Sam Higgins
Manager of Online User Experience at Aquire
- Location
- Austin, Texas Area
- Industry
- Marketing and Advertising
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Sam Higgins's Overview
- Current
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- Manager of Online User Experience at Aquire
- Mentor / Volunteer - Entrepreneurship Program at Texas State University
- Past
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- Manager of Online Marketing at Aquire
- Marketing Manager, North America at StepStone Solutions (now Lumesse)
- Marketing Coordinator at StepStone Solutions (now Lumesse)
- Inside Sales / Marketing at StepStone Solutions (now Lumesse)
- Founder / Editor-in-Chief at The Cheap Sheet
- Education
-
- Texas State University-San Marcos
- Recommendations
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11 people have recommended Sam
- Connections
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500+ connections
Sam Higgins' Summary
Marketing, UX, and demand generation professional with 5 years experience in the enterprise talent management software.
Always looking for new challenges, interesting contacts, and learning opportunities.
Specialties
* Marketing strategy
* Online User Experience
* Usability Testing
* Prospect targeting and data mining
* Direct mail & email
* Closed loop marketing
* Event planning and execution
* Customer marketing
* Social media strategy
* Web property and content strategy
* Online Advertising / Pay-Per-Click / Pay-Per Lead Programs
* Global & Cross Functional Teamwork
Sam Higgins' Experience
Manager of Online User Experience
Aquire
Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry
January 2012 – Present (5 months)
* Develop and implement online information architecture and content strategies for internal and external systems
* Assist in building out wire-frames, navigation structures, interaction models and content placement for online systems
* Monitor, report on, and work for continuous improvement of online property KPIs, using Google Analytics and other reporting tools
* Work with content creators to ensure all online messaging and assets adhere to user-centered design best practices
* Regularly plan, execute, and analyze the results of online and in-person user testing initiatives
* Create and manage user personas for each Aquire online property
* Work with sales and marketing teams to support end to end lead lifecycle tracking metrics, reporting on marketing impact and effectiveness
Mentor / Volunteer - Entrepreneurship Program
Texas State University
Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry
January 2008 – Present (4 years 5 months)
Support the great TX State Entrepreneurship Program on an as-needed basis in a variety of capacities including:
* Help the entrepreneurship students in developing and maturing the marketing sections of their business plans during on-site visits
* Offer ongoing email/phone support and feedback to the students to support the development of their business plans
* Act in a judging capacity with other local entrepreneurs and businesspeople during the end of semester b-plan competitions
* Leverage my personal contacts to grow the support network for the program by introducing new volunteers, mentors, judges and presenters into the fold
* Provide ad-hoc digital marketing advice to the program managers in order to help them optimize their online presence, reach, and effectiveness
Manager of Online Marketing
Aquire
Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry
March 2010 – January 2012 (1 year 11 months)
• Lead Aquire's online marketing team, reporting into the Director of Marketing
• Develop and implement strategy in the areas of: SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Social Media, Search Engine Marketing (including Google AdWords Pay Per Click), Pay-per-lead Programs, Web Content, & Social Recruiting
• Work with IT and Lead Generation teams to track end-to-end lead lifecycle metrics, with data collection points within Google Analytics, Hubspot, Microsoft CRM, KissInsights, ExactTarget et al
• Act as liason and web usability advocate between the Aquire sales and marketing teams, our external creative agency, 3rd party technical implementation resources, and other 3rd party vendors
• Stay engaged with online and local social media, web marketing, social recruiting, and user experience communities through blogs, seminars, trainings, and networking events -- In order to bring best practices and tools back to the Aquire team
Marketing Manager, North America
StepStone Solutions (now Lumesse)
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Software industry
August 2008 – March 2010 (1 year 8 months)
• Report directly into the Global Head of Field Marketing at StepStone's UK headquarters, and collaborate
with global field marketing and cross-functional colleagues all over the world
• Develop and implement strategy in the areas of: Demand Generation, Customer Engagement, Online and
Email Marketing, Sales Support, and CRM Utilization
• Identify, develop, and implement best practices in the areas of social media & conversational marketing,
and communicate these practices to the global field marketing team
• Provide local country support for Salesforce.com and Engage B2B systems
• Organize StepStone’s presence at key internal and external tradeshows and events
Marketing Coordinator
StepStone Solutions (now Lumesse)
Public Company; 501-1000 employees; stp.ol; Internet industry
November 2007 – August 2008 (10 months)
Inside Sales / Marketing
StepStone Solutions (now Lumesse)
Public Company; 501-1000 employees; stp.ol; Internet industry
August 2007 – November 2007 (4 months)
Sam Higgins' Projects
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Social Recruiting Program
- November 2010 to December 2011
Team Members: Sam HigginsCreated and implemented a social recruiting program that resulted in 36%–338% traffic increases to Aquire job postings along with a positive impact on employer branding and buzz with no marginal hard costs
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New Website Design & Launch
- November 2010 to August 2011
Team Members: Sam HigginsLed an inter and intra-organizational team to execute a full website rebranding and redesign project. Including coordinating web design, copy, user experience and systems integration.
Results included a 77%–350% traffic increase to top web pages and a 50% increase in visitor engagement metrics. -
SEO Strategy Uplift
- March 2010 to March 2011
Team Members: Sam HigginsConceived and managed a revamped SEO and web content strategy at Aquire, resulting in a 40% increase in web visits within 6 months, 66% within the first year, including a 105% increase in organic search traffic
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Online and Paid Search Advertising
Team Members: Sam HigginsLed a revamp in Aquire's online advertising strategy across multiple products and segments, resulting in a 15% increase in conversions and a 25% lower cost per conversion within six months
Sam Higgins' Skills & Expertise
Sam Higgins' Education
Texas State University-San Marcos
B.B.A., Management / Entrepreneurship
2004 – 2007
* Major: Management with a focus on Entrepreneurial Studies
* Graduated: May 12th 2007, Summa Cum Laude, with a 4.0 TX State GPA
* Led a team that earned the “Best Business Plan” award during an Entrepreneurial Studies course, and was invited to present at a national business planning competition
* Received recognition award for academic excellence
Activities and Societies: Golden Key, Beta Gamma Sigma
Sam Higgins' Additional Information
- Interests:
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Boardsports (especially snowboarding), swimming in natural bodies of water, camping, cooking, traveling, learning, technology (shiny new toys), the news on NPR, lectures and audiobooks on my ipod, good radio (This American Life, On the Media, Radio Lab), live music shows
- Groups and Associations:
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Contact Sam for:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
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