Luke Johnson
Welcome StackOne.
I'm Luke, a growth marketing
expert specialised in helping
B2B startups win
about
With a decade of experience across diverse disciplines, I possess deep expertise that uniquely positions me to accelerate startup success. I excel in helping executive teams set growth strategy, have a proven track-record of managing cross-functional teams, and can execute rapidly when required.
Ready to do remarkable things together?
Ready to do remarkable things together?
"Remarkable is in the eye of the customer. If your customer decides something you do is worthy of remark, then, by definition, it's remarkable."
Seth Godin
Experience
2022 - Present
Trezy
Chief Marketing Officer
2021 - 2022
TAP / Kiitos
Marketing Director (Interim)
2018 - 2021
Growth Tribe
Global Marketing Director
Skills
Expert
Content Marketing
I have extensive experience developing multi-market content strategies including the creating & distribution of content across a range of formats. I've created video content that generated millions of views, report landing pages that drive high contract value leads and engineered marketing tools that go viral on social media.
Rapid Experimentation
Working at Growth Tribe put me at the forefront of growth and rapid experimentation in Europe. A process of rapid and iterative experimentation is the foundation of the work I do to accelerate startup success.
Marketing Automation
I excel and doing more with less. It's essential in the startup/scale up world. I've built extensive nurturing workflows in my roles at Trezy & Growth Tribe and automated the entire student sign up and qualification process at TAP.
Technical Marketing
I've been working closely with developers on a near daily basis in my role at Trezy to create product marketing assets, helpcentre content and dev docs. While I'm not an expert coder I am able to combine my marketing expertise with a solid understanding of modern technologies to excel at marketing technical products.
Project Management
I've spearheaded many business critical and high-impact projects throughout my career. This includes a full rebrand at Growth Tribe & TAP. A full app redesign at Trezy and high-velocity content marketing calendars in all my previous roles.
Team Management
As a marketing leader, managing people is a crucial part of my role. I have experience managing product & marketing professionals across a range of disciplines and skill levels, from senior growth marketers to junior graphic designers. I also have experience in building marketing teams including team design, hiring & firing.
Branding
I believe the brand is the businesses most important assets. The brand is the business. I'm skilled at working with different companies to elevate the brand story and protect the brand image. I've worked with external agencies on brand redesigns and closely with the founding teams at Trezy, TAP and Growth Tribe to craft and nurture the brand narrative.
Performance Marketing
I've been building cross-channel performance marketing strategies and creating campaigns on Google & Facebook for over 10 years. I have extensive experience using the major ad platforms and have managed millions in ad spend.
Proficient
SEO & SEM
I'm experienced in SEO strategy & tooling. I built the first pillar content strategy at Growth Tribe and worked with developers at Trezy to build an online financial database that indexed millions of pages and drastically increased the marketing site traffic.
UX & UI Design
During my tenure at Trezy I've rapidly advanced my skills & experience in UX & UI design. Off the back of extensive user research I undertook a 3-month project to redesign the app to improve user retention. This included UI improvements to improve data visualisation and tech improvements to improve speed.
Web Design
I've been designing websites for over 5 years and know front-end code to an intermediate level. I primarily use Webflow for web design as it's a great tool for launch professional websites quickly and allowing marketing teams to collaborate without dev involvement. I rebuilt the websites at Growth Tribe, TAP and Trezy using Webflow.
Data Analytics
Data analytics has always been a crucial part of my job as a marketing leader. I have experience building data visualisations with Hubspot, Mixpanel and GA4, working with data scientists to dig-deeper into market & user trends and presenting data stories to C-level teams.
Customer Development
Being a successful marketing leader means developing a deep understanding of the market & customer. It's fair to say I'm "customer obsessed" and often quiz my teams on "what does this mean for the customer/user?". At Trezy I regularly talk to users on the phone or chatbot and have conducted hundreds of hours of customer discovery interviews in the last year to inform product development.
User Onboarding
For the last 2 years at Trezy I've been owning the activation & retention stages of the funnel (as a small team we all need to be involved in executing fast). I've automated extensive user onboarding flows, product tours and created help center articles using intercom. I also redesigned the sign up flow to allow for a smoother experience and better user segmentation.
Learning
Python
I've recently started to learn Python in my spare time to broaden my coding skillset beyond front-end. It's fast to pick up due to its readable syntax and the extensive libraries mean it has many use cases (I'm especially interested in machine learning). I'm enjoying the learning journey so far via Code Academy!
