Today we meet Carolyn Woodruff , executive vice president at Direct Media Inc. in Greenwich, CT. Woodruff is a longtime player in the industry who believes no matter what the state of the economy, there's always opportunity, provided you can discern the market and articulate your plans to your clients. And, it doesn't hurt to show plenty of entrepreneurial spirit either.
"You have to know the details of your account," she says. "You have to know why certain segmentation works and you really have to know the metrics on a very granular level."
Specifically, she stresses the importance of understanding why, for example, some lists might work for a given client in some cases but not in others and being able to clearly tell the clients why or why not.
Woodruff is currently in her eighth year at Direct Media, where she handles many accounts, including the Disney Movie Club's list and alternative media work.
She came to Direct Media just after Sept. 11, 2001, after having worked at UniMail, which was located a couple of blocks away from the World Trade Center and had to close in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
But there was much more to her time there than just 9/11.
"The UniMail experience was a great experience for me," she said. "They very much had the entrepreneurial flavor of a brokerage company which really helped me understand the requirements of being an entrepreneurial type of broker."
She also previously worked for NAMES Unlimited and Woodruff-Stevens.
When not being a broker or industry advocate, Woodruff is busy raising her five-year-old daughter Lauren—who she says she was blessed to give birth to at age 45—with her husband Ron Mirando, a commercial real estate developer and boating on the Long Island Sound near their Stamford, CT home.
"Luckily my husband's a very hands-on guy –he does the pick-up and the drop-off very often and we work in tandem to facilitate our daughter's needs," she says. "And that allows me to be a great broker."
How can this entrepreneurial spirit work on the current economy?
"Well, certainly we're a microcosm of the rest of the world and we're seeing consolidation on every level—in the catalog environment, the club environment and the publishing environment," says Woodruff. "However, only be strongest will survive and the reality of that is in what I do —the devil is in the details."
On top of trying to maximize client mailing plans, Woodruff believes strongly in advocating for the industry before the government.
"I'm hoping that our trade associations like the Direct Marketing Association and Postal.com will finally convince Congressional leadership that when the postal service increases rates, it decreases the jobs in their communities," she says.
"One of the critical roles of the broker today is to establish a marketing plan that isn't only in one space," she notes.
Got someone you'd like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mail larry.riggs@penton.com.
