Head of Content @ LASSO | Co-host of That's Marketing, Baby | Delivering daily cheat codes for small content teams

I'm a creative director turned content marketer and strategist with more than 20 years of experience conceptualizing and executing breakthrough work for B2C brands like Eggo, Rice Krispies, Blue Cross, Cottonelle, and McDonald’s, and B2B brands like Fastly and Island.

I have a knack for leading cross-functional teams toward a common goal, bringing order to the oft-chaotic creative process, crafting insight-driven global campaigns, and bringing stories to life via long- and short-form content.

Jess Cook

I've worked with a lot of talented people over the years.
 
But every once in a while, you meet someone who just 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘵 in every way that matters.
 
Annalisa Rodriguez is one of those people.

I had the privilege of working with her for a short time at Fastly.
 
And this week, she joined Vector 👻 as our Sr. Content Marketer Manager — a sentence that makes me so happy I could cry.
 
Annalisa has a journalism background that shows in everything she touches. Long-form, repurposing, content design... she's equally amazing at all of it.
 
But what makes her truly special is her ability to take the things people 𝘴𝘢𝘺, turn them into content that makes readers 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭, and connect it all to results when buyers 𝘢𝘤𝘵.

(Read: not a common skill.)

Bonus: she's already vibing with us in Slack, and keeping our cat-loving hearts fed with pics and videos of her kitties, Oreo and Darkness. 😻
 
With Annalisa on the squad, we now have four marketers at Vector. And for the first time, a real three-legged stool:
 
→ Product marketing 
→ Demand gen 
→ Content

(i.e. I feel like I just collected ALL OF THE POKEMON.)

Annalisa's going to be sharing how she builds content here at Vector. You'll want a front-row seat for that, so go give her a follow.

Then stand back, 'cause sparks are 'bout to fly, y'all.

3 years ago, ChatGPT was supposed to kill content marketing jobs. Instead, content marketers are becoming CMOs.
 
That's not a coincidence.
 
In the age of AI, anyone can spin up a landing page, launch a campaign, or generate long-form content in minutes.
 
That's useful. Really.
 
But it's also made one skill more valuable than ever: storytelling.
 
The marketers who understand how to build a brand, create ownable content, and connect with an audience in a way that AI can't replicate—those are the people snagging seats at the table.

And not just in content, but across 👏 every. 👏 single. 👏 marketing. 👏 discipline.
 
(I shared more on Behind Good Content with Peter Conforti recently. Peep the clip!)
 
In fact, it's the skill I'm building Vector's entire marketing team around.
 
👾 Alex Virden is the most story-focused PMM you will ever meet. She doesn't just "do positioning"—she crafts narratives, messaging, and truly delightful content that make marketers feel seen and our product make sense.
 
Kelly Arndt's content background means he gets something most demand gen marketers miss: storytelling makes or breaks your demand gen activities. You can have the perfect targeting and the slickest automation. But if your message doesn't connect emotionally? None of it matters.
 
As B2B gets more crowded and products become more commoditized, storytellers ARE the differentiator.
 
And if you're one of us? Lean into those skills. They're more valuable than you think.

Just back from an incredible week at Above the Fold where I ran six content workshops over two days. I have but three pieces of photo evidence I was even there.

1) Schnitzel dinner with my ride or die agency guy, Justin Dunham. We've had two Zoom calls a week for nearly 5 years straight and had yet to meet in person. It was worth the wait. (For both the hang and the schnitzel.)

2) Got to meet my buddy from across the pond, Luke Winter - the man, the myth, the legend behind our "Next best way" ads. We talked shop (obvi), and concerts, and about what we do when we're not at our desks. His hair is just as fab in real life.

3) My parents were also flying out of Detroit at the same time as me - something we only realized a few days before. So we met up for an early bird special before boarding. They paid, of course, because I'm only 42. 🥰

So glad I went. So glad to be home. So ready for this damn snow to melt.

I've been a VP for all of 4 weeks.

And I'm obsessed with learning from leaders ahead of me.
 
The shift from "doing all the things" to "leading the people who do all the things" is real. I love it. But I also know there's so much more to learn.
 
Which is why I am counting down the days until Exit Five's Marketing Leadership Retreat in March.

