Inside Marketing Design

In this episode, Charli talks with Carra Sykes, Design Manager at PLANOLY. Carra talks about the evolution of social media, and how the shift toward video has impacted her team and the need for marketing designers with a broader skillset. She also talks about marketing design challenges, and how she balances her desire for high quality and the need to iterate quickly. 

PLANOLY is a social media content management and scheduling tool designed to simplify the social marketing process.

Key Takeaways

• 02:05 - How does the Marketing Design Team fit into PLANOLY’s overall structure?
• 02:52 - Carra’s day-to-day responsibilities as a Design Manager
• 04:27 - What the Marketing Design Team is responsible for
• 07:08 - How Carra describes the PLANOLY brand
• 08:59 - How PLANOLY maintains brand consistency
• 12:02 - How social media design has evolved
• 15:41 - Carra’s process for creating video ads
• 17:31 - Designing for video vs still graphics
• 24:24 - Marketing a product or feature that doesn’t exist yet
• 27:03 - How marketing and product collaborate at PLANOLY
• 29:01 - Carra’s approach to product imagery in design
• 35:24 - How Carra works through ideas that didn’t work
• 37:00 - Who owns and manages the marketing site at PLANOLY
• 41:18 - Working with contractors and agencies
• 50:02 - The biggest challenges Carra is currently facing
• 53:03 - Carra’s proudest moment 

Links 

• PLANOLY.com
• Carra on LinkedIn
• HubSpot
• Figma
• Adobe

Connect with Charli

• CharliMarie.com
• Charli on Twitter
• Charli on Instagram
• InsideMarketingDesign.com

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Webflow

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In this episode, Charli talks with Monika Pawlik, Lead Marketing Designer at Funding Circle. Monika talks about how she and her team have collaborated and stayed a tight-knit group through lots of change, working with external agencies, and how Funding Circle’s most successful campaign came to fruition.

Funding Circle is a UK-based lending platform that offers specialized funding options for small businesses. 

Key Takeaways

• 02:14 - Monika’s role as Lead Marketing Designer
• 04:35 - Where the design team sits in the larger org structure
• 06:24 - How designers collaborate at Funding Circle
• 09:22 - How Monika describes the Funding Circle brand
• 13:01 - How Funding Circle produces TV commercials
• 17:56 - Working with external agencies
• 20:46 - The neon campaign
• 25:43 - The impact of Funding Circle’s most successful campaign
• 28:57 - How much of Monika’s work is print vs digital
• 30:02 - The differences between print and digital design
• 33:03 - How Funding Circle measures the success of print campaigns
• 35:28 - Monika’s biggest challenges
• 37:39 - What’s next for Monika
• 38:23 - Monika’s proudest design moment 

Links 

• FundingCircle.com
• Monika on LinkedIn
• Marketing Design Dispatch
• Inside Marketing Design at Monday.com

Connect with Charli

• CharliMarie.com
• Charli on Twitter
• Charli on Instagram
• InsideMarketingDesign.com

Subscribe and stay in touch

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• Spotify
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• YouTube

Webflow

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In this episode, Charli talks with Justin Rands, Director of Brand at Oyster. Justin talks about the company’s fast growth, and their commitment to design from the very beginning. Justin also discusses how they have evolved the Oyster brand in a way that helps them stand out in a crowded space, and what they love about Webflow.

Oyster is an employment and HR platform that makes it easy for companies to hire people from anywhere in the world.

Key Takeaways

• 02:14 - Justin’s role as Director of Brand
• 05:18 - Why Oyster uses Webflow for the marketing website
• 07:17 - How brand and product collaborate at Oyster
• 10:24 - How design and marketing work together
• 14:47 - How Justin build out the Oyster’s brand studio team
• 18:21 - How Justin decides what to outsource
• 23:58 - How Justin would describe the Oyster brand
• 25:59 - Goals for redesigning the home page
• 27:33 - How Oyster uses data in design
• 32:08 - Working with time constraints
• 36:05 - Development and project management tools at Oyster
• 38:42 - How Brand Producers function at Oyster
• 42:17 - How the new home page has performed
• 44:41 - Justin’s biggest challenges
• 47:44 - Areas where Justin wants to grow
• 51:34 - The project Justin is most proud of 

Links 

• OysterHR.com
• Justin on LinkedIn
• Justin on Twitter
• Loom
• Inside Marketing Design at Loom
• Webflow
• Freigeist

