Ian Greenberg.

Marketing strategist · Dallas, TX · Remote

Marketing plans small businesses actually use.

I write the strategy, run the campaigns, and set up the systems that keep them going after launch. I've done it for a Texas onigiri shop that grew from a food truck to three locations, a B2B membership association, and an executive-education company.

Social · Email · Launches · CRM Texas Tech '23
Risograph illustration of a desk with a one-page marketing plan, a calendar, envelopes and a phone showing a social post.
Plate 01 — the plan, the calendar, the post
3locations running at once, grown from one food truckGoGogiri · 2021–24
35K+combined followers and page likes across 7 brand accountsInstagram · TikTok · Facebook
$75Krevenue attributed to a lead reactivation programPer Z-School leadership
4press features from local food and news outletsCultureMap · Observer · CW33 · KFYO

Selected work

Three businesses, three problems

A consumer food brand, an education company, and a B2B association. Different audiences, same habit: figure out who we're talking to, make a plan, ship it, and keep score.

Risograph illustration of a Japanese street-food truck in West Texas with students photographing giant onigiri.
Plate 02 — the line outside the truck
Client
GoGogiri — onigiri and corn dogs, Lubbock → Abilene → Dallas
Role
Co-founder; led all digital marketing
Years
May 2021 – Jun 2024
Channels
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, local press, DTC launch

Consumer brand · Local launches

Selling onigiri to towns that had never heard of it

The problem

Most of our customers had never eaten onigiri. We started as a food truck in Lubbock with college savings and no ad budget, so people had to hear about us from each other.

What I did

  • Ran a separate Instagram and TikTok account for each city, so every location had its own local voice, staff and regulars on camera.
  • Built the content around the food itself: fist-sized rice balls, ramen corn dogs, the line at the window.
  • Worked with local food writers and TV, which earned coverage in CultureMap Dallas, the Dallas Observer, CW33 and KFYO.
  • Launched MochiGo, a direct-to-consumer sister brand, with its own site and identity.
3concurrent locations
30+employees
35K+followers across 7 accounts

Local customers follow their own store, so every location got its own account and its own voice.

Risograph illustration of envelopes flying back toward a schoolhouse-shaped mailbox.
Plate 03 — the replies coming home
Client
Z-School — executive education through university partnerships
Role
Director of AI Systems & Automations
Years
2026
Channels
Plain-text email, LinkedIn, CRM (Zoho)

Lifecycle · Reactivation

Winning back leads who had gone quiet

The problem

The sales team spent its time on new inquiries. Years of past leads, people who had already raised a hand for a $4,995 program, were sitting untouched in the CRM.

What I did

  • Wrote short, personal plain-text sequences for past leads. Nothing that looked like a newsletter.
  • Ran the sequences on email and LinkedIn with send limits, suppression lists and inbox warm-up, so deliverability held up.
  • Flagged every reply for the sales team to follow up, and sent leadership a daily report on sends and replies.
  • Automated the sending and reporting so the program kept running without a person babysitting it.
$75Krevenue attributed by company leadership
10%reply rate on the main email lane (50 of 499)

Old leads already know who you are. A short, honest note from a real person does more than a new campaign.

Risograph illustration of a small email factory with a conveyor belt of envelopes and a wall dashboard of bar charts.
Plate 04 — the email line
Client
SIG | Sourcing Industry Group and SIG University — a membership association for procurement leaders
Role
Marketing Manager
Years
Jul 2024 – Apr 2026
Channels
Email, events, membership, education

B2B · Email operations

An email program that runs on schedule

The problem

Event, education and membership campaigns were built in four different tools: Pardot, Cvent, Stripo and Smartsheet. Scheduling was manual and reporting meant pulling numbers by hand.

What I did

  • Managed email marketing, automation and reporting for both SIG and SIG University.
  • Built and deployed one campaign platform that connected all four tools, so the team could plan, build, schedule and report in one place.
  • Automated recurring campaigns, lead nurturing and lead routing on a schedule.
  • Added an AI assistant that searches past campaigns and content, so writers could find what had already worked.
4→1tools brought into one workflow
Livein production with company sign-in

A good email program is mostly a calendar the team trusts. Make the schedule boring and the writing can get better.

How I work with a client

Four steps, in this order

Small business owners don't need a 40-page deck. They need to know what to post, who to email, and whether it's working.

1

Listen

A call about the business: who buys, why they buy, what's been tried, and how much time the owner actually has each week.

Week 1
2

One-page plan

Nine squares covering how people find you, how they decide, and what happens after they buy. If it doesn't fit on a page, it won't get done.

Week 1–2
3

Ship in sprints

Two-week blocks of posts, emails and fixes, built so the owner can approve them in one sitting.

Weeks 3–12
4

Keep score

A monthly note in plain English: what moved, what didn't, and what we're changing next month.

Every month

Sample work

A 90-day plan for a photographer

This is what a client gets after the first two weeks. I wrote it for this portfolio.

Spec work · fictional client

Marlow Lane Photo is an imaginary solo wedding and elopement photographer in Dallas. She books about 18 weddings a year, nearly all from Instagram, and inquiries slow down every winter. Her goal: 26 weddings next year at a higher average package, without living on her phone.

Risograph illustration of a film camera, wildflower bouquet, rings and a notebook with a content calendar.
Plate 05 — Marlow Lane, spec
Before

Who it's for

DFW couples, 26–34, planning a small wedding (under 100 guests) or an elopement, with $4–6K set aside for photos.

What we say

"Photos that feel like the day felt." Candid and documentary, with very little posing. Show whole galleries, not only the hero shots.

Where we say it

Instagram for proof, Pinterest for planners (wedding planning starts there), Google Business Profile for "Dallas elopement photographer" searches, and three venue partners.

During

Capture the lead

A free guide, 12 Dallas Elopement Spots (and when the light is best), plus an inquiry form that checks the date right away.

Nurture

A three-email welcome sequence for guide downloads, then one useful email a month: real weddings, planning tips, open dates.

Convert

A 15-minute video call within 24 hours of any inquiry, then a proposal with three packages. The middle one is the one most couples should pick.

After

Deliver

A timeline call two weeks out and sneak peeks within 48 hours. Couples post sneak peeks, which feeds Instagram.

Grow the value

First-anniversary sessions, printed albums, and family portraits when the kids arrive.

Get referrals

Send the gallery to the venue and planner too. Couples get a print credit for a Google review and a referral that books.

Toolkit

What I work in

Social and content
InstagramTikTokFacebookShort-form videoMedia relations
Email and CRM
SalesforcePardot (MCAE)Zoho CRMStripoCvent
Ops and data
Apollo.ioSmartsheetLead routingReporting dashboardsMarketing automation

About

Hi, I'm Ian

I co-founded GoGogiri in college and ran its marketing from the first food truck to three locations. Since then I've run email and automation for a B2B association and lead reactivation for an education company.

What I bring to a small business is the strategy plus the follow-through. I write the plan, and I also set up the CRM, the email flows and the reporting so the plan keeps running when everyone's busy.

I have a B.S. from Texas Tech and a research affiliation with SMU's Center for Creative Computation, where I work on AI systems. I live in Dallas.

Contact

Let's talk.

I'm taking on new marketing strategy work. Email is the fastest way to reach me.

ian@iangreenberg.com LinkedIn ↗
Ian Greenberg · Dallas, TX Illustrations printed in two inks, digitally iangreenberg.com ↗