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One of the coolest digital marketing jobs around!
HARRY’S COMMENTS: We are working with a confidential client in need of a VP of Growth Marketing based in NYC. Now I know this is a little odd, but I’m going to make this search confidential for two reasons:
- The client is backed by a very prestigious stable of VCs, and I’m going to be sharing some semi-sensitive stuff about the client’s business. It would be best if I remained somewhat opaque about the client’s identity. You may be able to figure it out, which is fine, but I’m not going to make it super obvious or Google-friendly, nor will I stick this posting on our homepage.
- I’m headed back to Montana next week, and I will be off the grid June 15 – 25. It’s much easier for me to maintain control of a hiring process when my client remains anonymous (… even though I have an exclusive on the search.)
Now then, let’s talk about this client’s industry: Personalized Beauty.
VCs love this space because 1.) the market is massive and addressable; 2.) the consumer’s problems are well accepted and the industry offers clear and marketable solutions; 3.) the market can be sliced and diced into dozens of rabid niches and subcultures; 4.) there are multiple paths to distribution; and 5.) there are many proven revenue models – many of which offer continuity and subscription possibilities.
The client sells personalized beauty products, mostly shampoos and conditioners. But soon they will extend their product line to include personalized items in other categories. The annual spend in the U.S. on beauty is $100 billion. The shampoo and conditioner segment is roughly $6 billion. Dayum!
The premise of the business is simple: Customers visit the website and build a customized hair profile, answering questions about their HAIR TYPE (straight / wavy / curly / etc), HAIR STRUCTURE (fine / medium / coarse), SCALP MOISTURE (dry / normal / oily); HAIR GOALS (replenish / fix split ends / etc); FRAGRANCE PREFERENCE, and more.
A few clicks later, the customer enters her credit card information, and shortly thereafter receives a box of shampoo that is produced just for her, by her, to her exact specifications. There are 12 trillion product combinations, all sulfate-free, paraben-free, and cruelty-free. The end result is a happy and beautiful customer – many of whom can be seen glorifying the product on YouTube. Shampoo based on data! You had no idea your hair was so information intensive!
There’s no wholesale business. There are no third party marketplaces. It’s just dot-com.
In some ways, the client is a typical disruptive startup. The company’s founders graduated from extremely prestigious universities, and the hiring manager for this position has a PhD. Total brainiac. The company has a 70 person production facility in a mid-Atlantic state and it runs a 12 person team in NYC.
The firm launched in 2016 and very quickly hit its stride. It has received much well-deserved publicity in all the major tech blogs and magazines. The firm is doing seven figures per month in sales (mostly through Facebook and Instagram), and it expects the triple those numbers in the next SIX (6) months.
(Re-read that.)
What it needs now is a badass VP of Growth Marketing to take the company to the next level. Given the firm’s intellectual property, technology, access to expertise and capital, and the size of the market – there’s no reason why this client can’t be a billion-dollar business. No kidding.
Its 9-figure valuation is already a reflection of such enormous potential.
How, exactly, the firm gets there will in no small part be up to you. My partner, Allan Seibert, and I spent nearly 90 minutes on the phone with this client “combing through their numbers.” (Pardon the pun.) With the right candidates, we can share basic customer acquisition costs, average order values, traffic figures, and much more.
It will be up to you to develop and drive the firm’s digital strategy with the goal of new customer acquisition and revenue via digital channels. You will manage, optimize, and execute the client’s Paid Social, SEO, SEM, Reputation Management and Web Optimization initiatives.
You’ve seen this before. It’s the digital marketing trifecta:
In this job, there will probably be a strong overlap between owned media and earned media. The company does use a PR firm, and it will have a strong brand marketing orientation down the line. By Q2 2019, much of the firm’s brand marketing will drive performance marketing.
You can expect to work with the firm’s brand manager and graphic designer on top of the funnel marketing. Meaning, we’re looking for a relatable A-player who can truly understand and master the brand’s funnel flow.
Currently there is a lack of diversification across channels. Too many eggs in too few baskets. We’d expect you to test and scale channels like Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube, possibly DRTV and more. You decide. You test. There is a lack of strategy regarding how channels can be mixed, matched, optimized, and scaled. The whole should be greater than the sum of the parts. That’s not happening now.
Take Facebook, for example: Should the firm use that platform to drive awareness or retargeting? Obviously, it can do both. But someone should be thinking through these issues very strategically. Additionally, the client would like to better understand where and how to invest dollars in new brand marketing programs. Should the firm test TV? Direct mail? Events?
The company founders are channel agnostic. (My kinda people.)
They want to grow the business. They’re not married to any particular marketing channel or activity. It’s true, the customer relationship will be consummated online. But how exactly you drive the customer to buy is up to you. You get to design and structure the firm’s persuasion architecture – which will in turn inform the structure of your team and the technology stack you build. These are early days, and the company is well funded.
You won’t believe how much we know about this search …
Like I said, Allan and I spent a ton of time on the phone with the client “teasing out” (nyuk, nyuk) exactly what you’ll need to KNOW and DO to hit the ground running in this role. Some of the things I can share with highly qualified candidates include …
- The “real” background requirements for this position, along with the top five things all resumes MUST have to be considered for the role.
- The top five problems that exist due to this position being open. These are the little brush fires you will be expected to put out during your first month on the job. Every job has these — and this one’s no different.
- What your average day / week will look like in this role. There’s what you read in the standard job posting … then there’s reality. We’ve got the reality.
- The leading and lagging KPI’s that will determine your success in this role. In a nutshell: How you keep score.
- The major projects you’ll need to complete by Day 100 to be considered a home-run in this position. We’ve got the lowdown on how you can plug-and-play and drive REAL value in this job.
We have a massive amount of proprietary intel to share with qualified candidates. Our industry research for this assignment exceeds 100 pages! Be sure to TEXT Harry Joiner at (404) 281-2025 for this info. Or simply use the email link when you apply for the role below.
View Harry Joiner’s profile
Responsibilities:
- Grow the business in a resource friendly, brand accretive way that conforms to the client’s forecasts, budget and timeline. (Let’s discuss.)
- Develop and perfect a scalable, cost-effective process to identify and prioritize the firm’s growth initiatives.
- Build and lead a high performance team to operate against the firm’s growth objectives
- Create / manage the performance marketing strategy and setup of all paid campaigns
- Measure, optimize, and report on all paid marketing using vendor-specific dashboards, Google Analytics, and landing page sources reports.
- Research and test partnerships with new vendors to expand the brand’s reach / resonance and lower cost-per-acquisition.
- Use quantitative models for analyzing acquisition opportunities while diagnosing trouble areas.
- Oversee both on-site and off-site SEO for the company.
- Collaborate with content marketing and blog contributors to create high quality content around important, relevant terms.
- Manage and build email campaigns to complement performance marketing campaigns.
- Segment lists based on behaviors like past email engagement and website interactions (content downloads, site page visits, etc.).
- Leverage growth marketing tactics like display ads, Facebook apps, and push notifications
Requirements:
- BA/BS or equivalent working experience
- Past experience with web analytics, A/B testing, and inbound marketing tactics
- Experience with data-driven SEO analysis and optimization
- In-depth knowledge of the various paid marketing channels and technologies,
- including paid search, retargeting, social network advertising (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and more), and content distribution and placement networks like Outbrain and Taboola
- Excellent communicator with ability to sell and convince. You will manage all relationships with vendors and ensure we get the most efficient cost possible.
- Experience handling marketing budgets and forecasting / reporting results
