Vanessa Van Edwards
Creating a captivating digital presence for an EQ expert.
Not Your Average Recovering Awkward Person.
Vanessa Van Edwards, bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and founder of Science of People, a behavioral research lab, came to Brand Knew to increase sales of her online flagship course, People School, expand her audience, and develop one cohesive brand across all digital channels. As a self-proclaimed #RecoveringAwkwardPerson, Vanessa set out to inspire an empire of self-improvers and side hustlers with a drive to learn the skills necessary to excel in their careers and personal lives. With a solid business foundation already in place, bringing on Brand Knew’s expertise was exactly what Vanessa needed to take her brand to the next level. Over the course of this partnership, Brand Knew flexed its creative power to establish a brand identity and narrative, marketing approach, email optimization strategy, paid media strategy, and social media strategy. These optimizations helped to nearly double Vanessa’s Instagram following, increase registrations on individual webinars, and garner the attention of brands like 3M and Spanx.
The Science of Succeeding with Strategy.
Brand Knew began work by creating a foundational brand identity for both the Vanessa Van Edwards and Science of People brands. Brand Knew established a brand hierarchy by positioning Vanessa as the overarching brand with Science of People, Captivate, and the Vanessa Van Edwards YouTube channel as subcomponents of that entity. Brand Knew developed brand guidelines, including a cohesive color scheme, for both Vanessa Van Edwards and Science of People that were used to inform curation of Vanessa’s social feeds, along with the Science of People website rehaul and the look and feel of the ConversationHQ App that were both launched under Brand Knew’s purview.
The Science of Succeeding with Strategy.
Brand Knew began work by creating a foundational brand identity for both the Vanessa Van Edwards and Science of People brands. Brand Knew established a brand hierarchy by positioning Vanessa as the overarching brand with Science of People, Captivate, and the Vanessa Van Edwards YouTube channel as subcomponents of that entity. Brand Knew developed brand guidelines, including a cohesive color scheme, for both Vanessa Van Edwards and Science of People that were used to inform curation of Vanessa’s social feeds, along with the Science of People website rehaul and the look and feel of the ConversationHQ App that were both launched under Brand Knew’s purview.
Next-Level YouTube Content.
With a considerable YouTube following of over 480K subscribers, one of the top priorities in working with Vanessa was to ensure her YouTube content remained fresh, relevant, and optimized per the platform’s ever-changing algorithm. Brand Knew began by developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy hinged on simple optimizations, like the inclusion of CTAs in content to drive increased subscriptions, data-driven content recommendations, and stylistic direction for videos overall. The goal was to cultivate a dynamic space that felt credible, but also more personable and entertaining. As a result, Brand Knew facilitated a 33% increase in Vanessa’s YouTube subscribers year over year.
A Lasting First Impression.
As part of Brand Knew’s creative revamp of the Vanessa Van Edwards brand, the Brand Knew production team conceived of and produced an updated highlight reel for Vanessa. This video positioned Vanessa as an experienced professional in her space who is also vulnerable and relatable. The highlight reel is now featured as the intro video for her YouTube channel, serves as her Facebook cover video, and is used as an introduction for Vanessa at high-profile speaking engagements.
Captivating Search Results.
To increase Vanessa’s discoverability and drive sales of her online science-based course, People School, Brand Knew executed SEO optimization and keyword research for the Science of People website. The results of this analysis yielded a variety of new webinar topics for Vanessa to offer her audience of eager fans and also helped to attract new ones. Based on these findings, Brand Knew advised Vanessa to host a webinar about “burnout” with a specific goal of attracting new users to the brand. The results from the Burnout Webinar led to exceeding previous KPIs for People School sales by 3x. To capitalize on this success, Brand Knew replicated the webinar and launched a replay, driving 81% of registrations through paid media efforts.
Following the strong performance of the Burnout Webinar, Brand Knew revisited SEO rankings to suggest a New Year Webinar topic, titled “New Decade, New You.” Brand Knew was able to promote the New Year Webinar for half the cost of the Burnout Webinar, and as a result, increased People School sales for the month of January by 6x (+495%) as compared to January of the previous year.
Captivating Search Results.
To increase Vanessa’s discoverability and drive sales of her online science-based course, People School, Brand Knew executed SEO optimization and keyword research for the Science of People website. The results of this analysis yielded a variety of new webinar topics for Vanessa to offer her audience of eager fans and also helped to attract new ones. Based on these findings, Brand Knew advised Vanessa to host a webinar about “burnout” with a specific goal of attracting new users to the brand. The results from the Burnout Webinar led to exceeding previous KPIs for People School sales by 3x. To capitalize on this success, Brand Knew replicated the webinar and launched a replay, driving 81% of registrations through paid media efforts.
Following the strong performance of the Burnout Webinar, Brand Knew revisited SEO rankings to suggest a New Year Webinar topic, titled “New Decade, New You.” Brand Knew was able to promote the New Year Webinar for half the cost of the Burnout Webinar, and as a result, increased People School sales for the month of January by 6x (+495%) as compared to January of the previous year.
From Social Skills to Social Media.
Also critical to expanding the reach of the Vanessa Van Edwards and Science of People brands, was increasing followers across all her social channels. Additionally, while Vanessa is an expert in her field, she needed support in translating her knowledge into snackable, entertaining social assets that could convey the fundamental lessons of her research as compelling content.
Brand Knew outlined three major themes with which to filter content for Vanessa’s knowledge-hungry followers. The goal was to establish Vanessa as the go-to resource for insights and education around achieving personal and professional success. Each content piece sought to educate and empower her followers, while expanding her reach, influence and brand as a whole. Brand Knew worked to creatively present Vanessa’s research and lessons through social assets that drove to her corresponding blogs, YouTube videos, lead magnet quizzes, and more. Brand Knew also posted highly informative passages from Vanessa’s bestselling book, Captivate, to spark conversation from followers and drive book sales.
Paid Media Pays Off.
Once Brand Knew had developed a solid base of strong content on the Vanessa Van Edwards social channels, it was time to activate paid media to ensure the right users were presented with this content to then convert them into followers of her accounts, and to generate People School leads. Brand Knew launched a targeted paid media campaign across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Quora. These efforts increased her following by 94% on Instagram, 69% on Facebook, 19% on Twitter, and 175% on LinkedIn. Collectively, these numbers indicate a total increase of 79% in followers across all social platforms, and a total reach of 194K followers across all social channels.
Paid Media Pays Off.
Once Brand Knew had developed a solid base of strong content on the Vanessa Van Edwards social channels, it was time to activate paid media to ensure the right users were presented with this content to then convert them into followers of her accounts, and to generate People School leads. Brand Knew launched a targeted paid media campaign across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Quora. These efforts increased her following by 94% on Instagram, 69% on Facebook, 19% on Twitter, and 175% on LinkedIn. Collectively, these numbers indicate a total increase of 79% in followers across all social platforms, and a total reach of 194K followers across all social channels.
Forever a #RecoveringAwkwardPerson.
In partnership with Brand Knew, Vanessa has emerged as a beloved and trusted figure within the personal and professional development space, all without sacrificing her authentic self. It is clear that Vanessa will forever be a Recovering Awkward Person. But now, Vanessa is a Recovering Awkward Person with a cohesive brand aesthetic, robust social following, burgeoning partnership opportunities, and the foundation to continue to expand her influence to fellow Recovering Awkward People and beyond.
