Marketing Buddy #1: "The very idea of community is anti-AI" with Clément Le Roux
Introducing the new section of the letter with our first guest, Clément Le Roux, a freelance Community Builder.
👋 Hello, Branding enthusiast, how are you doing today?
This week, let's explore a new section of the letter: Marketing Buddy — a great addition to our dear Brand Revealers. Occasionally, we will invite them to join the letter and share marketing wisdom and strategies. We have to become friends with the craft of Marketing, so let’s bring them in and grow!
Short Q&A - Marketing Buddy
I asked a few questions to Clément Le Roux, whom I discovered through the French crème de la crème community. He is a freelance Community Builder and Marketing expert. I thought he would make a great first Marketing Buddy, a proactive one!
🇫🇷 Let’s be bilingual!
I am trying to bridge the gap of language as I evolve with this letter. For French guests, we will listen to some of their voices in French and read them in English. If the audio format works for some English guests, we will do the same and reverse the experience. Enjoy!
🇬🇧🇺🇸 Here is the translation for my English readers
It is official! I am launching Marketing Buddy, a curated group of marketing experts, I also call them the Marketing Revealers. They will help us better understand what marketing stands for. As for me, I am creative, and I must admit that marketing and I didn't get along well. It wasn't a harmonious relationship.
But little by little, I realized how essential it was in branding, and how much of an ally it is in expressing a brand. I decided to invite marketing experts who will come and give us advice along with their vision of branding and marketing.
A relationship that is a bit like cat and dog, or like Yin and Yang, one doesn't go without the other.
For this first edition, we have as a guest Clément Le Roux, who is a Community Builder and Marketing expert. He helps shape and develop communities. I met him through the "crème de la crème" community, where I observed him connect with freelancers. He engages and speaks about their freelance challenges and journey. On the administrative, communication, and positioning side. He highlights pivotal information to become a professional freelance today. In any case, I find it important, for it can remind us of many meaningful things.
For me, it is a good complement to what I am trying to do in this newsletter – discussing topics on various eclectic themes. It brings a different perspective, while also being a space for other Brand Revealers to share their definition of Branding. But also, how they perceive branding in their way of working with clients, as well as their mindset.
For me, it was crucial. I had an AHA moment! I knew it was time. I know it is a combination that I can not overlook anymore. It was no longer possible for me to not integrate it into the newsletter. So, here I am, bringing them one by one.
There is a Spanish studio that sheds light on the difference between marketing and branding very well and in a visually compelling way.
Marketing is like asking someone to come on a date,
and Branding is the reason why they say yes and stay!
Visual, right?
Who are you? What is your profession?
My name is Clément Le Roux. I am a freelance Community Builder. It involves bringing people together around a project, whether they are clients or collaborators.
Typically, communities gather on platforms like Discord, Slack, or WhatsApp. That is what sets me apart from a community manager, who primarily focuses on social media. It is worth mentioning that I am a freelancer, and one of my main current projects is managing the community for "crème de la crème." That is where Keva and I met, and it's a large community with over ten thousand members.
Clément
Where are you located?
🇫🇷 I am currently between Paris and La Rochelle. Right now, I am in Paris, and my clients are also located there. But, starting in June, I will be living in La Rochelle.
I will be commuting between the two cities.
Clément
Where can we discover your work? (website, socials…)
I will mainly share the link to my LinkedIn because that's what is most relevant today. You can go and see what's happening there: I write very often about the community aspect, marketing, freelancing, etc.
CLEMENT LE ROUX
Clément
What is your definition of Marketing? And what is, in your opinion, the main difference between Branding and Marketing?
For me, Marketing is a rather broad concept that gathers a set of techniques aiming at achieving objectives. These objectives can include sales, brand awareness, image, etc.
On the other hand, Branding is a subset of Marketing that allows a brand to convey information about its identity, such as its vision, values, positioning, etc.
Clément
Seth Godin, the marketing expert, says, "You cannot be seen until you learn to see". What do you think about this superpower of seeing what others do not see and providing a solution to it?
Well, I had a lot of difficulty understanding what Seth Godin wanted to say. From what I understood: seeing what others do not see allows us to understand better the needs and desires of our interlocutor. And, as a result, respond in a more coherent and precise manner.
Clément
Do you have any tips for creative entrepreneurs and Brand Revealers to improve their marketing skills in three steps?
#1 • Consume marketing content, read books, listen to podcasts, watch videos.
#2 • Schedule appointments with people who are better than you to ask questions about their success. I do this very often, and it works wonders.
#3 • Test what you have learned in the field and learn from your results. Obviously, theory alone doesn't work. Practicing is great for learning!
Clément
What are the repeated words you hear about your Branding and Marketing from your audience, teams, and people who discover you? (3 to 5 keywords)
Co-creation • Sharing • Passion • Independence
Clément
Do you have any recommendations for mastering marketing, such as books, podcasts, conferences, etc.?
❇️ For Growth hacking: Marketing Example
❇️ For Inbound Marketing: Cédric Costa
❇️ For Online Advertising: The podcast Outbound House
❇️ For Communication: Juliette Cadot, she's amazing!
❇️ If you want to learn how to create without coding, Shubham Sharma is the person to follow because No Code has allowed me to do a lot in Marketing.
❇️ And, of course, for Community building, I highly recommend engaging with LinkedIn publications.
Clément
Do you plan on creating a community for yourself in the future, using the same model as crème de la crème?
Well, I have already built several communities for different clients. I am indeed excited to create one for myself.
It will happen very soon on a specific niche topic that is a passion project. It will have nothing to do with crème de la crème. Instead, it will be around the sailing community, specifically water sports and sailing.
Clément
For you, what is the secret ingredient to creating an engaging community, especially in today's era with saturated content and AI?
The very idea of community is anti-AI. The project is about adding a human connection to marketing. In my opinion, a successful community is built on authenticity and passion. Curiosity should drive us to understand the needs of our community and strive to respond to them with kindness. So, we have to forget about AI and automation and roll up our sleeves to do the work.
And regarding content saturation, it's the same. We're not aiming for passive content consumption. We are focusing on something that is highly interactive, engaging in conversations among ourselves and among people who share common skills or interests.
Clément
You can discover his work and mindset at Clément Le Roux
Study that Marketing! • 🇫🇷 French edition
Inbound Marketing* by Cedric Costa (
sheds light on the attraction process: magnetism is the goal)- focus: ads, client acquisition)
- (empowering content creation through LinkedIn)
No Code with Shubham SHARMA (No code mentor & ambassador)
La ligne Diagonale by Annie Piccard (My go-to for fresh ideas on Marketing, copywriting and eco-entrepreneurship)
The LinkedIn journey of Maxime Poulsen (He shares insights and strategies on productivity, growth, data and more)
11 books to master Marketing (Marketing Mania shares a powerful list)
* It is a trio of Substack writers, It is good to discover other French Substack builders!
I hope you enjoyed this new section of the letter. Feel free to share it with peers, friends and family.
Yours creatively,
Keva