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April Williams McCrory
President & Visionary
What do you bring to NSM?
I founded North Star Marketing in 1997 with a firm belief that marketing could be done with an eye toward ROI. I thought marketing should be as smart as it is creative. I continue to bring that love of the smart and creative side of this business to running North Star and to our clients.
Ever since I was a child I have loved to solve puzzles or riddles. I loved having to think hard and look at things from all angles to solve whatever the problem was. That same love of problem-solving is what drives me today. The challenge of figuring out what a brand’s WOW is and then putting together the best strategy to tell the WOW of that brand to as many people as possible is what jazzes me. And with demand gen and inbound, the need for problem-solving just gets bigger and bigger. It is an exciting time to be doing what we are doing. The creative side of our work is also something that drives me. If you are going to say something or design something, then by all means do it in a creative way. I am one of those people who believes great creative can make a person fall in love with a brand. Every brand deserves WOW creative.
I also love results. I have always been a competitive person. So that means I really like to win. And for our clients that means I expect results and I expect ROI.
What is your favorite part about being at NSM?
The people I work with every day. The world of marketing and sales is changing right before our eyes. That kind of change at that pace either scares people or excites people. This team is jazzed about all the great things that are happening in the world of B2B marketing and sales and excited to be helping our clients hit it out of the park.
What is your proudest project or biggest wow at NSM?
In 2008 we began to notice that our clients who were the heads of marketing were beginning to really feel the effect of the downward economic times and the increased pressure to work with sales and get results. From what we were hearing, we developed a 7-step process called WOWorks for B2B companies with a complex sale that aligned marketing and sales. It felt great to develop a process that spoke to the needs of our clients. We reached out to over 390 heads of marketing and had over 150 respond to us. That was an amazingly exciting time and continues to be a great door opener for us as well as for our clients.
What does your title mean?
As NSM’s Visionary I am the one who loves to uncover where a brand needs to go and develop a plan to get it there. This is my role for North Star Marketing as well as my role for our clients.
What is your favorite quote?
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Phil 4:13
What is your favorite thing about RI?
There are so many things to love about RI: great towns like Wickford, Newport, Jamestown, Narragansett , the fact that you are one hour from Boston and 3 hours from New York and you can take the train, Providence and the east side and Federal Hill are fabulous – etc….
BUT living next to the ocean is by far my favorite thing about RI.
If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Any place warm and tropical with great beaches…and a great golf course.
If you could be any punctuation mark what would you be and why
An exclamation mark! If you don’t have passion about what you are doing then why do it?
