Clarissa Gainey: Adaptation In The Growing Digital Marketing Sphere

The marketing sector is changing. In fact, saying it’s changing is really an understatement when looking at what was already underway from a technological standpoint. If anything, evolution is a proper description of a global business phenomenon that didn’t need a pandemic to take effect. But again, this was an inevitable outcome given the many advances within the relationship between social media and the technology space, which is only making it a necessity for business owners in every sector, be it local or more mainstream to further optimize their work infrastructures. 

Clarissa Gainey understands the trajectory in which this universally evolving trend operates and how it will initially become the dominant framework for all businesses to adopt. Looking at it from a global perspective, Clarissa believes that if businesses are to continue operating in relation to a rapidly changing market that is no doubt undersealing a level of growth that will ultimately be progressive in the long run, then social media and non-conventional marketing strategies will have to be adopted.

Who Is Clarissa Gainey?

In addition to being a college professor at the University of Maryland Global Campus, Clarissa Gainey is the founder/CEO of Bright Graphic Design, which she elaborated more about in her Pinchforth interview. Bright Graphic Design’s purpose stems from the visual concept of what happens to a person when their brain cells light up. Bright Graphic Design also manages to successfully conceptualize and implement solutions for its client base in a way that makes these solutions both unique and enlightening in its ability to further elevate the business’s growth level. 

Bright Graphic Design’s approach to providing high-quality marketing solutions involves implementing the types of marketing strategies that further allow the business of a client to have a much larger level of engagement with their consumer base. The company gives businesses a more influential level of growth in terms of the global outlook that Clarissa Gainey recognizes is instrumental for either large or small businesses if there is to be an impact in the developing market.

Are Major Media Platforms Still Effective?

It would be rather one-sided for anyone working in the field of marketing to claim that traditional marketing has completely died off in the wake of rising social media dominance. At the same time though, it is equally important to look beyond the silver lining. Clarissa Gainey recognizes the impact the Covid-19 Pandemic had on many businesses, and how it put them in a position to gravitate more towards the digital framework that has now become the forefront of most organizations. In fact, because social media has become more dominant, especially when looking at the attention given to the screens on the average smartphone as opposed to television screens, then it’s abundantly clear how effective the rising social media platforms are becoming in comparison to the more financial/labor-based costs placed into a TV ad. That alone can even have significantly less effect as its impact continues to dwindle over a period of time.

In her Pinchforth interview, Clarissa Gainey further stressed the impact and influence that social media has in the business sector. She used an example of how at the start of the pandemic, she was able to reach out to a construction company through their Instagram account versus the more traditional method of email communication. Now, although this doesn’t discredit the effective nature of email communication, it still shows off the rapid pace social media has accelerated in its relation to the business model. Social media grants businesses a more flexible way to advertise, engage, and communicate with a consumer base. The same can be said about potential clients who will respond quickly to a social media post that can be whipped up and edited to pristine condition within a matter of minutes. This approach not only adds more flexibility for Clarissa Gainey and her team at Bright Graphic Design, but it further allows for them to develop more unique and even unconventional strategies of how to tackle the marketing of a business that operates on a more traditional level.

Clarissa Gainey believes that the rise of the new social media platforms enables a greater scope of creativity and an even quicker editing procedure as opposed to the time placed in TV, which can struggle in reaching an audience that has redirected more focus to their phones. Clarissa’s point can be further explored by the ways she looks at the struggles many local businesses have because they cannot be found online, and even their own reliance on the more traditional methods is faltering. But that’s something Clarissa Gainey and Bright Graphic Design wish to address. She recognizes the value local businesses can provide. That is why a great part of her work at Bright Graphic design involves the creation of campaigns that actively promote a greater awareness of those very local businesses so they can be found on google searches and other types of online searches. As competitive as something as google analytics can be for any business, whether local or more mainstream, the fact of the matter is that it is what most consumers put their faith in. This reliance on Google can range from something as simple as determining where and even when a person will go to a particular location when they leave their home.

Clarissa’s Advice For Marketing Leaders And Business Owners

At the end of her Pinchforth interview, when asked about the advice Clarissa Gainey would give business owners, she was very clear about how she views social media as a beast. In addition to humility, Clarissa Gainey believes that every business owner needs to recognize that social media is a dominant factor in their marketing strategy and that if they cannot give it the necessary attention, then they need to hire the right people working in digital marketing. 

When it comes to the marketing leaders/experts, they need to serve their clients with an empathy that works to understand the message of their business, and how much of a digital footprint is necessary for a digital landscape that continues to grow and expand in what is a very opportunistic balance. It’s much easier and profitable now for any type of business to market themselves online where they have the opportunity to not only make their digital mark. It’s also an opportunity for them to engage with more people at a much larger capacity with the central basis of their story. Clarissa Gainey works to empower business leaders to not only improve their outreach capabilities, but to better recognize the reasons for why business matters, and what message it has at its core in what is and always was the evolution of marketing, pandemic or no pandemic.