French A2
I've been investing 3-4 hours per week in 2024 into learning French. 90% of the team at Trezy is French, as well as many of my close friends. So it made sense to take the jump into this beautiful language. I've been making steady progress with online group classes at Lingoda.
Stack
Zapier
Automation
I’ve been using Zapier since 2017 (as well as other no-code automation tools). I’m confident setting up integrations between a range of tools and adding custom code & advanced filters to zaps when required.
Google Ads Manager
Performance Marketing & Analytics
My first introduction to Google ads manager was in 2018 at Growth Tribe. I worked with the data team to create a targeted list of keywords with optimised bids. I’m experienced in the keyword planner tool and setting up both search and display campaigns.
Customer.io
Marketing Automation
I’m experienced using customer.io as both a CDP and email marketing tool. I’ve worked with developers to successfully set up events tracking and have built and launched several marketing campaigns using the visual workflow builder.
Youtube (Creator Studio)
Video Marketing
I’ve been managing video content in Youtube Studio since 2018. I’m experienced at formatting and optimising videos and creating thumbnails, titles and descriptions that are SEO optimised and result in above average CTR and watch time.
Hubspot
CRM / Automation
I worked with Hubspot for 7+ years and championed its adoption at Growth Tribe. I’m an expert in all key features and admin level setup/configuration.
Attio
CRM / Automation
I’ve been using Attio at Trezy for the last 12 months. We chose this CRM as it allows us to better ingest product level events and use these to trigger automations.
Segment
Customer Data Platform
I’ve been working in Segment for 7+ years. I have a solid understanding of how to setup & debug the most popular sources & destinations and have extensive experience working with developers to setup and test event tracking.
Webflow
Web Design / Development
I started building website with Webflow in 2019. Since then I have used the tool to redesign the websites of Growth Tribe, TAP and Trezy.
Zapier
Automation
I’ve been using Zapier since 2017 (as well as other no-code automation tools). I’m confident setting up integrations between a range of tools and adding custom code & advanced filters to zaps when required.
Mixpanel
Product Analytics
Mixpanel is my preferred choice of product analytics solution having become familiar with it during my time at Trezy. I’m in Mixpanel analysing data, creating cohorts and building/editing reports on a daily basis.
Figma
Product Design UI/UX
I have over 3 years experience working in Figma. I used Figma to redesign the Trezy web app and design the v1 of the mobile app. I use it regularly for high-fidelity web designs and prototypes.
Hotjar
Behavioural Analytics
I’ve used Hotjar since 2018 to gather qualitative insights into how users interact with websites & apps. I use it extensively as part of the web redesign process to spot improvement opportunities, use it to debug apps and come up with new growth experiments.
Facebook Ads Manager
Performance Marketing
I have 10+ years of experience in Facebook ads manager having first used it at university to launch my e-commerce site. Since then I’ve managed over €1million in ad spend through the platform over 100s of campaigns, a/b and multivariace tests.
Google Ads Manager
Performance Marketing & Analytics
I started using Google ads manager in 2018 at Growth Tribe. I worked with the data team to create a targeted list of keywords with optimised bids. I’m experienced in the keyword planner tool and setting up both search and display campaigns.
Adobe Illustrator
Graphic Design
I use Photoshop regularly for improving the image quality of campaign and website images as well as compression and conversion.
Photoshop
Graphic Design
I use Photoshop regularly for improving the image quality of campaign and website images as well as compression and conversion.
Google Analytics
Web Analytics
I have been familiar with Google Analytics since 2015 when I used to build websites with my brother. Since then I’ve used the tool on a near weekly basis for web analytics. I now fully experienced with GA4 report buiding & exploring.
Google Tag Manager
Tag Management System
I’ve been working in Google Tag Manager since 2015. I’m experienced in setting up various tags including custom event tracking, dynamic retargeting, ecommerce tracking and testing & debugging.
Customer.io
Marketing Automation
I’m experienced using customer.io as both a CDP and email marketing tool. I’ve worked with developers to successfully set up events tracking and have built and launched several marketing campaigns using the visual workflow builder.
June
Product Analytics
I’ve been using June at Trezy for the last year as a more visual product analytics tool. We use the dashboards to visualise funnel performance in our weekly GTM team meetings. It’s easier for the sales team to interpret than the Mixpanel dashboards used by the product team.
