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One of the coolest digital marketing jobs around!
HARRY’S COMMENTS: They were doing a search for a great client located in the southeast United States. Whenever a candidate applies for one of my jobs, I encourage them to FIRST take a good hard look at the company, especially its …
- People
- Premise / Concept
- Product
- Timing
- Market
These five things are like stones in an arch: If any one of them is soft and crumbly, the whole structure comes toppling down.
It’s amazing how many candidates fixate on whether or not they can do the job, with little or no regard to whether or not they would actually buy stock in the company. I’ll always ask a candidate …
How would this company do on Shark Tank?
The first time I heard about today’s client, I thought to myself “how can I invest?”
Founded in 2009, this client offers a hotel meets home concept which offers the benefits of home sharing (great locations, better spaces, similar to Airbnb) with a professional level of service and quality control. If you have ever stayed in an Airbnb home, you know they can be hit or miss in terms of bedding, surroundings, and hospitality.
My client seeks to remove all of the pain points of home sharing for both homeowners and guests, creating a new hospitality model that caters to the modern traveler.
This is basically home meets hotel. The client combines the best of home sharing, the space, the authenticity, the great locations, and the quaintness of the best Airbnb has to offer. But the properties are carefully curated, with the added amenities of a hotel. On the ground, the client has local teams to help you throughout your stay. These are trained hospitality experts who will help you check-in in person. Not dealing with amateur homeowners.
You’re dealing with pros.
Think of this client’s business as a deconstructed hotel: The rooms are all over the city. There’s a hospitality staff on the ground, and the client does city perks as well. The client assembles amenities that one might expect at a hotel: Partnerships with local gyms, spas, clubs, restaurants.
Plus, the client offers upgrades such as stocked refrigerators, breakfast bars, and regular bars.
These are amenities that guests might enjoy in a normal hotel – and they work particularly well for longer stays and groups. There’s more: food and beverage upgrades. Wine and cheese boxes. Clean bedding and towels. A maid service. Guaranteed Wi-Fi. It’s a much more structured experience than Airbnb.
Just how big is this market?
Well, according to IBIS World research, the bed and breakfast and Hotel accommodations market stands at $3 billion. There are 7600 operators in this space. The boutique hotels industry sits at $7.4 billion, generating $1.2 billion in profit. That business is growing and nearly 5% per year. There are 1650 operators in the industry.
And here’s the kicker: The hotels and motels industry this year will do $182 billion in sales, generating $30 billion in profit. There are nearly 80,000 hotels and motels in the United States – which helps explain why Airbnb has taken off like a rocket.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the so-called private-accommodation market, which includes vacation rentals, homes or rooms rented out on a short-term basis, is about one-fifth the size of the hotel market based on revenue in the U.S., but it has been growing faster than hotels since 2015.
Revenue in the U.S. private accommodation market grew 11% last year from the year earlier, and is projected to grow 8% this year to more than $34 billion; the U.S. hotel industry grew 5% last year to $151 billion and is projected to do the same this year, according to the data.
Although there are several players in this space, Airbnb remains the leader, particularly for rentals in urban locations, with an estimated 15% of global room nights in private accommodations last year, compared with 12% for Expedia and 9% for Priceline. But Priceline Group and Expedia are increasingly displaying vacation rental properties alongside hotel rooms on their sites. So the competition in this space is getting pretty fierce.
About the Role
The client seeks a highly experienced performance marketer to drive his customer acquisition and retention efforts. Reporting to the CMO, you’ll be responsible for leading the company’s strategy for customer and revenue growth, primarily by digital channels.
To be crystal clear, where looking for someone with highly developed chops in analytics; agency management; team management; project management and (duh) performance marketing. This ain’t the right gig for someone who likes to climb ladders. There’s a pretty good chance you’ll be getting your hands dirty well into the foreseeable future.
By no means is this a dead end job.
It’s a phenomenally cool job which will give you a fantastic opportunity for personal and professional growth. You’ll have the opportunity to travel internationally while working with some of the smartest marketers we have encountered. In particular, the CMO is amazing, and he has already built one business that had a hugely successful, Wall Street Journal -worthy exit.
We’re looking for someone who is genuinely interested in building a company as well as a marquee brand in the travel business. In the service/short-term rental sandbox of the sharing economy, there is no established global brand leader. This will be the first. You could call it a niche in the same way you could call Lake Superior a “lake” when it feels like a “sea.”
The role requires someone who can directly assist the CMO in leading the marketing organization and strategy. There’s a lot of work to be done here, and the role is directly tied to the success of the entire business. To lead the team, we will expect you to be confident without being cocky; positive outcome oriented; and ambitious.
The company has offices in over 20 destinations in 13+ countries, and it’s still growing. Your work with a wonderful team from many unique backgrounds from across the globe. You’ll have an opportunity to truly change the way people travel and experience new destinations while doing highly reputation enhancing work.
This is an EXTREMELY high profile job.
As usual, I spent a ton of time on the phone with this client teasing out 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.
To be clear: 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 Allan Seibert at (706) 318-1196 for this info. Or simply use the email link when you apply for the role below.
View Harry Joiner’s profile
Responsibilities:
- Drive customer acquisition for all 20+ destinations leveraging paid and unpaid strategies
- Develop and execute paid marketing strategies across search, social, programmatic display, and distribution channels that drive cost-effective new customer growth
- Manage relationships with external agencies
- Develop and execute strategies designed to increase repeat rate and customer lifetime value, including email marketing, referral, loyalty
- Analyze campaign data to continuously optimize and improve campaign performance
- Use marketing performance data to inform the development of testable new strategies
- Manage relationships with distribution channels (Homeaway, Airbnb, Booking, etc.) to drive meaningful revenue growth via these 3rd party booking sites
- Develop and implement an SEO strategy to drive high-quality organic traffic
- Work with the technology team to implement tactics designed to increase traffic and conversion, from landing pages to SEO updates to ecommerce funnel optimizations
- Build and manage a team of world-class performance marketers
- Manage the performance marketing budget
Qualifications:
- 8+ years in acquisition marketing, with experience developing, planning, and executing digital customer acquisition campaigns, along with end-to-end reporting performance and business impact
- Demonstrated channel expertise across the entire marketing mix including SEO, SEM, social, programmatic, and email marketing
- Proven detail-oriented channel management, with experience in acquisition marketing, data analysis, and optimization techniques
- Proven ability to prioritize and re-prioritize based on changing business needs
- Have an entrepreneurial spirit and are excited by the challenges that come along with building a disruptive business
- Experience in the travel or hospitality industry is a big plus
- Thrive in a lean, fun and fast-paced start-up environment
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.
