Marketing Communications Leader
What I've Achieved
Below are examples of some wins during my tenure at ISSA, where I was fortunate to craft a highly functioning, healthy team that produced tangible results.
Trade Show Attendee Acquisition Strategy
Working with a team of strategists, copywriters, designers and brand experts, I oversaw the attendee acquisition strategy for a Top 100 trade show. The plan resulted in 2.5 millions impressions, including:
Social media (461,710 impressions, 516 conversions, an increase of 794% from the previous year)
Broadcast email (250,000 impressions, 3.5 CTR)
SEM and retargeting (1 millions impressions, 634 conversions)
Direct mail (130,000 impressions)
Digital and print (360,000 impressions)
And more
Result: The show, which primarily draws from the commercial cleaning industry, saw an increase in the number of attendee companies, including 15 percent more distributor companies, an 11 percent increase in building service contractor companies, and a 22 percent boost in-house service provider organizations.
Digital and Analytics Transformation
During my three years at ISSA, I led the evolution from relying heavily on traditional marketing methods to embracing digital marketing and analytics. By on-boarding digital-first agencies and staff, I was able to transform the marketing department to begin to adopt a data-driven approach, capitalize on organic traffic opportunities and use content marketing to generate leads.
Result: The association completed deep Google Analytics implementation, tracking for the first time site search terms, goals and conversions, KPIs by page groups and more. In addition, content producers' increased SEO efforts resulted in increases in website stats. For example, one division's site saw the following enhanced stats (presented as year over year):
12.6% increase in average time on page
2.5% decrease in bounce rate
7.4% increase in average session duration
Member Engagement and Retention
In just three years, ISSA's membership jumped from 7,000 to more than 9,200, due in part to the 14 mergers and acquisitions during the same period. But also, the marketing team worked closely with the membership department to develop an integrated marketing strategy for member recruitment and retention. Shown here is the creative from the 2016 membership drive.
Result: Membership increased by over 2,000 corporate members in just 1 year, when previously the association averaged an increase of 1,000 members over 3 years.
Pandemic Response: Increase Non-Dues Revenue ASAP
Like a lot of associations, CSIA relied heavily on revenue from membership dues and an annual conference. So when the pandemic hit and CSIA had to cancel this major money-maker two years in a row, it was clear the business model needed an overhaul. After a several brainstorming sessions and board pitches, I introduced a series of new products to keep revenue flowing, including:
-
Digital advertising
-
Sponsored content
-
Sponsored virtual events
-
Podcast sponsorships
-
Affinity programs
Result: CSIA was able to re-coup $230K in 2021 from brand new revenue sources -- almost a quarter of the annual budget.