I want to see how seasoned VPs and CMOs are building their teams, scaling high-impact programs, actually using AI (not the LinkedIn version, the real version), and proving brand value to skeptical CFOs.

Not so I can copy them, but so I can put them to work in a way that makes sense for Vector 👻.
 
March 18-20 in Paradise Valley, AZ.
 
I'll be the Hermione of the group: taking a bajillion notes and being way too eager to ask questions.
 
If you're going, let's connect. I'd love to meet you!

If you want to go, there are still a few tickets left! 
You can get yours here: https://lnkd.in/gXdGx4u3

I have a rule I live by in marketing: Test small before executing big.

It's why I ran an influencer pilot before making it a full program.
Tested new messaging in ads before our repositioning launch.
And why I'm so excited about what we're announcing today...

Vector 👻 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝗱𝘀. 🎉 

Here's the metaphor that's been living in my head for this:

Clay is the proving ground. 🏁
It's where GTM teams experiment with signals, build enrichment workflows, test what actually predicts buying behavior, and figure out which audiences are worth activating.

Vector is the Autobahn. 🚗
Once you know what works? You open it up. Contact-level targeting, live audience updates, suppression logic that actually follows your buyers—running modern ads playbooks at full speed.

This isn't hypothetical for us.

It's exactly how Kelly and Sara have been building Vector’s ads program.

• Kelly uses Vector to identify accounts and contacts signaling intent. 
• Sara uses Clay to enrich and score those ICP contacts. 
• Then, they use Vector to activate those contacts across LinkedIn and Google, keeping our paid targeting aligned to real buyer signals as they move through the funnel.

When your team’s already living the use case, you know you're onto something.

Grab some time to see it in action: https://lnkd.in/eugn7rJh

I love a good Uno reverse. 

Especially when it's aimed at Joshua Perk 👻.

In the season two finale (!!!) of This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast, Josh and I take you through our entire website redesign process: from the awkward "you literally told me no when I suggested this six months ago" conversation (haha), to how we worked with our design agency to build the new look and feel, to the 37-item launch checklist 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 (Josh) did not see coming.

But one of my favorite takeaways from the entire project goes a little something like this...

The second someone lands on your site, they start to form an opinion about your product. 𝗔𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺.
 
They assume the same level of polish and thought put into your website go into your product, too.
😒 If the design feels dated, they assume the product UI is clunky.
😒 If product screen shots feel too mocked up, they assume the product isn't robust enough.
😒 If it's hard to figure out what you do, they assume the product is just as convoluted.

A lot of teams either go full nuclear on a redesign and lose everything distinctive about their brand, or they're so precious about what they have that the "redesign" is just a fresh coat of paint on the same old house.
 
So when Josh and I sat down to figure out what to actually change, we built three buckets.
 
𝗕𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝟭: 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽. These are the things that make you you. The stuff your audience would immediately recognize and miss if it disappeared. You don't want to lose them—you want to evolve them. Same personality, better haircut. For us: Ghostie, bright colors, bold statements with a wink.
 
𝗕𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝟮: 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝗽. These are the things that aren't bad, exactly—they're just limiting. They paint you into a corner or kill your flexibility, even if people associate them with your brand. For us: super saturated color usage that made text basically impossible to read.
 
𝗕𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝟯: 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲. These are the things actively working against you. They're building a perception you don't want—making you look smaller or less sophisticated than you actually are. No sentimentality. They gotta go. For us: all-caps headlines and ghost visuals in spots that should have had actual product screenshots.

The reason I love this framework is it gives you permission to make bold changes while protecting the things that actually matter. Before we kicked off the project with our design agency, Josh and I literally listed out which parts of our brand fell into which bucket. It made every every design decision after that so much cleaner. 🤌

The FULL second season of is out now! Just search This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast.

Some learning curves only make sense after you’ve lived them.


Funnel Vision was supposed to be 𝘵𝘩𝘦 thing for Vector 👻. Six months of building. A slick product UI. A beautiful narrative about contact-level intent. Launch posts. Playbooks. Customer testimonials. A scroll-stopping GIF with ghosts shooting lasers out of their eyes.
 
And then we killed it.
 
As a copywriter, you get used to having your darlings killed. But this one hurt differently.

It had been the entire company's full focus for two solid quarters, and we all believed in it wholeheartedly.

