From Band to Brand: Haylee Kalani’s Journey in Marketing
Today, we’re joined by Haylee Kalani, a seasoned marketing professional with over a decade of experience. Haylee focuses on creating attention-grabbing content, leading dynamic creative teams, and crafting outstanding advertising campaigns. She is a firm believer in teamwork and is known for unlocking the full potential of marketing teams to drive profitable returns.
Short overview
We begin by discussing Haylee’s background and how she entered the marketing field. With a deep passion for music and experience playing in bands and working in music production, Haylee’s firsthand experience with the challenges musicians face in making a living sparked her curiosity in attracting attention and building an audience. She began promoting her music and offering marketing services to bands and recording studios. As social media platforms evolved, Haylee’s interest in social media marketing grew. Her drive for independence led her to establish her own consulting business Kalani Consulting LLC, specialising in creative and social media strategy. While she initially worked with clients in the music industry, her expertise expanded to include fitness gyms, CrossFit gyms, jiujitsu gyms, and real estate brokerages, allowing her to gain diverse industry experience.
Haylee highlights the significant distinction between the B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) aspects of marketing. She emphasises that the priorities and interests of these two audiences differ significantly, with B2B focusing more on professional interactions and B2C catering to personal lives.
When it comes to creating attention-grabbing content for B2B and B2C clients, Haylee believes it boils down to understanding human behaviour and psychology. The key is to craft a compelling hook that instantly captures the audience’s attention, followed by delivering on the promise in the headline or caption. Haylee draws inspiration from successful YouTube creators and reality TV shows that have mastered holding people’s attention for extended periods, applying similar frameworks to engage and captivate her clients’ target audiences.
Haylee notes that the perception of marketing has shifted in the last five years, with a growing recognition of its importance alongside sales. Entrepreneurs, particularly younger ones, are increasingly excited about marketing due to its accessibility and the visible success stories they witness. It has become a necessary and celebrated skill for building a successful business alongside sales and product development.
We talk about brand consistency, with Haylee sharing her own experience of initially overlooking it and highlighting the importance of taking the time to establish a harmonious brand identity.
Haylee points out two common branding and marketing mistakes that she sees people make. The first is the tendency to emulate other successful companies’ content without genuine inspiration, leading to inauthenticity. The second mistake is a need for clarity on the target audience, as some business owners try to serve too many different types of people instead of focusing on their core audience.
Our chat continues with Haylee sharing the value of AI and ChatGPT platforms for idea exchange, feedback, and workflow streamlining with features like data visualisation.
Don’t skip the end of our conversation and discover what exciting plans are in store for Haylee and the 828 Collective!
Listen to the full podcast at https://smartbranding.com
