Growthpointe

If you’re reading this at least one of these things happened:

1) You hired a freelancer or agency to do the most for the cheapest price

2) You hired an agency that ‘guaranteed results’ and got no results

3) You’re doing it all yourself and you’re not an expert and don’t want to be

And it’s time for a change.

You want the email & sms marketing for your brand that you see in all the gurus' screenshots online.

We use three fundamental principles to drive $200,000,000 in revenue for 400+ clients and counting:

Growing the list,

Driving new customers, and

Manufacturing repeat customers.

Making success a function of simple math, not building stuff and ‘hoping for the best’.

The biggest trap brands fall into is that they look at email like a task list:

Flows, ✅

Pop-up, ✅

Campaigns, ✅

Operating this way neglects the major components that drive the success of your marketing: the data in your business and human psychology.

This materializes with slower list growth, poor acquisition efficiency, and a shitty repeat customer rate.

Making your costs to acquire customers too high, your ads too expensive, and profits too low.

But you know one thing...

You need email marketing to perform so you can scale your business profitably and you need an expert to do it.

A pair of magic hands if you will.

An email marketer who’s been around the block…

Someone who knows what to look for.

Someone you can rely on.

And we do it for a simple flat fee.

How We Roll:

☑️ Systematically generates subscribers, new customers, and repeat buyers

☑️ Benefit from our experience generating hundreds of millions for 400+ brands

☑️ Everything is included and 100% done for you

☑️ No long-term contracts. No hidden fees.

What we bring to the table is expertise, consistency, and five-star hotel-level service  – without the big agency fees.

Founder

Skio

Skio (skio.com) helps brands on Shopify sell subscriptions without ripping their hair out.

Customers (skio.com/testimonials) include Liquid I.V., Bulletproof, SmartyPants Vitamins, Bev, Muddy Bites, Fly By Jing, Geologie, JuneShine, Taika, Immi, MatchaBar, KraveBeauty, Stryx, Doe Lashes, Genki Forest, SIMULATE, Backbone, Magic Mind, Remedy Organics, Siete Foods, Huron, & ZOX.

Our team (skio.com/team) brings experience from Shopify, Recharge, Attentive, Klaviyo, Amazon, Facebook, Pinterest, Robinhood, Groupon, Thumbtack, & Databricks.

Investors (skio.com/investors) include Y Combinator, Adjacent, Jason Wong, Shaan Puri, Julian Shapiro, Geoff Woo, & Sahil Bloom, as well as founders and executives of companies like Italic, Magic Mind, Immi, Bev, Taika, Smile.io, Okendo, Wonderment, Archive, Parker, Thingtesting, HVMN, & MuteSix.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/23/skio-raises-3-7m-to-help-brands-sell-subscriptions
https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/05/how-to-choose-a-growth-strategy-startup

Advisor

Commerce12

Partner [Acquired]

Tetra Marketing

► What I do? 
▬▬▬▬▬▬ 
I partner with online businesses to grow, nurture, and monetize their audience systematically.

► Tetra’s clients are people who:
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
⇒ are interested in setting up a smart marketing automation system that allows them to connect, engage, and convert their audience at scale;

⇒ want the advantage of leveraging proven systems and strategies to build a more successful business; and

⇒ have a passion for their customers and bringing value to their lives.

Does that sound like you?

► What are you looking to do?
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
✔️ Grow your audience of potential customers;
✔️ Engage your audience to build connections;
✔️ Get more new and repeat customers;
✔️ Take your online business to the next level;
✔️ Want to use email marketing automation to get there.


► The Sonar Messaging System
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
The Sonar Messaging System is simple, and centers around 3 key pillars:

Acquire - Leverage all of the traffic already coming to your website to grow your audience. Mix in some segmentation so we send the right message, to the right person, at the right time.

Nurture - Connect and engage with your audience throughout the customer lifecycle with proven frameworks, models and resources that have helped clients achieve incredible financial results.

Convert - Our email systems will be a predictable sales channel. Generating new and repeat customers consistently month after month.

► Interested in more information?
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Shoot me a message on LinkedIn.

