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We are working with Academy Sports + Outdoors in their search for a Director of Site Operations based in Katy, Texas, just 36 minutes from Houston. Ranked #143 in Forbes list of America’s Largest Private Companies, Academy Sports operates 140 stores across the southeastern United States. These stores offer a broad selection of equipment, apparel, and footwear at everyday low prices — a formula that has allowed the company to become a leader in the sporting goods industry. Check out Academy’s recent TV ad featuring the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, Emmitt Smith …
HARRY’S COMMENTS: If you’re an established email marketing supergenius who’s looking to broaden your span of influence, this job’s for you. As the right hand of VP of Ecommerce, Rolf Schultz, you can liken this role to being the first mate on a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier …
You’ll get to do it all: Lead annual web strategies focused on driving qualified traffic to the website; Develop and manage the development of creative assets; Manage the production of all site content (homepages, banners, landing pages); OWN all email marketing; Manage on-site promotions; Create reports and analyze trend information to identify issues and make recommendations for continuous improvement; Assume a lead role in UAT; and be the point person for special projects. Whew!
And you’ll get to do all that in a cool industry.
The sporting goods stores industry is one of the most rewarding we’ve worked with. The US retail sporting goods industry includes about 20,000 companies with combined annual revenue of about $38 billion. Companies in this industry operate physical retail stores specializing in sporting goods, athletic and fitness wear, fitness equipment, and related products. Major companies include Cabela’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hibbett Sports, REI, and The Sports Authority. Sporting goods are also sold by mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target.
To compete with the big dogs, Academy is taking multichannel ecommerce very seriously. According to Rolf, Academy has a very large budget for improving its website, and it has four scrum teams dedicated to making that happen in 2013. There’s a very well thought out strategy, and the firm expects you and Rolf to execute it.
Truly, this role is perfect for a bright, process-oriented email marketer who seeks a larger role in ecommerce general management. If you are tired of being a niche player, here is a chance to broaden your impact.
You will still run email for one of the coolest sporting goods retailers on the planet, so bring your A-game. That means you’ll control everything from promotional calendaring, to list hygiene and list development, to campaign development, implementation, as well as email analytics.
Speaking of analytics …
You will have an impact there too. Academy has someone who drives the analytics piece for the site, including its use of Monetate. However, Rolf would like for you to influence not only what gets tested, but how those results are interpreted. Academy omnichannel ecommerce is very integrated with all of the departments, and it’s essential that all of the reports be relevant and understandable to multiple departments in the company. According to Rolf, “We have multiple tests going on at any point in time, and we need these reports to be meaningful and actionable to everyone in the company. We need this new hire to ensure that.”
And it won’t stop there.
You’ll work with marketing, store operations, merchandising, and other pieces of the organization on matters related to planning, coordination, and execution of ecommerce projects. Plus (and perhaps most importantly), you will manage workflows, review cycles, and creative deliverables to meet release schedule deadlines.
To hear Rolf tell it, “This is a newly created position designed to bring structure and timeliness to all of our projects in multiple functions across the organization. I need a gifted email marketer who is incredibly organized who can bring their love of process and efficiency to Academy Sports ecommerce.
This is all about making the trains run on time.”
Some Responsibilities:
- Work with the ecommerce team to establish and deliver a strong web presence, to instill consumer confidence in all channels of distribution.
- Manage all email marketing (list development and management, campaign development and implementation, etc.)
- Create a segmentation strategy for email that maximizes life cycle of customers – increase 2nd order rate, grow email database.
- Conduct extensive A/B testing of email strategy, including delivery timing, creative layout, tailored offers, and subject line testing to develop best practices for ongoing email campaigns
- Work with ecom team to ensure on-brand feature-functionality, user interface, SEO, landing page optimization, effective online merchandising of products and promotions, and overall user experience.
- Work with multi-functional teams to coordinate content strategy, contact strategy, and promotional calendar.
- Influence revenue and margin performance and efficient spends for SEO, affiliate, and other customer acquisition efforts. Monitor/analyze marketing programs and make improvements in these areas.
- Leverage data to provide insights and propose new testing scenarios.
- Coordinate with SEO vendor and product management to provide requirements and implement recommended features and web site improvements for SEO.
- Partner with other functional areas in strategic development, planning, coordination, and execution of ecommerce activities/projects.
- Provide guidance and leadership for web designers to ensure all email creative enhances brand image and communicates effectively to achieve its objectives.
- Drive and manage delivery of all creative assets for copy and visual design for new customer-facing web site features.
- Coordinate feedback and approvals from business owners and stakeholders.
- Manage work flow, review cycles and creative deliverables to meet release schedule deadlines.
- Ensure that creative elements maintain brand integrity.
- Leverage available site metrics to analyze feature performance to recommend appropriate adjustments and future enhancements.
- Demonstrate expert knowledge of performance marketing, conversion, and online customer acquisition strategies.
- Manage multiple projects simultaneously in a matrix environment.
Skils and Abilities:
- Effective analytical/problem solving and research skills
- Excellent web analytics skills
- Strong proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word and Access
- Communication – effective listening, speaking, and writing
- Acceptable level of hearing and vision to perform job duties
UPDATE: This search is was closed — now it’s open again. But we have a couple of really great candidates in play, so don’t waste any time applying. To apply for this role right now, click here. Harry has a MASSIVE amount of research on this role from his 1-to-1 interview with the firm’s hiring manager. You will be heavily armed with this intel in hand. Harry will reach out to qualified candidates.
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