Content Marketing Associate

About

Founded in 1997 by Laura Johnson, Coton Colors Company is a designer and manufacturer of handcrafted pottery, creative gifts and seasonal pieces. These designs are inspired by Laura’s motto to “never miss an opportunity to celebrate every day.” The company is nationally recognized in the gift and home décor industries.

Coton Colors Company designs under two brands, Coton Colors by Laura Johnson and Happy Everything!™ by Laura Johnson. Coton Colors’ products include tabletop, decor and celebratory pieces that cover every season while Happy Everything!™ is the original interchangeable product concept.

Products from both brands are sold in three Coton Colors Flagship Stores located in Tallahassee, Tampa, and Atlanta and online worldwide.

The company also works with fine retailers who offer our products in over 3,000 stores nationwide, including Dillard’s and Macy’s. The company is also contacted by other companies for licensing and corporate partnership opportunities with our designs, including Belk, Tervis®, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® and Nothing Bundt Cakes®.

 

Responsibilities

Brand Lead

Coton Colors by Laura Johnson

I am responsible for the creation and evolution of the Coton Colors and Happy Everything!™ brand voices and content application to various audiences through email, social media, print publications and websites. As a member of the two-member content marketing team, we set the brand strategy and planning, developing and implementing effective brand marketing campaigns across all platforms for both brands.

We then create a content calendar for our respective brands. I am responsible for the entirety the end consumer will view or receive from the Coton Colors brand. I write copy for brand marketing campaigns and collateral based on each audience type while working with our respective brand counterpart in Visual Subfunction to conceptualize, design, execute, and deliver all company collateral.

Content Marketing Associates also edit for grammatical and brand content errors for both brands and cross-functionally to ensure that all content follows brand guidelines and marketing campaigns.

Social Media Strategist

Coton Colors by Laura Johnson and Happy Everything!™ by Laura Johnson

I am responsible for the creation of a content calendar for both Coton Colors and Happy Everything!™ brands that align with active marketing campaigns. Not only am I responsible for copywriting for social media, but also the graphic design for Instagram Stories that align with each brand’s standards.

Through this role, I act as the brand voice and on the front-end to the followers and users engaging with the brands in order to establish, develop and maintain positive business and customer relationships.

View Coton Colors Instagram (@cotoncolors), Facebook (@cotoncolorsfan) and Pinterest (@cotoncolors).

View Happy Everything!™ Instagram (@happyeverythingcc), Facebook (@happyeverythingcc) and Pinterest.

Additionally, I pitch, plan, and write content for the Coton Colors by Laura Johnson blog, Toast, to further our marketing campaigns and inspire customers through guide-based content. View here.

For both my roles as a Coton Colors brand lead and social media strategist we conduct extensive and detailed analytics of the platforms and marketing campaigns to ensure targets are met.

Projects

Toast

Coton Colors by Laura Johnson Lifestyle Magazine 

During the last semester of my senior year, I served as a part-time employee at Coton Colors Company. In addition to managing social media accounts for both brands, writing for the blog and editing all collateral pieces, I wrote and edited for the 2019 Spring/Summer edition of the Coton Colors by Laura Johnson lifestyle magazine, Toast.

I conducted research and wrote:

  • “Dive In” (page 14)
  • “Anniversary Gifts with a Twist” (pages 16-17)
  • “The History of ‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue’” (page 18)

Click here to read the 2019 Spring/Summer edition of Toast.

Within my first few months of full-time employment, I was assigned to lead the 2019 Fall/Holiday edition of Toast. Acting as project manager of the creative function, as well as communicating with other functions, to ensure the success of the seventh edition of Toast. Content Marketing Associates pitch content for each edition, as well as write content in the form of how-to guides, recipes, storytelling, and more.

I conducted research and wrote:

  • “Everyday Ways to Lend a Helping Hand” (page 16)
  • “A Very Vintage Christmas” (pages 22-24)
  • “Making Spirits Bright” (page 35)

Click here to read the 2019 Fall/Holiday edition of Toast.

Brand Split Content Research and Creation 

Based on customer shopping data that showed two different audiences for the brands, a decision was made to reformat the structure of the company in order to better reach the right consumers and decrease confusion of the hierarchy. This resulted in a parent company, Coton Colors Company, with two sister brands, Coton Colors by Laura Johnson and Happy Everything!™ by Laura Johnson.

After the decision to split the brands and updating the company hierarchy, new content needed to be created in order to clearly communicate this channel across all platforms and channels to both end consumers, wholesale retailers and corporate and licensing partners.

I conducted extensive research on how to explain this change through each brand’s voices. The content created has been implemented on all platforms and is used verbally by the Coton Colors Company Crew to explain the company and brands. This proved successful as it answered the needs to clearly define the brands and decrease confusion via approved content banks that are used to communicate.

2019 Fall/Holiday Catalogs 

Coton Colors by Laura Johnson and Happy Everything!™ by Laura Johnson 

I edited all content for both brands’ catalogs. These proved to be extremely successful as they showed how to style the products in your own home and provided gift ideas. This was distributed in print across the country to customers who ordered during the season or requested a free copy. Additionally, this was also available online and was hot spotted so customers could shop via the catalog.

Click here to view the Happy Everything!™ Catalog and here for the Coton Colors Catalog.

Social Media

This was the first time there has been a dedicated role for social media at Coton Colors Company. Through this approach, I was able to provide key insights into the various platforms and audiences engaged with. I honed in on the brand voice, style, and aesthetic for each brand, from what the caption said and how it was said to the design of the graphics on Instagram Stories.

During this time I was able to not only to further define the brands as unique beings and attract new users, but also track significant growth in our key performance indicators, such as engagement rate, follower growth, and more.

Coton Colors by Laura Johnson

Follower growth on the Coton Colors Instagram (@cotoncolors) increased by 12,684 (+96.48% YOY).

On Facebook (@cotoncolorsfan), there was an increase of Page Likes Growth of 1,590 (+3.14% YOY) and gained 1,747 followers (+3.55% YOY).

Happy Everything!™ by Laura Johnson

Follower growth on the Happy Everything!™ Instagram (@happyeverythingcc) increased by 13,572 (+28.83% YOY).

On Facebook (@happyeverythingcc), there was an increase of Page Likes Growth of +2,776 (+44.38% YOY) and gained 2,676 followers (+43.3% YOY).