iPEC is one of the largest ICF-accredited coaching certification companies in the world — 25,000+ graduates, 25+ years operating, and over $500M in cumulative program investment since 1999. I joined as Director of Marketing in year 25 and built their demand generation infrastructure from scratch.
iPEC had strong product, an engaged community, and a $3.3M enrollment goal. Marketing infrastructure to hit it: none.
Every piece of the campaign was designed to trigger from behavior — not schedules, not gut feel.
Three behavioral segments. Three distinct nurture tracks. Automatically routed by HubSpot based on real interaction signals.
AI-assisted lead scoring tied to behavioral thresholds — not time-in-funnel. Score hit means sequence enrollment and BDR task, simultaneously.
Five channels running in parallel — all tied to meetings booked and deals won, not cost per click.
Late-cycle CTP enrollment campaign, March 2026. A webinar-anchored, multi-channel push across paid search, email, social, and landing pages over a 3-week enrollment window.
The behavioral segmentation built in HubSpot is why this happened — each contact got the right message at the right moment, not a broadcast.
Mid-year. Without warning. Pipeline commitments unchanged.
The wrong response: reduce spend evenly, maintain breadth, hope for the best. That burned two weeks before I stopped it.
Ran funnel conversion analysis by channel. Which dollars were producing closed deals — not MQLs, not meetings, deals.
Cut Pinterest, reduced Meta, concentrated spend on Google Ads and top HubSpot sequences. Leaned into organic + partnerships as zero-cost layer.
Weekly optimization reviews became non-negotiable. Every channel decision justified by pipeline data, not media habits.
"Coaching certification" was our highest-spend keyword at QS 3 with $8,600 in spend. Identified that improving to QS 7 would cut CPC by ~64% — a $5,500 annual savings at existing volume.
Against a $3.3M enrollment program. 4-person team. $300K annual budget — cut to $126K mid-year.
A single quarter of results isn't a system. This was designed to compound — and to be deployable to any new vertical in days.
Vertical, use case, offer, channel mix, and measurement plan in one doc. Co-authored with sales before launch — not distributed after.
Behavioral signals defined before campaigns launch, not added post-hoc. Each threshold maps to a specific sequence entry and BDR action.
Sales in the room. Pipeline contribution as the metric — not MQLs, not CTR. Every channel decision made with field signal from reps.
Which signals predicted conversion, which didn't. Reweighted scoring model after each cycle. Attribution agreed with RevOps before launch.
The framework is not industry-specific. The trigger logic, brief structure, and optimization cadence transfer directly to Island's enterprise motion.
| Dimension | iPEC | Island |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Buyer | HR leader, career changer, L&D manager | CISO, IT VP, Head of Infrastructure |
| Vertical Offer | Quiz funnel → coaching interest signal | TEI calculator → VDI replacement signal |
| Content Sequence | Webinar replay → 15.74% CTR follow-up track | Demo replay + competitive comparison track |
| Budget Constraint | 58% cut → channel concentration by conversion data | ABM account tier → spend concentrated by pipeline stage |
| Sales Alignment | Pipeline reviewed weekly with Admissions | Pipeline reviewed weekly with Sales + RevOps |
| Trigger Logic | Behavioral score → BDR task + email sequence | Intent signal (G2, job posting, renewal) → ABM + BDR play |
Edward Chalupa — Director of Marketing, Dallas TX