Raleigh, North Carolina
On-site in the Triangle,
remote anywhere
Decision-Maker Marketing Expertise
Most of my clients need to reach a small number of people who make big decisions: owners, purchasing directors, physicians, partners, and boards.
I've done this kind of marketing since the early 2000s, at global companies and small ones. Today I work with a handful of clients, and each one gets my full attention. I have limited capacity for new clients.
Where I Fit in Your Organization
No Marketing Department
I become it: the plan, the calendar, the work, and the results.
A Team Already in Place
I add what's missing and raise the level of what goes out the door.
A Growth Question
Brand, position, markets, and message. The decisions that come before any campaign.
Most clients need all three, at different times. The role changes as the business does. The person doing the work stays the same.
Current Clients and Projects
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42straight weeks of campaign launches, tracked to sales. No weeks missed.
An Office Products and Furniture Dealer
Full CMO role. When I started, their marketing was flyers. Now it runs as integrated campaigns across every channel. I rebuilt the website with no disruption, brought social back to life, and built a marketing program for government buyers that national purchasing cooperatives say no other dealer is running. A weekly customer email reaches about 6,000 contacts. All four categories in their portfolio are up this year. Last year, two were.
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2major industry award nominations
A Utility and Site Work Contractor
Full CMO role. We built their marketing from the ground up. In one year: a full brand, website, social program, email, and sales tools, all up and running. The new marketing plan builds on that foundation, and we created a community program for the neighborhoods where they work. The company is now up for two AGC Keystone Awards. I built both submissions from their work: the written entries, the creative, and every asset.
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$3.50back for every $1 of media spend
A Small Private College
Full CMO role. Enrollment, events, the website, athletics support, paid media, and every channel, run as one plan, with strategy set alongside the president and leadership team. Ads for its performing arts center return about $3.50 for every $1 spent, and leadership approved a full season plan built on those results.
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21xa normal day's site traffic on launch day
A National Medical Foundation
Launch and content lead. The launch of new national clinical guidelines for physicians. I led the core team that planned and produced it, alongside their team of three. I developed the launch content, built the searchable guidelines finder, and designed the website and wrote its content, the training video, and the print pieces. Their developer built the site. It launched on schedule and had the busiest day in the site's history. The team's launch email reached more than 14,000 people at about twice the typical nonprofit click rate.
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+48%more visitors in the first month
A Historic Raleigh Church
Website project lead. A large congregation, founded in 1936. A full website design, start to finish, built on a custom theme with a custom back end. Their staff can update and manage every page on their own, without breaking anything. In the first month, people viewed more than twice as many pages in total, stayed nearly twice as long, and clicked to sign up for events nearly 650 times.
How I Work
We Decide First
My job is to turn your business strategy into marketing that works. If the strategy, goals, and direction need work, I help you set them. If you already have them, I make sure the market hears them. I've never sold a client a tactic. Everything I do is built around what that business needs.
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I Build and Run It
When there's no team, I make the work myself: brand, website, email, sales tools, ads, video, and training. In rare cases, like high-end photography or specialized development, I bring in a specialist.
I Build with Your Team
When you have people in place, I work alongside them. I set direction, fill the gaps, raise the quality of the work, and help your team run it.
Either Way, It Keeps Moving
Every week, I watch what works, fix what doesn't, and adjust the plan as the business moves. You always know where things stand.
I've worked for $75 billion companies and for startups that couldn't afford a social media ad. Public sector and private. I've sat in boardrooms at billion-dollar businesses, and I've worked on the loading dock. I've produced million-dollar TV commercials, and I've run a full year of campaigns without adding a dollar of media spend. The budget doesn't decide the value. What it does for the business does.
Dave HarrellHow It Works
References available on request
- Retainer
- Monthly
- Sized to the work.
- Performance
- Upside
- Built in where it fits.
- Your Contact
- Me
- No account managers. No handoffs.
- Reporting
- Weekly
- A written update: what we did, what's next, and where everything stands.
- Production
- In-house
- Modern tools. Day-to-day work is never sent to an agency or billed as extra.
- Specialist Markup
- 0%
- Photography or development passes through at cost.
Pricing depends on scope. On our first call, I'll give you a range so you know early whether it fits. The agreement is built around the work.
How We Start
- First
We Talk
A conversation to learn about each other, and for me to learn the business.
- Within a Week
You Get a Plan
I think it through and come back quickly with my recommendations and a plan to get started. No charge, and no commitment.
- Within a Month
We're Working
If the plan makes sense, the work is underway within the first month.
About 25 Years, Across Nearly Every Kind of Organization
Healthcare and health insurance, state government and public programs, higher education and training, professional services and law, B2B technology, construction, distribution, entertainment, nonprofits, and churches.
State of North Carolina
Grew a statewide school violence prevention program: websites, surveys, and outreach. This is where I learned how state government works, and why I went back for my MBA.
Coleman Insights
Market research and data analysis for radio and media brands, at a research firm that still works with media companies around the world.
Blue Cross NC
Almost 10 years. Director of Advertising and Brand Marketing across business, consumer, and state markets. National TV production, public policy, more than $30 million in spend, and a 25-person team.
My First Consulting Practice
The high-risk health insurance pools in North Carolina (Inclusive Health), Oklahoma, and Nebraska, and the North Carolina Department of Insurance, where I named and branded a program that still runs today. Also medical and dental practices, a day spa, and three law firms. My largest client topped $1 million in contracts.
Three Ships
A Raleigh digital agency. Digital marketing for health insurance and a culinary school, then agency growth. I joined when it was 15 people and helped grow it to 53 before I moved to FMI.
FMI Corporation
Chief Marketing Officer at a management consulting firm founded in 1953. Grew a team of three to ten, added marketing operations, asset management, and a content program still running today. Company revenue grew more than 70% while I was there.
Cisco
Senior marketing leader for Learning and Certifications: the CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE certifications, DevNet training, and the launch of Cisco U. Product, outbound, and customer marketing.
Lenovo
Head of Growth Marketing for Lenovo's cloud and software division. I led demand generation and ran the department.
Dave Harrell Marketing Consulting
My second time on my own. I ran a consulting practice for about five years early in my career, then went inside large companies for the digital and technology work that shaped the rest of it. In 2025 I came back out to do that work directly for clients.
MBA in Marketing and Innovation Management, NC State Poole College of Management. BA, NC State.
Let's Talk
Call or email. The first conversation is just that, a conversation, and I'll tell you straight if I'm not the right fit.