Connect with Charli

• CharliMarie.com
• Charli on Twitter
• Charli on Instagram
• InsideMarketingDesign.com

Subscribe and stay in touch

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• Spotify
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• YouTube

Webflow

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In this episode, Charli talks with Tomi Odusanya, Design Lead on the Growth Design Team at Paystack. Tomi has a lot of experience as a designer and developer, so he brings real knowledge to the issues of speed and performance when building marketing websites for people with slower internet access. In addition to those metrics, Tomi talks about how Paystack uses data, the importance of understanding your users, and how to iterate on a live project when it’s not performing well enough. Tomi also talks about the design culture at Paystack and the things they do to foster that.

Paystack is a payment platform for businesses in Africa. They were the first Nigerian company to be accepted into Y Combinator back in 2015, and they are now a remote-friendly team of about 250 people with offices in Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.

In this episode, Charli talks with Sketch CMO, Carly Marsh, and Digital Designer, Osvaldas Poviliunas, about Sketch’s new website, how they incorporated the brand’s personality into the new design, and why it’s so important that product design informs every aspect of marketing design.

Carly and Oz talk very openly about their take on competition, how they think through and design competitor comparison pages, and Sketch’s place in the market. And, yes, they absolutely talk about the fact that their biggest competitor, Figma, has just been acquired by Adobe, and what that means for them.

Sketch is a design tool launched in 2010, and was one of the first tools truly built for digital design.

Links 

• Sketch.com
• Oz on LinkedIn
• Carly on LinkedIn
• Sketch’s developer handoff page

Connect with Charli

• CharliMarie.com
• Charli on Twitter
• Charli on Instagram
• InsideMarketingDesign.com

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Webflow

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In this episode, Michael Jeter, Creative Director at Zapier, talks with Charli about Zapier’s recent rebrand and some surprising challenges they faced throughout the process. Michael is a fantastic storyteller, and he digs into his ideas about the philosophy behind design and how to communicate its true value. From the use of data and user research to process techniques and effectively managing a team, Michael shares so many valuable insights. You don’t want to miss this one! 

Zapier is an automation platform that helps you connect different apps to each other without code.

Key Takeaways

• 02:23 - Michael’s responsibilities as Creative Director
• 03:30 - Zapier’s Brand Studio team
• 05:59 - How to maintain consistency between Brand and Product
• 06:49 - How a fully remote design team stays connected
• 08:43 - Zapier’s recent rebrand
• 16:32 - The red cord
• 21:02 - Rebranding a rebrand
• 32:56 - When processes need to adapt
• 38:20 - Handling the emotional side of a rebrand
• 42:21 - Redesigning the Zapier homepage
• 44:57 - Getting buy-in on change and dealing with “design baggage”
• 48:54 - Connecting the product to the homepage
• 51:11 - Why quality and impact must be the same for design
• 58:13 - Challenges the Zapier team is currently facing
• 65:15 - What Michael is most proud of

Links 

• Zapier.com
• Michael on LinkedIn
• Michael on Twitter
• Instrument

Connect with Charli

• CharliMarie.com
• Charli on Twitter
• Charli on Instagram
• InsideMarketingDesign.com

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Webflow

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In this episode, Austin Couillard, Senior Brand Designer at Auth0, talks with Charli about how the internal brand team works with external agencies to manage all the brand design needs, as well as the internal relationship-building that Austin considers vital to his work. Auth0 is an authentication and authorization platform that companies can use to make their users' signup and login process really smooth and, most of all, very secure.

Key Takeaways

• 03:48 - Austin’s responsibilities as a Senior Brand Designer
• 05:38 - What brand designers do at Auth0
• 07:50 - Auth0’s creative process
• 09:01 - How brand design works with product design
• 11:43 - How feedback works at Auth0
• 14:30 - Working with external agencies
• 21:56 - Merging two brands after an acquisition
• 24:46 - How Auth0 maintains brand consistency
• 27:40 - How template helps deal with change
• 35:02 - How Austin sets goals
• 36:45 - What kind of assets does the marketing team produce?
• 38:45 - How Austin divides his time among many responsibilities
• 41:01 - Challenges Austin is currently facing
• 44:02 - Austin's plans for growth in his career
• 47:50 - The project Austin is most proud of

Links 

• Auth0.com
• Otka.com
• Austin on LinkedIn

Connect with Charli

• CharliMarie.com
• Charli on Twitter
• Charli on Instagram
• InsideMarketingDesign.com

Subscribe and stay in touch

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• Spotify
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Webflow

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In this episode, monday.com’s Noga Grinberg and Danielle Hassan talk about how large teams are able to function and succeed using data, collaboration, and ownership. They also go behind the scenes of how they created and launched a massive multi-channel marketing campaign (including a Super Bowl ad). Monday offers workflow management tools that help teams collaborate on projects and stay productive.

