Rhino's marketing philosophy, ft. Nicolette Chao

After nearly 10 years as a marketer in tech, I’ve spent a fair amount of time with the playbooks that have been written over the years. From performance marketing and programmatic SEO programs to storytelling in brand and content marketing — I’ve seen some successes, some flops, and a lot of in-between. While I could put pen to paper on the many tried and true channel tactics by industry vertical or company stage, I’ve learned this first and foremost: successful strategies change, and they change often. It seems then that the task of a marketing leader is not just knowing the playbook, but discerning when and how to change it. So, as I write about Rhino’s marketing philosophy, keep in mind that while the tactics and strategies may evolve, the fundamentals remain unchanged and form the foundation of our approach.

Rhino’s Marketing Philosophy

Our marketing philosophy at Rhino is simple: produce quality marketing campaigns that create the highest impact and are aligned with our brand and product.

How we do it

Many marketers can attest to getting swept up in a great idea and investing resources, budget, and brainpower, only to lose sight of the “how”, “why”, or even more intangibly — whether or not it’s the right fit for the brand, product, or audience.

At Rhino we value creativity, but we also know that creativity extends beyond the conception of the idea itself. All campaigns contain many working parts –  on one hand concept, design, copy, and on the other reporting, automations, legal, accounting, and budget reviews that need to be executed for the success of the campaign. Most importantly, the idea needs to translate into positive impact for the company, whether that be brand outcomes or performance based outcomes (ideally both). 

In terms of the “how”, the marketing team at Rhino is constantly working to pinpoint which details have the biggest return (and given that we work from concept to launch, there are many details in this process that are good candidates for paying attention to). Using email campaigns as an example, the marketing team may build copy, design, audience lists, and optimize for opens, clicks, and engagement. These campaigns go through a legal review, where we work collaboratively to ensure legal standards are met, while maintaining the right expression of language and desired outcome — oftentimes, requiring us to get into the subtleties of intent, meaning, and the nuances of our product. Going through this process helps us hone our message better, and improve the overall quality of work overtime.

In terms of the “why”, the marketing team at Rhino ensures we have clear goals for each campaign (whether qualitative or quantitative) and through collaborative modes of working and frequent check-ins, avoid straying from that path. We document our campaigns via a brief that clearly outlines the goal. From there, we solicit feedback at every stage of the process, ensuring both quality of our work, but which also has the benefit of allowing us to stay on the right course toward our intended goal. For example, in the case where additional tasks or sub KPIs begin to get slotted in, we openly communicate in order to decide whether or not to allow that scope creep. Finally, we summarize and analyze each campaign’s results, allowing us to reflect on impact and of course, celebrate great marketing. 

Lastly, we ensure our marketing strategies are the right fit by translating our audience’s needs into actionable campaigns. Whether it be collaborating with our sales and account management teams to understand our partner pain points, or reading renter comments, reviews, and testimonials — as marketers our job is to create creative marketing strategies that both speak to our audience and support business goals. With this approach, we’re able to prioritize the creative ideas that are best aligned with both.

Noticeably missing from this post are the specifics of channel strategy, nor is there any mention of our tech stack, preferred attribution models, etc. Instead, I shared the guiding principles around how and why the Marketing team at Rhino runs campaigns, as well as our approach to ensuring our strategies are aligned with both our audiences and business goals. This more closely aligns with our approach to marketing campaigns, which is that if your fundamentals and purpose are aligned then the correct tactics will follow.

Nicolette Chao

Nicolette Chao is the Director of Marketing at Rhino.