Melanie Borden is the Managing Member at Melanie Borden, LLC. As a natural outgrowth of her work as a marketing executive, Melanie recognized the opportunities available to use online marketing strategies to build corporate and personal brands. She has successfully built her own brand and helped others to do so as well. She has been published or interviewed by Good Morning America, Daily Mail, The Epoch Times, Working Mother Media, Hip New Jersey, New York City Biz List, HeyOrca!, CBT News and more. Her expertise includes the full gamut of marketing oversight and implementation, such as budgeting, strategic use of vendors, enhancing digital footprints via social media, reputation management, online monetization, and building and managing advertising processes. At Melanie Borden, LLC, Melanie and her team’s purpose is to help their clients, who want to stand out from their competition and connect with their target audience by delivering unique value in form of digital content. Melanie Borden, LLC offers branding and marketing consulting to help clients achieve their business goals. Melanie and her team are passionate about helping executives and businesses stand out and optimize their content by enhancing their brand awareness. They work hand in hand with their clients to turn content into a powerful channel for achieving growth and fulfilling their mission.
In an exclusive interview with CXO Outlook, Melanie speaks about her foray into marketing, expert services offered by Melanie Borden, LLC, personal inspiration, and a lot more. Following are the excerpts from the interview.
What inspired you to pursue a career in marketing? And how has your journey been so far?
I started in marketing in 2005 when I received my real estate license and started marketing myself ( pre social media) from there I developed a love for marketing. I have had my own consulting business, have worked for MarTech companies in business development, and have also worked in marketing in both automotive retail and for a tech company. I made the decision to launch my company in August of 2021. As a natural outgrowth of my work as a marketing executive, I recognized the opportunities available to use online marketing strategies to build corporate and personal brands.
How should people find their marketing influencers? How do you know if someone really has influence?
Google is an incredible resource for anything. If an influencer is leveraging the right platforms, they will show up in the google SERP.
In today’s fast-paced world, what is the most effective way to increase a brand’s online presence?
Being active on social media, specifically the social media channel where your audience is. My recommendations to any business owner or individual are to think about storytelling as a long-term plan and not a quick fix to get your business to drive leads. You can do this by coming from a place of being a trusted advisor and the subject matter expert in your stories, and by teaching. You must always think “how can I help someone else, and what is in it for them to engage with my business or my brand.” I see this a lot on LinkedIn and TikTok in short form video.
Regardless of your stories, like any marketing campaign, you must have your goals mapped out in advance, and have a strategy, short and long term, that aligns with your business. For example, if you are looking to work on your business reputation online to increase customer loyalty, you must identify what you want to generate from doing this campaign. Is it only existing customer loyalty you are looking to increase, or do you want to increase sales as well? Choose the areas and channels you need the most work on, including a process, and then build a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly strategic plan to support your goals. Regardless of what your goals are, at the end of the day, you need to understand where your audience is, what problem you solve for them and why they will buy from you and have the internal process to support your messaging. Of course, simply putting a plan down on paper solves nothing. In the implementation and management of the rollout of the strategy, that skill in the art of branding, including storytelling, becomes most significant since weekly and even daily modifications can make all the difference. The use of marketing data can also help to guide your strategy. You can still look at the data to understand if your storytelling content is resonating or not with your audience. For example, I use data analytics to measure the effectiveness of my client’s social media posts, reviewing data points to measure engagement, trends, and demographics of my client’s content.
How do you approach branding a company and its products and services?
At Melanie Borden, LLC, I used to say we are not an agency, but we are, and we get you the visibility you desire. If you need an organic social marketing strategy, guidance with your marketing team, execution with social media, social media engagement, content, creative, social media activations for events, marketing budgets, brand development, etc., we can help you, if you are an executive or business. In fact, most of our clients are agencies and marketing tech companies who come to me for help with elevating their executive team or brand in a one-time consultation or a monthly partnership. Companies today are looking for a different effective strategy to go to market with and a fresh perspective. Everyone needs a Sherpa, or someone to guide them, and tell them what they need to do, how to do it, and to create maximum visibility efficiently.
Tell us about the individuals who have been inspirational in your personal or professional life?
My number one driver is my family. Everything I do, every decision I make, ties back to the life and wellbeing I want to provide for my daughters. Being a mom is my #1 priority over anything. I have an unbelievably supportive partner, who is an incredibly successful entrepreneur himself (and the love of my life), and we push each other to be the best versions of ourselves daily.
Being an entrepreneur is an example to all little girls and boys everywhere that no matter what ideals or gender roles you may have been brought up with, no matter what you are told you are capable of, you can change the narrative. I also find it to be incredibly motivating to control my income, which I believe many of the millennials like myself also feel.
I also want to highlight that having your own tribe, or a support system that is not only in your circle but in your corner is essential for navigating through the process of entrepreneurship.
How do you keep updated on marketing trends, tools, and techniques?
I am incredibly active on LinkedIn, which is a one-stop shop for everything.
What does the future of influencer marketing look like in your eyes?
I do not think influencers will go away, but I do see an uptick in creators as more and more individuals are working on their brand voice online.
What’s your biggest piece of advice for someone looking to work on influencer marketing?
I would suggest doing your research and looking at location tags on social sites for those who align with your company mission and your audience.