Key Takeaways

• 02:37 - Noga’s and Danielle’s roles at monday
• 05:53 - What it means to “own a channel”
• 08:48 - How feedback works at monday
• 11:25 - How Noga and Danielle  ensure brand consistency
• 14:02 - How design decisions are made at monday
• 18:37 - How data fits into the day-to-day 
• 20:44 - Measuring the success of brand awareness campaigns
• 26:36 - Embracing a “data-driven” approach
• 28:00 - Behind the scenes of creating a Super Bowl ad
• 33:56 - Working with external agencies
• 35:31 - What Noga and Danielle learned from making a Super Bowl ad
• 39:19 - When (and how) to revamp a home page
• 42:55 - A/B testing at monday
• 47:06 - How a home page revamp affects the rest of the website
• 49:57 - The main challenges Noga and Danielle are currently facing
• 51:36 - What’s next for Noga and Danielle as creative marketing designers
• 53:20 - Noga and Danielle’s proudest moments at monday

Links 

• monday.com
• Noga Grinberg on LinkedIn
• Danielle Hassan on LinkedIn

Connect with Charli

• CharliMarie.com
• Charli on Twitter
• Charli on Instagram
• InsideMarketingDesign.com

Subscribe and stay in touch

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Webflow

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Pitch aims to help teams collaborate on creating beautiful presentations. It was started in 2018 by the co-founders of Wunderlist, including today’s guest, Jan Martin. Jan is both a co-founder and a brand designer, which makes him unique in the SaaS space.

In this episode, Jan talks about how the design-centric DNA of Pitch came from learnings he had at Wunderlist, the importance of design systems that everyone can use, why he’s not a fan of wireframes, and much more. 

Key Takeaways

• 00:15 - Jan’s responsibilities and day-to-day at Pitch
• 04:58 - Marketing and brand design at Pitch
• 10:43 - The creative studio team
• 12:51 - The Pitch brand
• 14:55 - How 3D illustration became a big part of the Pitch brand
• 17:35 - How 3D happens at Pitch
• 19:20 - The symbiotic relationship between brand design and product design
• 22:40 - How to ensure consistency between marketing and product
• 23:58 - Getting your team to follow guidelines
• 26:52 - How creative studio collaborates with marketing and growth
• 29:15 - A design system for the marketing tech team
• 35:50 - How to make a design system “fool-proof”
• 37:49 - Design iteration at Pitch
• 41:45 - Individual and team challenges at Pitch
• 46:08 - Jan’s proudest moments at Pitch

Links 

• Pitch
• Jan Martin on LinkedIn
• Pitch on Twitter
• Christian Reber
• Dribbble
• Figma
• Asana
• Specify

Connect with Charli

• CharliMarie.com
• Charli on Twitter
• Charli on Instagram
• InsideMarketingDesign.com

Subscribe and stay in touch

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
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• YouTube

Webflow

This season is brought to you by Webflow

Try the no-code website builder used by designers and marketing design teams (and by this show, for the site you're on now!) – Get started for free

Reflection is an important part of the learning process. It’s not enough to just consume great insights from industry leaders, we need to think about how we’ll apply what we’re learning too! That’s what I’m doing in this episode. Tune in to hear my key takeaways from the season, and some from IMD listeners as well.

LINKS

Catch up on any episodes you missed:

Sendible

HelpScout

Stripe

Notion

Buffer

Instacart

Loom

Dropbox

HelloSign

Shopify

Figma

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Why taking time to reflect helps you learn

2:45 - Treating the marketing site as a product

4:25 - Making templates for brand assets

6:00 - There's no time for testing

6:45 - End-to-end branding

9:50 - Learning about team structures

11:25 - Design team culture

12:50 - Small company hustle

14:15 - Brands and sub-brands

16:30 - Learning from a design crush

18:45 - Listener takeaways