When it comes to user experience, it may be obvious that it is an intricate part of website/app design and development, but UX is also a big part of marketing automation and just like websites and apps, it requires a lot of insights into the behaviors of users.

Case Studies and UX Research

Because fluctuations in user behavior is regular in marketing automation, especially in the education industry, we have to keep on top of these variations with consistent studies and research in order to plan for effective campaigns. Often it is an annual study that determines our direction for the year, but we constantly keep an eye on all the campaigns in order to adjust for any changes within the year.

Heat Mapping, UTM and CTA Tracking

These are some of our regular methods that helps us stay aligned with our marketing automation goals. By observing behaviors from opening an email to where in the email sees the most activities based on location and interests, and by tracking and gathering leads we can determine the effectiveness of the current templates to make any adjustments necessary for future sends. By gathering these data, we create more targeted emails with information and CTA's that help guide contacts to take actions that produces favorable results.

A/B Testing

A/B testing is a good way to discover if any minor changes to a template can result in positive (or negative) responses. We take a small contact list and split the contacts in half in order to send two variations of the same email (one variation to each group). Even a slight change in the location of a specific CTA or a header can result in different reaction to the same email.

Campaign Planning and Building

Whether it's a one off, drip, or nurture campaign the studies can help greatly in not only determining the type of email but also in the type of campaign that needs to be built. What type of behavior are we expecting? What type of behavior do we want? Do we want to provide all the content or do we want to just give them a teaser and lead them to a page or a form to register? There are many questions that we have to ask before we can build an effective campaign and the studies are invaluable information that guides us during the planning stages.

 

Marketing automation is where my current responsibilities lie and email marketing is the largest part of marketing automation within HMH. Below are a few examples of the email types that I produce.

Marketing Lead Gen Email

This is a typical non-solicited marketing email that promotes a program and generate leads. A lead generating email can take different forms. They could be a response to an indication of interest gathered from previous emails, they can be form submissions for free offers, they can also be from registrations for events and webinars, etc. Either Product Marketing or Demand Gen will provide proposals for a campaign and work with the Marketing Automation Specialists (MAS) team to work out a plan for the type of campaign needed.

Monthly Newsletter Email

Newsletters are prospects and subscription based and are usually deployed monthly. These are typically non promotional and features news and events that are the focus of the education industry for the month.

Event Email

Event emails are used to get contacts to sign up for a webinar or an in-person event. Depending on the type of event they sign up for, we can include these contacts for follow up emails that can provide useful information about any future events relating to the one they signed up for. Depending on their level of interests, we can also send the contacts down a nurture to provide other related information or product promotions.

Email Style Guide

The Digital Marketing eCampaign Style Guide is created and maintained by the MAS team and is openly available in our intranet to help guide requesters in choosing the right type of email template to fit their needs. It is also used by the creative team as a template to create designs for custom email designs when needed. It is updated when there is change in any of the templates.

Email Banner and Hero Image Guide

This is a guide to help designers produce email banners and hero images to make sure that their final design can be applied to our existing templates.

 

Currently my involvement in web work is in the CMS, building and editing pages within our home site and also in Eloqua, building single landing pages and forms. The samples below are sites that I was involved in either as a designer, developer or both.

HMH Classzone Site (2006)

This was an Online tool for students who use HMH textbooks to reference content related to chapters as well as games and learning tools to help students solve problems. I was involved from planning of the site build, concept, UI development to prototype before the final design and development was applied.

HMH Central Site (2013)

This is an intranet site that contained information and news for HMH employees and partners.

Read180 Site (2015)

This is a product specific site that lives within the HMH site.

HMH Fuse Landing Page (2013)

This is a marketing landing page to accompany the print brochure that was distributed at events.

Holt McDougal Site (2007)

Soon after Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt Education merged, their subsidiaries, Holt, Rinehart and Winston (HRW) was combined with McDougal Littell and formed into Holt McDougal. I was tasked to design and develop (front-end only) a site for the newly formed division, which I was a part of at the time.

