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Hello, I am

Susan
Vertrees

Digital Marketing Technology Expert

Let me tell you a bit about myself! Please scroll to learn more.

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Chicago Area, IL
susan.vertrees [AT] gmail
630.779.0538

About

A little about me

I'm a success-driven digital marketing technology professional with a track record of delivering high-value technology solutions on complex client engagements. I have a demonstrated history of building data-driven marketing technology programs which allow my clients to focus on the end result and improve the bottom line. I delight in the details and enjoy tackling complicated projects and making order out of chaos.

My key strengths include:

  • Web Analytics: 12+ years of web analytics implementation and analysis using Adobe Analytics working with Fortune 100 companies on cross-product engagements. Uncovered many wins through proactive data capture and analysis.
  • Digital Marketing: Built client integrated marketing programs through strong governance and process improvement. Knowledgeable in all parts of the Adobe Experience Cloud and use cases for each tool.
  • Front-End Web Development: 15+ years of front-end web development building highly usable, scalable, and beautiful websites in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  • Program Management: Successfully managed client projects and creating strategic processes, leading to greater customer satisfaction and value.
  • User Experience Design: Provided GUI design and front-end programming for an online trading platform serving more than 300,000 accounts in 130 countries.

I'm a maker in my free time as well. I enjoy hobbies such as woodworking, knitting, gardening, and cooking. I put my excellent communication skills to use by volunteering with A.R.F.-Animal Rescue Foundation as the Director; Marketing, Events, and Technology. I live in the suburbs of Chicago with my husband, son, and cat.

Skills

Rockstar qualifications

While my primary expertise is in all facets of Adobe Analytics, I am a "full stack" Adobe Experience Cloud expert having worked on many projects involving all Experience Cloud tools and core services.

Adobe Analytics

100%

Adobe Audience Manager

75%

Adobe Target

75%

Adobe Campaign

33%

Adobe Experience Manager

33%

Adobe Experience Platform (AEP)

50%

 

In addition to all things Adobe Experience Cloud, I am also skilled at the following other technologies:

  • Data Visualization: Power BI, Adobe Report Builder, Adobe InDesign, Google Data Studio
  • Web Applications: Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, AdWords, DART, phpMyAdmin, WordPress, Drupal, SharePoint, JIRA, Confluence, Akamai, Salesforce
  • Programming Languages: JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, PHP, XML, ASP, SQL, C. In the process of learning Python.
  • Software: Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Premier Rush, XD, Acrobat, Microsoft Office 365, Visio, MS Project, Apache, IIS

Expertise

What I bring to the table

Web Development

I've worked with applications through the entire web development lifecycle - from brainstorming the idea to final release and all points in between.

Communication/Presentation

I'm an expert at aligning stakeholders around technical steps to reach business goals. My attention to detail means no requirement is left un-spec'd and no tech remains unexplained.

Data Visualization

I build dashboards that get the point across in as few pixels as possible. I understand what stakeholders want and tell the story to give them the data they need.

UI/UX Design

I am passionate about good user experiences in all aspects of my work, from developing full customer journeys for my clients to designing usable web interfaces.

Experience

What I've done
2018 - present

Customer Success Architect (CSA)

Adobe Inc. - Experience Cloud technologies

Partnered with account management and sales for Adobe's top customers to deliver workshops geared toward increasing customer satisfaction and adoption of Adobe Experience Cloud and marketing technology solutions. Delivered presentations to executives designed to educate on highly technical topics. Acted as an upper-funnel lead generation source for Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) prospects. Worked with Adobe product management and engineering to develop new features and act as a customer advocate.

2016 - 2018

Principal Consultant

Adobe Inc. - Experience Cloud technologies

Ongoing technical consulting across the entire Experience Cloud stack. Contributed to new product development on projects such as Adobe Auditor, Launch, and feature suggestions for Analytics Workspace. Participated in consulting go-to-market strategy sessions and developed deliverable templates. Presented at Adobe Summit in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Led multi-solution teams on top 5 strategic accounts.

2013 - 2016

Senior Technical Consultant and Team Lead

Adobe Inc. - Marketing Cloud technologies

Continued to develop Analytics solutions while also performing team lead duties. I managed the staffing for seven consultants and maintained an average of 75% billable utilization across group. Provided mentorship in consulting soft skills to team members.

2009 - 2013

Consultant

Adobe Inc. - Adobe Analytics

Built custom Adobe Analytics solutions for companies specializing in the financial services industry. Guided clients through successful implementations from start to finish by understanding their value drivers and uncovering optimization opportunities in the process.

