Case Study: Brand Content Development, Product Marketing & Technology Refresh for Kadabra

At Crystal Lily Creative, our approach to inclusive branding centers around the experience before the aesthetic. Yes, aesthetics draw people in, however the brand foundation is what keeps people engaged. When we work on custom consulting projects, there is usually already an established brand. Our role during custom engagements is to ensure that the brand foundation is streamlined throughout every touch point, including content, products, and the overall experience people will be guided through. When Wendy Ryan, CEO of Kadabra reached out to me, she was clear about her desire to ensure that every element of her organization reflected the values and commitments she and her team embodies. Together, we worked on developing content, product marketing, and refreshing Kadabra's technology. Here is a case study from our work together.

Content Development, Product Marketing & Technology Refresh

Company: Kadabra | Wendy Ryan, CEO

Their mission:

Kadabra catalyzes growth and changes for emerging through C-suite leaders.

Their values:

Curiosity, Vulnerability, Inclusivity, Depth, and Impact

Kadabra's Positioning Statement:

Kadabra is a leadership consulting firm that catalyzes growth and changes for emerging through C-suite leaders. We empower them to shift their mindsets, expand their skill sets, and adjust their behaviors through unique learning experiences and The Learn Lead Lift Framework®.

Founded in 2014 by CEO, Wendy Ryan, Kadabra has been expanding what’s possible for leaders, their teams, and organizations to achieve today for a better tomorrow. Wendy Ryan created the Learn Lead Lift Framework® as a powerful alternative to traditional “command and control” leadership models.

Kadabra maintains a core focus on People First, where connection, empathy, and understanding play a key role in leadership development. Throughout Kadabra’s evolution, our interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork have led us to develop products and experiences that showcase the power of divergent thinking – the Learn Lead Lift Way.

Introduction

Over the last few years, the team at Kadabra found itself in a position where it needed to grow with its market. Kadabra worked with marketing and branding consultants before. Still, few had a distinct voice and vision for Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity related to all aspects of the business. Kadabra knew they wanted to move with integrity and focus on enhancing their business to be product-focused and leadership-led from the inside out. Still, only some marketing and branding consultants understood their vision until Crystal Lily Creative.

Goals

In 2021, Kadabra sought to make a significant shift from being a consulting to product-led business, despite full acknowledgment that this would be a multi-year endeavor. Kadabra also recognized that they needed to move with a sense of urgency while maintaining the ability to make meaningful and lasting impacts in the market and for their clients. 

Kadabra’s leadership established a goal to move with integrity and focus on enhancing business models to be product-focused and leadership-led from the inside out. 

Kadabra had four key goals:

1. Website refresh that is fresh, accessible, and from an inclusive leadership perspective. Kadabra was searching for a firm that understood their commitment to equity, diversity and team leadership approach.
2. Brand messaging refresh that was modern and inclusive from a DEIB standpoint. 
3. A content strategy that matched their goals and brought new prospective clients aligned with their mission, vision, and values.
4. Create a user-friendly tech stack that was easy for the end user but also sustainable for Kadabra's team to manage.

Crystal Lily Creative worked diligently to ensure Kadabra had a successful website launch on time, on budget and exceeding all expectations. Their brand messaging refresh featured clear, connected, values-aligned content, including language, visuals, and user experience to convey Kadabra’s mission, vision, and available solutions.

Implementations/Solutions

Kadabra chose to work with Crystal Lily Creative to focus on brand messaging, content creation, and client engagement solutions. With the help of CLC, they defined clear goals for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) initiatives that were focused on building an inclusive environment for everyone working at Kadraba and their clients, creating solutions that met their client's requests and creating a sustainable foundation for Kadabra as a business. 

Website Refresh

Kadrabra made a significant change in its website content. From updated design and an increased emphasis on brand messaging to a focus on user engagement, the new website was designed to meet the needs of both their clients and their business goals.

To ensure the website was as user-friendly as possible, Kadabra worked with Crystal Lily Creative to create a streamlined visitor experience. This included curating strong messaging aligned with their business values and mission. Crystal Lily Creative worked closely with the CEO to create a personal mission statement as well as a brand statement, using inclusive language, and having information presented in a way that builds trust with their clients to help make decisions faster. 

Content Marketing

With new products comes the need for innovative marketing strategies to both attract and retain clients. For this reason, CLC partnered with Kadabra to develop values-aligned content marketing solutions. This included crafting case studies and email nurture sequences to draw in prospective clients, and creating email newsletters to engage current ones. In addition, they created fresh blogs for Kadabra to showcase new solutions, frameworks, updates, and general topical interests of their audience. Through this collaborative effort, CLC maintained consistent and on-brand messaging that fostered a positive client perception of Kadabra's products and services. These efforts resulted in a sustained and growing customer base for Kadabra as CLC continued to leverage its expertise in content marketing for Kadabra's benefit.

Technology Refresh 

Technologies and applications were an area Kadabra needed help with. They knew they wanted to adjust how they presented their products and services to their customer base, but they also wanted to ensure that their team could easily use the new tools and technologies. CLC worked with Kadabra to review their current tech stack and identified areas where they could update and modernize their existing system. We then recommended a new stack with more user-friendly tools such as Kajabi, Voxer, Temi, LastPass, Slack, and Stripe. By refreshing its tech stack, Kadabra was able to streamline and automate systems and operations, reducing manual tasks and creating more time for serving clients. Additionally, the new stack enabled Kadabra to use more advanced analytics tools, allowing them to understand their customers better and make data-driven decisions. Now on its journey towards digital transformation, Kadabra has a solid foundation to build upon. 

Result:

During our 18 months of working together, CLC was able to help Kadabra create the following: 

• 14 email nurture sequences, with a total of 52 emails
• 11 blogs 
• Email subscribers grew 50%

Implemented the following tech applications: 

• Voxer - This allowed quick communication between CLC and the CEO during business hours. This proved to be helpful when the Kadabra CEO needed to vocalize thoughts that might not have translated as effectively in written communication. 
• Temi - Used for subtitles and transcripts for video content 
• Kajabi - Kadabra needed a platform where they could sell solutions, automate communication, and manage their newsletter subscribers.  
• LastPass - Kadabra needed a solution for password sharing amongst their team and contractors working on projects. 
• Stripe - Pairing Stripe with Kajabi allowed Kadabra to charge appropriately for shipping and tax for physical products 
• Slack - CLC used Slack to communicate with Kadabra’s Director of Operations and experience for scheduling and project updates 

 With the website refresh and content adjustments, Kadabra saw significant website growth: 

**Sessions engagement: the measure of how relevant and engaging visitors on your website find your pages. High concentration means they interact with the site and find valuable information.

**Sessions: the measure of how relevant and engaging visitors on your website find your pages. High engagement means they interact with the site and find valuable information.

** Session Time: a user spends on your website or app during a single session

Here's more from Wendy: “For business owners who are serious about wanting every aspect of their business to reflect the values of inclusivity, equity-mindedness, authenticity and trauma-sensitivity I can't imagine working with a better thought or implementation partner than Crystal Lily Creative. Highly recommend!”

 Could your organization benefit from values-aligned custom consulting? Connect with us to learn more about how we might work together.