Senior Copywriter

Derek Sikkelee

Senior Copywriter • Content Strategist • Communications Specialist

*************@*****.*** 415-***-****

“I write words that work.”

Marketing Portfolio: http://www.behance.net/DerekS Skills & Experience

• Original Writer: I evolve a brand’s tone and voice to be fresh, natural, and easily accelerate the vehicle it drives.

• Customer Converter: I develop messaging that intrigues, resonates, and then turns curiosity into conversion.

• Brand Developer: I specialize in brand immersion and analysis to boldly and strategically build up brands.

• Creative Conceiver: I create highly targeted UX content that empowers the user to get what they want and enjoy it.

• Crafty Strategist: I quickly conjure up campaign themes that speak directly to the audience and always offer a variety of options that will stand out, fit the bill, and raise the bar.

• Sound-Bite Maker: I love writing catch phrases, names, headlines, subheads, banner copy, taglines, and CTAs.

• Daring Deconstructionist: I distill complex offerings into meaningful and memorable takeaways designed to work seamlessly across various channels and media concurrently.

• Multi-Hat Wearer: I jump from web to email to print and then on to event helming, PR, video production, and more.

• Client Charmer: I work hand-in-glove with clients to celebrate and grow brands, leading and following as needed.

• Born Communicator: I treat internal teams as clients and collaborators to create maximum alignment and impact. Brand Manager, Copy & Content Strategy Zultys, Sunnyvale, CA April 2023 – February 2024 Lead copywriter and content strategist on fully integrated marketing campaigns for this Partner-driven telecommunications company renowned for its industry-leading customer support, highly advanced phone system capabilities, and incredibly low 0.7% churn rate. Featured Work & Accomplishments

Email Nurturing for Partners

Turned all email marketing efforts into a well-oiled machine, significantly increasing open and click-through rates, brand awareness, and conversion by showcasing exceptional offerings and can’t-ignore incentives that also generate sales as they easily resolve pain points. Social Messaging for Sales

Ghostwrote lively, meaningful, and resonant social media posts for an ever-expanding U.S. team of Regional Sales Managers, optimizing their online presence and enabling them to identify and interact more with targeted prospects before, during, and long after major events. Sales Incentivization Program

Devised the messaging and promotional copy for the company’s new “Circle of Excellence” award program that succeeded in driving record-setting sales with larger accounts through a strategic combination of email blasts, social posts, webinars, and website promotion. Principal Copywriter & Content Strategist RingCentral, Belmont, CA December 2016 – January 2023 Primary writer for this cloud communications leader, supporting integrated campaigns by developing resonant and testable copy for emails, paid social/digital ads, and LPs that drove coordinated marketing efforts to enterprise, midmarket, and small business targets. Featured Work & Accomplishments

Creative ABM Campaigns

Acted as the Creative Director for all the ABM Team’s integrated campaigns to more effectively engage, nurture, and convert enterprise customers by working hand-in-glove with our graphic designers to come up with more compelling themes, concepts, and messaging. Email Nurture Program

Served for six years as the senior email copywriter for all acquisition efforts and lead the charge in successfully overhauling our entire copy and messaging approach to be way more direct-response friendly and highly scannable with graphics that underscored every offering. Banner & Social Ads

Promoted new products, special offers for solutions, and brand distinction through the strategic creation of high-impact headlines, subheads, and support copy via digital banner and paid social ads on both big media platforms and a variety of online publications. Senior Copywriter HotChalk, Campbell, CA April 2015 – September 2016 Writer of lead and demand gen copy for the nation’s preeminent ed-tech company, marketing degrees offered online by universities. Featured Clients & Accomplishments

Concordia Online Education

Created a slew of high-performance DR copy for PPC landing pages, banners, subject lines, CTAs, emails, and a wide array of digital ads and other long-form content to reengage a national audience that had been waning and, in so doing, helped define and evolve these brands. NYU Steinhardt

Shaped the content strategy and blogged for this school’s revolutionary new online Teacher Prep “EMAT” master’s program that places teachers into residencies in urban schools across the country, which triggered a groundswell of media attention and positive awareness. St. Thomas University

Wrote a series of highly successful Facebook ads for the school’s new Big Data Analytics program that were playful and irreverent, but were also built on expanding and evolving brand identity, which generated an unprecedented number of leads via social media. Wilkes University

Developed the copy for a series of digital ads, banners, and landing pages centered on a “By Nurses For Nurses” campaign that caused a significant spike in calls, applications, and enrollments for several months, especially during the first two quarters of 2016. Adler University

