WEST LOS ANGELES: Smart Living Company seeks a Director of Ecommerce Marketing (Redondo Beach, CA 90278)

Many home-based entrepreneurs prefer Smart Living’s model because it does not require its Members to buy any merchandise until after the Member sells the merchandise to his or her customers and invoices them separately. There’s no upfront cost other than a monthly pay-as-you-go membership fee. Also, Smart Living Company does not pay Member commissions for signing up other Members so there’s no pyramid structure.

The home furnishing wholesale industry took a beating during the recession, but revenue is expected to increase 4.6% this year to nearly $50 billion. As consumer confidence improves and disposable incomes rise, demand for these products should increase. The five-year growth forecast for this industry is bullish, as consumers are expected to increase their spend on these items. By 2019, the home furnishing wholesale industry could reach $60 billion.

Currently, most of Smart Living Company’s revenues come from the Member channel. My kickoff call with the hiring committee lasted nearly 2 hours, and I have all of SLC’s KPIs as they relate to this search (number of Members; number of 12-month buyers; number of SKUs sold through the Member channel; conversion rate; AOVs; and more).

What’s important to know about the Member channel is that when Members’ customers place an order, the product is “blind drop-shipped” from SLC’s warehouse directly to the customer in a box with the Member’s own label so it looks like it came from the Member — not Smart Living Company.

Ultimately, Smart Living Company seeks to reach $100 million by selling through the Member channel, while dramatically growing its direct to consumer business. The synergies between these channels are significant and the possible channel conflicts are minimal.

Currently, consumers can buy from Smart Living Company at everyday low prices, while Members buy Smart Living Company’s products at wholesale prices for resale on eBay, Amazon and through their own websites. Member’s pay a monthly membership fee of $20 to $40 for the ability to buy these products at deeply discounted wholesale prices.

Four ways Smart Living Company’s management sees that happening is through large paid search (e.g., Adwords), affiliate (e.g., Commission Junction), email, and coupon marketing initiatives. Additionally, SLC’s new Director of Marketing will need to know how to target, attack, penetrate, and grow new HBE verticals, and it’s fine if offline channels are leveraged, including sponsorships, outbound telemarketing, events, direct mail, networking / referral marketing, and PR.

Your job is to grow the business in ways that are cost effective, brand accretive, and resource friendly. For the most part, management is channeling agnostic. It’s all about maximizing revenue while minimizing cost-per-lead and cost-per-sale.

• Do I understand technology, and can I use it to drive results?
• Do I have a track record of developing fantastic creative?
• Can I teach others to leverage my process for developing creative?
• Do I see myself developing and driving a cutting-edge strategy for recruiting new Members for Smart Living Company?
• Do I have an analytical bias to the way I make decisions, and do I understand paid search and affiliate marketing at a granular level? (Many candidates think that just because they know the tricks of the trade, they know the trade. This client spent north of $10 million on paid search in 2014, and we are looking for someone who is truly an expert in Google Adwords and Commission Junction. This is a MUST.)
• Is it in my nature to demand to obsess over where an Member came from, what ad campaign drove the entrepreneur to the website, and what they purchased in gross dollars by category, product grouping, or season.
• Do I have a strong track record of driving and measuring gross margin from different customers based on different attributes, and then developing models to replicate the highest performing initiatives based on lifetime value, payback period, or ROAS?

If you can’t answer YES to most of these questions, this might not be the opportunity for you. If you did answer yes, here’s what you can expect in your first 100 days on the job …

The company launched a new website and they’ll be looking for some groundbreaking variations in their paid search and affiliate initiatives to support it. There are more home-based entrepreneurs than ever before thanks to high unemployment and 5 years of recession. Many of these folks have tremendous drive and there’s more (and better) technology than ever to work from home. These people are searching online for ways to make money, and paid search and affiliate is a tried-and-true growth channel for Smart Living Company. It’s called “fishing where the fish are.”

Additionally, email marketing has always performed well for Smart Living Company, and the company needs you to drive its prospecting efforts through this channel. Additionally, in order to make a major impact, you’ll need very deep knowledge of mobile commerce, social media, SEO, coupons, and ecommerce platform integration.

SLC’s parent company owns many other companies including major online retailers, offline distributors, and manufacturers — and they’re always in the market for others. Great investment opportunities are a lot more common than great marketers. If you crush it in this role, then you can expect to be given a significantly greater growth opportunity (personally, professionally, and financially) as you help SLC’s sister-businesses grow.

If that kind of opportunity appeals to you, then please apply below. Candidates, be sure to ask me for the intel for this search, which is VERY comprehensive. You don’t want to interview with this hiring committee without it.