Shanna Leonard

Passionate Marketing Leader | Brand Builder | Growth Strategist


I'm a dynamic, results-driven marketing executive with over a decade of experience building and transforming marketing functions into revenue-generating powerhouses. I have a proven track record in steering the strategic direction of high-performance marketing teams and creating compelling brand narratives. I'm passionate about crafting and executing strategies that elevate brand presence, foster growth, and drive meaningful client engagement. Throughout my career, I've thrived in uncharted territories. My expertise extends to various industries, including finance, technology, health/wellness, and emerging markets.

Shanna Leonard

Work

Experience

  • Secfi

    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

    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

    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.
  • BlackRock

    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

    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.
  • Dow Jones

    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.

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