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HARRY’S COMMENTS: We are working with a large, established multichannel retailer in its search for a world-class Director of Ecommerce Marketing headquartered roughly 35 miles north of downtown Chicago, just down the road from scenic Vernon Hills.

For more than 50 years, this client has been committed to selling top-quality merchandise at tremendous value prices. From its humble beginnings as small mail-order businesses, the company’s family of brands has grown to become one of the country’s premier catalog and online merchandisers. As the firm has grown, it has dramatically expanded its product line.

If you’re a regular reader of my postings, you might have heard me say “There are TWO kinds of companies in the Internet Retailer Top 1000:

1. The first kind of company makes a sale to get a customer.
2. The second kind of company gets a customer to make a sale.

Without a doubt, our client is the first kind of company — having done the math beforehand to acquire the right customers who are inclined to buy from the company time and again as it introduces a never-ending stream of products into its pipeline. In fact, new product design, development, and marketing are the keys to the firm’s financial success.

The company has been crushing its on-site conversion rates and fosters a strong relationship with a large, installed base of digitally-savvy customers. In fact, the VP of Marketing and Ecommerce there describes the company as a “retention engine”. In the last two years they have expanded their Ecommerce team and vendor suite with a focus on Customer Experience in these areas: UX, Email, Paid Search, Affiliates, Retargeting, and Web Analytics.

They have a keen eye on strategically growing their Marketplaces business as well. Now poised for massive digital acquisition growth, the company continues to hire into these areas – your role will be directly involved in accelerating inbound paid acquisition programs while continuing to leverage the strong retention disciplines that are in place.

In order to keep its product line fresh and exciting, the company’s merchandising staff searches globally for outstanding products at incredibly attractive prices that will exceed its customers’ expectations. With offices in Chicago, a state-of-the-art distribution mega-center centrally located in America’s heartland, and award-winning customer support centers, the firm is able to provide not only fantastic products but also exceptional service to its ever-expanding house file.

About the Role

The client needs a proven Ecommerce Marketing A-player to join its 10+ person digital marketing team within the larger CRM group. In this role, you’ll lead the firm’s paid and non-paid program, overseeing the online marketing of three key brands — all of which are active in Paid Search, Email, Affiliates, Retargeting, and Social Media. Additionally, the client is ramping up its 3P marketing efforts on Amazon, Walmart, eBay and Target.

Reporting to the firm’s VP of CRM and Ecommerce, you’ll lead a team smart, hungry, and humble rising stars as you bring your data-driven marketing chops to bear on the company’s digital business opportunities.

Naturally, we’ll expect you to be a highly motivated A-player with a proven track record of success in paid digital channels. You’ll know your stuff — and you’ll be able to get the RIGHT things done, on time, the FIRST time, both through and with your team. You’ll need to know how to delegate — but also, you’ll need to know what shouldn’t be delegated.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Player/Coach?”

You’ll thrive on the daily challenges the multichannel retail world will throw at you, and while you are really good at delivering quick wins and fighting fires, you also understand the big picture and can guide your team toward “True North.” By having “walked your walk” in the area of digital marketing, you’ll exude street cred throughout your team.

You won’t believe how much we know about this search …

I spent a ton of time on the phone with the 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 …

1. The “real” background requirements for this position, along with the top five things all resumes MUST have to be considered for the role.
2. 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 ecommerce job has these — and this one’s no different.
3. What your average day/week will look like in this role. There’s what you read in the standard ecommerce job posting … then there’s reality. We’ve got the reality.
4. The leading and lagging KPI’s that will determine your success in this role. In a nutshell: How you keep score.
5. 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 ecommerce job.

I have a massive amount of proprietary intel to share with qualified candidates. My industry research for this assignment exceeds 100 pages! Be sure to TEXT me, 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

Primary duties include:

• Directly manage and drive revenue and profitability goals of Paid Search, Email Marketing, Affiliates, Retargeting and Marketplace
• Build and defend program ROI; manage ad budgets and ROAS goals
• Monetize and develop credible/actionable Social Media campaigns and initiatives
• Collaborate in managing the user experience to enhance the goals of paid channels — including site navigation, content development, checkout and promotional campaigns
• Partner with Web Analytics and site experience team members to master and drive the KPI’s of inbound and outbound programs
• Report to executive team and peers across the organization on program goals, results and growth objectives with the end goal of building and maintaining strong partnerships across Creative, IS, Marketing, Finance, Distribution and Inventory groups
• Design and participate in the development of A:B testing and other continuous improvement initiatives
• Negotiate with the constellation of vendors to obtain true return on marketing investment and drive incrementally
• Motivate and develop a team of ecommerce professionals with a focus on continuous improvement, attention to industry best practices and benchmarking

Requirements

• 7+ years of industry experience with a proven track record of growth in a direct-to-consumer, catalog or retail company
• Strong leadership, critical/strategic thinking, and practical planning skills
• Proven financial management/budget responsibility
• Excellent communication skills and ability to partner with business and technical teams in addition to vendors
• An ability to synthesize different data to identify and articulate opportunities – make the complex “simple” (not simplistic)
• Flexible with regards to changing priorities & business needs
• Self-sufficient; driven; high energy; curious
• Hire/Lead/Motivate/Manage a high-performing team
• Foster engagement; collaboration; celebrate accomplishment among team members and peers
• Entrepreneurial spirit with a growth strategy mindset

Expertise

• Bachelor’s Degree required
• Advanced Degree and Marketing/Math/Analytics/Stats coursework preferred
• Experience using web analytics tools (Adobe preferred); ESP’s; and Paid Search platforms/vendors; digital audience building/matching; DMP
• Expert level MS Excel/Office Suite skillset
• BI skills a plus (SQL, Tableau)