Outward Bound Services Group | Marketing Director

Digital Marketing

Description

About Us:

Outward Bound has a worldwide presence. Operating for over 50 years, Outward Bound USA is the leading nonprofit adventure-based experiential education organization in the United States. We are strongly connected to our founding philosophy, predicated on the belief that if we grow more compassionate and resilient individuals, we will in turn create a more compassionate and resilient world.

Outward Bound’s mission is to change lives through challenge and discovery. Our mission is based on the belief that values are experienced concretely rather than taught abstractly; that when the makeup of a crew crosses racial, economic or religious lines differences are celebrated, appreciated and valued. Together with a network of regional Schools, Outward Bound USA has more than 1,000,000 alumni and serves more than 50,000 young people and adults each year.

The Outward Bound Services Group (OBSG) was formed in 2012 as a member-managed organization providing shared marketing services in support of the national network of regional Outward Bound schools in the U.S. The purpose of the OBSG is:
• To drive enrollments in the regional schools and build equity in the Outward Bound brand.
• To design, direct and implement national sales and marketing services for our expeditions. This includes:
o National website
o National social media
o National digital advertising campaigns
o National email campaigns
• To lead and coordinate course inventory planning, optimization and management.
• To effectively operate a national call center to answer inquiries and initiate enrollments.
• To manage the national course inventory database alumni and CRM programs.
• To coordinate with national scholarship partners to enroll their participants.
• To coordinate with regional schools on digital marketing campaigns and sales initiatives

Roles & Responsibilites:

There are two parts to the OBSG shared service organization:
1) Marketing: Generating demand for Outward Bound Open Enrollment Courses (i.e. “filling the pipeline”)
2) Operational: Managing the infrastructure in support of marketing programs (i.e. “maintaining the pipeline”).

The Marketing Director will be responsible for generating demand and driving revenue for Outward Bound Open Enrollment courses. The Marketing Director is expected to ensure consistency of brand standards and integration in all open-enrollment campaigns, as well as strategic alignment of campaigns to drive enrollment.

They will work closely with the Executive Director, the current marketing team (Web Content Manager, Content Coordinator, Marketing Coordinator) and the Director of Marketing at OBUSA, in addition to member schools to identify, develop and launch targeted marketing programs.

The Marketing Director is responsible for day-to-day marketing management and meeting monthly, seasonal and annual goals:
• Oversee the strategy, development, implementation and analyzation of multi-platform digital marketing campaigns for each of Outward Bound’s program lines.
• Strategic and functional leadership for lead generation strategies, lead management strategies, student engagement strategies, ROI on marketing spend and other analyzation
• Manage vendor partners that support marketing initiatives
Digital Marketing Platforms:
• Ensure proper and successful execution of open enrollment marketing campaigns across various digital platforms including: the national website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and email
• Ensure web pages are built and maintained for SEO performance and are in keeping with other best practices
• Strong background in Google Analytics; track and manage the customer journey

Digital Advertising:
• Manage strategy and annual budget of approximately $250K for digital advertising campaigns in Google AdWords
• Manage vendor relationship for ongoing campaign optimization, testing and updates and technical support
• Create and manage campaigns in social media

Analytics Strategy and Reporting:
• Quantify impact, identify opportunities and optimize digital experiences to increase course enrollments
• Build and implement test strategies; analyze the results of marketing spend
• Develop KPIs and analytics including performance summary, multivariate testing, and conversion campaign tracking

Coordinate with regional Outward Bound Schools to implement and successfully execute digital marketing campaigns:
• Provide a strong understanding of inventory, oversight of content assets for digital campaigns, and post-launch analytics reporting

Alumni & Student Relationship (CRM) Program Management:
• Plan and manage all marketing communications to this audience, utilizing a variety of media
• Prepare and deploy reports/dashboards to executive and affiliate managers regarding CRM (Salesforce) status and results

Business Strategy & Annual Marketing Plan:
• Collaborate with the Executive Director and the Marketing Team in development of an annual marketing plan.
• Contribute to the development of an annual operating plan and budget

Candidate Profile:

The successful candidate will have a track record of developing and managing marketing campaigns that generate demand, create long term customer relationships, and brand equity. The ideal candidate will possess strong skills and previous experience with digital and print marketing, marketing database strategies and functions, inbound/outbound call center strategies and functions, and be highly effective working in matrixed organizations building and being part of high performance teams.

• Ability to develop, maintain and execute a marketing strategy aligned with organizational goals
• Able to drive execution and execute as needed
• Record of sales growth using digital marketing strategies that support an open enrollment plan, targeting demographics within ages 12 to 25.
• Demonstrated experience initiating and leading digital advertising strategies to be executed internally and/or with external partners
• Proven capability to oversee a multi-organization digital communications calendar across all channels
• Demonstrated experience setting and maintaining excellence in communication and collaboration
• Strong financial, administrative and management experience with IT and database systems
• Ability to build strong, positive working relationships within the OBSG but importantly, also with the leadership at the members schools and with OBUSA
• Track record of confronting and creatively solving challenging situations; self-directed and solution-oriented
• Familiarity with Outward Bound and passion for its mission and programs

Additional Skills & Characteristics:

The following characteristics and skills are highly valued:

• Collaboration: the ability to work across functions and disciplines and provide a solution focused orientation to problem solving.
• Communication: Strong peer level communication skills are essential. Also highly valued is the ability to prepare and present C-Suite and Board Level communications in written and oral form; and helping to establish and maintain an effective system of communication throughout the organization.
• Culture: Support creating a highly professional, energetic and proactive environment that ensures high mutual regard across member schools
• Leadership: ability to provide strategic thinking as well as strong behavioral models

Education & Work Experience:

• Minimum five years’ experience in digital marketing roles, branding, advertising and social media.
• Minimum of 3 years supervisory experience
• Able to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Excellent communication skills; Board Level, C-Suite, Peer to Peer, Distributed staff.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, flexible and creative
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office including Word, Excel & PowerPoint
• Strong working knowledge of email analytics, Salesforce and other business intelligences tools.
• Bachelor’s Degree required; Advanced Degree preferred.
• Education industry experience preferred.
• Experience writing business plans and creating business case scenarios a plus.

Location & Physical Requirements

• Golden, CO – currently remote but with the potential to transition to a hybrid work environment in the future
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand, walk, use hands to touch, handle or feel, and talk or hear.
• The employee is occasionally required to sit, reach with hands and arms.
• Ability to spend long durations of the workday in front of a computer monitor.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and ability to adjust focus.
• The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 15 pounds.
• OBSG will provide reasonable accommodations to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This role will remain open until filled.

Compensation & Benefits:

• This is a full time, exempt, benefit eligible position.
• Compensation Range of $80,000 - $100,000 per year
• OBSG offers a competitive benefits package, including Health Insurance with employer contribution, Health Savings Account, Paid Time Off (PTO), paid holidays and 401k/Retirement Savings Plan participation upon eligibility

Reporting Relationships:

The Director of National Marketing will report to the Executive Director of the Outward Bound Services Group (OBSG). The Director of National Marketing will help develop and manage demand generation programs for Open Enrollment courses and the systems and media required to support those programs.

This position will work closely with the OBSG Director of Operations to ensure a seamless and effective relationship between marketing programs and the operational systems (e.g. call center, website, database) required to support them, and will have direct relationships with the Marketing and Development staff at the Outward Bound member schools.