All About Libby Covington

Craig Group, Partner

Libby Covington came to Craig Group after more than 25 years providing marketing leadership inside a wide range of companies, such as professional services firm KPMG, Fulbright & Jaworski law firm, and investment bank Simmons & Company, later acquired by Piper Jaffray. This background drives her passion to provide clients with a measurable return on their marketing investment.

“I love to watch companies grow and expand and get sales,” Covington said. “That’s what I find really gratifying – the strategic growth we can help clients achieve. I have always enjoyed the collaboration and the process.”

The experience of working in investment banking was pivotal in that it led Covington into private equity, a business that had long been of interest. At the CapStreet Group, a lower middle-market private equity company, she sourced and evaluated deals for the firm’s portfolio. She also fine tuned her understanding of just what makes a given company stand out.

“There is a lot of competition in the lower middle market, the $5 million to $50 million range,” Covington said. “That’s when I really got the bug for working with entrepreneurs.”

A natural fit, then, for Covington was Doggett Industries, a $2.5 billion privately held company where – like at Simmons – she built the marketing function from scratch. It was her time both in private equity and big industry during a pandemic that solidified for her the importance of digital advertising.

“Everyone was pivoting to digital,” Covington said. “It was a necessity but it was also a more efficient way to find new customers and grow the business.”

Covington noted that for companies recently acquired by a private equity firm, digital marketing savvy is vitally important for them to grow quickly.

“But they don’t have the infrastructure and the marketing know-how at the beginning,” she said.

That’s why Covington joined Craig Group.

“I like that we can help companies with what truly benefits them,” she said. “I could not find an agency or a consultant when I was in-house that was focused on ROI. They wanted to do the marketing itself but not be held responsible for the results. The results being revenue, being sales.”

As the head of Craig Group’s consulting practice, Covington helps run all the engagements that are not media execution.

“We are successful because of our model and approach,” Covington said. “Helping companies build and execute a strategic marketing and sales plan from day one. When we’re talking to clients, we’re talking about revenue growth and market growth. It’s not just marketing.”

Covington said that what differentiates her and her colleagues is the insight they deliver alongside the data.

“So many businesses haven’t implemented the basics of digital marketing,” she said. “And there are a lot of companies who offer a cookie-cutter approach to doing so. They don’t try to understand your entire company. They stop at getting more traffic to your website. We’re going to get more traffic to your website that actually turns into sales and converts to customers, and if it doesn’t, we’re going to keep pivoting until it does.”

It’s a formula that works again and again for Covington and her clients.

“If you build it right the first time, your plan will work and you will get more sales,” she said. “I’ve seen that myself and I’ve done that in companies.”

Covington lives in Houston with her husband and two sons, one of whom will soon be a Texas Longhorn.