Digital Marketing · Content Strategy · Portfolio 2026

SimonNiksch

Digital Marketing & Content Strategy

MBA in Digital Marketing (GPA 3.9), both degrees finished a semester early. Interning at Independent Stave Company in Columbia, MO — a B2B brand serving winemakers and distillers in over 40 countries. Moved to the US from Munich at 18. English and German native, conversational Spanish.

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3.9
GPA
10
Projects
5yr
Athletics
3
Languages
6×
Certified
01 / 05

About

I came to the US at 18 for soccer. No connections, just a roster spot. Five years of varsity athletics followed — NCAA Division II at FHSU, NAIA at Point University, captain in my final year — while maintaining a GPA above 3.85 at both schools and finishing each degree a semester ahead of schedule.

The marketing side started as a Graduate Assistant at FHSU Athletics. Real accounts, real game-day deadlines — managing live social across Instagram, X, and Facebook, coordinating sponsorship deliverables, and keeping everything running on competition days. That's where I stopped thinking of marketing as theory.

Now I'm at Independent Stave Company, a 130-year-old manufacturer most consumers have never heard of but every serious winemaker knows. I audit social accounts, build Google Analytics reports, and support content strategy for a brand trying to reach a highly specific professional audience across 40+ countries. It's exactly the kind of problem I find interesting.

Role
Digital Marketing InternIndependent Stave Company
Degree
MBA — Digital MarketingFort Hays State University
Athletics
5 yrs NCAA / NAIA SoccerVarsity GK · Captain 2024
Languages
Native English & GermanSpanish — conversational
Certified
6× — HubSpot · Stukent · uCertify+ Anthropic Claude track
02 / 05

Experience

Digital Marketing Intern

Independent Stave Company · Jun 2026 – Aug 2026 · Columbia, MO · B2B · Winemakers & Distillers · Current
  • Auditing social accounts — follower growth, engagement trends, content performance, and where the brand is being ignored
  • Running Google Analytics reports across company websites, identifying SEO gaps and keyword opportunities
  • Supporting content planning and editorial calendar for a B2B brand reaching winemakers and distillers across 40+ countries

Graduate Assistant — Athletics

Fort Hays State University · Aug 2024 – May 2026 · NCAA Division II
  • Managed live social media across Instagram, X, and Facebook during NCAA Division II competitions
  • Coordinated sponsor deliverables and on-site activations for active partnership agreements
  • Ran game-day operations: ticketing, staffing, venue setup, NCAA compliance

Athletic Training Assistant

Point University · Aug 2021 – May 2024 · NAIA · West Point, GA
  • Identified a paper-based injury log system that was slowing everyone down and led the move to digital — faster retrieval, cleaner NAIA compliance records
  • Supported athletic trainers across practices and competitions for multiple varsity programs
03 / 05

