Based in Vancouver, Baraka Impact promotes a line of natural skincare products made with shea butters, cocoa butters, coconut oils, black soaps and more sourced directly from Ghanaian communities. Using pure, natural, and unrefined ingredients can have many benefits for the skin, such as providing deep moisture and protecting against environmental stressors.
Customers are increasingly looking for products that align with their values and have a positive impact on the world. By communicating the direct impact that customers make when purchasing Baraka's products, the company is helping to build trust and loyalty
among its customers.
I was hired as Baraka's newest design intern to help update their branding and imagery. As the intern, my main tasks were updating product images, creating consistent social media content, and putting together an information package featuring all products and their benefits. The goal was to establish and maintain a strong brand identity.
A few months later, I transitioned into the e-commerce manager with even more responsibilities and opportunities to contribute to the success of Baraka. Managing projects, organizing and leading meetings, and curating marketing campaigns are all important skills that require strong communication, organization, and creative thinking.
During that, I also took care of housekeeping tasks like managing the Shopify store and ensuring that everything is running smoothly like our website and third-party apps.
As my first job out of university, it was a unique experience as it was a remote position with a smaller start-up company that required me to take on multiple roles. This can be both challenging and rewarding as it allowed me to expand my skills and knowledge in various areas. I was able to use my marketing knowledge from university and apply it while also exploring different aspects of design such as UX/UI and graphics.
Since it was a start-up company, the lack of structure in the job provided me with room to grow and discover what I enjoyed doing. I knew taking on a larger marketing role would require me to think outside the box and analyze the results of my campaigns. Overall, I gained a lot from this experience and it'll help shape my future career choices.
By creating compelling graphics for the website, including product images and recipe cards, I helped enhance the visual appeal and professionalism of their online presence. Additionally, I took care of marketing materials such as banners and social media posts to create engaging content to effectively promote the brand.
As the lead designer for email and SMS flows using Klaviyo and Postscript, I developed visually appealing and engaging email sequences. This involved designing templates, crafting compelling copy, and incorporating relevant graphics to enhance the overall impact of campaigns.
By utilizing Klaviyo and Postscript's features and tools, I was able to segment the audience, set up automation workflows, and track the performance of each campaign which performed well weekly. Some analytics and key metrics I paid attention to were open rates, bounce rates, click-through rates, revenue and more.
At the end of each week, I conducted a thorough analysis of the various strategies used. I refined my designs, enhancing email and SMS flows to elevate engagement and boost conversion rates. Among the strategies used, I fine-tuned the balance between images and text, assessing their impact. I ran multiple A/B tests on a weekly basis to measure the effectiveness of different tactics. These tests encompassed variables such as subject lines with and without emojis, richer email content, and the dynamic between imagery and text. Through these iterative approaches, I discovered the most effective strategies for Baraka's subscribers.
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