Emily Lenning: Leveraging Digital Marketing for Brand Building

From managing files for a car dealer to becoming a digital media expert, including internships in big companies’ marketing and communications departments, Emily Lenning’s journey is inspirational. The world is more dynamic than ever now, and so many new advances across sectors and fields signify that people all over have chosen to adapt to these changing times. Despite professionals and entrepreneurs habituated to working along with a set of rules and traditional strategies, with time, they have learned to move forward in sync to stay at the top of their game and take their business to new heights of success, thanks to the digital boom. Emily, a social media maverick, CEO, and Founder of Blossom Marketing, is helping businesses grow their brands and harvest results.

Creativity and Uniqueness

Emily has a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations from Western Michigan University and managed social media for large brands, growing social media pages, branding, eCommerce, and more. Creative and analytical, she learned all about design, metrics, and how to sell a product or service at her full-time job at Kellogg after college. Being a fourth-generation entrepreneur, she had her first exposure to entrepreneurship at the age of eight when she would have lemonade and hot chocolate stand, sell magnets, etc. With a passion for helping other businesses grow their ideas into success stories, Emily took the leap of faith into starting something on her own.

About Blossom Marketing

Emily started “Blossom Marketing”, a full-service, all-women digital marketing agency, in 2017. The company specializes in providing social media management, email marketing, social media ads, SEO, and much more to help clients connect with their target audiences and enhance customer engagement. The agency caters to clients in diverse industries, such as e-commerce, home services, architecture, and real estate.  

Digital media experts work with companies to increase client engagement and promote it by using online marketing tools such as podcasts, websites, and blogs. Emily’s experience working with larger brands before taught her a lot about the process and what to look for in a post. She works with the clients to see who their ideal customer is and the best method to reach them by strategizing and implementing content that adheres to the brand guide and requirements. Organic reach using social media is tough, and Emily uses community engagement, videos, and engaging content to achieve the target. This approach enables the client to build a relationship with the customers rather than just focus on the product or service.

Pushing Through Adversities

Being a woman entrepreneur in a largely male-dominated industry is no mean feat, with the world seldom taking you seriously due to the inherent gender bias. For Emily, juggling motherhood and other familial responsibilities made it tough for her at times while running her business. Women may be held to the same standards as other business owners but not necessarily in their homes or families. Despite having a supportive military husband, Emily had to take up most of the caregiving due to the nature of his job, which also helped her become an understanding employer for her team of women and mothers. To make things smoother for them, Emily offers a supportive working environment and 12 weeks of paid maternity leave.

What sets Emily and her company apart from her competitors is their quick response to clients (within 24 hours), which is a rarity in the business. “We have had clients who were frustrated with the previous agencies that did not respond for months or tell them what was happening with their accounts. We give a high-level report every month, conduct monthly client calls with account managers, and have a fantastic creative team with specialists and a graphic designer,” says Emily.

Boosting Brands

The focus of any business is to get as many customers as possible, and marketing holds the key to attracting them and generating leads. With the reliance on social media rising to gain brand visibility and growth, businesses these days are investing heavily in digital marketing. Emily advises them to capitalize on the unlimited scope with sensible campaigning by getting a logo professionally made and getting the social media pages set up, subsequently taking the help of online tools to start tracking traffic and activity on the sites. Businesses need a strong marketing strategy, so why not invest in the area where most of the customers can be found – in the digital space?