Pierce Coffee

Promoted from marketing manager to director of marketing after three months. Led all marketing efforts from March 2008 to January 2009 (CMO hired in January), leading growth of member base to 50,000. Reported to CEO and then CMO in January and served as key member of senior management team. Frequently presented to Board of Directors.

• Co-led all marketing aspects of the launch of the company.
• Managed budget of up to $80,000 per month.
• Responsible for online new member acquisition efforts.
  • Grew search engine marketing acquisitions by 60% with a $5 decrease in cost per acquisition. Oversaw implementation of initial search engine optimization strategy.
  • Generated strategy and supervised execution and analyzed success of several career-seeking targeted e-mail marketing campaigns; one of which resulted in a 25% open rate and over 700 new members at a cost per acquisition of $4.35.
  • Managed online marketing agency overseeing keyword, creative, and landing page testing as well as online display advertising and co-registration campaigns.
• Oversaw public relations firm with $15,000/month budget and managed public relations strategy, messaging and focus.
  • Worked with the 3-person team on driving membership and awareness of VisualCV. Garnered national and international coverage in major media outlets, blogs and regional outlets. Select major media results include "Good Morning America", CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, MSNBC.com and U.S. News & World Report.
  • Served as company spokesperson in several newspaper articles, blog interviews, radio interviews and a local television interview.
  • Built strategic relationships to create evangelists and within niche communities and VisualCV membership base; bloggers, resume writers and industry experts resulting in favorable coverage, webinar hosts and an increase in buzz.
• Oversaw proposal, negotiation and creation of radio campaign test for D.C. market.
• Responsible for fielding 500-person consumer research study, the findings of which were used as the basis of brand positioning and messaging.
• Directed design department in the generation of advertisements, collateral, signage, print ads and e-mail creative.
• Wrote and edited copy for the website. Oversaw third-party construction of the initial corporate website.
• Led and managed a cross-functional redesign of the website's homepage. Worked with technical team to implement homepage A/B tests improving visitor conversion.
• Launched social media marketing for the company (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and blog relationship building) for marketing, public relations and customer support purposes. Monitored conversations, grew followers, connected with media and grew online viral growth; social media sites accounted for 20% of site traffic and VisualCV was featured in hundreds of blogs.
• Created, with customer service, a series of webinar tutorials to improve current members' VisualCVs and to drive membership. Led editorial calendar, invited guest presenters and managed logistics. Grew attendance from 85 attendees to 500 attendees per webinar.

Key team member or leader for consumer, technology and public affairs clients. Specialized in messaging, media relations, writing and relationship building.

• Managed four-person account team developing overall public relations strategy for technology organization, focusing its efforts to become a more market-driven organization. Secured over 15 media placements in 2007 in targeted regional publications; wrote news releases, crafted media pitches and announcements. 
• Worked on two key public affairs accounts for two DC-based associations;
  • Key member in the development of coalition Save Net Radio, a grassroots coalition working to reverse a Copyright Royalty Board decision.  Wrote recruitment materials, prepared Capitol Hill visit briefing documents and organized outreach to drive attendance to hometown congressional district meetings. 
  • Wrote and developed materials to recruit members and artists to join the Digital Freedom Campaign (formed by the Consumer Electronics Association). Recruited over 250 new members. 
• Managed all speaking submissions for the Cisco Systems public sector team to elevate visibility of Cisco federal division. Identified opportunities and potential speakers. In six months, 60% of abstracts resulted in selected speakers at key events.  
• Secured interviews with key media outlets for a homeownership campaign by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) that resulted in feature stories in: U.S. News & World Report, Consumer Digest, Consumer Reports Money Advisor and two television appearances on iVillage Live!.

Served as key member of several client teams in a broad range of industry sectors, including: Technology, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Real Estate Development, Insurance, Software and Consumer Electronics.

• Served as key member of public affairs Network Neutrality coalition run by Google, Yahoo!, Amazon.com, Microsoft, eBay and IAC. Recruited and secured coalition members, secured interviews for coalition members with newspapers, radio shows, industry blogs and key district outlets.
• Co-developed children's financial literacy campaign presented to over 500 children, which resulted in over 100 children's savings accounts and financial products cross-sold to parents. 
• Responsible for developing working relationships with key media; securing interview opportunities for clients resulting in feature stories in local, regional and national outlets.

Double Concentration: Marketing and International Business

Intensive study of business and culture for one semester in Europe.