Marketing Manager · Southwest Michigan
Hello, I'm Mark.
I run marketing like a business owner. Every dollar has to come back as leads and revenue, and the data decides what stays.
revenue growth in under 18 months
annual marketing budget managed
more leads year over year
in sold work in 7 months from the pricing estimator I built
What I do
The whole marketing engine, hands-on.
I’ve run paid search and social, local SEO, websites, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, video, and CRM automation, and I design a lot of it myself. My real strength with data isn’t reading it. It’s spotting the one or two moves the numbers point to and acting on them fast, including dropping my own plans when the data says I’m wrong.
Paid media
Google Ads, Meta, and Local Services Ads, managed in-house with weekly audits and tracking I trust.
SEO & websites
Local SEO, Google Business Profile, and conversion-focused sites built in WordPress and Elementor.
Broadcast, outdoor & print
TV, radio, and CTV spots I script and produce, plus billboards, magazine covers, and direct mail I design.
Analytics & planning
GA4, Looker Studio scoreboards, funnel math, and budgets, turned into a next move and not just a report.
Video & content
Scripts, shoots, and edits, along with blog articles, social content, and sales presentations.
CRM & automation
Zapier and CRM workflows that get leads to the sales team in minutes, with AI built into my daily work.
How I think
Beat the curse of knowledge.
Companies get so close to what they sell that they start talking in their own terms instead of their customer’s. Good marketing fixes that. So, before I build anything, I work through three things.
People
Who are we talking to, and how do they like to be reached? A website, a presentation, a video, a postcard in the mailbox. The audience picks the channel, not me.
Message
What story are we telling? Too much insider knowledge muddies it. I build one clear message that anyone can follow and that points to the right next step.
Design
Beautiful work with the wrong message is useless. I design with the end result in mind, so the look serves the message and the message serves the sale.
Sell better. Sell more.
Marketing should make the sales team's job easier.
I start by learning the sales cycle, and what we’re selling comes last. Sales teams that lead with features lose the room. The ones that start with why, by understanding the customer’s problem first, win it.
At Custom Deck Creations, leading with the why (the customer experience) converted 2.5x better than product-feature copy.
The questions I ask first
- Who is buying, and what do they care about?
- What problem are they trying to solve?
- What does it cost them to leave it unsolved?
- How do we solve it better than anyone else?
- Who have we already done it for?
- And last: what are we selling?
Looking for a marketer who owns the number?
I’m open to marketing manager and director roles. If you think there’s a fit, I’d love to hear from you.