Brand Interview: Kelly Lewis, Go Girl Guides
Brand Interview: Kelly Lewis, Go Girl Guides
How long has your company been in business? Please tell us a bit about your company, its mission, goals…
Go! Girl Guides has been around for two years now and we publish the world’s first series of travel guidebooks made just for women. Our guidebooks help women to travel around the world safely and affordably, and we differentiate by focusing specifically on women’s health and safety in different countries.
Oddly enough, Go! Girl Guides started after it came to me in a dream one night. In the dream, I was looking at a guidebook made for women, kicking myself thinking ‘why didn’t you do this?’ and then I woke up… and did it!
Do you donate to charities? Tell us about that also and why.
We will soon!
Tell us about your brand.
Go! Girl Guides aims to help empower women to travel the world, and give them the tools they need to stay safe. So far we have released three guidebooks, on Thailand, Argentina, and Mexico, with an e-book on London. We want women to feel confident while traveling so we hunted out the safest, most affordable hotels and hostels we could find, and included information on women’s health: where to buy feminine hygiene products, how to navigate a foreign pharmacy, where to go for bilingual women’s clinics should you need to—we do the hard work so that you can have fun!
How did you know what typeface (font) would be right for your company wordmark or logo? If your logo has an illustration, describe why that art was the right thing, animal, place, object, etc…
I work with some of the best and most talented web designers out there and I love them more than anything! They do all the hard stuff when it comes to logos and design.
How did you decide which type of designer to work with, or did you design your own identity and web presence?
I got lucky in that I was looking around for a designer and had just started working with one on my other website when Go Girl came out, so we were ready to roll pretty quickly.
In what order did you present your company to the world? Did you start with marketing and products, or website, blog and social media?
Website, blog and social media. We started in January of 2011, and by March I was in Thailand writing our first guidebook.
How long after the launch of your company did you start pitching in social media?
Instantly.
Do you advertise locally in newspapers and/or nationally in magazines? Are they effective?
We do not advertise, but we have been lucky to get a lot of press. We just finished a two week cross country book tour that was very successful in generating press.
Do you advertise online using Google, Facebook or on other company sites? Are they effective?
We don’t really advertise there much anymore.
Did you know anything about different types of papers, when you wanted to print your marketing materials?
No, I had to learn everything about gloss and font and paper stock when we started printing our books. But now we’ve got it down!
Have you ever used “green” technology in printing, using FSC certified papers or recycled paper and if not, how likely are you at trying this on a next project?
Not yet!
If you sell products, are they produced in the USA or abroad?
They are produced in the USA.
Do you speak at events? If so tell us about that.
All the time! We just finished a book tour, and I will be speaking at the New York Travel Fest on April 20th at 1 pm
What is coming up in the year or two we should watch for?
We are about to release a Costa Rica guidebook, and we’re going to start working on India as well.
Is there anything you haven’t yet tackled, but will want to do soon?
So much!
Listen to Kelly Lewis on Suzy Brandtastic’s Radio Interview Show!
To learn more about Kelly Lewis and Go! Girl Guides visit the links below:
http://www.gogirlguides.com
http://www.facebook.com/gogirlguides
http://www.twitter.com/gogirlguides
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