Sophie Goodman
WHAT DO YOU DO?
“My work lies at the convergence of art and business. ”
As a brand and content strategist, I specialize in go-to-market strategy and guiding early growth brands in the outdoor industry and green tech towards unprecedented consumer engagement. I’m particularly passionate about brands that understand “doing good is good business”. How can we make the world a better place while building a compelling business or product? This is the challenge I embrace as a consultant and that I am most excited about. I also am a content creator and work with clients to bring their stories to life both on and off the device. I love working on copywriting projects and serve as producer and project lead on branded film projects for clients.
WHAT STEPS DID YOU TAKE TO GET TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW?
My path to the content marketing and brand strategy field came out of trying to figure out a way to write and make a living. When I graduated from college, I had the choice of following my intended career path – International Health and Development – or to give this writing thing a try. I was 22 and ready for an adventure, so I decided to go for it. I took a job heading up the website redesign for Telluride.com; they had gone through a failed redesign and needed someone to come in with fresh eyes. I spent the next year launching the new platform as well as teaching skiing at Telluride Ski Resort and freelancing for National Geographic Adventure and the Telluride Festivarian Magazine among other publications.
After four years in Telluride and a brief flirtation with academia as a fellow at Georgetown University’s Masters in English program, I really felt that the editorial field was a better fit for me. When I was hired as the Editor and Marketing Director of OutThere Colorado in June of 2016, the goal was to build a brand and launch a platform that spoke to those looking to explore adventures in their own backyards. Over the course of two years, my team and I built a nationally recognized brand with innovative content and content marketing approaches, a loyal following, and unprecedented engagement. It was during this venture that I hit on what I was truly passionate about: the combination of the creative and the analytical. I developed a deep respect for data and its ability to amplify and protect creative storytelling. I bring all of this experience into my brand strategy consulting venture today.
How do you stand out in your field?
Though I'm a creative at heart, I bring an analytical approach to all of my work. A brand can deploy all the cutting edge digital marketing tactics that they want, but without the right content and compelling content and the right brand voice, their strategies will fall short. The same goes for great content: brands can spend a ton of money creating amazing, inspiring content, but if you can't get your customers to see that content, then it's not very useful from a marketing perspective. I have a deep understanding of how to develop content that not only speaks to and captures consumers but truly builds measurable brand equity. I also understand how to deploy that content for maximum effect, so I can occupy both the creative and tactical spaces on a marketing team.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
I'm working on building out a really robust newsletter channel for a client. I have a whole philosophy on email newsletters, so here goes: I believe that email is the most valuable communication channel that a brand can have. An email inbox is a really intimate space - it's a highly curated, very personal place where all of the various pathways of our lives meet. A newsletter subscriber is your most loyal brand advocate - they are your brand champions. If you can get a newsletter into your consumer's inbox and make it stick, you've found an unbelievably powerful asset for your brand. Though your email newsletter might be your smallest channel in terms of volume, it's also your most valuable.
So, the project I'm working on is for a well-established brand with a loyal following. They've got a unique perspective and a lot to say, and so developing this newsletter channel will be first about putting together a compelling editorial calendar, then testing and optimizing the deployment, and then building out a monetization plan for the growth of the channel.
WHAT'S YOUR STYLE/PERSPECTIVE/TASTE? DO YOU HAVE A PROJECT THAT REPRESENTS THIS?
The majority of my work is in the outdoor industry, so my style tends to reflect that culture. Here are a few projects that I'm most proud of.
WE ARE ALL SLASHIES WITH MULTIPLE SKILLS, WHICH ONE DO YOU WISH YOU COULD DO MORE OFTEN?
Content creation - it tends to be the low-hanging fruit in my consulting offerings because most clients need the consumer and market research and the UX/UI or content strategy pieces of what I do more than the writing or video production. Sometimes, I just really wish I could get my hands dirty in the creative work a bit more!
WHAT IS FRUSTRATING YOU RIGHT NOW?
COVID-19, lol ugh. Also, there's also a major educational component to what I do: it can be difficult to measure the ROI of branding, so I have to work with clients to help them understand the proper KPIs to look at as measurements of success and to understand the larger picture of why it's important to invest in brand building. Branding is all about playing the long game, and so it can be hard to ask clients for a lot of upfront investment for payoffs that may be hard to measure and/or they may not see for a while. I have to always make sure to set my clients up with the proper expectations before launching into a project or campaign.
With COVID-19, we're seeing most of those marketing budgets disappear, and so we're going to see a lot more one-off pieces of content without the strategy and planning to back it up. While that type of environment certainly fuels creativity, it's also leads to short-lived gains when it's not baked into a larger, more comprehensive strategy.
IF YOU COULD HIRE SOMEONE FOR $20/HR, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE THEM DO TO MAKE YOUR DAY EASIER?
Social media scheduling and posting.
LET'S BRING OUT THE TIME MACHINE. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU COULD HAVE TOLD YOURSELF, WHEN, AND WHY?
We can only decide between choices that are in front of us at the moment. Changing one thing in my career path would likely have changed everything and I wouldn’t want that. For example, I could have gone to graduate school earlier and I could have taken an Editor-in-Chief job at a local magazine when it was offered. Should I have gone those routes? Maybe. But I probably wouldn’t have met my fiance, and ultimately, all of my experiences thus far have allowed me to find what I’m truly passionate about which is storytelling, supporting the outdoor industry, and helping to amplify businesses that seek to make our world a better place. If I can continue to shape my career around those passions and continue to strive for innovation and cutting edge digital marketing solutions in my work, then I’m excited to see what comes next.
IF YOU COULD TALK TO AN EXPERT TO GAIN MORE INSIGHT ON SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?
Big data and how AI can improve our use and understanding of vast amounts of data to gain even deeper insight into a whole variety of subject areas. Also, I'm really into supply chain but know very little about it. I would love to learn more about the nitty gritty of supply chain management.
WHAT KIND OF OPPORTUNITIES/PROJECTS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
I'm excited about a whole range of projects (which align with and mirror my consulting offerings):
Consumer & market research, including building brand personas, customer journey mapping, and surveying to better understand a given brand's audience.
Content strategy, whether for a single campaign or something larger, like designing a multi-channel content program & editorial calendar.
Content creation, copywriting projects.
DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL JOB/CLIENT/COLLABORATION.
The best projects are close collaborations with the client. I love working with clients as a temporary team member and to really embed myself in the culture and nature of the work. I also prefer working on longer term projects that I can help guide through from start to finish to help work through the challenges and also celebrate the wins with the team!
WHAT IS YOUR HOURLY RATE, RETAINER, OR SALARY RANGE?
It certainly depends on the scope of the project, but as a baseline, my hourly rate begins at $75/hr.
HOW SHOULD SOMEONE APPROACH YOU ABOUT WORKING TOGETHER?
Email is the best way to contact me, and a projected scope and budget are always appreciated. A link to an article, Instagram post, or a video that has most recently inspired, entertained, or intrigued you in some way is always appreciated (I can get an better feel for their personality and perhaps aesthetic).
HOW DO YOU STAY CREATIVE?
Yoga, running, lots of reading, and chocolate…
This member profile was originally published in May 2020.