A dynamic and award-winning digital marketing expert, Reed Gusmus is the visionary responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of digital marketing strategies for QASymphony, a company specializing in software testing tools and test case management tools. As director of marketing, Reed’s responsibilities require an approach in which a delicate balance is struck between abstract and analytical thought in order to produce an imaginative digital marketing campaigns capable of yielding leads and revenue.
As an experienced digital marketing professional, Reed brings a great deal of insight and expertise to his role with QASymphony. Reed is an expert in SEO, PPC, and SEM, and he has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success in the design, execution, and oversight of lead generation campaigns as well as social, email, content marketing, display, and retargeting campaigns. Throughout his professional career, Reed has demonstrated a clear talent for stimulating growth while improving both top and bottom-line revenue.
Since assuming the role of director of marketing with QASymphony, Reed has vastly exceeded the expectations created by his reputation as an innovative and effective digital marketing expert. The efforts of Reed’s marketing team at QASymphony have been repeatedly recognized by industry peers and have earned several prestigious awards, including the 2016 TAG Excalibur Award and the 2016 ON24 Award for Best On-Demand Webinar Performance.
In your own words what do you do?
As director of marketing, it is my responsibility to promote the products and services made available through QASymphony. This includes achieving short- and long-term strategic goals for generating sales and revenue growth through the use of comprehensive digital marketing strategies.
What led you to your current business?
The product is excellent and the manner in which QASymphony operates is truly unique and therefore holds a special appeal. Serving as director of marketing for such an innovative operation has been a truly enjoyable experience.
Could you walk us through your process of developing your business?
QASymphony was created with the goal of developing new opportunities through more efficient and effective software testing workflow processes, which in turn allows software development teams to create and release exceptional software at a speed that matches consumer demand.
Did you encounter any particular difficulties in the beginning?
Being a startup, we were challenged with having little to no brand awareness, limited marketing budgets and resources, yet were tasked with driving a large amount of leads and revenue as a result. We overcame these challenges through working scrappy, having the right talent on our team and investing in marketing programs that offered ‘quick wins and making sure our marketing campaigns were tracked to understand what works/doesn’t work.
What is your long term plan?
We have a long-term strategic vision to radically alter the manner in which quality software is created by Agile teams. We believe we can achieve this vision by enhancing every aspect of the software testing lifecycle through improved workflow processes that emphasize collaboration, speed, and efficiency.
Could you share with us some industry insights?
This is a rapidly evolving industry that requires a willingness to constantly adapt to change, and it is critical to embrace any developments that will improve operations in some way. The competition is stiff, maturing and there is a large opportunity to ‘ride the Agile train’, catering our products to solve the problems of teams who leverage Agile development best practices and process.
What are some important lessons you’ve learnt about entrepreneurship?
We have an incredible team of professionals at QASymphony, and the reason we have enjoyed so much success in a very short amount of time has a lot to do with our willingness to learn, take risks, listen to one another and to communicate.
Any tips for achieving success?
The biggest tip I can give for achieving success is to know your limits, have a plan and ignore the doubts of others. Knowing your limits should tell you what you can’t overcome, different from obstacles. Once you understand your limits, everything else becomes just an obstacle. Having a plan is half the battle of overcoming obstacles along the way to success, but also knowing that not all plans workout and having a ‘backup plan’ can help you stay determined. Finally, haters are going to hate and not everyone will have confidence in you. Ignoring the doubts of others will help you stay focused and diligent in achieving your goals.
Connect
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reedgusmus
Website: https://www.qasymphony.com
