Spotlight on...Eve Bould
Periodically we bring you profiles of members of our team here at FreshAddress, shedding light on who we are and how we work. Recently we’ve made several additions to our team, so we’ll take this opportunity to introduce you to one of the new faces around these parts…
Name: Eve Bould
Position: Marketing & Communications Manager
Tenure at FreshAddress: Almost two months
Background: Eve joined FreshAddress in September of this year. She is responsible for all marketing and PR for FreshAddress, including our web presence, media relations, product positioning, and industry events and tradeshows. Prior to FreshAddress, Eve was Marketing Director at Patagonia, the outdoor clothing company. Earlier in her career she worked as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company and as a Senior Strategic Marketing Analyst at Staples. Eve earned her BA in Economics from Duke and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
FreshPerspectives (F.P.): So, you’re a newcomer to FreshAddress. What have the first two months been like?
Eve: It’s been an exciting couple of months. FreshAddress’s training program for new employees is quite extensive, so I’ve been drinking from the firehose, but enjoying it!
F.P.: What was your training like?
Eve: It was very comprehensive. The goal is to bring new hires up to speed on all of the services we offer and there are tests covering each service category. My favorite part of training was the “interview your colleagues” assignment. I got the chance to sit down with each member of the company individually to learn more about their role as well as their life outside of work. It’s a great opportunity to meet everyone and helps you integrate into the team more quickly.
F.P.: What do you see as the top priorities for marketing at FreshAddress in the coming year?
Eve: On a high level, we’re interested in continuing to advance our role as educators and trusted partners to help our clients engage their customers and donors through email. To do that well, we need to use a variety of tools – one of the most important being our website. In 2012 we plan to enhance the functionality of the site, making it easier for clients and prospects to access information about our services, case studies, newsletter archives, white papers, and the like.
Case studies will continue to be a focus. They’re a great tool for us to get the word out about the problems we can solve and the results we can generate – and for our featured clients to enjoy complimentary media attention on our site, in our newsletter, and sometimes even in industry publications. We’ll be queuing up several new case studies in the late fall and early winter.
F.P.: What do you make of all the attention social media is getting these days? What does it mean for FreshAddress and other B2B companies?
Eve: At this point we feel that the greatest opportunity lies with LinkedIn. It’s proven to be an invaluable tool to help us connect with clients and prospects and deepen our understanding of their needs.
F.P.: Looking at your background, you seem to have quite an appetite for travel, having lived and worked in Boston, California, France, and now Boston again, all in the last ten years. What was it like living in Marseille?
Eve: It was a big transition acclimating to the life of an ex-pat family, especially with two young kids in tow. After the initial culture shock, however, living in France was a delight. We took advantage of the opportunity to travel and visited Barcelona, Florence, Rome, and lots of villages and cities in France, of course. We appreciated the chance to immerse ourselves in the culture, the language, and, of course, the food!
F.P.: Was it hard to leave France?
Eve: Yes and no. We soaked up the experience while we were there, but frankly we were thrilled when we found out we’d be moving to Boston and closer to family and friends. It was a fabulous learning experience, but when the 2.5 years were up, we were ready to get back “home” to the US.
F.P.: How did you find FreshAddress?
Eve: I was looking forward to returning to work after our time abroad. The timing was perfect, as my kids were entering school. I saw the FreshAddress Marketing position posted on the Harvard Business School alumni website. I was interested in working for a small entrepreneurial company, and FreshAddress offered a great opportunity to join a strong and growing organization.
F.P.: How does FreshAddress compare with some of the other places you’ve worked?
Eve: I’ve found that, like Bain and Staples, FreshAddress is a data-driven company. Data and analytics inform decision-making across the company, which makes it a good fit with my analytical background.
While you might not think Patagonia and FreshAddress would have much in common, I’ve found many similarities. For instance, both companies take their core values very seriously. Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder, said he’d rather sacrifice sales than contradict his core values. He was referring to his decision to sell organic rather than conventionally-grown cotton clothing, but the same principle holds true at FreshAddress. Austin Bliss, our President, and Bill Kaplan, our CEO, constantly reinforce to the team that quality and integrity are paramount, even at the expense of revenues. We don’t promise more than we can deliver, and we always aim to exceed our clients’ expectations every step of the way.
F.P.: I understand you helped organize the FreshAddress party at Lucky’s Lounge during DMA 2011. What did you learn from that experience?
Eve: I learned that blackjack tables draw a great crowd! Or maybe it was the iPad 2 raffle… With DMA 2012 coming up in Vegas, who knows – we’ll probably revisit the blackjack theme, and maybe even Bill’s Blackjack 101 sessions at our booth. Who wouldn’t want some blackjack tips they can put to use right there on the strip!