Experienced Marketing Director, Digital Content Strategist, Freelance Blogger
An experienced and dynamic digital marketing strategist/publisher with substantial success in driving innovative marketing and brand awareness initiatives across multiple platforms. Directs cross-departmental teams to boost website traffic, sales, and engagement through content and technology.
AAA, Garden City, NY
Vice President of Content and Brand Marketing (previously Managing Director)
January 2018 to Present
A marketing reorganization led to expanded responsibilities, including overseeing the organization’s in-house agency; I currently manage a department of 24+ marketers.
• Manage the Your AAA Network, a digital audience development system that attracts new visitors, gains them as email subscribers, engages them with content, and ultimately monetizes by converting people into paying customers. Since launching in January 2018, the network has achieved over 50M pageviews, 14M sessions, and captured over 1,000 first-page Google results for industry-related keywords.
• Oversee daily content emails supporting the system, including partner sponsored emails, to an opt-in group of 500K, achieving an average open rate of 30%, click-through-rate of 2.5%, and over $2M in sponsored content and advertiser revenue.
• Make data-driven decisions to strategize optimal editorial, production, and sales approach for Your AAA, a print magazine with a circulation of 2.3M; leverage agile marketing to launch campaigns.
• Responsible for the management and development of Connections, a monthly, 16-page internal company newsletter that supports corporate initiatives and bolsters social responsibility strategies.
AAA, Garden City, NY
Director of Publications and Web
September 2015 to December 2017
The organization consolidated, combining operations across six states. I was moved into a leadership position with responsibility for AAA’s publications and online properties.
- Oversaw consumer operations, marketing content initiatives and ongoing enhancements of AAA Northeast’s website, which served 15K visitors daily, yielding 48M annual pageviews.
- Oversight of editorial direction, calendar management, content development, production, and advertising sales of Car & Travel magazine and Horizons newspaper; a combined circulation of 3.1M.
- Conceptualized and launched AAA Today, a daily automotive, travel, food and events blog, serving the New York area. Increased organic traffic by 26%, securing 200k users a month, hundreds of high-value SEO keywords and viral success across social channels.
- Manage a team of 27 full-time employees, including writers, editors, designers and analysts, as well as several part-time, freelance employees.
- Administer an annual budget of $9M.
Director of Public Information
December 2013 to August 2015
During my tenure we have experienced website traffic and revenue growth for eight consecutive years; 2014 was a banner year, resulting in a 30% increase in pageviews and a 4% reduction in bounce rate when compared with the previous year.
- Utilized a variety of media and technology channels to increase member retention, digital engagement, and revenue growth.
- Oversaw operation, content and continuing enhancements of AAA New York’s website, contributing to $28M in sales in 2015 (4% growth) and $27M in 2014 (13% growth).
- Served as executive editor of Car & Travel, a print publication with a circulation of 947,000. Carried responsibility to manage all editorial content and to lead all sales initiatives.
- Administered the organization’s media relations strategy across multiple digital and print channels.
- Managed staff of 13 full-time, onsite employees; managed part-time and freelance employees.
Assistant Director, Internet Services & Digital Media
August 2011 to December 2013
- Formulated and executed the content strategy, playing an instrumental role in boosting online sales by $10 million, with a 20% increase in online renewals.
- Established and enforced AAA brand standards and an internet style guide across over 2,000 web pages with 13M pageviews annually.
- Served as editor of 12 e-newsletters delivered to 2.5M subscribers per month.
- Posted 10-20 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) stories and ‘hot topic’ articles monthly, successfully boosted site visits by 30% and converted online readership from one-time visitors to frequent browsers.
Manager of Internet Services
April 2008 to August 2011
Website Editor
April 2006 to April 2008
JOBACLE.COM, New York, NY
Founder & Editor
May 2005 to Present
- Launched career development blog that serves over 50k pageviews per month, securing over 2M podcast downloads.
- Coverage from The Washington Post, NBC, Yahoo!, SIRIUS, Chicago Sun-Times, Globe & Mail, Nielsen, Reuters and dozens more.
FOX NEWS CHANNEL, New York, NY
Supervising Web Producer
2004 to 2006
- Produced 40 streamlining bios to showcase the human element of on-air personalities, set up and edited audio blogs recorded from the field and moderated text blogs.
- Under a tight deadline, created a daily email for members of the FOX Fan Club.
- Created ‘Fox Fan Fun,’ an interactive portal of games, trivia, and quizzes in order to increase the ‘stickiness’ of the website; devised iMag, a video zine sponsored by Ford that covered lifestyle issues; produced daily 60-second video teasers for the website.
VH1 SATELLITE RADIO, New York, NY
Production Manager
2001 to 2004
- Wrote and produced six hours of daily radio content including original shows and repackaged VH1 favorites such as “Behind the Music” and “Storytellers.”
- Held interviews with and engineered performances for artists Coldplay, Lee Ann Womack, David Gray, Goo Goo Dolls, Rusted Root and dozens more.
PULVER.COM, Melville, NY
Operations Coordinator, PulverRadio
2001
• Interviewed telecom and high-tech CEOs, covering ventures, products, and forecasts.
WLIR-FM, Garden City, NY
Advertising Coordinator
1998 to 2001
• Scheduled 100,000+ hours of commercials and produced daily morning show.
TESTA COMMUNICATIONS, Port Washington, NY
Editorial Assistant
1996 to 1998
CMJ (College Music Journal), Great Neck, NY
Editorial Assistant
1995 to 1996
Technologies
Google Analytics, WebTrends, Omniture, Sitecore, WordPress, ExactTarget, Spredfast, Khoros, Brandwatch, PostBeyond, HootSuite, Photoshop, Adobe Audition, MS Office Suite, MS Outlook, video and audio editing
Content
Podcasts, Blogs, Video, Radio, E-newsletters, Articles, Columns, Features & Teasers, Interviews, Site & Product Reviews, Bios
Awards
Content Marketing Institute (CMI) – Winner: Native Advertising/Sponsored Content As Part of a Content Marketing – Sept. 2020
USPS Next Generation Campaign – Grand Champion Honorable Mention – June 2020
FOLIO Award – Nominee; Honorable Mention – Digital Brand Extension for the Your AAA Network – Feb. 2019
Specialized Information Publishers Association – Best Product Launch/Relaunch Success – Launch of the Your AAA Network – June 2018
Education
Cornell University – Johnson Graduate School of Management
Marketing Strategy Certificate – 2016
Completed seven MBA-level strategic marketing courses resulting in a certificate from Cornell.
Harvard ManageMentor
Leadership and management skill development program – 2017 – Present
Modules Completed: Time Management; Change Management; Customer Focus; Diversity
Queens College, Flushing, NY
BA Media Studies & Journalism
Core Competencies
• Strategic Planning
• Web Analytics & Reporting
• Editorial Leadership
• Search Engine Marketing
• Content Development
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Project Management
• Social Media Marketing
Social