Selected Work

  • Named and positioned around one idea: stop more goals by thinking better
  • Built full Wix landing page: headline “Stop More. Concede Less. Think Like a Goalkeeper”, lead magnet offer, CTA
  • Email 1 “Simon, Your GK Guide Is Here” — delivers the guide, one key principle
  • Email 2 “You’re Probably Standing in the Wrong Spot” — names a specific correctable mistake
  • Email 3 “This is where most goalkeepers get stuck.” — push to apply, not just read
  • Rewrote every AI draft until it read like someone who actually played the position
The Last Line — Wix landing page
The Last Line — Wix landing page
  • Buyer persona: Aspiring Alex, 18, competitive high school goalkeeper trying to get recruited
  • All 9 Ardath Albee essentials documented: day-in-life, objectives, burning questions, obstacles, orientation, preferred channels, search keywords, engagement scenarios
  • Audited 4 live ads by Library ID + run date and mapped each to AIDA: “The Future of GK” (Attention), “Keepers Only” (Interest), “Top Level GK Gloves” (Consideration), “Designed for Keepers Who Move Differently” (Desire)
  • Chose Ads 3 & 4 to rewrite — both had strong concepts but a clunky text panel and no clear CTA
  • Instagram rewrite: “Built for Keepers. Not Everyone.” — identity-led positioning, lead with the line, added a CTA
  • Google Search rewrite: “Elite Goalkeeper Gloves | Designed for Serious GKs” — swapped “Top Level” for “Elite” to filter wrong buyers before they click
Aspiring Alex — buyer persona card
Aspiring Alex — buyer persona card
SET GK — Meta Ad Library (4 live ads)
SET GK — Meta Ad Library (4 live ads)
Instagram rewrite — “Built for Keepers. Not Everyone.”
Instagram rewrite — “Built for Keepers. Not Everyone.”
Google Search rewrite — “Elite Goalkeeper Gloves”
Google Search rewrite — “Elite Goalkeeper Gloves”
  • Primary keyword: “how to use LinkedIn to get a marketing internship”
  • Meta description written for click-through rate, not just keyword placement
  • FAQ section targeting featured snippet position in Google
  • Infographic 1: 6 Steps to Using LinkedIn to Land a Marketing Internship
  • Infographic 2: How LinkedIn Is Changing the Way Companies Recruit and Hire (data from LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting Report 2024)
6-step LinkedIn infographic
6-step LinkedIn infographic
LinkedIn recruiting data infographic
LinkedIn recruiting data infographic
  • Tracked lead volume monthly: 320 → 355 → 410 → 395 (March peak across all KPIs)
  • Four KPIs reported: 15,200 website sessions, 26% email open rate, #11 search rank, 4.5% engagement
  • Tied the April dip to reduced posting frequency — not a channel problem, a consistency problem
  • Four Q2 recommendations: restore posting cadence, double down on SEO, replicate March playbook, test short-form video
  • Three versions of the same report: internal analytics team, executive summary, strategic priorities deck
Performance Review (Jan–Apr)
Performance Review (Jan–Apr)
Quarterly Snapshot
Quarterly Snapshot
Q2 Recommendations
Q2 Recommendations
  • College Player (17–25): moderate price sensitivity, buys performance gear every season, follows new releases — sleek athletic imagery, “Score Big This Season”
  • Passionate Fan (25–35): low price sensitivity, buys authentic jerseys around major tournaments — emotional loyalty hook “Show Your Colors”
  • Youth Soccer Parent (35–50): high price sensitivity, pre-season bundle buyer — trust and convenience framing, “Shop Now”
  • Each persona documented: motivation, buying habits, price sensitivity, demand pattern, competing alternatives
  • Creative adapted across Leaderboard 728×90, Large Rectangle 336×280, Mobile Banner 320×50 — message rethought for each format, not just resized
Leaderboard · 728×90 — “Score Big This Season”
Leaderboard · 728×90 — “Score Big This Season”
Large Rectangle · 336×280 — “Show Your Colors”
Large Rectangle · 336×280 — “Show Your Colors”
Mobile Banner · 320×50
Mobile Banner · 320×50
  • Scene 1: student studying late at night — establish the problem
  • Scene 2: crowded gym, confused student — show existing options failing
  • Scene 3: small group workout with trainer — introduce the solution
  • Scene 4: membership price reveal text overlay — present the offer
  • Scene 5: student testimonial — social proof before the CTA
  • Scene 6: logo + “Sign Up Today” — convert interest into action
  • Every scene documented with key message, viewer reaction, and strategic purpose
Storyboard — scenes 1–3
Storyboard — scenes 1–3
Storyboard — scenes 4–6
Storyboard — scenes 4–6
  • Root problem: 75% of a limited budget spent on PPC and Facebook — email and SEO left with almost nothing
  • Nationwide campaign running while 90%+ of revenue came from just 5 Tier 1 cities
  • Broken Google Analytics across multiple pages — every decision was built on incomplete data
  • Healthcare providers reorder the same supplies constantly — the repeat-purchase opportunity was never touched
  • Five recovery recommendations: fix tracking first, focus budget on top cities, shift to email and SEO, narrow the product catalog, build auto-reorder and subscription tools
75% of the budget went to PPC and Facebook. Email and SEO — the channels that actually convert B2B buyers — were left with almost nothing.
Root-cause finding — MedFirstIndia audit
  • Segmented the audience four ways: demographic (competitive GKs 12–25), psychographic (ambition, performance, soccer-culture authenticity), behavioral (YouTube/Instagram/TikTok tutorials, brand-loyal once they test gear), geographic (US club-soccer hotbeds; brand based in Colorado)
  • Built four pieces around one audience — not four disconnected posts chasing four different people
  • Mapped each format to a specific AIDA stage so the suite covers the full journey
  • Every piece anchored in real athletes, real days, real paths — not aspirational stock imagery
Written
“What It Takes to Compete at the Collegiate Level”
Sponsored-athlete testimonial for social and web — builds trust through a real player's experience with the gear and the brand's resources.
Video
“Day in the Life of a College Goalkeeper”
Short clips with voiceover — studies, lifts, training, game-day prep. Sells the life younger keepers aspire to.
Podcast
“Between the Posts”
Long-form episode on being a goalkeeper in college. Deepens connection well past the highlight reel.
Infographic
“The Road to Becoming a College Goalkeeper”
The recruiting path made visual and shareable — the most distributable piece in the suite.
  • Identified what dated it: Euro 2024 already over, fan behavior had moved on, hook no longer relevant
  • Re-angled around the bigger moment — the first 48-team World Cup, hosted across the US, Canada, and Mexico, a summer-long event not a single weekend
  • Updated all five jersey trends (retro kits, oversized fits, player-name jerseys, off-pitch styling, accessories) with 2026 framing
  • Repurposed into a 45-second 9:16 vertical script — hook, styling beats, creator CTA — with on-screen text cues mapped shot by shot
  • Result reads like it belongs to this summer, not 2024
Before
“5 Jersey Trends from Euro 2024”
~18 months old, Interest-stage post. Strong once, but pinned to a finished tournament and dated fan behavior.
After
“From Euro 2024 to the 2026 World Cup”
Re-angled on the first 48-team World Cup across the US, Canada & Mexico — a summer-long cultural moment fans dress for.
Repurpose
45-second vertical video · 9:16
Split-screen HOOK (basic vs styled jersey) → full-fit styling beats → creator CTA, with on-screen text cues per shot for TikTok / Reels.
  • Profiled the audience: 16–40, global (Europe, North America, Asia, Africa), match-viewers who buy merch to express loyalty and engage through comments and shares
  • Set the goal — move fans from awareness to long-term loyalty, measured in merch purchases, interaction and membership sign-ups
  • Platform logic: Instagram for visual storytelling + shopping; TikTok for algorithm-driven reach among younger fans regardless of follower count
  • Wrote TikTok posts as AI-draft → edited pairs — e.g. “Bayern dominates again” became “4 goals. Total control. Statement made. Who's stopping Bayern right now?”
  • Showed the editorial judgment that separates a generic caption from one built to drive comments
Attention
Maximize reach
Match highlights, goal clips, viral short-form (Reels, TikTok). New fans find clubs through moments worth watching.
Interest
Connect between matchdays
Behind-the-scenes, player interviews, match previews, club history — content that rewards return visits.
Desire
Build emotional investment
Player-personality content, fan highlights, jersey launches, celebrations — make fans identify with the club, not just follow it.
Action
Convert engagement
Merch promotions, ticket drops, membership sign-ups, direct CTAs — effective once the investment is in place.
04 / 05

