Marketing without the cringe: Jayde Powell on Gen Z audiences

I am “just threw out my back while turning to adjust my seatbelt” years old, so I was especially excited to talk to Jayde Powell, who’s made a name for herself as a bit of a Gen Z whisperer.

I am also chronically online, so I’m aware of a lot of the Gen Z slang/memes/jokes that wend their way through the fiber optics. But does that mean I should start addressing Masters in Marketing newsletters, “Heyyyy besties!”? (Don’t worry, I’m not going to start doing that; it’s safe to hit that subscribe button below.)

Powell is also one of our featured speakers at INBOUND next month, so if you love her marketing lessons — and I think you will! — come join us in San Francisco.

Meet the Master

Jayde Powell

Creatorpreneur and the founder and head of creative, The Em Dash Co

Claim to fame: Jayde made $100k+ last year — just from creating content on LinkedIn.

Fun fact: She plans to retire by the time she’s 40. “If you see me [on social when I’m 40], it’s because I have a team managing my social media presence.”

Lesson 1: Use influencers to reach new audiences — not existing ones.

Influencer marketing doesn’t have to be expensive — think micro influencers with niche audiences — but if you’re like most marketers right now, your budget is still probably feeling a bit squeezed.

That can make it extra hard to relinquish control over how your brand is presented to the world. But you gotta let go: Let influencers “speak to their audience in the way they’re used to,” Powell says, otherwise you could be flushing your hard-won budget down the drain.

“What you're doing when you work with influencers is — you're trying to reach new audiences, not your existing customers.” If you wanted the influencers to sound like your brand, “then it’s a waste of money,” Powell says. “You could have just had that asset made in-house.”

“It doesn‘t make sense for a creator or influencer to all of a sudden start posting this branded asset that doesn’t even sound like them. It's going to confuse their audience,” she tells me.

Powell says that the last thing you — or the influencer, for that matter — want is for followers to ask, “Why is this sponsored content on my feed? That’s how you lose their trust.”

“To put it simply, let your creators and your influencers cook. Let them do their thing.”

Lesson 2: You don’t need to be a part of every moment.

It’s only been a couple of weeks since the Coldplay concert incident revealed a CEO’s affair to the world… followed by dozens of major brands trying to get in on the action on social. But does your brand need to be a part of it?