In the Now: Gwen Murray

Renowned marketing strategist sits down with Nowspeed to share her insights on branding and more

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Nowspeed: Hi, my name is David Reske, Founder and CEO of Nowspeed, which offers brand identity & PPC services. Welcome to this edition of In the Now, where we focus on covering myths and misunderstandings of digital marketing and leadership with some of the world’s most interesting marketing professionals. My guest today is Gwen Murray, a marketing strategist with over 20 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies, including Amazon, Staples, and L’Oreal, all the way down to series A and VC-backed startups. Gwen has led numerous marketing organizations focused on brand growth and lead generation, with an emphasis on scaling teams and helping businesses create ROI-driven marketing campaigns. 

Gwen also  just launched her new company Up & To The Right Marketing Solutions, which helps startups and founders create breakthrough marketing campaigns that drive growth and profitability. Gwen — welcome to the show. I’m so glad to have you here. 

Gwen: Yes, I’m excited to be here. Thanks for reaching out. It’s a great opportunity. We’ve worked together in the past. I know the great work you and your digital marketing agency does, so I’m happy to be here. 

Nowspeed: Well, we’d like to start these conversations by smashing a myth about marketing. You and I have talked about brand strategy a lot, so what’s something that most digital marketers, or maybe most executives, or companies think about brand strategy that’s just not really true?

Gwen: Yeah, I think the big myth for me about brand strategy is that it’s not worth investing in. Because it’s not immediately measurable, right? There’s no tangible result from creating a great brand. And branding is really a long-term investment. And you’re not going to see those quick wins that you necessarily get from performance marketing campaigns that you can spin up and get out the door. But without those investments in brand and having a really clear and well-defined message, all that money you’re spending on all those performance marketing campaigns is for naught, right?

Your sales scripts probably need revisiting, the landing pages you’re working on need revisiting, so that you have a really consistent, full-funnel message. I just believe so strongly in taking the time to invest in brand because even though it’s not something you can necessarily measure, without it, you won’t have a clear message and you’re just going to create confusion and if you confuse you lose. 

Nowspeed: Yeah, so let’s just take a little bit of step back on that. What is brand strategy? What specifically are we talking about with brand strategy? Are we talking about, this is the logo, this the homepage look and feel? How do you think about brand strategies as a tagline, all the above, more? What does it all encompass? 

Gwen: So I guess I would first differentiate between brand strategy vs. brand identity. That’s really what is the foundational element for me is more of a brand identity. Brand strategy is a little bit more execution based. But getting that brand identity together means that you have a clarity of your vision, that you understand who your ICP or ideal customer profile is, you understand what their pain points are and you act as the guide leading them through a journey that starts with their needs, and how you solve their needs, and use things like empathy statements and authority statements to get them to buy into your brand. . 

And with the brand identity work I do with my customers, we use a lot of story brand framework techniques. So walking away with a one-liner, which is a really succinct kind of elevator pitch that you can use across social media, your website, your email, as well as a brand script. So, that’s so involved, deep, and meaningful that it’s almost like a creative brief you can hand someone. But it’s just really getting clear on who you are, what you stand for, and how you help people. And without that, you’re just talking to yourselves, right? 

So, it’s really important to do that in a way that’s based on research and based on a way that you feel really good about tapping into your values and what you can offer your customers…

Want to gain more insights? Click here to listen to the whole interview