Simon Barrell

CreditSights and Fitch Solutions are part of Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries. I was responsible for leading both strategy and execution of inbound and outbound marketing programs to drive brand awareness and lead acquisition for Fitch Solutions subsidiary CreditSights, Inc.

To support the launch of the new CreditSights platform, I developed an FAQ page that Included explainer videos on Loom, links to a digital user guide, and other materials, all of which I scripted, recorded, and built into our WordPress site.

I also wrote a five-part launch email series in HubSpot for user migration and onboarding, each with links to one of the how-to videos and other FAQ material.

Infor is a $3 billion global enterprise SaaS provider that competes with Oracle and IBM. I was recruited to assemble a 42-person global digital marketing team, implementing processes and standards across the organization.

Through competitive keyword research using Semrush and testing of new creative and CTAs copy, we reduced the average CPC on SEM campaigns in Google Advertising and Bing Ads from $178 to under $100.

I developed a global email nurture strategy replacing ad-hoc email drip campaigns in Marketo, and we integrated an online survey tool, Survicate, into the email and global events communication to increase engagement and conversion.

Additionally, I project managed a global website relaunch on Craft CMS, and regional site project oversight for 16 new country sites allowed us to provide localization, relevance to local market needs, and increased conversions.

salesElement is a SaaS provider that solves proposal and quoting challenges. The firm had been in business for 15 years; however, the company made limited use of its prospect database on intermittent email campaigns.

The CEO hired me as a consultant to evaluate their database and email process. We agreed that to improve engagement with prospects and generate new leads through referrals and from advocates, salesElement should use email more actively as a channel to market to its existing database of contacts and find ways to increase the database record count and quality.

I wrote a complete email marketing plan that evaluated the current database state and contact info in SFDC and MailChimp. I recommended ways to go beyond infrequent product announcements by repurposing new content from the new website and blog, requesting reviews, such as testimonials and NPS, and also by engaging with users to ask how the company can serve them better and thereby earn referrals.

The published plan factored in the following topics:
• Template update
• List building
• Segmentation
• Content plan and calendar
• Creative recommendations
• Data hygiene
• Tasks and responsibilities
• Objectives, milestones, and timelines
• Costs and budget

Seminars for Engineers was a paid event series we created for Sensor Products’ customers. Each seminar was targeted at a specific engineering audience, such as specialists in aerospace, paper and packaging, semiconductor chip manufacturing, medical devices, automotive, and many other applications involving pressure sensing.

I led the promotion and organization of about 25 two-day events each year, supported by an event manager. We conducted the lead generation for the event sign-ups primarily through SEO and PPC to a dedicated Seminars for Engineers website, plus email, print, and traditional mail marketing campaigns. The Sensor Products sales team also pushed event sign-ups in their client outreach.

Surprisingly we saw large numbers of sign-ups through postcard mailing campaigns and cards inserted in trade magazines focused on engineering and manufacturing verticals, such as Popular Mechanics, Paper & Packaging, Nasa Tech Briefs, and many other publications.