Case Study > Retail Ready

From No Marketing Function to a Retailer-Ready Strategic System

This is how I built the marketing function from the ground up for a growing wholesale supplier, a 500-product catalog, a coordinated email and social program, and the company’s first-ever direct mail campaign, giving the business a repeatable system to reach retailers.

Where It Started

Big Brands had product, retailers, and a sales team, but no marketing function behind any of it. No content calendar, no campaign system, nothing tying the pieces together. Before I could write a single email, I had to figure out what marketing was supposed to do for this business: get in front of retailers consistently, hand the sales team something real to work with, and build a system that didn’t fall apart.

What I Built

I wrote and ran the newsletter program that kept retailers in the loop between sales cycles, and took social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, from nothing to a consistent voice and cadence.

The 500-product print catalog was the biggest lift, pulling product data, photography, and layout into one document that retailers could actually place orders from. 

I also got to test something the business had never tried before, direct mail. One run, five direct sales. Small in absolute terms, but it proved the channel worked, which is more than most first attempts can say.

Beyond the content itself, I built the sales team’s pitch decks and supporting materials, and coordinated getting the physical catalog into retailer hands.

How I Kept It Running

None of this works without a system behind it, so I set up Airtable to track every project and campaign from what was planned, what was in motion, and what had shipped. I worked directly with our sales rep to keep campaign timing and messaging in sync, instead of marketing and sales operating on separate timelines.

On the data side, I kept an eye on Google Search Console for organic performance and started digging into Hotjar to understand how people were actually using the site, early steps toward marketing decisions backed by more than a hunch.

The Result

I walked into a business with zero marketing infrastructure and built the channels, systems, and sales support it needed to show up for retailers consistently, including a brand-new channel that converted on the very first try.