Salsa Labs seeks a Director of Search Marketing (Reston, VA 20190)

Salsa Labs (Salsa) offers small- to midsized nonprofit organizations an inbound marketing platform in a software as a service format. The US nonprofit institutions industry includes more than 1 million organizations with combined annual revenue of about $110 billion. Demand is driven by the need to represent special interests or provide social services that can’t be met by the market or government. The space is fragmented: the largest 50 organizations account for about 25 percent of industry revenue.

The success of nonprofits often depends on efficient operations and their ability to match expenses with fluctuating revenues. Large nonprofits have advantages in fundraising due to strong name recognition. Small nonprofits can be successful if they serve a dedicated membership or have a dependable source of revenue.

Salsa tools giving users the ability to segment and review their online marketing initiatives in one convenient place. Additionally, the company provides training to accompany its product offerings. This is not consulting per se, but rather strategic education to help its clients understand the benefits of a fully integrated CRM strategy powered by Salsa Labs’ tools.

Salsa gets paid in direct proportion to its client’s success: it has a monthly fee that’s billed quarterly, upfront, on an annual contract. Fees are based on the size of the clients list. If clients aren’t growing and building their list, then Salsa isn’t growing either. The nature of this revenue model coupled with the quality of its technology makes Salsa extremely popular with small to midsized nonprofits.

Nonprofits worldwide are still working to recover from challenges posed by the recent economic crisis, including the presence of a growing number of people in need. In order to meet this increased demand for services with relatively flat funding, organizations have to find new revenue streams from the online generation as well as keep their per supporter acquisition cost as low as possible – which means Salsa’s affordably-priced platform specifically built to help them grow and engage online is well-positioned.

There are CRM solutions that service massive nonprofits like the American Red Cross. However, Salsa’s typical client is unable to afford an extremely high-end commercial solution with hundreds of features. Rather, Salsa clients need a simple, highly affordable, robust platform that gives them most of what they need to do to grow THEIR organization’s support online. Offering a stripped down solution allows Salsa Labs to charge significantly less than the major CRM providers because Salsa Labs doesn’t offer all of the bells and whistles that one would encounter in bloated commercial solutions.

Because Salsa specializes in advocacy and fundraising, its clients seek to engage through every available medium not just potential donors, but the public at large. The Salsa Platform helps these organizations spread their ideas. For example, the firm serves many social justice and environmental groups who are fighting for positive change, in addition to providing charitable services. These organizations are trying to influence ideas and shape public opinion in addition to raising money. Naturally, content marketing is vital to these organizations, and as an integrated search marketer, this is your opportunity to shine.

Consider the Arab spring. Everyone was organizing using online tools, and that kind of thing is only just beginning. Worldwide, more people are learning how to organize and affect positive change through technology. The political, legal, and economic systems can all be impacted through these tools. There is a phenomenal social and cultural tailwind powering Salsa Labs mission. The company is still in startup mode, and there’s a great deal of inspiring work to be done. The company is loaded with brilliant, high-energy people who are totally bought into Salsa Labs mission of serving the larger purpose of humankind. I can’t think of a single company with better energy.

1. Site Accessibility – Salsa Labs has two brand new websites built on Drupal. You will be charged with monitoring site performance for both attracting and retaining visitors. This will include regular maintenance (i.e. building pages) and providing strategic recommendations for improvement.
2. Link Building – Through participation in communities of interest, Salsa Labs’ partner channel and all other networks available to you, you’ll build the firm’s authority online attracting other domains to point to us for amazingly valuable information.
3. Search Verticals – You’ll work with the entire team to optimize all of the firm’s online channels to be found through search – whether Salsa Labs’ videos are on YouTube, its slides are on SlideShare, or its images are on Pinterest. You’ll be the one to make sure everyone in the world can find Salsa Labs through a simple search.
4. Keyword Research and Targeting – A biggie. You’ll track and monitor what keywords are performing for Salsa Labs, which ones aren’t but should be, and which ones the firm hasn’t even thought of yet. Then , you’ll take action, as well as provide recommendations to the team.
5. Reputation Tracking – Salsa Labs is using some great, cutting-edge tools for tracking engagement for its brand as well as other key competitors in the space. You may recommend more.
6. Content Creation – The Content Marketing Manager is charged with Salsa’s content strategy and execution, but you will still have a large role to play. Besides consulting with the team on what content, the team will look to you to weigh in on the formats it should take to achieve Salsa Labs’ goals. You’ll also be asked to author your own original educational content to help Salsa Labs’ clients.
7. New Search Protocols – Do you have an inside track to Google, or just read every single Moz blog ad nauseum? Either way, expect to constantly be learning. And, Salsa Labs’ management will do everything it can to support you in that.

BOTTOM LINE: You will be part of a team of passionate professionals in a truly remarkable place to work where you can combine your sales leadership talents with your passion for doing good. Headquartered in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC with offices in Reston, VA; Austin, TX and Rochester, NY, Salsa has a business casual, fun workspace designed to keep us focused on what’s important – providing mission-critical technology and support to Salsa’s clients.

If you are a proven search marketing gunslinger who’s looking to make a difference to your company, your clients, and the world, then we’d love to hear from you.