James Kenler Email & Phone Number

San Francisco, California, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

• Influenced high-level strategic planning and decision-making processes as a key executive leadership team member.• Implemented AI-supported ideation and research to the content creation process achieving productivity equivalent to a team three times our size.• Developed automation enabling rapid sales outreach in response to website behavior and intent search data using a combination of 6sense, RB2B, Zoominfo, Clearbit and Clay.io.• Refocused marketing strategy towards higher-margin enterprise companies, shifting away from low-profit and high overhead small businesses. • Drove cross-functional leadership project to improve the entire customer journey reducing friction, enabling self-service, and driving produce usage; all reducing support overhead and driving improved Revenue/CAC.• Led full visual rebrand and new website launch on Webflow.• Spearheaded low-code (softr, zapier, airtable) proof of concept application to validate market fit of new product before prioritizing company development resources. • Prepared board & investor decks, helping CEO create and communicate TAM, go-to-market strategy and product vision as company pivoted to monetize non-profits and build “impact network” to energize PLG.• Built lead and account scoring models to focus and prioritize sales activities for maximum success.• Revamped paid and organic keyword strategies to maximize immediate impact with long-tale bottom-of-the-funnel terms while building a longer-term awareness funnel by tapping into broader themes and industry trends in e-commerce, DTC retail, corporate social responsibility and cause marketing.• Produced a series of podcasts and case studies to prove the ROI of our product and inspire future customers by celebrating customer successes.• Collaborated with a group of adjacent e-commerce and marketing tech companies to co-author and promote a series of webinars and guides to collectively grow our brands’ opt-in marketing lists.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

In the three and a half years that I led the marketing department I grew the team from 3 total heads to 11 full-time team members & oversaw dramatic growth across all measures, resulting in more than 100% revenue growth during that period and a sale to private equity. This growth was facilitated through tactic lead generation work and supported by an investment in brand awareness and reputation to becoming an industry leader in thought leadership and educational content. Through a mix of original research, hosted events, expanded partnerships (regional trade groups, think tanks, economists, politicians, etc), frequent webinars, a slack community and old-fashioned content marketing, Envoy has solidified itself as a preferred resource for immigration and mobility practitioners and a trusted commentator for publications including Forbes, Fortune, Techcrunch, Marketplace, Politico, Recode and The Hill. These efforts have resulted in exponential growth in RFP inclusion and supported the business's move up market to become the country's 4th largest immigration service provider.While taking over the reins of brand, I have continued my hands-on management of our digital marketing and demand generation efforts in close collaboration with our sales and business development teams. This has included unifying the teams on a shared KPI of opportunities generated, development and implementation of a shared account fit scoring model to prioritize accounts and a segmentation strategy to align collateral and messaging to target personas based on company sizes from SMBs to the largest enterprises. All of these strategies were governed by agile marketing best practices and organized through a scrumban project management structure to ensure timely communication, decision making and measurement. Underlying all of these efforts has been a ruthless focus on understanding the prospective customer's pains and the salesperson’s challenges to be a partner to both.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Joined envoy to scale SMB acquisition efforts, streamline lead routing to sales team & implement rigorous analytics practices in order to allow the business to move up market. We succeeded by enabling iterative campaign performance improvement and optimization of channel budgets to meet aggressive SQL and CAC quotas for the marketing org.• Martech & Marketing Strategyo Executed implementation of Hubspot, migration from Eloqua and re-architecture of Salesforce integration & customer databaseo Oversaw creation of ABM program from ideal account selection through system integration, creative development, ad campaign deployment, sales enablement and measurement to show lift in conversion rate, pipeline velocity & contract valueo Administered all Digital Marketing efforts – ABM Display, Retargeting, Paid Social, SEMo Synthesized user surveys, in person interviews and qualitative feedback from sales and product into informative and actionable user personas for marketing and sales to tailor outreach.o Directed SEO audit & revised content strategy to support rebranding and new site launch • Analyticso Rebuilt internal marketing reporting and developed a series of PowerBI dashboards to track the lead funnel in real time by campaign, channel, and sales rep to expose process bottlenecks and opportunities for conversion optimizationo Performed monthly attribution forensics on newly acquired customers to bridge gaps in data across a 12+ month sales cycle for reporting to board of directors• Leadership & Sales Enablemento Led a team of 3 Sales Development Reps to nurture and qualify marketing-sourced leadso Focused on enabling sales team with consistent communication and training on marketing output to ensure alignment and pull through on leads (e.g. Hubspot user intelligence, lead scoring model, clear slide content management and email tracking, and Salesforce account and contact data enrichment)o Managed Inbound B2C marketing channel and sole B2C focused Sales Rep