2008 - 2009

Senior Web Designer

optionsXpress, Inc. (now Charles Schwab)

Provided innovative GUI design for Barron’s four-time best online trading platform, specializing in tool and trade screen design. Saved marketing department over $200,000/year on outside graphic design services through process improvement and comprehensive project management. Worked with systems department to streamline code and implement a content delivery network to decrease “critical path” page load time by more than 50%.

2006 - 2008

Web Designer

optionsXpress, Inc. (now Charles Schwab)

Supported marketing department in acquisition of new accounts by designing and coding landing pages, emails, and banner ads. Provided website support by making and releasing site updates to content, code, and design. Designed and coded the highest-converting, longest-running homepage banner in optionsXpress’s history: 300,000 Traders Can’t Be Wrong.

2003 - 2005

Executive Assistant

SIRVA, Inc.

Reported to the Senior Vice President, Human Resources and two other senior executives. Served as the primary liaison with the Board of Directors and coordinated their administrative requirements. Completely revamped the HR intranet web site, creating a user-friendly and easy to navigate site. Managed the Human Resources and Legal Department budgets for a total amount of $7m. Identified opportunities in the HR budget that resulted in a turnaround from 4% over budget in 2003 to 3% under budget in 2004.

Education

Book smarts
2018

Digital Marketing Academy (DMA)

Adobe Inc.

Complete training in the implementation and use of the full Adobe Experience Cloud suite of products focusing on building a sandbox environment and executing on business use cases. Awarded Outstanding Presenter DMA Bootcamp 1, Group 1.

2000-2002

Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, Information and Decision Systems

San Diego State University

Coursework included classes in both business principles, computer science, and information management.

1998-2000

Liberal Arts

Trinity International University

General education and focus on music performance and fine arts.

Testimonials

What clients say about me
‘’

I've leveraged the journey output that [Susan] provided in all of my leadership discussions as a model/example of what a holistic journey should look like for [Client]. You've helped us prioritize how we need to evolve from our 1:many personalization approach to the next level as we look to get to more of a 1:1 down the line. The results from that workshop have gotten my attention and have been extremely valuable, so thank you for that.

VP of Marketing

Online Clothing Retailer

I want to let you know how INVALUABLE Susan is on [Client]. She continues to do a phenomenal job of supporting [Client] both from an Analytics perspective, but more importantly, as a strategic adviser. She has great visibility into how they are leveraging Analytics and the interrelation with other Adobe solutions and has earned [Client's] full trust - and that is saying a lot. She must NEVER EVER be moved off [Client]. EVER. ;)

Customer Success Manager

Adobe

I am sure you’ve all heard great feedback on Susan from multiple sources, but I want to add my voice as well. Susan Vertrees is an excellent consultant and a real pleasure to work with. We’ve had a gap in Target’s Recommendations functionality for years and I asked around the consulting group to find someone I could work with to reach a solution. I was introduced to Susan. Not only did she come up with a great solution, but she found an excellent (and creative) way to turn it into billable work and help a multiple clients. Finally, in a presentation to one of our customers today, I saw how her preparation, overview, clearly-articulated next steps and overall presentation skill were top-notch. Although my interactions with Susan have been somewhat limited, I’ve been very impressed with everything I’ve seen from her thus far. She is great asset to the team.

Sr. Product Manager

Adobe

Just a quick note of thanks for keeping all the balls in the air moving this week. I know I haven’t been able to keep up with all the product issues with AAM/DTM/Core Services/Data Connectors/etc we’ve had or all the requests we’ve been making of you, but I am really appreciative that you have been able to manage it all. I noted to [MT] yesterday that we’ve been very happy with the Analytics Consulting support throughout this whole process. The extra effort in supporting [Canada] Analytics and our DTM implementation concurrently with the core project has been super-helpful. While it is normal to have the last minute scramble leading up to go-live on a project of this magnitude, I wanted to let you know we appreciate the help and leadership over the last week, especially. I also wanted to thank you, in advance, for your help and patience over the next couple of weeks, as I’m sure it’ll be busy and we’ll continue to need a lot of support. I think we are all excited about what we’re getting with Adobe Analytics, though, and it should be a positive game changer to our business.