Founder [Acquired]

RewardOps

RewardOps is an API-based solution that connects reward and recognition programs with a growing marketplace of exciting rewards. Our platform gives rewards programs the cost transparency, real-time data and flexibility they want with one simple integration. RewardOps takes care of the backend operations of rewards vendor sourcing, management and fulfillment. Our technology is flexible. We can work with current partners to integrate into existing reward platforms or build new turnkey programs.

Director of Sales [Acquired]

Top 1% Email Marketer | Driven $100+ Million in revenue with Email and SMS. Join 11,000 subscribers to get 29 'Swipe & Send' Email Campaign Ideas ↓

Over 10+ years, I've transformed backend operations for 400+ brands, built and sold multiple agencies, and now design retention channels that deliver 6-7 figures in profit by fixing what most companies overlook…

Email & SMS.

My approach targets 3 revenue levers:

→ List Growth: Offers that captivate audiences while protecting margins
→ Automations: Sophisticated sequences that mirror real customer journeys
→ Campaigns: Predictable revenue engines that make email your most reliable growth channel

Most brands still treat email as "newsletters" or discount blasts. 

I transform these systems into your highest-ROI channel, whether you're selling $20 lipstick or $30K blueprints.

Email & SMS aren't growth hacks. They're infrastructure. Built right, they become your most profitable business asset.

If you’re interested in learning how YOU can setup these systems - then send me a connection.

See you around. ~ Phil

Phillip R.

Marc Zarefsky, LLC

WHAT I DO: I use the power of storytelling to inspire action.

I’ve used storytelling to help:

- Universities attract prospective students
- Non-profits raise hundreds of thousands of dollars
- Membership associations educate and retain their member base
- Research centers showcase key data findings

You name it and I’ve likely helped create content about it. 

AI? Yep. 

Leadership? For sure. 

Healthcare? More times than I can count.

A small sampling of clients I've worked with includes:

- American Medical Association
- Center for Railroad Photography & Art
- Chicago Fire
- Chicago Health Magazine
- Chicago Tribune
- Duo Consulting
- Honor Flight Chicago
- Indiana University
- Inside Higher Ed
- National League of Cities
- Northwestern University
- Society for Critical Care Medicine
- SurePayroll
- UC San Diego
- Union for Reform Judaism
- University of Chicago
- Vistage

WHAT I LEARN: Every project I work on gives me the opportunity to understand the communications challenges my clients face and realize firsthand the true power and impact storytelling can have on individuals and organizations.

Copywriter & Content Strategist

Northwestern University

WHAT I DO: I inspire undergraduate and graduate journalism and Integrated Marketing Communications students by illustrating the power of storytelling through content marketing and social media.

WHAT I LEARN: I discover what components of my presentations resonate with my audiences and am able to practice my public speaking abilities. In any talk I give, I strive to make it a conversation more than a lecture, and in the process, I'm able to learn new perspectives from the audience.

Guest Lecturer

Northwestern University Medill School

WHAT I DID: I collaborated with faculty members and alumni to launch the Medill Sports Media specialization. Along the way, I developed a content strategy for the program and coordinated outside-the-classroom experiences for students to interact with industry leaders in Chicago and across the country.

WHAT I LEARNED: I experienced the energy that comes with building something from the ground up. I was reminded that when it comes to creating something new, oftentimes you're only limited by the depth of your creativity.

Medill Sports Media specialization consultant

WHAT I DID: I enhanced Medill's social media presence and created content to engage with, and appeal to prospective journalism and Integrated Marketing Communications students. I also served as Managing Editor of the Medill Alumni Magazine, which meant developing an editorial calendar, collaborating with freelancers, and editing and proofreading all stories for each publication. I also partnered with our designer to redesign the magazine and launch an iPad version with exclusive content.

WHAT I LEARNED: I learned the power of collaboration and the benefits of putting a team together consisting of individuals with different interests and strengths. I came to better understand the lives and responsibilities of freelancers and how to best work with different types of people.

Communications and Social Media Manager

Kellogg School of Management

WHAT I DID: I helped Kellogg, one of the world's leading business schools, better showcase and promote its full-time MBA program and MS in Management Studies program to prospective and admitted students. I managed two colleagues and ensured the brand had a consistent voice across web, social, and print products.

WHAT I LEARNED: I discovered first-hand the power and reach of a well-organized blog. I also learned to better understand what my audience was looking for and how to best customize content to fit their needs and interests.