Banner Ads

Banner ads were regularly produced to be rotated on the HMH home page.

 

As the current generation of learners grow with vast exposure to social media, educators are finding that their presence and knowledge of this media provides big advantages in teaching. The education industry is realizing that these increased presence is a great opportunity for reaching many contacts without the cost and effort factors of many other medias.

Social Medial Graphics

These are some examples of product marketing and event invites for social media platforms.

 

A small number of projects that I was involved in were apps. They were mostly support tools for the field sales account executives.

HMH PreviewPad App (2012)

Initially named "Lookbook" this app was to be used by field sales account executives to show product features to help create leads for sales during sales visits, events and trade shows. After my initial concept, I partnered with a developer to create a working prototype before final development.

HMH Solution Finder App (2012)

This is a design concept to replace an aging Solution Finder and to also introduce an app version which was previously not available.

 

As part of the Smart Card Solutions group within Motorola, my main task was to provide design support for Executive Briefs and Proposals for the Smart Card Transaction Systems.

Motorola Smart Card Solutions (2000)

This is an Executive Briefing Brochure for the Millennium Line transit system in Vancouver that highlights the proposed Smart Card solution for the Smart Card automatic card reader. It is a 12 page brochure that I have worked on from start to pre-press and features my original line-art. This is one of my earliest professional design work and includes elements that follow Motorola's brand guidelines.

 

During my time at a private agency, our biggest client was Bosch with major focus on B2B marketing content.

Bosch Annual Report Brochure

This is an annual report that were distributed to Bosch's retail accounts and distributors that highlighted the year's technical and commercial achievements. The digital illustration of the plug is my original work that was placed on the cover spread of the brochure.

Bosch Advantage Newsletter

This is a monthly newsletter that were distributed to distributors and retail accounts. This newsletter highlights any monthly issues that pertains to Bosch's product, tech or legal information that may be critical for sales and distribution.

Bosch Pays Program Guide

This is an annual brochure for account holder's rewards programs as well as any sweepstakes that may be running at the time.

Bosch Packaging

I have also worked on product packaging for automotive parts, which were a small part of our account with Bosch.

 

Barton Brands was also one of the larger accounts during my time at the private agency with major focus on POP and B2B marketing. They are a nationwide distributor of wine and spirits.

Thor's Hammer Table Tent

Table tents are POP (Point of Purchase) marketing pieces that are placed in the middle of a table or against the wall on booth tables that advertise an item that can be ordered at a restaurant or a bar.

Black Velvet Trade show Card and Flyer

At trade shows and tasting events, flyers and cards like these are distributed to promote specific items.

Fleischmann's POP Case Cards

Marketing case cards like these are placed in stores in designated spots, usually at the end of an isle, to promote specific products with the product placed in the box in front of the the cards.

 

My experience in marketing within HMH has been vast. From digital to print, I have had the opportunity to dip my hands into every type of marketing that HMH practiced. Below are some examples of print marketing projects that I worked on in the past.

¡Avancemos! Brochure (2013)

New versions of programs are preceded by brochures to highlight any major updates and changes to current programs before new versions are made available for sale. These brochures are distributed by account executives to leads that can produce upsell opportunities.

HMH Fuse Brochure (2013)

We also distribute flyers and brochures during events to promote our digital apps and tools.

HMH Channel One Teen Factbook Brochure (2013)

Channel One News, was a news network for teen eduction news. This was a downloadable content for one of the issues (teen financial planning) that were a highlight during the time of this publication.

 

Swordfish (2004)

Logo, business card and window vinyl for Swordfish Sushi restaurant

Small Businesses

Logo and business cards for Inter-Pacific, Blue Ginger and Netspace PC

Apps

Logos for Apps

 

A good part of my youth was spent on illustrations and while living through great advancement in computer technology and applications, digital illustrations are some of my strongest attributes.

Digital Illustrations and Info Graphics

Below are some of my original digital artwork that has been used in professional marketing and digital applications.

 

Art and Illustrations