Jessica Best Email Address

Director of Data-Driven Marketing

Barkley is the largest employee-owned advertising agency in the U.S. Ownership has its advantages. It allows us to attract national talent, retain that talent and increase every partner Es passion because they have a financial stake in client and agency success. Our independent structure means we can invest in our clients, talent and resources in ways others can't.

Each day, I get to work with clients doing big-idea-driven, multi-channel campaigns to weave in the best of what data-driven strategy can do to build and boost customer relationships. I get genuinely excited to share best practices, test new ideas, and see awesome results. Starting with my role as Digital Marketing Evangelist at emfluence, I've been preaching the good word of great email marketing in both online and offline communities for years. I lead email marketing and customer-driven marketing strategy for Barkley clients and get to celebrate trends and highlight smart stuff the public, speaking for audiences from Las Vegas to New Orleans to New York, and in March of 2013 on the line-up at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin. A May 2005 graduate of the Mizzou Journalism School: my first foray into content production. I started my career in media sales for a Top 40 radio station in Kansas City. I was recruited away to lead season ticket marketing for Theater League. There, I learned direct mail and email marketing and brushed up my stage skills. In October of 2008, after evangelizing the product for a year as a client, emfluence asked me to join their team to launch an in house marketing department to oversee their external relations and brand management across all channels. For three years as Marketing Manager, I managed partnerships and opportunities for emfluence with other Kansas City marketing communities and businesses as well as a comprehensive and cohesive digital and email marketing campaign, promoting the emfluence Marketing Platform, and our strategic services. In 2013, I finally got to put the truth on my business card: Digital Marketing Evangelist! In 2016, I accepted the exciting role of Director of Data-Driven Marketing at Barkley, working as lead CRM strategist for fortune 1000 companies like Dairy Queen and Spirit Airlines, soaking up all the smarts of my fellow partners and helping integrate data. Specialties: email marketing strategy and tactical execution, integrated emerging media campaign planning, social media strategy and planning, networking and promotion, email marketing design and copywriting, database analytics, results tracking, research and reporting, event management including trade show exhibition. Conversational language experience in French.