Education

MBA — Digital Marketing

Fort Hays State University · Hays, KS · 2024–2026 · Finished a semester early
3.9
GPA / 4.0
6 areas
Focus

Focus: analytics, SEO, paid search, social media, email, ORM, budget strategy

BS — Business Administration

Point University · West Point, GA · 2020–2024 · Finished a semester early
3.85
GPA / 4.0
Biblical Studies
Minor

Dean's List every eligible semester · Varsity Soccer Captain 2024 · All-Academic Team 5 consecutive years

Certifications

HubSpot Digital MarketingHubSpot Social Media MarketingStukent Digital MarketingStukent Social Media MarketinguCertify CAPM — Project ManagementAnthropic Claude 101Claude Code 101Intro to Claude Cowork

Awards & Honors

2025MIAA/GAC Season & Tournament Champion
2025NCAA Division II National Tournament
2025All-Academic Team (MIAA/GAC) — 5th consecutive year
2024Defensive Player of the Week (SSAC)
2024All-Academic Team & Dean’s List
2023All-Academic Team & Dean’s List
2022All-Academic Team & Dean’s List
2021SSAC Tournament Champion
2021NAIA National Tournament · Dean’s List

Let’s talk.

Open to digital marketing roles for 2026. If the work above looks like the kind of thinking your team needs, reach out.

Email
simoniksch@gmail.com
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Phone
706-518-7151
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LinkedIn
in/simon-niksch
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