hi, i’m caitlin petrakovitz, an expert in audience engagement & development, who specializes in segmentation and personalized curation.

great curation delivered directly to readers can be more impactful than a social media firehose, and i love finding those new ways to connect with people.

my skill is using messaging in a variety of mediums to grow off-site evangelists for brands, especially in the realm of texting, personalized and segmented push alerts, and email campaigns.

i’ve spent years working alongside brilliant product teams on new ways to reach audiences, including developing new iOS and Android apps; building off-site news platform features; building and maintaining in-app and on-site segmentation; and ideating and launching newsletters for niche audiences. below are some projects i’m proud to have worked on in my career so far.

if you see something you’d like to chat more about, please reach out!

SMS TEXTING

I was responsible for introducing texting for the CNET audience in 2020. From pitch and development to on-site implementation and regular sends, my product partner and I managed multiple successful campaigns, including the revenue-focused “CNET Deals” texts (née “Cheapskate”) comprised of daily sends meant to share immediate deals and savings with the opt-in audience. At the outset I was the sender, developing best practices for editors to follow.

With over 16K subscribers at its height, the revenue-driving Deals campaign was beloved by the audience and responded well to further segmentation for certain deal days (e.g. Prime Day, holidays).

Additional campaigns launched included: two podcast-based campaigns run by the hosts; a streaming movies and television campaign run by a culture writer; and a short-run campaign delivering CES daily news which I was responsible for crafting.

iOS & ANDROID APPS

Working adjacent to the product team, I helped launch the 2017 iteration of the CNET app, and 2021’s new TV Guide app.

On both, I was responsible for: crafting the app descriptions for readers and app store search optimization; developing the user onboarding copy and notification opt-ins flow; keeping the app store notes updated with brand voice and tone (which was probably my favorite part of this work tbh because it was so fun to craft and set up those guidelines).

PUSH ALERTS & AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION

After the relaunch of the CNET app in 2017, I was responsible for developing and codifying the notification strategy and best alert practices for the brand.

Learning about the audience desires and interests, as well as how they overlapped and diverged led me to my interest in personalization and curation, as we branched into segmented alerts (both manual user opt-ins and automatic based on behaviors).

As my role grew with CNET Media Group, I was also responsible for building the growth and segmentation roadmaps for GameSpot, TV Guide and ZDNet alerts for desktop, mobile, apps and Apple News where available.

EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

My work in email builds on the idea that niche audiences want to dive deep on content they love, and want to speak with experts not be talked at. Much like segmenting audiences for information delivery, an interested email subscriber in a small or niche topic will not only open sends consistently, they may turn multiple pages and will certainly be loyal readers.

In 2018, I developed and wrote a Marvel Cinematic Universe-focused biweekly send as a test case for niche newsletters. Building off that success, we launched a Westworld version which I also wrote, and which did so well it gave rise to a weekly recap show.

At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, I pitched and helped launch the CNET COVID-19 newsletter, built using automation to keep readers informed with consistent updates on the global event. That campaign was sunset in the beginning of 2022.

Now at SFGATE, I have been given the chance to manage an event-gated newsletter around the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia.

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

As an audience manager, I am also called upon to be a social media producer at times, where I believe personalized curation is still so important for each platform’s unique audience.

While leading the development of new templates for SFGATE’s social channels, I have also led the construction of the site’s first-ever how-tos for social media, homepage curation, and best practices for audience work off-site. I have also introduced new automation tools for social management so that time can be devoted to curating the right topics for each platform, and learning new and emerging platforms.

More examples and information available on request.