But when the data shows most customers aren't finding value, you listen.
 
The new episode of 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱'𝘃𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 is about what happened when we swung for the fences with Funnel Vision—and missed.
 
What broke (besides our hearts lol).
How we told 180+ customers.
Why it was the right call.
And how making the wrong decision led us to exactly where we needed to be.

P.S. Sorry not sorry for swearing at you, Joshua Perk 👻

"We need an explainer video," is one of the most exciting and anxiety-inducing things a marketer can hear.

They can take forever.
They can be expensive.
They usually require buy-in from everyone and their mother.
And, because of all of the above, they need to last a while.

BUT, if you get it right, the payoff can be massive.

Because a great explainer video doesn't just educate—it gets people excited: 
"Oh my gosh, this is a different way of doing things. I want to try it." 
"They're fixing that thing that's driven me insane!"
"That was cool. I want to see more from these people." 

And if you're building something category-defining, like we are at Vector 👻, they're 10,000% worth the effort.

HUGE shout out to João Freitas and his team at MezzoLab Studio, for not only being the brilliant minds behind the video, but also making the process FUN.

If you've ever wondered...


what the inside of Vector actually looks like, how it works, and what this whole contact-level advertising thing is all about...

then Thursday, March 5 is your lucky day. 

In our first-ever Booooo-t Camp, our mother of Customer Solutions, Ally Saylor will show you the three most impactful plays you can run inside of Vector 👻.

1. Visualize who visits your site from target accounts 
2. See which ICP clicks on your paid ads
3. Create an ad audience of your entire ICP

Be sure to hydrate. 'Cause your campaigns are 'bout to get SHREDDED: https://lnkd.in/ehJJQcbN

Tess Pfeifle

Airvet

Associate Director, Marketing

Marketing Strategy Development: Craft and implement comprehensive strategies that align with Airvet's goals, focusing on enhancing brand awareness and driving pipeline.

Project Management: Lead and coordinate key marketing projects, including webinars, product launches, and promotional campaigns, ensuring timely execution and alignment with strategic objectives.

Content Creation: Produce high-quality marketing collateral, including blogs, newsletters, social media posts, and case studies, that support the buyer journey.
                               
Event Management: Plan and execute events, including industry conferences and internal initiatives, while managing logistics such as travel and accommodations. In 1H 2024, oversaw over 15 events.

Sales Enablement: Develop tools and resources, such as sales decks and one-pagers, to equip the sales team with the necessary materials to drive conversions and enhance customer engagement.
HubSpot Management: Utilize HubSpot for marketing automation, lead nurturing, and performance tracking, ensuring effective communication and follow-up with leads and clients.

Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including sales, product development, and external partners, to align marketing efforts with overall business objectives.
Recent Achievements:

Successfully hosted and promoted multiple webinars, driving significant attendance and engagement from pet parents and industry stakeholders.

Spearheaded the creation of a comprehensive survey report on employee pet benefits, providing valuable insights to HR leaders and enhancing Airvet’s thought leadership in the industry.

Senior Marketing Manager

ASTONISHING LEGENDS PRODUCTIONS, LLC

-Conduct comprehensive searches for information bearing on a specific problem or subject to be covered on a podcast with over 70 million downloads.
-Responsible for the management of over 30 contributing research fellows
-Maintain monthly editorial blog calendar to incorporate platform-specific content and industry news.
-Manage all Astonishing Legends social media channels including content planning, implementation, community management, event promotion, reporting, and analysis.
-Establish and implement weekly scheduler Monday.com to manage Astonishing Legends employees.
-Provide key insights into audience engagement and growth.
-Manage Patreon platform, tier-design, and execution.
-Weekly Newsletter creation
-Press and Media outreach
-Management of Instagram Stories Program

Producer

-Manage a team of over 30+ researchers and specialists to research, discover and find new and interesting information on a topic.
-Find and produce original story ideas
-Help to write web and social media posts
-Manage and create content for the Astonishing Legends Blog
-Manage and make sure the Astonishing Legends Facebook Group and all other social media channels flourish and receive maximize engagement.
-Create the Amazon-purchase-link-backed Bookstore Page
-Manage the Patreon account completely 
-Plan how to present an outrageous topic logically, inventively, and, most importantly, uniquely.

