Case Study #1
Growing the Digital Marketing Function into a Productive Endeavour
In 2009, the email marketing function was added to my accountabilities in my role as Web Assistant — responsibilities of which included managing web content consistent with branding and SEO policy for targeted search on its English-, German-, and Chinese-language websites, the blog, and the online store for IPC — Association Connecting Electronics Industries.
Work Type Breakdown
From 2008 through 2013
The Challenge
Gain as much knowledge about email marketing as quickly as possible, and identify and acquire additional skills needed.
Overcoming the Challenge
Learned as much as I could, about:
How it was currently being done
The current ESP (Email Service Provider)
Organized the function into task groups, matched my current skill set with tasks in each group — HTML to Production, SQL to Database and List Management and Audience Segmentation — identified tasks that needed to be mastered, and ordered each by its priority.
Over the next six months I gained knowledge and a high level of proficiency in the following:
A/B testing — subject lines, content, images & image quantity
Deliverability testing, including how to optimize for one, or each of the following, if necessary:
Email clients and platforms
Browsers — how the email renders when viewed as a web page
Display — how the email will display on mobile devices
Whitelisting, and Blacklist resolution
Results
Within a year, a streamlined and efficient marketing email workflow had been developed, including:
A calendar to better plan each broadcast, and manage the production workload and schedule
A standard production protocol which incorporated:
Application of best practices
Deliverability, browser and display testing
QA process requiring final approval from stakeholders and/or owner(s)
Compliance with CAN-SPAM regulations
A standard template incorporating responsive design for the annual IPC/APEX EXPO email campaign
Stakeholder/Owner review and approval of the number of recipients to ensure list integrity
Enforcing data hygiene through effective list management
Automatic delivery of performance reporting (analytics data with focus on the KPIs), and two or three suggestions (in bullet-point format) for each broadcast
Final Outcome
By 2013, the marketing email function had become so productive, it was put to use by other departments.
My efforts to drive its growth proved to be so effective that, as a continuity measure, I was instructed to train a co-worker to serve as my backup.
Case Study #2
Revitalizing Capstone Publishers’ Digital Marketing Effort
In 2014, I joined Capstone Publishers as a contractor in the role of Web Producer, and while the primary responsibility was maintaining Capstone’s web presence using a variety of CMS tools, including Magento (for Capstone's Maupin House brand's eCommerce), IDEV (americaneagle.com's proprietary platform), and eventually, Wordpress, DotNetNuke, and Umbraco (for Raintree), the mission was to apply what I had previously learned serving in a similar capacity, and leverage that knowledge to deliver a similar result.
Over the next five years, I came to serve as the go-to for managing web content, email marketing, and social-media production projects for on-time delivery by collaborating closely with principals, owners, and stakeholders across the enterprise (Capstone, in the US), and Raintree (Capstone’s partner serving the UK and European markets) on any number of planned and ad-hoc initiatives.
Work Type Breakdown
From 2014 through 2019
The Challenge
Redesign the function from the bottom to the top - processes, protocol, workflow - to make the marketing email initiative effective, and productive.
Overcoming the Challenge
Over the next year, I collaborated with my immediate supervisor, management teams and other functional groups across the enterprise, and members of the executive staff and their designees, to build support for the overhaul initiative, and ascertain that all had a voice in the process - especially those most affected by the coming changes.
Results
Similar to those with IPC, the most significant result was a streamlined and efficient marketing email workflow, while the more immediate results were:
Production and broadcast calendars for each market group - Library, Classroom, and Trade
A production protocol which incorporated:
A standard layout for each market with the preferred look & feel coded into the responsively designed template
Application of best-practices to facilitate the highest possible delivery rate
Extensive testing (Deliverability, Browser and Display)
QA process in which stakeholders and/or the owner approve a final proof before broadcast
Compliance with CAN-SPAM regulations
Stakeholder/Owner review and approval of the number of recipients to ensure list integrity
Enforcing data hygiene through effective list management
Automatic delivery of performance reporting (analytics data with KPIs highlighted), and two or three suggestions (in bullet-point format) for each broadcast
Final Outcome
Coherent planning and strategies for planned and ad-hoc campaigns, better management of the calendars when scheduling broadcasts, and improved cooperation between market groups for finite design resources.
Having met the objective of stabilizing the digital marketing function using americaneagle.com’s proprietary Email Service Platform, IDEV, the workflow, data and lists could be integrated with and adapted to Capstone’s subscription of Salesforce for use with its Pardot ESP component as a stand-alone utility.
Powered by Squarespace