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We are working with Sundance Catalog in their search for an Ecommerce Marketing Manager based in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is a really great ecommerce job.
Sundance Catalog’s Ecommerce Marketing Manager is responsible for driving the financial growth and profitability of all paid ecommerce initiatives set out in Sundance’s corporate objectives. The new hire will be the catalyst for driving profitable revenue growth, maintaining cost budgets, and identifying new customer acquisition opportunities. In partnership with ecommerce and off-line marketing strategies, the Ecommerce Marketing Manager will provide a best in class customer experience that reflects the quality of the Sundance Brand.
HARRY’S COMMENTS: One of the most satisfying aspects of my job is placing a candidate with a client I love and watching great things happen. Over the years I have placed several candidates at Sundance Catalog, all of them have had tremendous growth and success within the organization becoming leading multi-channel retailers. Their success has come from incredible acumen in all aspects of direct marketing and ecommerce making this an amazing growth and learning opportunity …
Channel agnostic.
Channel agnosticism is an industry term that refers to a marketer’s bias towards selling the way the customer wants to buy — as opposed to how the company wants to sell. When you think about it, “channel agnostic” really means “customer focused.” It takes humility to be channel agnostic when one manages an ecommerce P&L, because there might be times when a particular customer wants to use your team’s email to inform a catalog purchase (for example). But you do what’s best for the company and the brand.
And in Sundance’s case, oh what a brand it is.
Founded by Robert Redford in 1989, Sundance is a fast growing, aspirational lifestyle brand beloved by its affluent, female customers. The firm sells through a variety of channels, including ecommerce, catalog, call centers, and retail stores.
The brand elevates the traditions of authentic American heritage into a sophisticated and creative style.
Sundance grew out of Robert Redford’s love for the wilderness of the Sundance Resort in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, and the brand appeals to those who aspire to be out in the wide open spaces. Sundance represents freedom, independence, and creative expression — and these roots provided core guiding values as Sundance evolved into a broad commercial success. Its distinctive look is sophisticated — yet rugged and whimsical. It’s on-trend, yet timeless in its style.
Frankly, it’s really hard to find people — men and women alike — who don’t love this brand. Which is a really powerful advantage when building an online business. And the thing is, Sundance continues to branch out into new categories like home furnishings in ways that attach the brand to one-of-a-kind products that can’t be bought elsewhere online.
Things like the Moab Grange Table …
By the way, if you’ve ever wondered how to market your products with “great storytelling,” this is a nice example. In order for your customers to justify paying a premium for something, they must be able to tell themselves a story about the product. As in “This reclaimed wood came from a historic, well-loved 150 year old barn that was going to be demolished.” Or “This Subaru Outback was made for the mythic cowboy / frontiersman in me.” At its best, marketing is about helping your customers feel better about themselves because of their relationship with you or your product.
Anyhoo, the good people at Sundance are pros at this, and as Sundance’s new Ecommerce Marketing Manager you’ll get to work alongside them on a daily basis. As usual, I have several thousand words worth of proprietary research on this role, the company, and the industry. My call with the hiring manager lasted 65 minutes, so there’s tons-O-information I can share regarding how candidates can “plug-and-play” and drive immediate value in this role.
At a high level, this role is about customer acquisition.
But there are some nuances to the role that will require the winning candidate to have much more depth than would be required in a garden-variety customer acquisition position. For example, it’s essential that you understand how to manage good, clean projects that come in on time, under budget, and with a bare minimum of broken glass and unintended consequences. We want you to have a process for what you do and how you lead others.
One of the coolest ecommerce jobs around.
At the end of the day, there are 10 functional areas where you’ll need deep expertise to be successful in this role. Those are discussed in detail in my project kickoff call notes. Additionally, I have a laundry list of 100-day key initiatives for this role, as well as a number of interesting insights into Sundance’s current and future lines of business, its culture, and its operating philosophies.
Other nuggets in the Sundance research pack include ..
- Sundance key stats, including the total number of company employees
- Number of records in the Sundance house file
- A discussion regarding how the web has changed Sundance
- A brief overview of the role of the print catalog and how it fits in with the firm’s online marketing strategy
- The percent of Sundance’s business that is on the web, and the number of times per year consumers transact with the company
- A look at the company’s circulation strategy and how its matchback process influences its web strategy
- An overview of what’s next for the company, and how it plans to grow.
- And more!
All good stuff.
Bottom line, this job is perfect for a pragmatic, super smart, business oriented self-starter. It’s too easy to say that this job is about customer acquisition and leave it at that. The company sells through a number of different channels, and we’re looking for someone who can creatively bring to bear the strengths of each of those on Sundance’s customer acquisition initiatives. Obviously, you’ll need an extremely analytical bias to the way you make decisions. And you’ll need to check at the door any “lone wolf sensibilities” you may have.
Before you apply, ask yourself …
- Do I have world-class analytics chops, ideally in Omniture?
- Do I have a track record of success in performance marketing channels, especially SEM and SEO? Can I prove it? Will my references back me up?
- Am I comfortable with extensive budgeting and ROI analysis?
If your answer to these questions is YES, then I’d love to send you details on the role. Hit me up below.
View Harry Joiner’s profile
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Manage all aspects of the day to day functions of the Sundance ecommerce programs, including: SEM, Affiliates, Retargeting and Comparison Shopping Engines.
- Support monthly and annual revenue goals for ecommerce programs while strictly adhering to cost budgets.
- Oversee and maintain ecommerce internal and external partner relationships.
- Establish, maintain and adhere to the marketing calendar.
- Maintain and improve website analytics.
- Build custom reporting dashboards and executive reports using Adobe Marketing Cloud (Omniture) and Tableau.
- Manage ecommerce reporting on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual level with insight provided to executive team on issues and opportunities.
- Manage the collaborative process between ecommerce needs and IT.
- Achieve 12 month buyer file growth targets through online acquisition strategies that meet acceptable LTV and expense ratio goals.
Qualifications/Requirements:
- A minimum of five years in an ecommerce marketing role, financial forecasting and management of budgets preferred.
- Direct Marketing background preferred.
- Four year college degree in Marketing or Business Administration.
- Proven track record of success in a rapidly growing environment.
- A unique blend of both highly creative and analytical skillsets.
Essential Functions:
- The ability to multi-task and prioritize assignments effectively.
- Microsoft Excel skills for in depth analytics.
- In depth knowledge of Adobe Marketing Cloud (Omniture).
- The ability to self-start and manage tasks from inception to completion.
- Previous relationships with ecommerce vendors preferred.
UPDATE: THIS SEARCH IS CLOSED.
PS – If you’re thinking about changing jobs this year (through us or anyone else), you might want to check out this post on why even TOP candidates get rejected.
