Commentary on work at Waterford Technologies

A recent job was as Vice President of Marketing at Waterford Technologies in Irvine, CA. In this position, I was responsible for all marketing strategy and programs for three distinct product lines, which was basically like being the VP of Marketing for three companies simultaneously.

The main company, Waterford Technologies, had an email archiving software called MailMeter. I helped develop this core product into multiple variations over the years to address specific segments and business problems. For example, we had a strong interest from attorneys, so we launched MailMeter Investigate to solve their issues searching for terms within corporate email that would enhance their case files. This was a fun industry to be involved in since when I started nobody had heard of Email Archiving, and by the time I left, it was a very competitive and well-known industry. I had many successes at this company besides developing the product lines, such as building a high-yield Lead Generation Engine, developing multiple effective websites, having multiple articles of mine published in trade magazines, and achieving a spot on Gartner's Magic Quadrant (...without being a paid customer!).

DPD, a sister company to Waterford Technologies, had the GoldFax product line, a leading fax software product. This mature product line needed re-vitalization to compete with newer products on the market, so I re-tooled all collateral, websites, even the logo and went back to market and the channel with the new image and some new key functionality that led to a major upswing in sales.

The third company, SeattleLab, had multiple software programs, the main ones being an email application and anti-virus software for small businesses. These products have been around for many years, targeted the very small business market, and were mostly sold via e-commerce using our website.

Each of these product lines had a distinct audience segments, competitors, events, partners, and their own set of websites and content, so it was challenging to wear three hats and be able to switch gears from one phone call to the next.

I was hired to come up with an annual plan for marketing programs for all three product lines that would increase brand awareness, website traffic, lead generation and sales revenue. I managed all programs and built the systems and infrastructure in these small companies to enable significantly increased sales, enhanced brands, and long-term success. I enjoyed the wide variety of responsibilities, the small company environment, and the direct impact I had as a member of the small executive team.