Head of Research Department

Instapage

Manage our social media accounts and significantly grow our audience across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube.

Revamp, launch, and manage the Affiliate program

Develop and execute high-impact social media and community marketing campaigns that align with our overall content marketing strategy.

Craft engaging written, visual, and multimedia content that’s tailored to each channel.

Create media-facing messaging, content and assets including pitches, press releases, speaker and award submissions, etc.

Build brand awareness through thought leadership, PR efforts, award submissions, speaking events, events, podcasts, articles, and organic social.

Support the Leadership Team in preparation for panels, media appearances and other thought leadership opportunities

Actively participate in industry discussions and relevant online communities where our target audiences are engaged.

Build relationships with current and future customers, partners, and employees as well as industry thought leaders, influencers, analysts, and reporters.

Support current and future customers by responding to their comments and questions in a timely manner, ensuring all messaging is accurate and on-brand.

Be the key contributor in Instapage’s “earned media” strategy and advise on the most impactful ways to tell the Instapage story via external (earned) channels.

Help us build domain authority and drive referral traffic by executing link building strategies, such as guest posting on partner blogs and industry publications, answering Quora questions, and responding to HARO queries.

Define key performance indicators for each communications channel; Track and report on social engagement, community growth, and social/referral traffic.

Contribute to content strategy and ideas for future projects by writing and producing content briefs to support all marketing sub-teams, including Demand Generation, Customer Marketing, Product Marketing, Brand, and Sales.

Senior Marketing Manager, Organic Programs

• Develop and launch an organic, thought-leadership Events programs 

• Create event abstracts, oversee event presentation development, and coordinate with event leads for successful speaking engagements

•Manage Postclick social media accounts across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube

•Create and implement a framework for content distribution that amplifies the reach of content and improves campaign performance

•Craft, curate, and publish engaging written, visual, and multimedia content that’s tailored to each channel 

•Build brand awareness through thought leadership, PR efforts, award submissions, speaking engagements, events, podcasts, article publications, and organic social

•Community development and management 

•Collaborate with global People team to develop messaging that aligns with company mission and values to drive recruitment, boost employee engagement, and strengthen brand awareness

•Define key performance indicators for each communications channel; Track and report on social engagement, community growth, and social/referral traffic

•Analyze social data to uncover insights, then adjust strategies and tactics to achieve optimal performance

Marketing Communications Manager

Equilibria

-Manage all social media profiles including Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Reddit, Pinterest, Youtube, and other cross-functional campaigns
-Compliance Management - worked with a compliance manager to ensure all content was in line with the FDA and other governing sources
-Develop, train hosts, and produce weekly live video content, EQ & You
-Social Media Growth Strategy
-Content Development & Trend Tracking
-Weekly, Monthly, and Quarterly Reporting on Custom Dashboard
-Contribute to wider Campaign Planning, Product Development, and other Digital Marketing Initiatives
-Create content-driven programming, including weekly live video
-Create blog posts featuring EQ employees to educate others about the people at the company, and the roles and growth opportunities offered

Social Media

Barbaricum

- Serves as the VHA National Recruitment Marketing and Advertising (NRMA) Social and Digital Media Specialist assisting on multiple task areas. 
- Manage all VA Career Social Media channel content planning, implementation, graphic development, community management, event promotion, text to apply initiatives, reporting, and analysis. Through excel dashboard development, the client receives immediate reporting evaluating highly specific parameters for any given reporting period. 
- Reporting: Our team delivers ROI evaluation across the contract, including event ROI, audience behavior analysis, media buy analysis and ROI, recruitment tactic reporting and actionable insights, public relations reporting and analysis
-Cross-Task Process Management
-Strategic Communication
-Social Media
-Recruitment Funnel Reporting and Analysis
-Data Audit and Management
-Applicant Tracking Strategy and Evaluation
-Content Planning
-Develop Social Media and Digital Campaigns
-Coordinate with the larger communication team to develop timely digital content that engages qualified professionals and interacts with high profile media channels
-Responsible for developing strategic social media marketing plans
-Outlining social media calendars
-Writing content for web, print, and social media
-Designing branded marketing materials for web and print
-Evaluate historic and current digital efforts to inform future engagement
-Stand up VA's first LinkedIn Live Video Program
-Utilize SocialLive and LinkedIn Live to Direct and Produce weekly live content
-Create Custom Reporting Dashboards using Google Data Studios

