Shanna Leonard

Experience

• 

  Secfi

  VP of Marketing

  Aug 2020 - Dec 2023

  Secfi is the leading provider of equity planning, stock option financing, and wealth management for the startup community.

  • Recruited as the first marketing hire and built a team of 10 skilled marketers focused on brand, growth and performance marketing, content marketing, lifecycle marketing, marketing operations, and product marketing.
  • Developed the go-to-market (GTM) infrastructure, including customer personas, user journeys, and product value propositions.
  • Contributed to corporate recognition as a Top Financial Technology Company on Inc. 5000’s “Fastest Growing Startups,” and Forbes’ list of “America’s Best Startup Employers.”
  • Launched a new brand that included a new logo mark and visual identity and created a brand campaign based on customer testimonials that included video, podcast ads, and paid social.
  • Drove 1.5M website page views in 2022 following a reinvention of the website in 4 months.
  • Acquired 50K new users, representing $48B in equity value, by placing integrated marketing campaigns, building the tech stack to support marketing automation and email / lifecycle marketing, and implementing reporting to track and optimize campaigns.
  • Contributed 35% of organic traffic and 50 keywords ranking #1 on Google following the development of a library of 200+ educational articles for “Secfi Learn” to build awareness and trust.
  • Increased stories in top-tier press 44%, including NYT, Fortune, Forbes and TechCrunch, with 58 stories in 2022 as a result of meeting with 40 reporters.
  • Achieved an average open rate of 43% for Founders and Funders, Secfi’s thought leadership newsletter, that is distributed bi-weekly to 36,000 subscribers.
  • Rolled out a new wealth management business line with a lean team and a small budget, driving $500M in assets under advisement within a year of launch.
• 

  Ripple

  Senior Director of Demand Generation

  Mar 2016 - Jul 2019

  Ripple is the leader in enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, transforming how the world moves, manages, tokenizes and stores value.

  • Built and led a talented team of 11 marketers as the fourth marketing hire.
  • Developed cohesive brand positioning, planned and executed global events, implemented demand generation strategies, and designed client advocacy programs.
  • Built a state-of-art internal video studio and production team to establish the brand via video platform.
  • Developed and managed the program and communications for a C-level Customer Advisory Board.
  • Generated substantial new business for customers by driving awareness, trust, and credibility for Ripple's payment network through designing the company’s first B2B2C brand campaign in Europe and Thailand.
  • Secured, briefed, and managed 500+ speaking engagements for senior leaders at leading events including Davos, Money2020, Grace Hopper, and the Milken Institute Global Conference.
  • Contributed 20% of all closed deals and generated 90 press articles by conceiving and owning the programming and production of the annual customer event, “Swell,” featuring President Bill Clinton and Dr. Ben Bernanke; now the most highly anticipated event
  • Co-founded Fortune’s first Fortune Brainstorm Finance conference to bring together established Wall Street giants and the up-and-coming new guard of fintech, blockchain, and venture finance to explore key trends.
  • Topped 4x pipeline coverage for the sales team and drove 50% of all new sales by ensuring ongoing alignment with the B2B go-to-market strategy.
  • Communicated weekly with 200,000 blog subscribers on the company’s established thought leadership platform featuring industry influencers and trending topics.
  • Identified, nurtured, and activated customer evangelists to build a community by launching an annual Blockchain Innovation Awards for banking customers who were making an impact with Ripple's technology.
• 

  BlackRock

  Senior Manager, Content Strategy

  Jul 2014 - Apr 2016

  BlackRock is one of the world's leading providers of investment, advisory and risk management solutions.

  • Developed and executed digital experiences to help individuals understand personal investing and exchange-traded funds.
  • Defined editorial content. Used storytelling approach to turn complex concepts into a compelling and easy read.
  • Developed content distribution strategy and partnered with internal and external teams to promote content through paid, earned and owned media.
  • Increased search traffic by 127% to the website by partnering with paid and organic search teams to optimize content and increase SEO rankings.
  • Improved target audience response with new content based on user journey.
  • Attracted 150 new users in 2015 through a multi-channel acquisition program.
  • Exceeded all benchmarks achieving 42% open percentage and 16% click rate following the design and automation of a 2-part welcome experience for new contacts.
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  BlackRock

  Senior Manager, Integrated Marketing

  Jan 2011 - Jul 2014

  BlackRock is one of the world's leading providers of investment, advisory and risk management solutions.

  • Drove large-scale integrated marketing campaigns with a mix of digital ads, social media, email, print advertising, collateral development, website development, and events to drive new business.
  • Developed and allocated a media budget of $2M and managed internal and external agencies.
  • Established editorial standards and messaging documents to drive consistency across brand campaigns.
  • Secured 150,000 new email sign-ups through digital advertising using display and rich media, co-registration, retargeting, social platforms, and mobile applications.
  • Led a large-scale integrated marketing campaign including television, out-of-home, digital displays, social media, email, direct mail, print advertising, collateral development, web development, paid search, and events.
• 

  Charles Schwab

  Senior Communications Manager, Charles Schwab

  Jan 2006 - Mar 2011

  The Charles Schwab Corporation is a leading provider of financial services, with 34.8 million active brokerage accounts, 5.2 million workplace plan participant accounts, 1.8 million banking accounts, and $8.52 trillion in client assets.

  • Led crisis management communications associated with the collapse of the financial markets in 2008, continuing through the subsequent global financial crisis and recession.
  • Directed internal communications plans for new product launches, acquisitions, and important corporate initiatives for the team managing relationships with Schwab’s Advisor Network.
  • Created sales materials and client presentations on behalf of a 150-person advisory team representing over $1B in assets.
  • Received a per-nominated STAR award and Business Excellence award for calm, clarity, and effective client education and retention during the 2008 financial markets collapse.
  • Reconceived and redesigned a client loyalty program that is an essential component of the sales cycle. Analyzed usage, revenue and expense impact, new offer development, opportunities for future enhancements and field training.
  • Formulated strategic messaging for Schwab’s Retirement Services. Oversaw the creative development process with internal and external agencies, from authoring creative briefs to overseeing development of new materials.
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  Dow Jones

  Regional Field Marketing Manager

  Apr 1999 - Jan 2006

  Dow Jones publishes the world's most trusted business news and financial information in a variety of media.

  • Oversaw a cross-functional global team of six marketing managers.
  • Directed a $1 million marketing budget and spearheaded the global launch of the Factiva.com news aggregation product.
  • Generated customer roll-out programs with strategic accounts including million-dollar accounts with HP, Cisco, and Microsoft. Wrote case studies with these fims to help in acquisition of new clients.