Overhauled and rewrote SEO program copy to speak more directly and clearly to the target audiences and bolster engagement with a flood of publisher and batch emails as well as a variety of digital ads that substantially reduced invalid leads and greatly improved legitimate ones. Marketing Copywriter & Content Strategist Contractor & Freelancer March 2013 – Present Creative generalist providing copy, campaign concepts, and editorial services for startups and established companies to rev up business. Featured Clients & Accomplishments

Blu Homes

Ghostwrote a highly trafficked “How To” article for the co-owner of the company for Inc.com that showed how the company’s philosophy and approach to prefab homebuilding could also be applied to self-improvement and business success in general. PROBAR

Worked up a series of funny organic social media posts and created Facebook contests that were targeted to a fitness and health audience, increasing the client’s brand awareness, engagement, customer base, and willingness to step outside of its comfort zone to great effect. Ocean Conservancy

Contracted to be the technical copyeditor for this revered conservation organization’s widely anticipated and celebrated Gulf Coast Marine Atlas, which revealed the extent of the damage to both the coast and the marine life in the gulf several years after the BP oil spill. Creative Director 2 Hundred Oaks Brand Management, Baton Rouge, LA March 2011 – March 2013 Producer of innovative marketing campaigns for both international companies and growing local businesses based in South Louisiana. Featured Clients & Accomplishments

Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasonings

Named a Facebook photo contest and wrote all related copy for this beloved international spice company that dramatically increased fan engagement to the point where it was featured by Mashable in a very popular “7 Ways to Use Humor in your Online Marketing” article. Evergreen Working Capital

Rebranded this business from the ground up by writing all of the copy for this client’s new website, directing its layout, UX functionality, and graphic design as well as coming up with its new tagline and logo, marketing strategy, and advertising plan, which the client still uses. Cypress Title

Attracted new customers and created a surge of local awareness for an under-the-radar title company by writing an ongoing series of provocative, lighthearted, and compelling ads along with a tagline and support copy that married informative humor with persuasive logic. Artistic Dentistry

Conceived and implemented a daring marketing campaign, standout messaging, and a successful rebranding of this dental practice employing a variety of ad platforms that culminated in the business being showcased in a highly successful InRegister magazine feature. Mansurs on the Boulevard

Directed, produced, edited, and wrote the copy for this historic restaurant’s revealing “behind the scenes” video that was used effectively to attract new demographics and build on the upscale mystique of its brand, while making it more approachable and appealing to locals. Lamps & Lighting

Devised the concept for a game-changing logo redesign that defines the new ownership’s brand identity shift away from exclusivity to high-quality products with service that is still high-end (to maintain loyalists), but is also accessible and inviting (to attract new customers). Petz Plaza

Served as the Creative Content Director behind this incredibly popular pet service business and helped develop and launch its Pet Taxi vehicle, which provides convenient and stylish pet transportation and was integral to the company winning a coveted “Best of 225” award. Other Highlighted Roles Various Organizations, Various Places From College to Present Freelance Creative Consultant

dadaScope Communications

March 2009 – Present

Band Leader, Composer, Performer, &

Creative Designer

Blanket and Kid Lightning & Thunder Boy

1996 – Present

Investigator

San Francisco City Attorney's Office

June 2006 – March 2011

Complaint Officer & Capital

Improvements Coordinator

San Francisco Rent Stabilization and

Arbitration Board

May 1999 – June 2006

Voiceover Talent

Maxis: The Sims Superstar videogame

2002 – 2003

Cultural Facilities Manager

San Francisco Arts Commission

January 1998 – May 1999

Special Assistant

San Francisco Mayor's Office

March 1996 – January 1998

Public Relations Specialist

Heydey Records

1994 – 1995

Jingle Writer & Performer

Sutcliffe Music

1992 – 1993

Cartoonist

Oberlin Review

1990 – 1992

Education & Honors

Oberlin College

Oberlin, Ohio

Graduated with a B.A. in Psychology with Honors.

Overall G.P.A. 3.54 & Major G.P.A. 3.76

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia

Completed a full summer session semester.

Overall G.P.A. 3.83

Psychology Honors Thesis Writer & Researcher

Oberlin College — Oberlin, Ohio

I incorporated unconscious and implicit memory testing methods to bolster evidentiary arguments for the independent existence of mental imagery. At the time, this was considered groundbreaking as it was the very first study of its kind to employ this type of testing with imagery elements. Educational Honors & Scholarships

Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society, Genevieve Park Memorial Scholarship, Herndon United Methodist Church Scholarship,

& New York Avenue Women’s Association Scholarship

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