It isn’t often that I can say my creative experience on a team was difficult, but in this case, working with a small business owner and a rather inclusive product manager meant that I actually spent my time feeling like a creative outsider. There was a lot of resistance to overcome with my suggestions, as the owner was reticent to make her otherwise very personal craft include her personally in any way—eschewing video, uncomfortable with Instagram stories, and desiring to be less in the spotlight at craft shows left me with a challenge on how best to reach her target audience.
We began by going back to the basics: looking at where clients had most engaged with her work, what social media platforms the audience she wanted to build were most active on, and what seasonal sales and other launches had brought in the most business. From there, we set goals of contacting influencers on Instagram, placing timely social media ads on Facebook and Instagram together, and adjusting the frequency of emails.
We also set up seasonal color palettes and began addressing the brand’s previously disorganized identity presentation. We set firm brand guidelines, and outlined quarterly goals to better organize graphic direction.
This was, frustratingly, the limitation of my reach within the company for the length of my contract.