Semrush
SEO
I partnered with Semrush during my time at Growth Tribe as we used their tool in our growth marketing courses. It’s been my SEO tool of choice ever since. I use it regularly for keyword research, site audits, competitor analysis and banklink analysis.
Typeform
Forms & Surveys
I was introduced to Typeform in 2018 when working at Growth Tribe. I used to for the first edition of the T-Shaped Marketing quiz, integrating the results directly with Hubspot to send the respondents results via automated emails. I also used it extensively working with TAP for the student application screening.
Intercom
Customer Service/Success
At Trezy I’m using Intercom everyday for customer support and engagement. I use the series features extensively as part of product activation to automatically launch product tours to different user segments. I also built the multi-language Trezy helpcenter with Intercom.
Youtube (Creator Studio)
Video Marketing
I’ve been managing video content in Youtube Studio since 2018. I’m experienced at formatting and optimising videos and creating thumbnails, titles and descriptions that are SEO optimised and result in above average CTR and watch time.
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Growth Tribe
edtech
Global Marketing Director
Jan 2018 - Apr 2021
.overview
Since 2018 I’ve been at the forefront of Growth & Marketing innovation, having led the global marketing efforts at Europe’s most renowned Growth & Digital Marketing training company - Growth Tribe.
In this role, I managed & developed a team of 12 across brand communication & growth marketing. This included PR, content, events, performance & growth marketing activities.
I am forever grateful to the team at Growth Tribe for the opportunities I was given and the trust they placed in me at this stage in my career.
In this role, I managed & developed a team of 12 across brand communication & growth marketing. This included PR, content, events, performance & growth marketing activities.
I am forever grateful to the team at Growth Tribe for the opportunities I was given and the trust they placed in me at this stage in my career.
.highlights
Company Rebranding
Championed internally a to better align with the companies evolving product portfolio and mission
Youtube Strategy
Managed content strategy & team for most effective marketing channel. Scripted & starred in top videos.
Skills of Tomorrow Report
Developed & designed the content & site for skills of tomorrow report. Effective enterprise lead generation.
.impact
- Redesigned & managed the marketing organisation (12 FTE) to more effectively operate across brand, growth & product marketing.
- Worked in close collaboration with sales organisation to increase annual revenue from €1 million - €5 million over 3 year tenure.
- Further developed the strategy and managed a team & pipeline of video content for Youtube that became a key pillar of growth:
- Generated over 2 million video views total
- Grew channel from 8K to 50K subscribers
- 40% of “self-attributed” lead sources cited Youtube for “How did you hear about us?”
- Created the first version of the T-shaped marketing quiz*. The companies most successful piece of engineered marketing. (*Disclaimer: The link directs to the current version. It uses the exact same methodology of the original version I created in 2019.)
- Ranked #1 in SERPs for T-shaped marketing & marketing quiz in Netherlands & UK
- #1 landing page for organic search exc. Home page to growtribe.io domain
- Over 5000 total submission (for a 15 min quiz)
- Generated over 2200 MQLs (submissions from ICP in key markets)
- Championed internally a rebrand to better align with the companies evolving product portfolio and mission. Rebuilt the website in line with new brand using Webflow.
TAP / Kiitos
edtech
Marketing Director (Interim)
Sep 2021 - May 2022
.overview
I joined Kiitos as an Interim Marketing Director to help them transition the business model from a development agency to a talent acceleration program (TAP). The founders were developing an online platform to train high-potential digital talent from across the MENA region. In order to match them with remote jobs at leading tech companies around the world.
When I joined, the company had a compelling story & some early traction but had an undefined marketing strategy and unclear value proposition.
During my interim tenure I helped develop the marketing strategy, build out the brand story, develop clearer product messaging & product marketing asset and run initial demand generation experiments. I also advised the CEO in hiring my full-time replacement.
When I joined, the company had a compelling story & some early traction but had an undefined marketing strategy and unclear value proposition.
During my interim tenure I helped develop the marketing strategy, build out the brand story, develop clearer product messaging & product marketing asset and run initial demand generation experiments. I also advised the CEO in hiring my full-time replacement.
.highlights
Kiitos Web Design
Redesigned the Kiitos website to better represent a development agency and highlight the brand story.
West Bank Field Trip
Joined the founding team in Nablus and Ramallah to form talent partnerships with local universities.