Notable Wins:
-Grew VA Careers LinkedIn page followership by 48%
-Increased VA Careers LinkedIn average daily followers by 79%
-Surged LinkedIn audience commentary by 508%
-Improved audience traffic to VA Careers LinkedIn page by 9%

Social and Digital Media Specialist

Smithsonian Enterprises

-Handle the complete pre-promotional, press, and press tour for several books per season
-Proven track record of success coordinating publicity in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlas Obscura, TIME, and more.
-Handle the complete pre-promotional, press, and author tour for several books per season
including press releases, event planning, media kit design, and more.
-Craft press releases, media letters, pitches, and more
-Performs general administrative duties including mailings, ordering books and supplies, invoicing, and other departmental processes
-Design promotional media packages that highlight the books, authors, and brand of Smithsonian Books
-Social media management of Smithsonian Books Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts

Marketing Assistant, Smithsonian Books

FierceMarkets

-Assist in maintaining the 2016 eBook and custom publishing calendar and up to date project plans for each product.
-Contributed over $100,000 to operation costs with the production of digital media marketing products
-Writing marketing copy for various promotions.
-Develop and execute promotional campaigns including creative design (blasts, landing pages, ad copy), ad scheduling and ad trafficking.
-QA eBook and custom publishing products.
-Evaluate lead pacing and determine next steps to enhance promotional campaigns.

-Manage eBook and custom publishing products from POS to completion (Publication to lead delivery).
-Prepare eBook and custom publishing contracts upon request.
Software: Open AdStream, Marketo, Wrike, Slack, SurveyMonkey, and  Amazon Image Hosting

Content Marketing Coordinator

The Catholic University of America

-Conduct difficult systematic comprehensive searches for information bearing on a specific problem or subject.
-Independently analyze reference and research requests and devise unique search strategies, often deviating from normal practices, to obtain effective informational results.
-Oversee all circulation of library materials including consortium loans, interlibrary loans, digitization requests, and course reserves.
-Collect charges, fines, and fees for library patrons, and resolve problems as necessary.
-Perform online searches in a wide variety of automated information and research databases using appropriate unique research retrieval methods.
-Coordinate the troubleshooting of library subscription products and communicate with Acquisitions.

Access Services

I am responsible for a variety of tasks associated with the Books team. These tasks include researching media contacts, outreach work, using CMS, reviewing entries for a photocontest, and working with digital publications. I also produced copy for outreach e-mails, press releases, and other marketing-related copy. I frequently created and contributed to marketing plans and strategies. I locate and communicate with targeted audiences, as well as thought leaders and influencers.  
 
In addition, I had several daily tasks such as attending meetings, shipping galleys, and using various software such as MeltWater.

Digital Media + Marketing Fellow

Knightsbridge Branding

As a research analyst for Knightsbridge Branding my primary objective is to serve all members of the team with the most actionable, updated information provided on an array of topics. Actionable intelligence is a key factor of this position. I provide market research, design-based research, personnel research, and research of key aspects that further aid the team in best serving their clientele.

I also have a few consistent tasks, such as social media cultivation, creation, and analysis, taking detailed notes during meetings, and utilizing various platforms and software (Basecamp, Sproutsocial, etc).

Research Analyst

Senior Marketing Manager | Curious & Creative

As a self-confirmed marketing generalist and habitual hand-raiser, I thrive on a cross-functional team, where I am able to work collaboratively to bring great ideas to action. I have a strong track record of successful digital content creation, affiliate marketing, corporate communication plans, copywriting, media kit development, and social media efforts, both organically and paid. I am passionate about telling compelling stories that excite, engage, and inspire audiences. Every day, I look forward to making brands shine and delivering exceptional results.

Do you love the thrill of a conference room in the morning? The satisfaction of a perfectly booked dinner? The glee of delightfully on-theme swag? Then you might just want to join me on Airvet's pre-sale marketing team and help shape our events! Apply below:

https://lnkd.in/eb4d4ySi

Associate Director, Marketing | Curious & Creative

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