Karen Horn

VP of Growth Marketing

theSkimm, July 2021 - Current

• Developed and led overall growth marketing, demand generation, audience development, lifecycle marketing, and retention strategies leading to a 36% YoY audience growth
• Increased revenue by 42% through innovation marketing solutions and expanding advertising inventory.
• Established OKRs for all growth marketing programs and ensured delivery of improved ROI performance
• Identified and partnered with Product and Analytics to stand up a cohesive marketing stack, including a time-decay attribution model, demand generation automation, database management, and advanced analytics.
• Applied qualitative and quantitative research methods along with rigorous A/B testing to understand growth drivers, and communicate learnings to other departments at regular cadences.
• Collaborated with team members to help expand marketing channels.
• Performed market analysis and researched latest trends to help set growth strategy, develop value propositions, and target audiences.
• Utilized market trends and target audience statistics to effectively identify innovation opportunities.

• Developed and led overall growth marketing, audience development, lifecycle marketing, and retention strategies leading to a 22% growth in live linear viewership and VOD viewership by 34%
• Conceptualized and activated campaigns and programs to increase live linear viewership, digital usage, newsletter subscribers, podcast listenership, app downloads, and overall platform audiences
• Oversaw a high-performing and engaged team of growth, product, analytics, and research specialists, encouraging a connected, inclusive, and motivating team culture
• Shaped a robust audience development program, focused on sustaining and developing ongoing partnerships with publications, networks, content creators, and distribution platforms—increased distribution by 80%
• Worked closely with product and engineering to develop product strategies and prioritize revenue and growth goals
• Directly increased site video viewership by 1700% as a result of product enhancements
• Spearheaded cross-functional initiatives across departments to achieve business goals for bottom-line profits.
• Hired and managed employees to maximize productivity while training staff on best practices and protocols.

• Partnered with leadership teams, marketing, and content to define and establish Audience Development strategies and disciplines across multiple business units
• Established key metrics and KPIs across all audience growth and engagement activities
• Establish and drive SEO best practices across product, content, and community
• Used data-driven analysis to influence all aspects of content and subscription lifecycles: ideation, publishing strategies, optimization, Oversaw and manage customer research and insights via a series of surveys, NPS, and qualitative assessments
• Built and managed CRM and email programs, segmenting and tailored messaging as a means to drive loyalty and revenue
• Developed best-in-class loyalty systems capable of increasing user retention, lowering churn, and increasing LTV across all segments
• Established Audience Development teams and departments ranging from 3 to 15 individuals
• Developed short and long-term digital growth strategies and initiatives for clients ranging from Conde Nast to Sam’s Club
• Oversaw digital and OOH advertising budgets up to $26M per quarter
• Developed and strengthened business partnerships at all levels.
• Designed innovative branding and product strategies.
• Developed strategies to incorporate PR and media to further enhance brand and build market share.

• Developed and implemented cohesive, data, and goal-oriented growth strategies for National and all local markets
• Standardized and automated best in class programs for ease of use by local markets of all sizes
• Created and managed podcasting’s omnichannel marketing strategy, planning, and tactical implementation
• Advised talent on all matters of podcasting, personal branding, social media usage, and video marketing
• Collaborated closely with senior management to refocus corporate efforts on podcasting and streaming audio initiatives
• Worked with local and national sales leadership to develop sponsorship packages for all podcasting, digital, and event programs
• Centralized paid advertising operations to increase efficiency for local markets, national and the various objectives
• Developed the Audience Development department overseeing audience insights and research, and all acquisition channel and partnerships, including paid, search, social, influencer and off-platform