# Chris Hetzler

> Chris Hetzler is a growth and demand generation marketer in Raleigh-Durham, NC with 10+ years across B2B SaaS and DTC: $10M pipeline and ~$5M in sales from a $2M budget at Avalara, +66% MQLs, 6sense ABM at Red Hat, and brand vs non-brand measurement that guides paid media budgets at ChicknLegs.

Chris Hetzler is a growth & demand generation marketer based in Durham, North Carolina (Raleigh-Durham) · open to remote. Contact: cghetzle@gmail.com · https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishetzler/

## Career
- 2026–now: Marketing Manager, ChicknLegs. Own paid media, email, analytics, agencies, affiliates, brand protection and launches for a DTC running brand, and built the AI-assisted reporting leadership uses to budget marketing.
- 2026: Digital Marketing Consultant (Contract), Vyde (accounting SaaS). Wrote the 2026 demand generation strategy for an SMB accounting SaaS, then ran the website relaunch: SEO foundation, redirect map, GA4 and GTM, ad pixels and CRM routing.
- 2024–2025: Senior Product Marketing Manager, Avalara (DAVO by Avalara). Owned the full DAVO marketing budget across paid search, social, display, video, email and events. Launched Reddit as a channel new to all of Avalara and tied every dollar to pipeline in Power BI.
- 2021–2024: Principal Systems Analyst, Marketing Capabilities, Red Hat. Global 6sense and ABM martech lead. Routed intent signals to BDR pods as automated alerts, built 1:1, 1:few and 1:many playbooks, and co-presented the program at 6sense Breakthrough 2023.
- 2020–2021: Digital Marketing Manager, Horizon Investments. Owned digital for a fintech and asset manager serving thousands of financial advisors: product-launch campaigns, 1:1 and 1:few ABM for priority accounts, and direct reporting to the executive committee.
- 2019–2020: Associate, Paid Media, Red Ventures (Apple Services team). Managed up to $2M a month in programmatic and display for Apple services, grown from $200K, across The Trade Desk, DV360 and direct publisher deals, then earned the budget share to scale it.
- 2015–2022: Co-founder & Digital Marketing Specialist, Oak City Crew. Co-founded a four-partner agency for small businesses: a first-ever season sell-out for a college football program, 20% yearly cost declines for an auto franchise, and a $10K/month Google Grant for a wildlife nonprofit.
- 2015–2019: Paid Media Associate → Paid Media Strategist, B2B SaaS Vertical Lead, TriMark Digital. Ran paid media for 50+ lead-gen clients, built the B2B SaaS team, and automated spend monitoring for 500+ campaigns. Associate of the Year 2017, Performance Marketer of the Year 2018.
- 2011–2015: BSBA, Marketing · Magna Cum Laude, NC State University, Poole College of Management. Marketing degree, graduated magna cum laude, plus a PR internship at Triangle Downtowner Magazine growing engagement across a 52,000-follower social audience.

## Case studies
- [Marketing measurement at ChicknLegs](https://chrishetzler.com/marketing-measurement/): an AI-assisted dashboard bringing paid media, Shopify, GA4, email and social into one view, with brand and non-brand ROAS against break-even.
- [Turning a $2M marketing budget into $10M of pipeline for DAVO by Avalara](https://chrishetzler.com/work/avalara-davo-demand-generation/): B2B SaaS demand generation case study: Chris Hetzler reallocated DAVO by Avalara’s $2M budget by ROI for $10M of pipeline and about $5M in sales (~2.5x ROAS), grew MQLs 66% YoY, cut cost per lead 35%, launched Reddit as a net-new channel and built Power BI spend-to-pipeline reporting.
- [ABM for the 99%: routing 6sense intent signals to Red Hat’s business development reps](https://chrishetzler.com/work/red-hat-6sense-abm/): Enterprise ABM case study: as Red Hat’s global 6sense and ABM martech lead, Chris Hetzler automated intent-signal alerts to BDR pods, built 1:1/1:few/1:many playbooks and lifted contact-to-opportunity conversion 30%. Presented at 6sense Breakthrough 2023.
- [Separating brand from non-brand to grow new-customer acquisition at a DTC brand](https://chrishetzler.com/work/chicknlegs-brand-vs-non-brand/): DTC case study: Chris Hetzler separated brand from non-brand reporting at ChicknLegs, focused Performance Max on new-customer acquisition, lifted non-brand ROAS 14% and set paid media targets around break-even ROAS and LTV.
- [Scaling paid media for Apple Books and Apple News+ at Red Ventures](https://chrishetzler.com/work/apple-services-paid-media/): Performance marketing case study: on Red Ventures’ Apple Services team, Chris Hetzler lifted Apple Books ROAS 250% in a quarter, cut partner CPAs 90% with a weighted post-back, and earned a budget share increase from 20% to 70%.
- [A demand generation strategy and a zero-downtime website relaunch for an accounting SaaS](https://chrishetzler.com/work/vyde-demand-gen-and-site-relaunch/): Contract case study: Chris Hetzler wrote Vyde’s 2026 demand generation strategy (ICP, channel priorities, budget tiers, nurture and measurement), then relaunched its website with an SEO foundation, a 799-URL redirect map, GA4, GTM and ad pixels.
- [Small budgets, sharp results: freelance growth work for DTC, nonprofits and college sports](https://chrishetzler.com/work/freelance-growth-programs/): Freelance growth marketing case studies from Chris Hetzler: a DTC brand’s CPA cut from $57 to $44, a nonprofit’s CPC down 36% with awareness up 7,000%, and a college football remarketing program with CTR +93% and a first-ever sell-out season.
- [Four years, 50+ accounts and Performance Marketer of the Year at TriMark Digital](https://chrishetzler.com/work/trimark-b2b-saas-paid-media/): Agency case study: at TriMark Digital, Chris Hetzler managed paid media for 50+ lead-generation clients, cut CPA an average of 15% a year for four years, raised a global B2B client’s tag coverage from 50% to 99% and built the B2B SaaS team.

## Other
- [Resume](https://chrishetzler.com/resume/) · [PDF](https://chrishetzler.com/Chris-Hetzler-Resume.pdf)
- [About](https://chrishetzler.com/about/): runner (6,000+ miles since 2015), 3D printing, cat volunteer and foster with Independent Animal Rescue in Durham, and AI side projects.
- [Contact or schedule a call](https://chrishetzler.com/contact/)
- [Break-even ROAS and LTV:CAC calculator](https://chrishetzler.com/tools/roas-calculator/)
- [Full text of every case study](https://chrishetzler.com/llms-full.txt)