Meet 100 YARDS team member spotlight, Megan Kapple!
Megan Kapple has worked closely with 100 YARDS for the past five years, wearing various hats and tackling any obstacle. Starting off her 100 YARDS career assisting our CMOs, Megan quickly demonstrated strong leadership skills and hunger for initiative. Soon after, she naturally transitioned into leading client accounts; driving email and organic (+paid!) social strategy, event planning, managing third party campaigns, and a few more marketing buzzwords we won’t bore you with.
How has your role evolved since you joined 100 YARDS, and what milestones have you reached along the way?
Before starting 100 YARDS, I was knees-deep in the world of direct to consumer marketing. I admit that I came with very little background in the B2B space. But what I DID come with was an appetite to learn and, truthfully, a hint of intimidation.
My professional and personal growth has greatly evolved since joining 100 YARDS. What started off as lending a hand to our leadership team developed into a Project Management role, which naturally progressed into Account Management for a variety of B2B markets. A few milestones include..
Managing full-blown marketing strategies for multiple client segments at once (say that 5 times in a row)
Broadening the way I think about things
Successfully launching a total rebrand from start to finish. Don’t ask me how many assets we had to redesign. 🙂
But that’s not all! I took a leap entering this space, which has since become familiar and comfortable. This past year, I received an opportunity to relocate from Ohio to the state of Washington for a rare job opportunity. It felt scary, so I knew I had to do it.
Wait! Are you still with 100 YARDS? What was it like moving 2,000 miles across the country?
The move was….. terrifying, exciting, sad, thrilling, joyful. It’s hard leaving a job and city you feel comfortable in and entering a new chapter of complete unknown. Because it felt scary, I knew growth would be on the other side. While I’m back in the B2C space full time, I couldn’t totally leave 100 YARDS. (I mean, I could, but I didn’t want to.). I now manage organic social media for a handful of 100Y clients.
What is your process for creating and implementing an organic social media strategy for a B2B brand?
It all starts with research.
What is the product being offered?
Who is the audience?
Competitors?
Industry trends?
What’s the goal? While some clients have a goal in mind, it’s not unsual for our team to provide a full strategy and chat through recommendations. Goals could range from…
Lead generation
Web traffic
Brand awareness
A strong brand will likely implement all three goals into their organic social strategy. In cases where a brand has not had the resources to dedicate towards organic social, that’s where we drive the focus towards one specific goal. For example, I’m working with a client who is looking to build trust and credibility within their social feed. To do that, we are focusing on creating extremely personalized content, showing leadership face, and taking advantage of “talking head” style videos.
Measurement and Analytics
Thankfully, many social platforms have strengthened their analytics over the past few years, making it easier to pull key metrics. Tracking performance and conversion rate helps develop a strategy.
Can you describe a challenge you faced—and overcame—while working here?
Hanna Lamb said it best in her spotlight, there really are challenges every day. Landing page forms break, last-minute designs are needed, emails aren’t formatted how they should be for mobile, client questions arise. For me, it was learning how to navigate those challenges, trusting myself, but also knowing when to ask for guidance.
What advice would you give yourself 5 years ago?
Ha! It’s simple. Every day I tell myself, “It’s PR, not ER.”.
As much as I value providing quality (and timely!) work to my clients, I also value peaceful energy. It took me a few too many years to understand that just because someone may be freaking out, doesn’t mean I need to freak out. It boils down to:
What is the issue? What can we do to fix it?
Shifting my mindset to lead with thought VS emotion has done wonders for my cortisol levels.
