Donald J. Gallant, Director of Analytics, Marketsmith Inc.
Gallant knows the value of hard work. Not only did he climb the ranks from marketing analyst to director of analytics within his five years at Marketsmith, but he also helped fully automate the direct response firm’s database and DRTV reports. He did this by co-creating an attribution algorithm that provides the company’s clients with deep insight into their media mix and omnichannel performance. It’s not only helping to drive marketing success at those billion-dollar businesses, it’s contributing to Marketsmith’s three-year 3,420% growth rate, as well.
Defining moment: [Marketsmith has] given me opportunities not only in analytics, but also [in] client services, to allow me to diversify myself as a businessperson in general…. They’ve tasked me with projects or clients that didn’t necessarily relate to my actual title, and I took it, ran with it, and succeeded.
Words to live by: One size does not fit all.
Strategy shift: We have an annual report with [clients] saying, “Here’s where you were last year; here’s your growth year-over-year; here’s where you’re trending right now.” At one point someone raised their hand and said, “Where do we expect to be this year?” It’s something that we hadn’t really thought of in too much detail. So, we went back to the drawing board…I built out multiple dashboards and goal trackers to monitor that performance and growth on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. It allowed us to achieve that significant growth.
Up next: One of the biggest opportunities coming up is digital attribution and how you can use that to build out a predictive model of not just reporting…but you’re really going to predict what are the actual business expectations, what kind of sales do you expect, [and] what kind of brand awareness should you expect from this media spend?
Advice to young marketers: The direct marketing landscape is constantly evolving, and you need to be on your toes and ready to adapt every single day.
–Elyse Dupré
