SMC X Theta Trading Co

Overview:

Theta Trading Co is a financial education company that focuses on teaching the foundations of trading stock options. They develop educational courses, livestreams, and trading communities to help people achieve financial freedom. The client project was led by director Lisa Qiu and supported by consultants Austin Gust, Joshua Cheung, Jennifer Dong, Alyssa Lee, and Alexandru Ionita. 

The problem:

Being a relatively new company, Theta Trading Co has garnered a large amount of attention for their helpful courses. They have capitalized on all available platforms to continue this traction, however, with a smaller team, it was difficult to focus on operations – particularly marketing and branding. Theta Trading Co struggled to be consistent with their brand image. Colours, fonts, and graphic elements were not standardized across platforms. As well, they were seeing very low numbers of email newsletter signups. In the beginning, Theta was able to build a large email base, however this traction eventually tapered off. New offerings had to be delivered with a fresh, more engaging look. 

The solution:

Smith Marketing Consulting was tasked with building out the brand and developing a marketing strategy and content with the goal of increasing engagement, particularly through the email newsletter. First, the SMC team brainstormed new branding ideas as well as consolidated the current assets. Taking all of these ideas, we created a brand guide that contained all relevant brand information like colours, typography, and logos. This document will ensure that all Theta content is consistent and any future Theta team members can easily align themselves with the brand. Secondly, we took our findings from the brand guide and used those to build out graphic content for Theta. This included creating a marketing calendar with different campaign ideas and executing it on Facebook and Instagram. To wrap up the project, we also delivered a social media strategy guide for the two social media platforms. We looked at best practices, including best times to post and ideal tones, and provided a comprehensive competitor analysis. Throughout the project, everyone was incredibly involved in providing ideas and feedback. The Theta Trading Co team was ultimately very pleased with the work we had delivered and was already implementing the strategy and content in accordance with our recommendations. 

Highlights:

The main highlight of this project was how closely we were able to work with the Theta team in terms of brainstorming. It was also very rewarding to see the recommendations we provided implemented so quickly, seeing the impacts and results of our work in real time. 

Key takeaways:

Communication and balance are extremely important when working alongside any client or on any project. Consulting and brainstorming with various teams and stakeholders help to bring more out-of-the-box ideas to the table. Making sure everyone got to voice their opinions ultimately helped to create a more comprehensive and creative outlook. As well, especially in regard to marketing, finding a balance is incredibly important. For content, it is crucial to find a balance between being entertaining and still being on brand and professional. For the team, it is crucial to find a good balance between work and fun, making sure that the work is being completed on time but the process of completing it is still fun and enjoyable.