Senior Director, Group Marketing

WorldStrides is seeking an exceptional leader for the role of Senior Director, Group Marketing reporting directly to SVP, Group Marketing and serving as a key member of the marketing leadership team. This individual's focus will be on driving tangible business results (increased revenue and EBITDA) for our Group travel business through a consumer-centric approach to using cross channel, full-funnel marketing strategies that rely heavily on close collaboration with our Sales and Account Management teams to achieve business goals.

The ideal candidate will have a passion for education and our mission of enabling students to expand their worldview through transformative educational travel experiences.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Marketing Planning & Execution

• Create comprehensive annual marketing strategy and planning for Group travel programs that support business growth goals, overseeing the coordination of internal and external resources. Marketing plans include:
  • Full-funnel strategies and supporting tactics that span lead gen, sales conversion, group size growth.
  • Development of marketing KPIs to measure effectiveness of marketing efforts.
  • Creation of performance dashboards and reporting mechanisms to monitor performance and implement optimizations.
  • Development and execution of marketing strategies and campaigns to empower the WorldStrides sales teams with the buyer, solution, and competitive tools they need to achieve and exceed their targets.
• Create and manage annual marketing budget aligned with business priorities and goals.
• Conduct competitive intelligence scans/benchmarking and develop strategies to adapt to a changing and dynamic marketplace
• Steward of the WorldStrides brand, developing and implementing a strategic migration plan for the sunsetting of legacy brands (where applicable).
• Develop strategy briefs for campaigns and collateral, working closely to establish goals and metrics with Group division leadership

Lead Generation Strategy & Management

• Development of a full-funnel lead generation strategy that heavily leverages digital touchpoints across web, search, social, display, retargeting and native sponsored ads in a variety of platforms and audience segments. Ensure lead gen strategies are aligned with business priorities and optimized to meet performance benchmarks and deliver actionable insights.
• Expand upon current referral program efforts, improving participation and quality of leads.
• Review and optimize industry conference attendance and participation with the goal of improving CPL and overall ROI.
• Manage the day-to-day relationship and communication with the media agency including media briefs, development of media plans, campaign optimizations and Quarterly Business Reviews to ensure flawless execution and best-in-class service.
• Design, develop and oversee lead flow process tracking via marketing automation platforms, i.e. Salesforce, Google Analytics, Looker Studio.

Conversion/Sales Funnel Strategy & Management

• Maximize conversion through end-to-end customer journey planning, identifying opportunities to improve ROI throughout the sales funnel.
• Develop and implement targeted marketing campaigns that support sales team efforts in closing the sale, and growing group size.
• Build compelling and customer-centric narratives and collateral for sales teams to use when engaging with B2B customers (teachers) of various needs and group sizes
• Drive sales and marketing alignment, partnering with New Sales, Account Management, Sales Operations and Enablement teams to enhance sales productivity, and drive revenue growth

Digital Strategy and Management

• Translate digitally-focused customer interaction and engagement opportunities into executable business requirements that ensure a high quality and intuitive user experience while working closely with TMO, Digital, IT and external resources to develop and implement.
• Support the development of a new K12 Group website infrastructure that features the WorldStrides K12 Group product portfolio, provides an engaging and personalized experience for the customer and integrates the current disparate sites across multiple subdomains and a variety of CMS platforms.
• Oversee the creation and implementation of a digital and social content strategy for Group.
• Develop the overarching SEO strategy for Group and oversee it's execution.

Analytics, Measurement & Reporting

• Brings a data-driven mindset to the Group Marketing team, making decisions based on data rather than opinion.
• Develop tracking parameters and reporting requirements across all marketing efforts and work with both internal and external analytics teams to deliver dashboards, weekly/monthly reporting and ad hoc analysis, deep performance and insights and recommendation.
• Direct and oversee analyst and marketing team efforts in producing detailed campaign analysis and evaluation of end-to-end customer experiences across multiple channels and touchpoints in order to make recommendations for ongoing improvement and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Managing others

• Possesses a player coach mentality combining the willingness to own specific projects while at the same time mentoring and supporting team members.
• Recruits, hires and develops people to drive a culture of high performance and engagement
• Accountable for team performance through teaching, mentoring and providing meaningful feedback to build capabilities
• Lead by example with team members by demonstrating an ability to build strong internal and external relationships.

SKILLS

• Big picture thinker who does not hesitate to dive into details with strong quantitative skills and ability to translate data into insights and measurable results.
• Excellent analytical, strategic conceptual thinking and consulting skills.
• Familiarity with media and performance measurement as well as attribution and media mix modeling.
• Proven ability to effectively drive people, process and technology change in a dynamic and complex operating environment.
• Superior written and verbal communication skills, including a proven ability to explain complex concepts to senior business leaders as well as business concepts to technologists.
• Thrives in a fast-paced environment, with a strong ability to manage multiple deadlines and multi-task across campaigns & complex projects.
• Excels at communicating cross functionally and influencing key stakeholders across matrixed organizations. Success is reliant upon building strong relationships with Sales, Delivery, Marketing Services, IT and Customer Service.
• Strong ability to build and manage high performing marketing teams and outside agencies.

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, advertising, communications or related field.
• Advanced degree in marketing or business a plus.
• 12 years of progressively senior marketing experience with a strong record of driving revenue for a product or service brand; K-12 education or travel marketing experience preferable.
• 5 years of management experience, specifically in running a marketing team.
• Agency experience a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in identifying target audiences and devising multi-channel campaigns that drive meaningful results; ideally revenue-driving outcomes.