re supporting. You said you’re now creating more content, in particular because you brought in a person whose primary job is social media, rather than trying to tack social media onto the backup of something else someone’s already doing, which I think is fantastic. You also mentioned creating a social calendar that’s also shareable about art exhibits and releases and rehearsals and things like that, which I think is fantastic.

 

[11:29] For what has not worked well that we can learn from, you mentioned email blasts has been a bit of a struggle. I’ve seen that personally a lot and so I totally get that. I think email can be powerful with a lot of testing, a lot of refinement, but it sounds to me like your time is best spent right now in social media, so I’m excited for you there.

 

[11:46] And for what are you excited about, you mentioned your website rebuild and redesign and how a website is the marketing hub of everything and everything tends to point back into there and give people deeper content and deeper engagement and therefore if your website is out of date, it’s beginning to harm your other marketing and I 100% agree with you on that and I’m excited to hear that you’re working on that project. Did I sum up our conversation pretty well there?

 

April: [12:09] You absolutely did. It’s a great summary.

 

Adam: [12:12] Okay, fantastic. Well, April, do you have any final thoughts you want to share with our audience?

 

April: [12:16] I would just say continue to be fluid, what works for us may not work for you, but you have to find that balance and continue to try various marketing ideas and strategies until you find the right mix that works for you and your organization.

 

Adam: [12:31] Absolutely, I could not agree more. Well, April, thank you so much for joining me on the show. I would love to  have you back some other time.

 

April: [12:38] I’d love to come back. Thanks Adam.

 

Adam: [12:39] Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Good People, Good Marketing podcast. To get more resources about digital marketing, make sure to go to goodpeoplegoodmarketing.com where you can find more podcasts, blogs, and other fun resources. Also, if you want to find me, your host, you can find me on twitter @ajwalker and on my blog at adamjwalker.com, where I blog about leadership, productivity, habit-building, and the craziness of having five kids. Thanks and tune in next time.

The post Episode 87 – Reach people where they are appeared first on Sideways8.