.impact
- Rebranded the Talent Acceleration Program to all sides of the marketplace (talent, training providers & employers)
- Developed the first "student stories" talent case studies to share across social media and in product marketing material.
- Used new branded materials to successfully close talent partnership agreements with An-Najah National University in Nablus, Birzeit University in Ramallah and the Dutch Embassy to Palestine.
- Secured an agreement with key hiring partner "Freightos" to take part in a filmed and written employer case study. (Tenure finished before filming)
- Executed student acquisition campaigns that more than doubled the talent program cohort size from 12 to 30 students.
- Increased application numbers from by 250% from previous cohort (200 to 500)
- 318 screened applications from Facebook advertising from $1500 budget ($4.17 per application)
- Built new conversion-centric program website (Webflow) with 34.26% unique page view to completed application conversion rate
- Hired, manage & coach the Growth Marketer on running effective growth sprints and managing a process of rapid experimentation.
- Full rebranding a new website build for TAP & new website build for Kiitos to elevate the brand story.
Trezy
fintech
CMO
May 2022 - Present
.overview
Trezy is a smart & simple SaaS tool built to help small business owners better manage cash flow & financial performance.
One of the original founders of my previous company, Growth Tribe, headhunted me to join this new startup as the third permanent hire. My role has been to help achieve product-market fit, develop and implement initial go-to-market (GTM) plans and manage the GTM team.
Although my title is CMO, I frequently collaborated with the founding team on product strategy and development. I also hired and manage a Growth Marketer to handle daily growth tactics focused on awareness and acquisition.
One of the original founders of my previous company, Growth Tribe, headhunted me to join this new startup as the third permanent hire. My role has been to help achieve product-market fit, develop and implement initial go-to-market (GTM) plans and manage the GTM team.
Although my title is CMO, I frequently collaborated with the founding team on product strategy and development. I also hired and manage a Growth Marketer to handle daily growth tactics focused on awareness and acquisition.
.highlights
Web App UI/UX Redesign
Managed a full redesign of the the app that improved NPS from -20 to 41.
User Onboarding & Activation
Implemented improvements to user onboarding that increased activation rates from 20% to 43%
Product Validation - Mobile App
Identified a product opportunity to help the company achieve a strong product-solution fit
.impact
- Managed a full redesign of the web app that improved NPS from -20 to 41 (data from Hotjar surveys to users before & after the redesign)
- Conducted continuous user research & feedback that revealed the apps UX/UI was severely affecting product retention & churn
- Worked as the product designer to fully redesign the app in Figma. Working closely with the founding CEO & CTO to bring the product vision to life.
- Championed the voice of the customer and exacting quality requirements within the development team when implementing the designs on the front-end to increase speed, remove bugs and ensure production ready UX aligned with project vision.
- Currently working to validate a mobile-first solution based on extensive customer development research to find a stronger product-solution fit.
- Conducted over 30 face-to-face qualitative customer development interviews across key markets.
- Designed a launched a market research survey that gathered an additional 100+ responses from prospective customers in key markets.
- Identified key trend in market - SBOs manage most business operations using mobile phones not laptops!
- Launched a landing page to validate the product idea/value proposition of “The Pocket CFO”
- Over 500 waitlist subscribers over 1 month testing phase from €1000 ad testing budget.
- CPA for mobile app waitlist 3.5x lower than for web app trial sign up
- 16% on page conversion rate (new user to waitlist subscribe)
- Low on page engagement time (47 secs) combined with high on page conversion rate (16%) indicated a strong & compelling value proposition / ad copy.
- Built initial mobile app designs in Figma and now working with developers on the initial MVP.
- Built out & tested user onboarding improvements that increased activation rates from 20% to 43% from Q2 - Q3 2024
- Improved these activation rates for “connecting a bank account”. A high-hurdle user onboarding task as it involves sharing sensitive financial data with the tool.
- Redesigned the initial sign-up flow around “building a workspace” to instil greater trust
- Built out the apps help center (Intercom) to provide step-by-steps guides to setting up an account and the security measures we take
- Created event based product tours and onboarding checklists (Intercom) to help increase time-to-value
- Worked with developers to ensure correct events setup (segment) and integrated with CRM (Attio), Intercom and Slack for internal lead notifications.
- Hired, manage & coach the Growth Marketer on running effective growth sprints and managing a process of rapid experimentation.
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