As Chief Marketing Officer at Fundstrat Global Advisors, I was brought in to assess the business, build the marketing function, and own the full growth strategy for a subscription platform with significant untapped potential. Fundstrat had strong research credibility and brand equity in financial markets but lacked the infrastructure, positioning, and go-to-market discipline to convert that reputation into paying subscribers at scale. I was accountable for the entire subscriber growth strategy: defining the model, setting priorities, and driving execution across paid acquisition, lifecycle marketing, pricing, retention, and product positioning for both institutional B2B and high-value retail investor audiences, while simultaneously leading go-to-market strategy for the firm's ETF business.
I began by inventorying the product, analyzing the data, and conducting research to understand the audience and identify gaps in the existing approach. From there, I developed a clearer value proposition and refreshed the marketing look and feel to better reflect the quality and credibility of the research. I then built the growth engine from scratch: standing up a robust paid and organic acquisition ecosystem, launching social channels that became real conversion tools, rebuilding the email and lifecycle infrastructure, and introducing audience segmentation to speak differently to retail investors versus institutional prospects. I overhauled pricing and introduced promotional cadences tied to key market moments, when financial audiences are most primed to convert. For the ETF business, I led communications and media strategy, sponsorships and events, and two extensive out-of-home campaigns to drive brand awareness and product visibility. I also introduced AI-driven workflows to improve departmental efficiency and built a real-time reporting system to give the business ongoing visibility into performance.
The results were significant: within 18 months, we doubled Financial Research subscription revenue and increased paid subscribers by 60%. On the ETF side, the integrated marketing campaigns helped the fund surpass $4B in AUM within its first year, establishing Fundstrat as a legitimate newcomer across both institutional and retail segments of the financial services space.
