We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Natalie Gonzalez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Natalie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?
I’ve always had a passion for sales and marketing. When I was in Elementary school I used to make jewelry (bracelets, necklaces, and earrings). Then people would ask me where I got them from. I would giggle and say “I made it myself.” I decided to start selling them. As a child I didn’t understand the importance of reinvesting in my business until I got older. I used to spend my earnings on my favorite junk food snacks whenever I tagged along with my family to the store. I would complain to my mom right after because I didn’t have money to buy more materials to make the jewelry. In hindsight those conversations were actually pretty funny.
Unknowingly I actually knew what I wanted to do at a young age unlike most people I know. Right away I majored in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing Management. Although I loved the classes and professors, I didn’t quite understand why some of the material seemed outdated.
This inspired me to look into alternative ways of marketing that I felt the classes never touched on. This is where I came across digital marketing.
I strongly believe that the best form of marketing is “word of mouth.” If your product or service is so good, people are bound to recommend your business. Thus, growing your customer base. But what I hate seeing is people with amazing products and services miscommunicating to their customers online.
Obviously today’s generation loves to buy products online, but they also like buying from companies that can clearly communicate how they can solve their problems. Not just in a logical way but using emotions and authenticity. For example, social media content shot from a phone with low production value actually converts to more sales than highly produced content with expensive camera equipment and editing. It’s because lo-fi content just comes out as more genuine, especially when paired with good content writing and some personality.
This concept applies to websites, social media, product descriptions, and emails.
I decided to become a copywriter in the beauty and wellness industry because I have been their biggest customer for a long time. I love discussing what customers love, hate, and what they are looking for. I don’t even have to be working. I automatically do this on my free time.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Currently, I provide copywriting services for beauty and wellness brands. I help them voice their message across to their customers in a way that resonates with them. Some of the services I provide are website copy, landing pages, social media captions, product descriptions, and blogs.
Anyone can write content, but it’s about the way you write content that causes customers to become intrigued with you. Doesn’t even have to be a business. Someone online can just create content that expresses their opinions, expertise, fun facts, trendy topics, or humor. Posting videos, photos, or blogs can start engaging conversations throughout various online platforms. Some of them can grow to be more viral than others.
What is great in today’s age is that anyone can become an influencer as long as you keep posting content that is bringing some sort of value that people are searching for.
The problem is creating content that does this but converts into sales. Some people have tons of followers but no sales to the business they are trying to promote. Believe it or not it’s not hard to go viral. It’s hard to go viral in the way you want to go viral. Setting boundaries of what you are willing and not willing to do online. You do need to take some risk in making some stances/opinions on topics related to your industry (try not to be too controversial).
For example, writing about a product that you don’t sell can bring in readers to your page that may also buy your product as well. Like a clean hair care brand talking about a trendy topic such as rosemary oil to attract more readers to their blogs, but they only sell non-toxic shampoos and conditioners. Even though they don’t sell rosemary oil, they’re bringing in the right target audience, either through google or social media.
People who search for rosemary oil for their hair are people who are concerned about hair growth and potentially hair/scalp health. So maybe after consuming info on these topics you gave them they start looking at other items you talked about. Then keep staying engaged until Bam! Sale.
Some brands don’t want to talk about anything except the products they sell. To the consumer this can look a bit salesy and ingenuine. Like you don’t care about their concerns or problems. Talking about topics that are not necessarily something you sell can lead to sales, if it brings in an audience who is interested in topics closely related to items you do sell.
In conclusion, I write content, but my goal isn’t to make you famous with a million something subscribers, readers, viewers, or followers (I mean if it happens then great). My goal is to help you generate some extra sales from organic reach online. I do this by extensively researching your customers and writing as if I was having a conversation with them online. Causing your brand to build expertise and trust with the customer through a series of minor changes.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
When creating content for the companies I work for I have a couple of goals. I want the content to be seamless, scrollable, simple, memorable, and engageable. When someone visits your page they should not be thinking too much about your page. It should be simple and navigable. The viewer should somewhat be on autopilot and forget they are reviewing an actual business’s sales page, yet still intrigued on what you have to say and offer.
Your platform should always be curated and updated for the customer. The problem about bigger companies is that they become so political with many layers of management, that the top executives lose sight of what their customers see. Which is the reason why some of the biggest companies in the course of decades can have downfalls. Never lose sight of your customer.
Personally I love writing for beauty and wellness companies that promote clean, healthy, and sustainable products. I believe that companies should have a mission in helping their customers in ways that better their overall quality of life. I also align with companies that implement sustainability practices.
With current advancements in technology I believe that this is achievable. Soon there will be an increase in vertical warehouse farms, AI, robotics, and 3D printers assisting sustainability practices. It will not just be a trend, it will become the reality.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I have a few friends who are non-creatives. Something to keep in mind is that it takes a lot of work every week in order to make a living in creative fields. Sometimes many sleepless long work nights. I wouldn’t recommend anyone try to pursue anything in the arts unless they are willing to work a minimum of 60 hours a week (at least in the beginning).
Also being in a creative field doesn’t mean I am not allowed to use scientific theories or data into my regular work. I definitely use it to improve my overall performance. Backed up with research I do in my spare time.
Working in any creative field does not mean reducing significance or value to society. It is not about making everything feel prettier. It’s about making things work better side by side when it comes to improving the overall human experience of life.
The human brain is basically a supercomputer. But with its millions and millions of computations it makes on a daily basis, why do we as humans seem to fixate on a few things? It’s because the brain allows us to ignore certain variables in life in order for us to better pursue our goals. If we had to think about every single thing we interacted with in our life, we would go crazy. That is why creatives are so important. They design the websites, phones, home, cars, roads, and tools you use on a daily basis. Making them seamless and easy to use. They spend the hours unlearning basic tasks to later teach you how to do those indirectly in the form of design, just so you can breeze through life having to make less difficult decisions everyday.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nataliegonzalezagency.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nataliegonzalezagency/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-gonzalez-33680216a
Image Credits
Ali Gonzalez