The Ride to Visibility: Building Loyalty and Community with Jill Kelly

It's Time for Success: The Business Insights Podcast

In this episode, Jill Kelly, owner of Red Bicycle Communications, takes us through her career journey, from her early days at a top advertising agency in Halifax to founding her own marketing firm in Lloydminster in 2014. Jill shares insights into how the marketing landscape has evolved, emphasizing the importance of building a strong brand identity, maintaining consistent messaging, and utilizing digital tools like social media and Google My Business. She underscores the value of SEO, a user-friendly website, and a solid online presence to help local businesses stand out. Jill also discusses the need for regular website updates, authentic branding, and a well-defined strategy to engage clients and boost business visibility.

Jill and host Sharon explore the essential elements of a strong brand, such as differentiation and emotional connection with customers. Jill explains how market research and brand strategy can help businesses navigate today’s competitive environment and highlights the significance of collaborating within the marketing industry and building community ties. She shares examples of how Red Bicycle has fostered partnerships with other marketing professionals to provide comprehensive support to clients. In closing, Jill offers actionable insights for businesses looking to enhance their brand strategy.

About Jill Kelly

Jill Kelly is the brand strategist and owner of Red Bicycle, a creative marketing agency based in Lloydminster. Jill is a hometown girl, born and raised. While she has lived across Canada, she always finds her way back home. After obtaining her Bachelor of Management and Bachelor of Arts simultaneously through the University of Lethbridge, Jill started her career at a top advertising agency in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she fell in love with advertising, marketing, and design.

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Jill returned to her hometown of Lloydminster in 2013 and soon opened Red Bicycle Communications, where she works with various local and provincial businesses and non-profits to build a better and stronger brand. You'll often find her giving back to the community, studying for her Masters in Marketing, or spending time at the lake with her family and friends when she's not at the office.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Wordpress.com
• Wix
• Dreamweaver
• Adobe XD
• Google My Business

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Contact Sharon DeKoning | It's Time Promotions:

• Website: itpromo.ca
• LinkedIn: Sharon DeKoning
• Facebook: It’s Time Promotions
• Google: It’s Time Promotions
  
  

Contact Jill Kelly | Red Bicycle:

• Website: redbicycle.com
• LinkedIn: JillKelly
  
  

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Sharon DeKoning: [00:00:16] Hello everyone, my name is Sharon DeKoning. I'm with the 'It's Time for Success: Business Insights' podcast. Today we're talking with Jill Kelly. Jill Kelly is from Red Bicycle here in Lloydminster. Jill has a Bachelor of management, a Bachelor of Arts, and she's worked at a top advertising agency in Halifax. Then you fell in love with advertising and marketing and came back to Lloyd. Tell us the story from there.

Jill Kelly: [00:00:45] I was getting my undergrads at the University of Lethbridge. They have a great program where I could take them simultaneously. Everyone in my graduating class was, I'm going to go work for this company or this industry, and they had it kind of all figured out and I did not. I thought, I am brilliant. What I'm going to do is not pick an industry, I'm going to go into the advertising world and try to get a job at an ad agency. In that case, knowing that they work with a variety of different industries. So I did that, and I worked for a power company, I worked for an alcohol company, I worked for a tourism company, I worked for a government organization, a lot of different industries and different experiences. My intention was that, I'll pick out from there. I'll say, I really like working for government, I'm going to go and do that as my career path. That was the intent at getting a job in an advertising agency. It turns out I actually really like working for all of them. I didn't want to choose, and I really loved the connection and the projects and helping people have their business or their organization, have that idea come to life and help them grow further. I fell in love with the whole agency side of things and never left. I left that agency just to move across the country, but once I got to Lloyd I started doing it again on my own. I moved back to Lloyd in 2013, and then I started working for one organization in the petroleum field, and it was wonderful. I was working on the rebranding and it was really exciting for me because I love it. As soon as the word got out that, there's somebody local who can actually do marketing and rebranding and branding in general, who has experience and education behind them, I got a lot of different contract job offers to say, come work for me. I just said yes to all of them and started Red Bicycle January 2014.

Sharon DeKoning: [00:03:05] Very exciting. Looking back from 2014, I feel that we're on a crazy climb for marketing. Maybe I'm wrong, but how has it evolved from 2014 to 2024? What are the differences that companies are needing? What's the main difference that companies need right now?

Jill Kelly: [00:03:20] I think Lloyd in particular is a bit of an anomaly. In the sense that, back in Halifax I was working for big organizations, they had big budgets, they understood the value of marketing, it wasn't a need to pitch them on that. Where Lloyd, especially in 2014, 2013 even, they didn't know. They thought, I do marketing, I put my logo on these pens. I'm like, that's promotions and a great piece of your marketing pie if that's where you want to spend your budget, that's great, but that's not actually marketing. That's where I had to do a lot of education. I had to do a lot of 'why', and a lot of it was around social media. People didn't really understand the value that social media could bring, people were having their receptionist or sometimes the owner on the side of their desk running the social media account. They'll get to it when they get to it, and they'll post those smiley faces that say, Happy Tuesday. Oh my gosh, what is your strategy with this? They're like, we just post. If I can run my own personal Facebook page, I can run a business page. I'm like, we need to have consistency in messaging, we need to have a strategy in play, we need to know what we're talking about. Because every time that you switch people, I can tell. I can tell when I watch your posts and read them that it's a different ...