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Waterwheel Marketing

About Waterwheel

Custom Built forYour Ecosystem

Every business sits in its own landscape, with its own customers, competitors, team and history. Everything we build is designed for the one it has to work in, and nothing we do works in a silo.

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why a waterwheel

Built for the River It Sits In

A waterwheel is custom engineered for its purpose, the body of water it sits in and the ecosystem it operates within. Similarly, everything we do at Waterwheel Marketing is custom built to fit each client’s unique business landscape.

A waterwheel doesn’t make the river. It sits in the current and turns moving water into power. Build it for the wrong river and it stalls. Ignore what’s happening upstream and it runs dry.

Marketing works the same way. Customers arrive from everywhere: a friend’s photo, a review, an article, an ad at the right moment. Our job is to understand where that water comes from, build what captures it and keep it flowing back into the business.

If the experience on the other end isn’t worth talking about, no amount of marketing keeps the river from drying up.

Kelley Ellert

the story

Twenty Years, Every Side of the Table

I’m Kelley Ellert. My career has run through radio, publishing, corporate offices and agencies, at businesses that were publicly traded, independent and private equity backed. Each stop added a piece of the picture.

  1. radio and a front page

    Learning What Makes People Pay Attention

    I started in radio, then landed at Kruse International in my hometown of Auburn, Indiana. I ran advertising and PR for more than 30 auction events a year, landed a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal and got a front-row seat to crisis communications.

    Attention is earned with a story worth telling.

  2. publishing

    Writing and Designing for the People Reading

    Publishing came next: digital campaigns for publicly traded Various Inc., more than 60 championship sports magazines designed for Rylin Media and 11 years writing the Hospitality Innovation in Action column for Resort Trades.

    The reader decides what’s worth their time.

  3. the corporate office

    Running Marketing for 80+ Resorts

    As director of marketing and revenue at Defender Resorts, I built what was essentially an in-house agency serving more than 30 properties. When Defender became part of the newly formed Capital Vacations, that work grew to cover more than 80.

    On the property side, we ran revenue, rental programs and distinct branding and marketing for every resort. On the corporate side, I handled new business development, corporate and internal communications and board communications.

    Every property was its own ecosystem, even under one roof.

  4. the agency side

    Seeing It From the Other Side of the Table

    My corporate role was as a consultant and contractor, not an employee. So alongside the resort work, I also served independent businesses, SEO and web agencies and paid media agencies.

    When that outside work outgrew the time I had for it, I took it on full time, then ran agency operations for Digital Caffeine, a paid ads agency. When the owner retired, those operations folded into Waterwheel.

    Paid media stopped being a silo and became one part of the whole.

what it adds up to

Not a firm that does a little of everything.
A firm that sees how everything connects.

How a press feature changes what an ad can say. How a booking path changes what a campaign is worth. How a board report changes what gets funded next.

  • LeanOnly the pieces your ecosystem actually needs.
  • EfficientEvery effort set up to feed the others.
  • Measured wholeResults read across the business, not one channel at a time.
A story that doesn’t move revenue=a hobby
A revenue plan nobody wants to share=a spreadsheet
Waterwheel exists to doboth at once.

by the numbers

The Short Version

15+Years in hospitality and vacation ownership
20+Years in marketing and PR
$13M+Paid media managed
80+Properties served in one marketing department

in their words

What Clients Say

★★★★★ five-star rated on Google →

★★★★★
“She has her fingers on the pulse in this industry and can provide customized solutions for your resort’s revenue or social media needs.”
Dana MyersGoogle review
★★★★★
“With Waterwheel Marketing you don’t just get technical and strategic support, you get marketing therapy as well!”
Ally Pockrass NagleGoogle review
★★★★★
“This has been such a breath of fresh air from my previous experiences with some other web optimization companies. I’ve already referred her to some other business associates.”
Jonathan FrankGoogle review

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