Hey, I'm Braeden!
I’m a seasoned marketing and brand strategist specializing in digital marketing, acquisition strategies, creative direction, content creation, and brand development.
braedenhorton@gmail.com
720.813.5327
Denver, CO
Over the past seven years, I’ve contributed to the success of various brands spanning industries such as hospitality, direct-to-consumer, fitness technology, and SaaS marketplaces.
I believe strategy is the necessary process of setting clear directions, allocating resources, prioritizing activities, and measuring results within a competitive context to achieve a desired future state.
A successful strategy can be broken down into 4 key components:
● What you will do
● A Plan for Your Road Trip
● An Assessment Before Leaving
● The Manage and Measure
What you will do (a worthwhile goal)
Your strategy should have a clear and compelling goal that is both achievable and aligned with your overall vision.
A Plan for Your Road Trip (answers what, where, when, who, and how)
You need to know what you want to achieve, where you want to achieve it, and who your target audience is in order to create an effective strategy. Your strategy must outline the specific actions and tactics that will be taken to achieve your goals.
An Assessment Before Leaving
You should have a deep understanding of your business's current state, including your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This will help you identify areas for improvement and focus your efforts on what matters most.
The Manage and Measure—did you efficiently get where you wanted to?
Finally, your strategy should include a plan for managing and measuring progress. This means setting key performance indicators (KPIs) and regularly tracking and evaluating your progress toward achieving your goals.
Transforming TrainHeroic's Brand for Commercial Coaches and Athletes
Making Heart Breakers Beauty Parlor A More Search Friendly Location
Bringing a Modern Food Service and Full Service Catering Company to Life
Helping to Spread the Word About a Small Local Bank's Charity Fundraiser
Core Functions:
● Establish and execute a comprehensive digital marketing strategy to effectively grow the revenue of the Cal Strength Online Training business line
● Create and document an overarching digital marketing strategy showing the interconnectivity of all marketing programs
● Create, document, and manage marketing programs across brand/product marketing, demand generation, and lifecycle efforts
● Effectively deploy and manage Cal Strength digital marketing budget
● Report on business line performance wins & learns and next steps each month to the Cal Strength leadership team
● Collaborate with, manage, and hire (when necessary) a team of writers, content creators, social media marketers, contractors, and other stakeholders to execute digital marketing programs
● Create and implement brand guidelines, messaging, positioning, and customer personas for Cal Strength. Exploring brand solidification, evolution, and refresh
● Identify, analyze, and measure trends and marketing performance to optimize the user experience and revenue growth
Accomplishments:
● 10.09% Increase in net revenue in the fastest-growing training program
● 18.46% Increase in new athletes in the fastest-growing training program
● 1350+ Athletes in the fastest-growing training program
● 86.28% Retention rate in the fastest-growing training program
● 96% Increase in customer conversions
● 61% Average email open rate
● 4 New products went to market
● Refresh the website and landing page
● Refresh product landing pages
Core Functions:
● Execute monthly SEO reports and led strategic content sessions with larger content team to optimize content strategy based on areas of largest potential growth
● Accountable to monthly organic content KPIs including reach, visits, leads generated, and conversions
● Supports the TrainHeroic brand and product go-to-market
● Posts to social media channels on a consistent and scheduled basis
● Tracks and analyzes social channel analytics to gain insights from data to report to marketing leadership
● Develop briefs for cross-functional work with creative team to create compelling visuals and audio for all social media posts
● Lead periodic community of practice sessions for TrainHeroic and TrainingPeaks content teams
Accomplishments:
● Developed brand-level content strategy spanning blogs, video, and multiple social media channels, which led to a 241% increase in organic traffic acquisition
● Designed and now manages all social media calendars and social media analytics
● Organically gained 20.6k followers on Instagram
● Organically drove 43.2k content interactions on IG in one month (account record)
● Organically drove 75.7% engagement rate by follower on IG in one month (account record)
● Executed social strategy which led to 209.6% growth in organic followers over 6 months
● Executed social strategy which led to 189.4% growth in content interactions over 6 months
Core Functions:
● Created all assets and brand collateral for new brand rollout
● Facilitated brand strategy workshop for TrainHeroic rebrand
● Redesigned TrainHeroic wordmark reflecting new brand tone and feel
● Created SEO campaign for TrainHeroic blog
● Tracked and analyzed top performing blogs month-to-month
● Established style guide to ensure consistency across all brand touch points
● Acted as TrainHeroic content editor, managing a small network of content contributors producing 20 blog articles per month
● Edited blogs for clarity voice and tone, and ensured on time delivery
● Built blogs and optimized landing pages on the WordPress site
Accomplishments:
● Created and managed SEO campaigns using Moz
● Designed and optimized over 140+ Training Lab blogs
● Had 30+ targeted keywords featured on the 1st page of the SERP
● Drove a monthly average of 54.5k in organic views to blogs using SEO best practices
Core Functions:
● Leads brand strategy sessions that positions and differentiates clients and engages their customers
● Analyzes business needs to determine what should be developed into actionable deliverables
● Authors creative briefs and leads in the creative briefing process, guiding the brand vision
● Provides thought leadership and defines best practices contributing to clients overall success
● Develops presentation models to drive alignment throughout clients businesses
● Assists in the implementation of SEO and social media strategies for clients
● Facilitates strategic work sessions with clients to unlock dialogue, ideas, and a holistic vision
● Demonstrates effective written communication, presentation, and persuasive speaking skills
● Actively participates and collaborates with others for the achievement of business goals
Accomplishments:
● Co-lead social media strategy session for Candygrind
● Created design assets for Helping at Home charity campaign
● Created design assets for Cannazaar Kick off event
● Lead brand strategy workshop and designed identity for Dark Steele Gastro Arts
● Created web presence for Heart Breakers Beauty Parlor
Graduated with a degree in Business Administration and a Public Relations minor.
● Web Design
● Graphic Design
● Content Strategy
● Creative Direction
● Brand Development
● Acquisition Marketing
● Search Engine Optimization
● Product Messaging & Positioning
● Evidence Based Decision Making
● Adherence to Established Timelines
I love learning about my craft from experts. You’ll often find me with multiple YouTube series and audiobooks on rotation. These are just some of my favorites that I base a lot of my marketing and branding strategy on.
