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We are working with ThinkGeek in their search for a Director of Digital Marketing based in Fairfax, VA. In May 2009, Fairfax was ranked No. 3 in the “Top 25 Places to Live Well” by Forbes. Forbes commended Fairfax for its strong public school system, high median salary, and a rate of sole proprietors per capita in the top 1% nationwide. The city even has a chocolate lover’s festival. Sweet!
ThinkGeek.com, one of the most successful niche ecommerce sites (IR 175) and the premier retailer serving the global geek community, is seeking a Director of Digital Marketing to drive customer acquisition and expand online sales through multiple external channels as well as the ThinkGeek website (which is awesome btw).
HARRY’S COMMENTS: Reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer, the successful candidate will be an expert at driving scalable growth while optimizing programs across multiple channels and hitting strict ROI targets. The Director will be responsible for all external channels including SEM, affiliate marketing, re-targeting and display marketing, and partnerships. S/he will own website marketing and promotions for the ThinkGeek Website, SEO, and the Geek Points loyalty program. Additionally, the Director will have a strategic vision along with the ability to deliver on monthly and weekly sales goals.
Thanks to the enthusiastic cooperation of chief marketing officer Jim O’Brien, we have nearly 10 pages of high-quality material on this particular search, several pages of which Jim wrote himself. That kind of participation in our process tells you something about the people you will be working with. They are excited about what they do, and they value talent in ways some companies couldn’t fathom.
Without getting into specifics, ThinkGeek’s annual ecommerce sales are over $100 million. The company is killing it on every major KPI including traffic, email subscriber growth and engagement rates, monthly unique visitors, and paid media performance.
Would you believe that ThinkGeek’s YouTube channel has 75K subscribers and more than 75 million views??
According to Jim, “ThinkGeek is the premier retailer serving the global community of geeks — people who are passionate to the point of obsessive about technology, toys, and pop culture. If we can’t find an existing product to serve our customers, we’ll design and create our own.”
True dat. The firm’s R&D arm, Geek Labs, commissions and develops products that it knows geeks will love, such as its Minecraft Light-Up Redstone Ore night light or its chrome pizza cutter in the shape of the original Star Trek Enterprise. Besides Minecraft and Star Trek, the company is licensed to produce merchandise from Dr. Who, Star Wars, Portal 2, Game of Thrones, and more.
It’s all good.
ThinkGeek knows its audience and its products satisfy a juvenile, prankster streak within it. Geeks are always on the lookout not only for the occasional gift for friend or loved one, but also for something to make a geek party a little better, their workspace more fun, or their dorm room more expressive. And they will always pay a little bit more for that which is truly unique. Like the can of unicorn meat I just bought for $12.99 or a Han Solo Carbonite business card holder.
The primary responsibility of the Director of Digital Marketing is to drive growth in paid search and to ensure that the company is not missing any opportunities. Additionally, ThinkGeek would like the new Director to optimize its affiliate marketing strategy, expand on other channels such as display retargeting, and identify new partnership marketing initiatives. Unlike pure paid media roles, this role also requires you to manage on-site marketing, from working with merchandising to curate collection pages, creating coupon and sale promotions along with related landing pages, and even tweaking internal search to increase conversion.
Candidates, it is absolutely essential that you have built a highly successful paid search AND affiliate programs from the ground up, in addition to having very deep analytics expertise. Throughout these interviews, you can expect to be asked how you have measured the efficacy of your SEM and affiliate programs both from a sales and ROI perspective. Moreover, we will expect you to discuss new channels you would explore to acquire new customers and grow sales. Think big. I’m happy to share with you ThinkGeek’s growth targets for both affiliate and paid search, but know this: They are extremely aggressive yet realistic.
We will also ask about your motives. Why ThinkGeek? Are you a geek? Were you a geek? Do you have a teachable point of view on all things geeky? Do you love Star Trek or Star Wars? Did you cheer for Augie Farks in the movie Role Models?
As you cast your eyes around your cubicle or home office, how is it decorated? Be honest: Would you buy something from ThinkGeek.com to display proudly in your own workspace? This is one time when you will really need to relate to the market.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Maximize online revenue and new customer acquisition from core external channels, paid search and affiliate marketing, while continuing to test and expand retargeting and display advertising
- Effectively manage small internal team and outside vendors/agencies
- Continue to expand non-brand SEM—both PLAs and keywords–while managing spend ratios to both sales and margin; maintain brand performance
- Collaborate with search agency to expand paid search as well as explore opportunities to improve SEO
- Develop and implement a strategic overhaul of the affiliate marketing channel, including a review of offer strategy, commissions, state tax laws, and partnership mix (e.g. content sites, coupon sites, etc.)
- Partner with Customer Marketing team to align on engagement of new customers acquired through external channels
- Analyze efficacy of current Geek Points loyalty program and evaluate changes to improve sales, cost efficiency, and customer experience
- Work in close collaboration with Merchandising and Operations teams to align site marketing strategy with product launches, inventory strategies, and the business’ overall promotional cadence
- Partner with Analytics and User Experience on site testing and reporting as well as on reporting for channel results
- Lead setting up and testing of online promotions for all channels, including coupons and on-site offers (e.g. Free Shipping thresholds)
- Optimize Adobe Search and Promote to improve the efficacy of internal search and increase conversion
- Works closely with Retention Marketing to maintain a consistent presentation of the brand in line with senior management’s expectations
- Continuously review and recommend new marketing and audience opportunities to add to the Marketing tool box
- Manage external Product Feeds and Comparison Shopping Engine relationships
REQUIREMENTS
- Min 7 years of online customer acquisition experience with multiple disciplines
- Retail e-commerce marketing experience required
- Deep expertise in paid search required; additional experience with SEO preferred
- Significant Affiliate program experience
- Strong analytics, accurate forecasting ability, experience with a/b testing, and a drive to achieve results; experience with Omniture a plus
- Experience managing and growing exceptionally talented peopleExcellent communication, presentation, people leadership, and collaboration skills
- Bachelor’s Degree
- An understanding of Internet & Geek Culture preferred
- A competitive drive to get high score every time you drop a quarter into the slot.
Applications for this position are being coordinated by Allan Seibert. To apply, CLICK HERE. Candidates, please be sure to email Allan for a packet of market research and company / competitive intel that will differentiate you in your candidacy. Due to the intensely competitive nature of this search, thorough preparation for these interviews with this proprietary material is strongly recommended.
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