Integrated Marketing Manager

B2B Retailer

I want to make sure you all know how much you all were a joy to work with and your patience with [Company], myself, and [JM's] team has been massive and a credit to your professionalism and expertise. All of which, has been greatly appreciated. There are some rough waters ahead for the implementation, now that we have been assumed by [RD's] org, but I do want to say that what we did last year was nothing short of miraculous and I know that without you and your team (and the RIT guys in [Washington]) this would have never happened. Our implementation has been something everyone envied on the Consumer side and while it wasn’t perfect nor adopted with a parade and balloons by the business who we implemented for, I know we did a good job.

Program Manager

Telecom Company

I just wanted to drop a quick note and make sure due credit goes to Susan for her work with us over the last couple months. She has been incredibly helpful in getting our processes coordinated and has put together a very comprehensive and well styled implementation guide that should get us over the finish line with [our] apps and Adobe’s Mobile Services. I’m excited to get everything up and running here over the summer, and Susan’s making a big impact on that front.

Sr Manager, Digital Strategy

US National Sports League

Client Wins

Valuable achievements
win

Call Center Savings

Telecom Industry

Uncovered opportunity for $2m+ in call center cost deflection through internal search optimization. Adobe Global Services Americas Q4 winner for quality delivery on this multi-solution project.

win

Incremental Revenue Potential

Online Brokerage

Identified a potential of $1.4m in incremental revenue for an online brokerage through tracking trades and identifying optimization points to prevent fallout.

win

Page Performance Improvement

B2B Retailer

Identified tagging configuration changes that lead to a 20% improvement in page load time. 

win

Mobile App Marketing

B2B Retailer

Developed an innovative solution for tracking mobile app deep links to allow for Marketing Channels reporting for in-app activities.

win

Global Data Set

US Sports League

Through comprehensive program management, client completed a multi-year project to aggregate 131 individual data sets into a single report suite for a global view across all of their web, app, and connected device properties.

win

3rd Party Data for Optimization

B2B Retailer

Deployed an innovative way of folding Demandbase data into the Adobe Experience Cloud to use for advanced reporting and optimization across Adobe Analytics, Target, Audience Manager, and Data Workbench.

Publications

Sharing good information
Enriching Online Data With Offline Customer Data
Adobe Summit 2019

Enriching Online Data With Offline Customer Data

Organizations today have more customer data than they know what to do with. Bringing together that data to get a 360-degree view of the customer and making it accessible to your organization helps data-driven decisions and improves the overall customer experience. Adobe Analytics offers a multitude of features and capabilities to enrich the online behavioral data that you're already collecting. From data sources and customer attributes, to the classifications rule builder and importer, get hands-on experience on how to use these capabilities. Understand your offline data and how it enriches the online customer data.

Analytics Power Up
Adobe Summit 2017

Analytic power-up: New implementation standards to get to the next level

Analysis Workspace has changed the game for analysts, the same way Mario changed the game for gaming. You can now path eVars, change allocations on the fly, and use metrics, segments, and dimensions interchangeably. With all these changes to the way data is analyzed, it's time to rethink how to plan an Adobe Analytics variable map (SDR). Join our analytics evangelist and principal analytics consultant who put together a new set of best practices for implementation plans that align with all this new power that resides within the tools. Think of it as the Game Genie for your analytics data!

Six Tips
Adobe Summit 2017

Six Tips to Enrich Customer Data in Adobe Analytics

Brands today have more customer data than they know what to do with. Bringing that data together and making it accessible to your organization produces better data-driven decisions. What you might not know is that Adobe Analytics offer a multitude of capabilities and tools to enrich the data that you are already collecting. From data sources and customer attributes, to creative calculated metrics and segments, this session will enable you to go back to your office and impress everyone with your new discoveries.

ObservePoint Summit
November 2016

Mastering Customer Behavior Data with Centers of Excellence

Recent reports from Forrester have shown that marketing Analysts are losing confidence in their data. This presentation shows where orgs are losing confidence and provides suggestions for improving holistic data usability. Presented at the 2016 Virtual Analytics Summit sponsored by ObservePoint. (no recording available)

Customer Attributes
Adobe Summit 2016

Know your customer! Using customer attributes in Adobe Analytics

Learn how Adobe Analytics can enable richer views into your customers through the Adobe Marketing Cloud customer attributes functionality. Discover the steps to set customer IDs, sync with Adobe Marketing Cloud visitor ID, and upload detailed data for granular reporting in Adobe Analytics and other solutions.

Blog
2013

Adobe Digital Marketing Blog

A collection of several posts on the Adobe Digital Marketing Blog discussing Adobe Analytics fundamentals for financial services clients.