Eric S. Townsend is an American marketer, designer, author, Everwise mentor, and musician. He has served hundreds of brands with distinction since 1994, including members of the Fortune 500 (see client list below). Townsend has been recognized for creativity, innovation, and "doing more with less" by The Webbys, PR Week magazine, American Marketing Association, Society for Marketing Professional Services, Service Industry Advertising Awards, University of Richmond, Washington Business Journal, Kickstarter, and the Northern Virginia Technology Council (see award criteria below). He has guided rising marketers as mentor with San Francisco-based Everwise since their founding (est. 2013). He has published 22 books in self improvement, business, sports, music, humor, poetry, and fiction. His children's adventure series Tabula Raisa (est. 2016) was successfully funded on Kickstarter (#1 of 418 projects in the publishing category at the time). The author's latest book explores the early years of musician Prince Rogers Nelson. His innovative work for Go Booklets (est. 2012) has contributed meaningfully to the "small books" movement in digital publishing. In the music industry, he has been credited as producer, songwriter, or lyricist on over 100 songs.

BRANDS SERVED

Service has included the following distinguished U.S. and international organizations aged 70 to 270 years: Absolut Vodka (est. 1879), AIA (est. 1857), American Red Cross (est. 1881), B’nai B’rith International (est. 1843), Catholic Charities (est. 1910), Cort Furniture (est. 1845), First National Bank (est. 1857), Goodwill (est. 1902), Leo A Daly Architects (est. 1915), Mitsubishi Corporation (est. 1918), National Rifle Association (est. 1871), Navy Federal Credit Union (est. 1933), Pfizer (est. 1849), Rutgers University (est. 1766), Saab (est. 1945), Skanska (est. 1887), Sotheby’s (est. 1744), Universal Music Group (est. 1934), University of North Carolina (est. 1789), University of Richmond (est. 1830).

Has also served startups, small businesses and challenger brands.

RECOGNITION

2015
Staff Pick, Showcased (#1 of 418 in Publishing, for Tabula Raisa), from Kickstarter. Initiated 2009. Recognizes particularly compelling, fun, creative, and exciting new ideas with well-priced rewards and a great story.

2013
Innovator Award (Mobility Category, for Latista Technologies), from Northern Virginia Technology Council. Initiated 2013. Recognizes groundbreaking and influential technology companies in the DC area who’ve made a significant impact on customers.

2010
Silver & Bronze Medals (Advertising Category, two clients), from Service Industry Advertising Awards. Initiated 2003. Recognizes advertising excellence in the service industry. Based on creativity, quality, appeal, and breakthrough content.

2006
“Doing More With Less” (for Goodwill), from PR Week Magazine. Like the M Award from AMA, recognizes excellence in
value-added marketing.

2005
M Award (For Mint Fitness), from American Marketing Association. Initiated 2002. Recognizes marketers and campaigns that demonstrate solid strategy, brilliant innovation, and positive return on investment.

2005
Book of Lists (Top Creative Agencies, #17, for SQN), from Washington Business Journal. Features hundreds of the hottest area companies in their fields. Ranks the top 25 by revenue generated.

2005
Outstanding Pharmaceutical Website (for Pfizer), from The Webbys. Initiated 1996. Recognizes excellence on the internet including websites, interactive advertising, online film/video, and mobile content.

1999
Corporate Identity Silver Medal (for Leo A Daly Architects), from Society for Marketing Professional Services. Initiated 1976. Recognizes excellence in marketing communications by professional services firms in the design and building industry.

1994
The Margaret Owen Finck Award for Creative Writing (Finalist), University of Richmond. Recognizes outstanding work published in the literary magazine, The Messenger. Chosen by a panel of English faculty members.

RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Boosts online reputation ratings for select Gates Hudson assets by up to 48%. Tops real estate benchmarks in email marketing: opens (39.1% vs. 19.8%), clicks (4.9% vs. 1.8%). Drives $250,000+
in qualified traffic to properties most weekends which sales converts to $13K - $48K leases. Monitors 20+ social media pages. Builds and manages 60+ websites (one per portfolio asset). Crafts quotes for the media. Acts as the voice of the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
• Wrote articles for Navy Federal Credit Union (avg. 80MM impressions in 1K pubs, e.g., LA Times, Chicago Tribune, others). Created ads for “Share the Good Fortune” member drive (goal: 11K new members; hit 18.8K, +171%) and “Snap2It” certificate launch (goal: 70K certs, $500MM; hit 105%).
• Generated +150% web traffic, +700% leads and +60% annual growth for Latista Technologies. Wrote for case studies, ads, videos, the website, etc. Recognized for innovation by the Northern
Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) for work on the app’s GUI. Efforts led to acquisition by Oracle.
• Worked with the Director of Marketing and CEO at national law firm Gacovino Lake to strengthen their vision, deck, offering, and launch for their contact management software Persist.
• Trained Contactually how to supercharge digital marketing of their contact management software.
• Launched Basement Detective from startup to page one, first position leader for desired Google searches. Leveraged effective website design, article writing, reviews, link building, and SEO.
• Established an internal ad agency at Billy Casper Golf that cut time to project completion by 20%.
• Partnered with KOA Sports CEO on a $160K, 30-day membership drive (+22% growth). Results: 92% retention, 96% reported “child is improving skills,” and 89% shared “child is more passionate.” Generated $750K in revenue by selling out 20+ programs. Led fundraising for Cooperstown trips.
• Spearheaded 30-day crowdfunding efforts for three authors on Kickstarter. Raised $10-20K each.
Wrote email marketing and achieved 24%-41% open rates and 9%-17% click rates. Tabula Raisa was awarded Staff Pick, tagged “new & interesting,” and showcased #1 of 418 publishing projects.
• Has led agencies on three occasions as partner, creative director, and/or sales lead. Mentors rising tech marketers and product managers through Everwise. Endorsed by their CEO.
• Created and launched Tabula Raisa (early learning products). Trademarks protected by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (serial #s 86570349, 86574937). Filed with the U.S. Copyrights Office (case # 1-2258907701). Visit TabulaRaisa.com for more information. Read Less