Michael Pelz

Interim Manager | Founder of hinauf.com

Pullach im Isartal, Germany

Experience

Nov 2016 - Present
8 years 9 months
Pullach, Germany

Interim Manager | Founder of hinauf.com

Freelancer

  • Hinauf is an interim consulting company that supports industry leaders in effective growth in digital sales. During this time, I worked as a freelancer on various long-term projects, including:
  • Project at Pro7 Sat.1 Media SE as Digital Product Lead (Website Relaunch for Channels):
  • Customer-focused redesign of the Pro7 Sat.1 group channel websites and management of complex project dynamics.
  • Led the relaunch of all channel sites in Austria, established a successful framework and an operational strategy that served as a template for further expansion in Germany.
  • Task: Customer-centric relaunch of the Pro7 Sat.1 group channel websites.
  • Goal: Redesign the channel websites with a customer focus and develop an operational strategy as a model for future expansions.
  • Led the relaunch of all channel sites in Austria.
  • Established a successful framework and created an operational strategy used for expansion into Germany.
  • Successfully relaunched the channel sites in Austria.
  • Designed and implemented a new scalable unified homepage for all channel sites.
  • Defined all KPIs and process steps for the relaunch as a blueprint for the German launch.
  • Project at Leonet AG as Head of Online Marketing:
  • Responsible for the relaunch and rebrand of the website from amplus.ag to leonet.de.
  • Managed web, brand, and SEO agencies. Defined content elements like imagery and copy.
  • Goal: Develop a mobile-first portal that harmonizes customer focus, ease of use, and increased sales.
  • Quantitative analysis of customer segments and derived needs as the basis for website design and user flows.
  • Task: Replace the old brand “amplus” with “Leonet”.
  • Task: Create a new ISP website with a fully integrated and optimized online sales funnel.
  • Goal: Develop a mobile-first portal that significantly boosts tariff sales while harmonizing customer focus and ease of use.
  • Managed the SEO/agency and worked closely with the brand agency.
  • Executed performance and branding campaigns.
  • Analyzed customer segments and derived their needs.
  • Designed user flows and created wireframes.
  • Increased online sales closures by over 80%.
  • Successful relaunch and 23% increase in time on site.
  • Project at Pro7 Sat.1 Media SE as Digital Product Lead (Galileo Launch):
  • Responsible for the launch of the Galileo apps and website, one of Germany’s best-known TV shows.
  • Led a cross-functional team of over 20 directly involved employees from software development, UI/UX, marketing, digital content creation, business intelligence, and TV editing.
  • Accountable for the development process. Managed various internal stakeholders and external agencies considering the existing technical infrastructure.
  • Project at RDL Group GmbH as Managing Director E-Commerce Online Marketing:
  • Increased organic traffic by over 30% through on-page optimizations, improved meta information, image editing, mobile optimization, and sustainable content creation.
  • Achieved a year-to-date revenue increase of 6.5% and margin growth of 7.3% by redesigning the three e-commerce shops.
  • Full responsibility for products, pricing, contract structures, purchasing, and staff of up to 13, with regular report meetings with the investor.
  • Task: Interim managing director needed to redefine the marketing strategy of the three e-commerce shops and increase traffic and revenue.
  • Goal: Develop a sustainable online marketing strategy that strengthens the market position of the three e-commerce shops and maximizes revenue potential.
  • Designed new marketing actions, including retargeting, CRM, sequential campaigns, and optimized Adwords campaigns.
  • Adjusted SEO strategy with improved content strategy and technical tweaks.
  • Restructured internal processes and introduced agile principles.
  • Year-to-date revenue increase of 6.5% and margin increase of 7.3%.
  • Increased SEO traffic by over 30% and improved the cost-revenue ratio of Adwords campaigns by 11%.
Dec 2010 - Nov 2016
6 years
Germany

Head of Digital Ad Products

GMX, WEB.DE & 1&1

  • Task: Responsible for developing the digital product portfolio for ad integrations. Focus: e-commerce lead generation and email marketing products.
  • Goal: Build digital product portfolios to strengthen marketability of digital dialog products.
  • Developed new and improved existing ad products on the apps.
  • Managed multiple projects to launch new ad services on the portals.
  • Stakeholder management of partners and their service integrations into the portals.
  • Designed and launched new high-revenue online products like “Inbox Ad,” “GMX Flyers,” or “Lead Performance.”
  • Year-over-year revenue increase of over 60%.
  • Responsible for developing digital ad spaces in sales and lead generation (B2C), dialog marketing, and digital flyers. Goal: Optimize advertisers’ messages on GMX and WEB.DE portals.
  • Ran several hundred campaigns per year in display advertising, email marketing, native integrations, and data-driven marketing.
  • Year-over-year revenue increase of over 60% through new products, process improvements, revised marketing strategy, and team restructuring.
  • Managed a team of seven, including product developers, campaign managers, and key account managers.
May 2009 - Jul 2010
1 year 3 months
Australia

Sales/Country Manager Australia

eGentic

  • Responsible for launching products in the Australian market with direct profit and loss responsibility.
  • Most successful market in the Asia-Pacific region through building a partnership network with local online and offline agencies, various networks, and new direct clients across industries.
Oct 2007 - Apr 2009
1 year 7 months
Germany

Sales/Country Manager DACH

Come&Stay

  • Overall leadership of the newly founded German branch in digital direct marketing and performance marketing with direct revenue and cost responsibility.

Summary

For me, online marketing means looking at the entire user journey from traffic generation to sales close and optimizing based on data.

  • Conversion optimization
  • Implementing SEA/SEO
  • Data analysis
  • Display advertising campaigns
  • Performance marketing
  • Affiliate marketing

Languages

German
Native
English
Advanced
Spanish
Intermediate

Education

May 2009 - Nov 2010

Curtin University of Technology

Master of Business Administration, Business Leadership · Business Administration · Perth, Australia

Nov 2000 - Mar 2005

University of Applied Sciences for Business Berlin

Diplom-Kaufmann (FH), Marketing, Entrepreneurship · Business Administration · Berlin, Germany

Certifications & licenses

Agile Coach

Certified Product Owner

Design Thinking Master

Digitalization Consultant, Steinbeis University

NLP Trainer & Coach

OKR Coach

OKR Master

Prompt Engineering

SCRUM Product Owner