Content Strategist

Suburban Life Publications

WHAT I DID: I wrote a combination of high school sports feature stories and game coverage for a company that publishes 27 weekly newspapers and more than 60 websites.

WHAT I LEARNED: I came to better understand how to plan out content in advance and saw the impact that had on both my time management and my potential for creative content.

Sports reporter

Faribault Daily News

WHAT I DID: I wrote and edited sports content for a six-day-a-week publication. I supervised our sports reporter, maintained the newspaper's sports blog, designed the section's pages, shot many of the section's sports photos, and edited the front news section on a nightly basis.

WHAT I LEARNED: More than anything else, I got a crash course in time management. I got a daily test in content prioritization and learned the ins and outs of design and photography.

Sports Editor

MLB.com

WHAT I DID: I assisted in generating content for Cubs.com, the official Chicago Cubs team website for Major League Baseball.

WHAT I LEARNED: I learned the ins and outs of competing against other publications for story topics, and I discovered how much more I enjoyed writing "people stories" and features compared with game stories. On Opening Day I captured the story of a fans' marriage proposal using a custom brick outside of Wrigley Field, and during the playoffs I shared the story of a woman who moved to Wrigleyville only for one month — the month of October. In between, I told the stories of team legends like Ron Santo and Erine Banks and helped provide game coverage assistance.

Associate reporter

The Daily Northwestern

WHAT I DID: I covered Big Ten basketball and also worked on other features for Northwestern University's student-run newspaper.

WHAT I LEARNED: My time at Northwestern helped me develop my foundation as a writer. I learned different methods of storytelling and how to best impact readers depending on each story topic.

Wrigley

WHAT I DID: I wrote informational articles about the company for a biweekly online newsletter that was distributed to more than 15,000 Wrigley affiliates worldwide.

WHAT I LEARNED: I discovered how storytelling and the power of a strong narrative can impact diverse audiences across the globe.

Corporate Communications intern

Lexington Herald-Leader

WHAT I DID: I served as a general assignment reporter and also spent time covering high school basketball and University of Kentucky baseball.

WHAT I LEARNED: I witnessed how stories resonate with people days, weeks, years and even decades after they take place.

Intern

Copywriter & Strategist: I transform complex topics into compelling content that inspires action

Hey, I'm Marc. I help colleges attract prospective students by telling the unique stories of their students, faculty, and alumni. I say "unique" because storytelling is the biggest differentiator a university has right now. 

Students completing innovative projects.

Faculty pursuing transformational research.

Alumni applying lessons learned to spark change.

Those are the stories schools need to be telling. After all, storytelling has the power to uplift others and transform lives. The trick is knowing how to use them effectively. 

That's where I come in.

I help colleges and universities by:

- Developing content strategies
- Writing blog posts, articles, and ebooks 
- Crafting updated copy for institutional websites
- Ghostwriting thought leadership pieces for faculty and deans

You name it and I've helped create content about it.

Artificial intelligence? Yep.

Robotics and biotechnology? For sure.

Business and leadership? More times than I can count.

I've worked with institutions of all sizes, including some of the top-ranked business, engineering, and journalism schools in the country. 

Here's what some past higher ed clients have said about working with me:

"We've heard from multiple students that the reason they applied to our program was that they had read one of Marc's stories."

"Somehow, Marc can take even the most intimidating engineering concepts and translate them into engaging, accessible content that resonates with our target audiences — making both our programs and our contributors shine."

"Marc created new content and rehabbed existing content to align with a new university brand and content strategy—a steep task that took several months. Marc was responsible for some of our most visible pages and handled every step with aplomb."

"I've been working with Marc for several years and it is always a pleasure. He has a special knack for bringing out and telling the story - whether for an event, a scientific accomplishment, or a student achievement. "

"His strong journalistic bones and instincts made every project so much better from the start because he's a superior question-asker in pursuit of insight. Taking what can be very detailed research findings and finding the most salient and valued way to tell the story from the work is not easy. Yet, he did this for us and did it so well."

We all have stories to share. Want to use yours to inspire your prospective students? 

Drop me a note here, or visit www.zarefsky.com.

taplio

The Battle

Phillip R.

Marc Zarefsky

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