Interview

When and how did you get your start in marketing?

In college I thought my dream job was working at a publishing company. Based in my home state of Iowa, I would have loved to be an Editor for Better Homes & Gardens magazine. With that in mind I started my education in journalism. As I took more and more classes I realized interviews and reporting weren’t right for me, so I transitioned to more of a public relations and marketing role. My first job out of college was working as a CRM Coordinator and it gave me great hands-on experience with data, lifecycle flows and the customer journey. It was a perfect fit because I could be creative while also remaining task-oriented and organized. Ironically, my next move was to Dotdash Meredith, the publishing company of my dreams where I now work on the Growth Platforms team for none other than Better Homes & Gardens and all of our other iconic brands. While it’s not the role I envisioned, it’s right where I should be!

What are some of your career highlights or campaigns that you’re especially proud of?

To date the project I am most proud of is our migration to Iterable. We were about 3 months away from the end of our contract with our previous ESP and worked endlessly to transition our entire email program in that short amount of time. This involved 40M+ user profiles loaded and a data pipeline established, 425+ HTML templates reconfigured, 200+ Iterable campaign templates created, 550+ list selections created, hundreds of onboarding journeys set up, 275+ Digioh forms built, 42 domains successfully warmed with a +99% delivery rate, and much more. The speed and success of this program was due in large part to the highest quality teamwork, work ethic, organization and leadership from everyone involved.

What challenges was your team experiencing prior to Iterable? How has Iterable helped address these challenges?

The largest issue we were having prior to Iterable was getting data in and out of the platform. We were constantly running into data ingestion delays, data not being exported from the platform efficiently or accurately, and the bulk of the platform team’s time was being spent monitoring and troubleshooting. The scale of our program required a new type of technology that could handle our current user profile volume while still getting a high level of campaigns out the door at every hour of the day. We also wanted a platform that would grow with us as we expand our reach and test out new features. The good news? Iterable fit the bill.

What are some Iterable features that have made your job easier? Or have been game-changers for yourself and your team?

I could certainly go on about some of the features that Iterable has to offer. The catalog and upcoming Predictive Goals are impressive and our team plans to take full advantage of them. However, what comes to my mind first is Iterable’s customer service. With all of the issues we were having with our old ESP, it felt like half of my job was working with their customer support team. I was always putting in tickets with little to no reply from them. I had to follow up and ask for updates constantly. It was a pain point for us. Iterable’s customer service, on the other hand, has been fantastic. Not only are they quick to reply, but they are proactive about letting us know if there is an issue. They provide frequent updates, submit tickets and escalate things to their engineering team. In addition, they are aware of our high level company goals and KPIs and make us a priority. They keep us in the loop about new features and best practices and include us on betas and demos. It feels like a real partnership and we couldn’t be happier.

As a consumer, what brings you joy from a brand’s outreach/communication?

I’ll be honest, I’m always looking for a deal so coupon codes are what usually get my clicks. At Dotdash Meredith, oftentimes content is our value prop but we’re also leaning into our commerce business so you’ll see us doing more and more in this space.

What do you think will be the next big thing in the marketing industry (AI, automation, new channels?)

AI, AI, AI. It’s all anyone can talk about right now, right? I love how Iterable has started harnessing some of that power too. Don’t get me wrong, we always want our messages and content to be produced by humans, for humans. We want to provide our Editors’ unique insight and perspective to help our readers understand our brands and our product recommendations. That said, having this useful technology at our fingertips is exciting. If it can help us better segment our audience, tweak our copy to drive better results, or make a process more efficient, then I think it deserves a shot. We’ve been doing some testing ourselves and analyzing the results has been very insightful.

If one song could play every time you entered a meeting, what would it be?

You Raise Me Up, by Josh Groban. You just can’t beat that song 🙂

If you weren’t a marketer, what would you be?

I would definitely want to flip houses!