Craig Ballard | Marketing Communications Professional

Marketing & Communications Leader

Turning brand ideas into measurable growth.

15+ years across strategy, creative, and data — building brands, driving engagement, and proving the results.

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18%

traffic growth (YoY)

35%

engagement lift

$500K+

budgets managed

25%

over ROI target

Selected Work

Case Studies

A few of my recent projects that depict the challenges, approaches, and results.

Brand & Campaigns

Annapolis Town Center

Integrated event + digital program that grew traffic 18% and engagement 35%.

CHALLENGE A busy retail and lifestyle center with plenty of one-off events, but no cohesive marketing engine to consistently drive foot traffic and engagement. APPROACH Built one connected marketing calendar uniting signature events, digital content, and tenant partnerships — managing a $500K+ budget, securing $150K in sponsorships, and aligning messaging across corporate, development, and tenant teams. RESULT 18% year-over-year property-traffic growth and a 35% social-engagement lift, plus a 12% rise in merchant sales and 20% higher satisfaction scores — beating the ROI target by 25%.

Digital & Paid Media

Online Retail & Wholesale Client

Storefront + paid + attribution work that grew revenue ~23% and cut CPA.

CHALLENGE A retail and wholesale company selling foreign and domestic pressure washers — a strong catalog, but flat online sales and inefficient ad spend. APPROACH Rebuilt the storefront and checkout, ran Google and Meta paid campaigns, added email and cart-abandonment automation, and wired GA4 attribution so budget shifted to what actually converted. RESULT Conversion rose from ~1.7% to 2.5%, average order value from ~ $190 to ~$225, paid campaignsreturned ~4.3x ROAS, c ost per acquisition fell ~20%, and online revenue grew ~23%.

Marketing from Scratch

Chesapeake Systems

Built the marketing function from the ground up, driving double-digit revenue growth.

CHALLENGE The company had no formal marketing structure — no consistent brand, no campaign engine, and no repeatable process to support B2B sales and its manufacturer–dealer network. APPROACH Came in to build the marketing function from the ground up: brand and messaging, content across social, email, and print, product launches and sales collateral, SEO and performance analysis, and trade shows and dealer events. RESULT Strengthened manufacturer–dealer relationships, lifted audience interaction 25%, improved ROI 20%, and drove double-digit revenue growth.

About Me

Hi, I'm Craig

II'm a marketing and communications leader with 15+ years turning brand ideas into measurable growth.

I work at the intersection of strategy, creative, and data. On the strategy side, I've built and led programs that delivered real numbers: an 18% year-over-year lift in property traffic and 35% growth in social engagement for a major retail center, double-digit revenue growth from a B2B demand engine, and 20–25% ROI improvements while managing budgets north of $500K and securing $150K in sponsorships.

On the creative side, I make the work myself — brand systems, campaigns, graphics, and video from concept through final cut — and I've built and led teams and agency partners to scale it. What ties it all together is communication: I write and edit, shape brand voice, and build the content that moves audiences to act, then read the analytics like a dashboard, not a mystery, and adjust until the results follow.

Across property, media, agency, and e-commerce, my throughline is simple — clarify the message, build the brand experience around it, and prove the impact. I hold degrees and certifications in English/Communications, Strategic Marketing Communications, Branding, and Design.

If that's the kind of partner you're looking for, let's talk.

EXPERTISE

Toolkit

Skills

STRATEGY & COMMS

DIGITAL & DATA

CREATIVE AND DESIGN

Praise

What Partners Say

Craig took the lead on our outreach challenges and created a new stream of marcom strategies that dramatically increased our brand presence in target markets.

Alphonso Cornish

Chief Learning Officer,

Norton Healthcare

(Ret.)

Craig's creativity, knowledge, and expertise were a godsend to the launch of one of our company's community outreach brands."

Kelly Krull

Creative Marketing Director, AutoZone

“First-class service — from creative design to social media, website, and graphics, sometimes at the drop of a hat. We couldn't be happier.Have customers review you and share what they had to say. Click to edit and add their testimonial.”