Hello, I'm Robert

Lifecycle Marketer | Marketing Automation Manager | Martech Enthusiast

I’m a first-generation university graduate and Bay Area native whose career in marketing has evolved from broad digital marketing into a deep specialization in lifecycle marketing, marketing automation, and customer engagement.

My marketing journey began at Chapman University, where I earned my Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing, and a minor in Psychology. That combination helped me develop a strong foundation in both the mechanics of marketing and understanding why people make decisions, what motivates them to act, and how the right message at the right moment can influence the customer journey.

The following details my work experience and how I became a lifecycle marketer, along with an extra section at the end to get a feel for who I am outside of the office.

Building a Foundation in Digital Marketing

Starting out as a digital marketing specialist at Laguna Tools taught me a lot about the early stages of the customer lifecycle. I managed social media campaigns, learned how to manage lead routing and scoring, took on a major website reconstruction with tens of thousands of SKUs, and played a key role in overall marketing campaign management. I was primarily accountable for customer awareness and engagement, with participation in conversion and loyalty.

The experience gave me an understanding of how different elements of the marketing ecosystem fit together, and how to drive a campaign from ideation through to deployment.

Skills

Email and SMS Marketing
Lifecycle Strategy
Marketing Automation
Promotional Emails
Lifecycle Marketing
Customer Retention
Email Deliverability
A/B Testing
HTML & CSS
SQL
AI Efficiency & Solutions
Scalable Campaigns
Reporting

Discovering Lifecycle Marketing

Moving from Southern California to the Bay Area brought me to TeeChip, a startup brand within Scalable Press. I initially joined as a digital marketing specialist, but quickly gravitated toward email marketing and the opportunity to create more personalized customer experiences at scale.

After managing the email campaign calendar, I stepped into a dedicated email marketing role and was tasked with implementing Iterable as the company's new email service provider. I worked cross-functionally with Iterable support and internal Product and Engineering teams to connect the platform to our data stack and establish the foundation for automated, data-driven lifecycle marketing.

From there, I built and launched abandon, milestone, and other customer engagement campaigns designed to move customers through different stages of their relationship with the brand. I also tackled a critical deliverability issue which took our delivery rate from ~25% to a healthy 99% over time.

This was where I learned to love email marketing and get a taste for the intricacies of lifecycle marketing as a blend of customer psychology, data, technology, creative strategy, and measurable business outcomes.

Going Deeper: Email, Automation & Customer Retention

After a brief chapter at Restoration Hardware focused on email production and deployment in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, I joined Vacasa as an Email Marketing Manager. This role allowed me to take everything I had learned about email and evolve it into a broader lifecycle marketing practice.

When I started, my first job was to finish the implementation of Salesforce Marketing Cloud with Product, Data Analytics, and the firm hired to assist us: Traction on Demand. After that was completed, I spearheaded multi-touch customer journeys spanning onboarding, referrals, milestones, and custom engagement programs, often partnering with Customer Support, Operations, and other teams to create experiences that extended well beyond a single email. These programs contributed to an approximately 25–30% year-over-year increase in customer NPS before the company business model changed following its acquisition.

I also honed my hands-on skills with the technology behind lifecycle marketing. I built responsive, dark-mode-friendly email templates for the WYSIWYG editor, developed AMPscript for highly dynamic campaigns, and wrote SQL automations to power both routine and advanced customer segmentation.

Over time, I became the subject matter expert that teams turned to when they had questions about email marketing, automation, or martech.

Career Highlights

Rebuilt the company website with SEO at the forefront, helping new product lines reach the top three positions in search engine results @ Laguna Tools
Stood up Iterable from the ground up while simultaneously recovering the brand from a severe deliverability and domain-reputation problem @ Scalable Press
Reduced email churn by more than 50% through advanced engagement-based segmentation, using customer behavior to determine send cadence @ Vacasa

What's Next

My career has taken me from broad digital marketing into the increasingly sophisticated world of lifecycle marketing and marketing technology. Along the way, I've learned that the best lifecycle programs aren't simply about sending more messages. They're about understanding where a customer is in their journey, using data to identify what they need, and building the technology and experiences that deliver the right interaction at the right time.

That's the work I will keep doing.

I'm looking for an opportunity where I can bring together lifecycle strategy and marketing automation to build smarter customer journeys; a company where I can continue growing alongside a team that values experimentation, thoughtful marketing, and measurable impact.

In short: I like making marketing technology work harder for both the customer and the business.

If you're looking for someone who can connect the dots between customer behavior, marketing strategy, data, and technology, I'd love to hear what you're building. Whether you're looking to strengthen your lifecycle program, untangle your marketing stack, or simply have a conversation about what's possible, let's talk.

Toolbox

Salesforce Marketing Cloud - Segment - Snowflake - Litmus - Tableau - VS Code - HTML - CSS - SQL - AI - Zapier - Iterable - Emarsys - Return Path - Klaviyo - Campaign Monitor - Jira - Asana - Slack - Google Suite - Microsoft Suite - Adobe Creative Suite - Netsuite - Ampscript - Audience Builder

Contact Me

Beyond the Resume

I grew up in Richmond, California, where it was easy to grow a deep appreciation for the outdoors and a healthy sense of adventure. Weekends meant hiking through Wildcat Canyon, mountain biking around Mt. Tam, or the semi-annual camping trip up to Burney Falls. It wasn’t until adulthood that I began venturing beyond California, exploring places like Zion, the French Polynesian islands, Maui, and, my favorite so far, Japan.

I am also an aspiring craftsman. During childhood I loved nothing more than to build things, but as I worked at Laguna Tools, I rediscovered the passion for making things with my own hands (and machines). During my time there, I took the initiative to learn how to operate industrial machinery before I’d ever picked up a hammer. I experimented with CNC machines and laser cutters, creating signs, coasters, and all kinds of little projects. These also conveniently helped provide needed content for marketing campaigns!

That curiosity eventually grew into a genuine passion for woodworking. These days, I enjoy creating everything from ornate cutting boards and hand-whittled utensils to custom outdoor seating. It is very exciting and satisfying to take an idea, work through the details, and end up with something useful that didn’t exist before.

At home, my little family and I have built a pretty peaceful life in the East Bay. Most days include a walk through the neighborhood with our two dogs, Maisy and Violet, and when we’re not outside, you’ll probably find us hosting the occasional game night with friends or experimenting in the kitchen with some ambitious cooking or baking project.

I’m happiest when I’m solving problems, learning something new, making something with my hands, exploring somewhere I’ve never been, or simply enjoying the people (and dogs) around me.