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Built the business case to create the Marketing Technology Team and have continued to grow its and my standing within the organization. The team manages all technology associated with Marketing from sourcing and discovery, through procurement, cost benefit analysis, security auditing and risk assessment with IT and on through deployment and integration (APIs or OOB connectors) with our existing stack of solutions (Salesforce.com Sales & Service Clouds). Additionally the team functions as the primary source of lead gen and attribution reporting and I serve as the strategic practice leader to evangelize for marketing technology, strategy and automation throughout the business.•Led evaluation, implementation, trial and procurement of Pardot Marketing Automation•Re-launched B2B marketing site on Drupal: vendor & platform selection, Site Architecture, UX for both front end and back end, user testing, traffic migration & launch resulting in a 50% increase in organic search traffic and a revitalization of the site as the primary sales asset•Building next iteration of B2B Lead Gen / eCom Site on proprietary CMS / DAM platform to feed the top of the demand funnel with strategic content•Identified segment of customers who could be served by automation rather than sales reps & then developed the content strategy, systems and processes to implement this new strategy to allow sales leaders to focus reps on larger opportunities while maintaining high touch relationships with transactional customers

Chicago, Illinois, Us

In addition to the above:•Core stakeholder on team working to develop cross-functional customer experience focused teams working on topics like (expectation setting and asset collection, customer intelligence & customer retention and health) which resulted in procurement and launch of Gainsight's customer experience management platform to scale and manage customer success•Worked with Data Analysts and BI Developers to scope and launch a project to create a true Customer Database merging a variety of disparate data points and including both a visualization component for analysis and KPI reporting, and also a series of calculated metrics to key automated campaigns off of

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Sole product owner and marketing manager for B2B ecommerce ($40M + Sales Channel)•Served as business owner for agile scrum product development queue•Created and maintained the product roadmap and user stories•Drove sprint planning sessions and provided guidance and user acceptance testing throughout projects and scrum ceremonies•Streamlined checkout process for main US site lifting conversion rate by 63%•Adapted platform into global multi store, multi language, multi geo store •Worked with local host site owners and finance to setup legal and financial prerequisites and then rolled out new ecom sites or migrated existing ones to the unified platform in 12+ countries and 8 additional hostsites

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Business Development & Marketing: Develop and lead sales presentations. Manage a diverse client base from nationally recognized brands to small, community arts organizations. Develop strategy to address clients’ specific marketing and demographic targets. Research new trends in marketing and technology and implement applicable new strategies. Represent company and network with clients and prospective clients at a variety of events and conferences. Generate new business by parlaying existing relationships and establishing synergy between clients.•Conceived and managed a social media and marketing program to enhance the company’s brand and standing in the field. Syndicated company’s blog through Facebook, Twitter, and a new email marketing platform to cross-promote clients to one an other and advertise company’s service offerings through specific examples.•Spearheaded project to create a new product offering clients the ability to harness the full potential of QR codes & existing social media presence through custom built web portals. •Conceived and currently leading a project to develop a new survey tool that facilitates data collection, integrates social media content, and increases customer loyalty. Project Management: Manage multiple overlapping print projects on a daily basis as well as all internal IT projects. Execute all stages of projects’ life cycle from concept through delivery. Review and track all invoices and purchases for print supplies. Develop cost forecasts and set pricing structure. Hire subcontractors, coordinate their work, and inspect final products to ensure quality. •Launched printing operations including researching and purchasing equipment and establishing workflows.•Managed Project for Adidas, staffing promotional events across the country, providing direct supervision of in-market managers. Created reports containing data collected, photo documentation and analysis along with recommendations for improvement.

Business Development & Marketing: Conceived and executed individual marketing and sales campaigns for each specific release as well as all encompassing brand development campaigns for artists and the label. Built a network of relationships in the music industry (booking agents, concert promoters, publicists, and labels). Coordinated events and other cross-promotional activities with lifestyle brands. • Enhanced marketing efforts by being among the first wave of companies to recognize the increasing importance social media and independent blogs.• Expanded sales avenues by being an early adopter of digital distribution.• Recognized as one of the “45 Most Influential People in Chicago Music” (2007-2009).• Spoke on professional panels at Columbia College and the Chicago Cultural Center. • Interviewed by The New York Times, Billboard, Chicago Public Radio, Chicago Reader, Time Out Chicago, and New City Chicago.• Represented the label at high profile events: SXSW, CMJ, and Sundance Film Festival.Project Management & Operations: Negotiated and reviewed contracts with artists, distributors and licensors. Developed internal systems and databases to pursue licensing for TV and film and publicity. Supervised 2-4 interns, and mentored them in general business practices and specific industry systems and conventions. • Managed full life cycle, budget and scheduling for 50 record releases (2000-2008): Recording & manufacturing, co-op & print advertising, publicity, marketing and radio promotions for domestic and international distribution.• Led two website redesigns integrating the management of metadata, promotional assets and to enhance ecommerce.

Chicago, Il, Us

Oberlin, Oh, Us

Oberlin, Oh, Us

Ba, Philosophy & History, East Asian Studies & Film Studies

Film Studies

Education record