About Tom Zandstra

Tom Zandstra

Founder & CMO, Acculead. West Michigan.

I've spent 15+ years at the intersection of marketing strategy, technology, and entrepreneurship. I started Acculead in 2016 because I kept seeing the same problem: smart business owners with good products spending real money on marketing that couldn't prove it was working.

My background is in building growth systems, not running campaigns in isolation, but engineering the full picture from brand to pipeline to closed revenue. I've done it across B2B, SaaS, healthcare, ed-tech, finance, construction, non-profit, and professional services.

Outside of Acculead, I teach advertising and marketing communications at Calvin University in Grand Rapids. That keeps me grounded in the science of what works, not just what's trending. I bring that same rigor into every client engagement.

If you're the founder who's also running marketing, I built this for you.

Current Founder & CMO, Acculead LLC, 2016 to present

Teaching Adjunct Professor, Calvin University, Advertising & Marketing Communications

Based in West Michigan, operating nationally

What the work has produced.

Every number below came from a real engagement. No paid promotion on any of them. Just systems that work.

ED-TECH

7-fig

Deals closed, including Fortune 100 relationships

B2B AGENCY

~1,000

Leads on a first webinar launch

Built a repeatable sales funnel from scratch. Still converting prospects into clients today.

CONSUMER BRAND

40K

Social followers and 25K podcast views/month

Launched a brand from zero. Built content engines that compound without ongoing ad spend.

NEW BRAND / SEO

1,650%

Increase in web traffic

From 400 to 7,000 visits/month. Organic SEO campaign plus a content system that keeps producing.

BRAND PARTNERSHIP

5,000

High-quality email leads in two weeks

Coordinated multi-brand campaign tied to a film release. 40K+ YouTube views as a byproduct.

SMALL BUSINESS

Revenue in two years

Marketing roadmap built on webinars, podcasts, blogs, and targeted content. Sustainable system they still run today.

How we think about marketing.

Most agencies optimize for activity: posts, impressions, reports. We optimize for revenue. Every engagement starts with the same question: what does your pipeline actually need, and what's the most direct path to fill it?

We're tech-forward by default. AI-assisted content production, automated nurture systems, and analytics that surface what matters, not vanity metrics that look good in a slide deck.

Because we embed rather than orbit, we know your business well enough to make the right calls fast. No six-week onboarding. No hand-holding required.

Built by a marketer who's done the work.

Tom Zandstra

What the work has produced.

How we think about marketing.

Let's talk about your business.