SVP, Search Marketing Strategy at Digitas
Greater Chicago Area
- Current
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- SVP, Search Marketing Strategy at Digitas
- Past
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- Vice President Marketing at Folio Investing
- Vice President SEO/SEM at AOL
- Senior Marketing Manager at Network Solutions
- Marketing Manager/Event Planner at International Union of Operating Engineers
- Education
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- George Mason University
- Recommended
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25 people have recommended Melanie - Connections
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500+
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Melanie Mitchell’s Summary
Melanie Mitchell is a results-oriented leader with proven success at building and leading world-class marketing and technical teams for companies. She has 11+ years of experience in web site promotion (9+ years exp in search/online marketing). She has worked for numerous large and big brand sites across several industries, including travel, finance, entertainment, health, ecommerce, news and sports.
Melanie is currently the SVP of Search Strategy at Digitas where she is responsible for managing the Search Engine Marketing Knowledge Center. Prior to this role, she was VP of Marketing for Folio Investments, Inc., in charge of marketing efforts such as SEO, PPC, display, PR, video, and email to acquire customers, traffic and publicity.
Prior to this, she was at AOL where she leveraged her strong business acumen and ability to execute a wide range of marketing strategies designed to establish market presence, both domestic and international, and increase revenues. She developed strategy, laid the foundation for success (processes, procedures, tracking technology, reporting) and managed the team tasked with increasing AOL.com's free content business via paid (PPC) and organic (SEO) search.
Prior to AOL, she was at Network Solutions; managing direct response marketing campaigns through display, PPC, SEO and strategic alliances for both Network Solutions and NameSecure.com.
Melanie is an Advisory Board Member for WebmasterWorld Pubcon (http://www.pubcon.com/advisory.htm), a speaker at Search Engine Strategies (SES), Pubcon, Search Marketing Expo (SMX), AdTech, WebGuild, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and for such noted roundtables as Business Wire and the National Women's Business Center as well as a contributing writer to Search Engine Watch (http://searchenginewatch.com/). In early 2007, she was named one of the "top in-house SEO's" by Natural Search Blog (http://www.naturalsearchblog.com/archives/2007/02/27/some-top-in-house-seos/).
Melanie Mitchell’s Specialties:
- Direct Response Interactive Marketing
- Marketing Strategy
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Mobile Marketing
- Reputation Management Monitoring
- Domestic and International Marketing
- Online Marketing/Display/Banner advertising
- Video Marketing
- Social Media Marketing/Monitoring
- Blogger Outreach - Working with the Blogosphere to promote products/content
- Managing Large Budgets
Melanie Mitchell’s Experience
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SVP, Search Marketing Strategy
Digitas
(Public Company; PUB; Marketing and Advertising industry)
July 2009 — Present (5 months)
Responsible for managing the Digitas Search Engine Marketing Knowledge Center that ensures industry trends, new strategies and tactics, and best practices are continuously shared, enabling Digitas to stay on the forefront of this ever-evolving industry for the agency and their clients.
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Vice President Marketing
Folio Investing
(Financial Services industry)
June 2008 — June 2009 (1 year 1 month)
- Create, develop & drive marketing strategy, including targeted campaigns that result in customer acquisition/revenue, impacting business growth and the bottom line
- Accountable & responsible for paid search marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), PR, partner marketing, acquisition email, brand reinforcing activities and ownership of the company's web site acquisition pages
- Manage & direct overall PR strategy including, outreach, conferences, press releases and speaking engagements
- Work closely with CEO to ensure alignment among marketing efforts, partnerships, PR, and strategic company vision
- Monitor & analyze results using data to plan future marketing and site strategy
- Developed & manage ongoing blogger outreach program, media monitoring programs for reputation management (main stream media and blogosphere), social media engagement, and increase PR opportunities
- Created launch plans that included print, video, PR, online, and content planning strategies -
Vice President SEO/SEM
AOL
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; TWX; Internet industry)
September 2004 — February 2008 (3 years 6 months)
- Accountable for developing & executing AOL’s organic search (SEO) & paid search (SEM) strategy to promote free web content among the 70+ channels, brands & products
- Accountable for $60M-$80M SEM budget. Centralized mgmt & execution to take a holistic, strategic look at how we are invest our mktg dollars as a company to generate highest return
- Defined org structure to build a successful large scale/cross-departmental SEO program that included implementing consistent metrics, developing SEO standards, best practices & training documentation, developed & implemented SEO certification testing company-wide to test SEO competency & created tactical execution plan to accomplish company goals
- International implementation of programs
- Managed SEO cross functional team w/150+ people across the organization
- Consistently tested new media such as mobile marketing, widget development & promotion, social media marketing & working with the blogosphere to promote products/content -
Senior Marketing Manager
Network Solutions
(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Internet industry)
June 2000 — September 2004 (4 years 4 months)
- Developed and managed B2B/B2C marketing efforts for new acquisition (annual budget:$10M). All time ROI highs under my mgmt (200+% 2002-03; 100+% 2003-04)
- Increased natural search rankings by 80% in 10 mo plus doubled online cvr through successful implementation of a SEO program
- Cut online spending 45% by streamlining SEM - increased revenue by 60%, more than doubled the ROI and CVR, while maintaining sales rate
- Responsible for online media planning/execution, analyzing success, optimization and reporting across retail and wholesale channels for online acquisitions, up-sell, e-mail and biz dev totaling over $500M/yr
- Defined strategies/wrote business requirements to support marketing initiatives such as a long-term search engine positioning strategy, sales tracking, and establishing marketing campaigns on the company’s Web site
- Worked with multiple agencies and vendors simultaneously to reach ROI goals as well as aggressive deadlines to accommodate speed to market -
Marketing Manager/Event Planner
International Union of Operating Engineers
(Political Organization industry)
February 1998 — June 2000 (2 years 5 months)
- Responsible for all financial/accounting transactions of NJATC (National Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee) including payments, billing and recording transactions
- Served as administrator of non-profit NJATC to help state provincial and local affiliates implement training programs and procure all needed resources
- Created and implemented a new accounting system (Quick Books) for org
- Set-up and implemented a program database to facilitate registration, print badges, track attendees, and organize A/V equipment for speakers at all conferences. Cost savings per meeting over $15K
- Designed conference registration docs and official conference notices. Cost savings per meeting over $10K
- Coordinated all arrangements for official banquets, cocktail receptions, and ancillary social functions, including decor, food, beverages and entertainment
Melanie Mitchell’s Education
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George Mason University
Bachelor of Science , Marketing , 1990 — 1994
Additional Information
Melanie Mitchell’s Websites:
Melanie Mitchell’s Groups:
Board Member: WebMasterWorld Pubcon Advisory Committee
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LinkedSEO -
Google Group -
Search Engine Land -
Tech Breakfast Club -
PubCon
Melanie Mitchell’s Honors:
2007 Breakthrough Leadership Program – Time Warner, Inc.: One of 30 executives chosen across the entire Time Warner company worldwide (~80K employees) to attend the yearly leadership program
2006 Emmy Award for Live 8 – AOL, LLC (http://tinyurl.com/Live8Emmy)
2005 AOL.com Recognition Program – AOL, Inc.
2003 Distinguished Achievement Award – Network Solutions, LLC
2002 THRIVE Winner – VeriSign, Inc.
