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One of the coolest ecommerce jobs around!
ALLAN’S COMMENTS: We are working with Griot’s Garage in their search for a world-class Director of Digital Marketing based in way cool Greater Seattle, WA.
This role will be onsite five days per week.
About the Company
The client started as a catalog business selling car care and garage accessories over 35 years ago. Today, the company remains a family-owned business, but that does not mean they lack sophistication. They are passionate about the category, the car community, and the second-generation CEO, just like the first one loves everything that rolls on rubber.
Over the years, the company has evolved past a catalog-only business to a robust multi-channel business. From a DTC side, the company operates GriotsGarage.com, a flagship retail store, a fully trained and on-site contact center in Tacoma, WA, as well as participation in hundreds of events across the country.
In addition to the DTC business, the company sells through national automotive retail chains, both 1P and 3P Amazon platforms, other B2B outfits, along with many detailers and professionals in this market. While growth is planned through all channels, the company aims to remain highly DTC-focused.
The company also operates a manufacturing and distribution facility in Plainfield, Indiana. All liquid car care is developed, mixed, tested, bottled, labeled, and shipped from here. This ensures that everything that touches your treasured vehicles is of the finest quality.
Without a doubt, this business caters to people who enjoy spending time with their cars in the garage. They know time spent in the garage is therapy, an escape. They want to make sure that the products they create let you Have Fun In Your Garage!
About the Market
The North American market for car cleaning products is valued at slightly more than $3 billion. It is expected to grow at a rate of 3.5%, reaching $4.25 billion by 2030. Market growth is driven by consumer spending on vehicle maintenance, the popularity of luxury and sport utility vehicles, and the demand for products that enhance vehicle aesthetics.
According to IBISWorld, car cleaning products represent a 28% share of this market, with car shampoos and detergents dominating the category. Broadly speaking, the market is shifting towards environmentally friendly and waterless cleaning solutions, driven by consumer preferences and regulatory pressures.
In general, market growth is propelled by rising disposable incomes, increased consumer awareness, high vehicle ownership rates, and demand for aftermarket products. Continued Innovation is a key driver in this space. The increase in automotive sales, coupled with the trend toward extending vehicle life, contributes to the growing demand for cleaning products as vehicles stay on the road longer.
What Are the Odds?
Believe it or not, I’ve been an ecommerce recruiter for 15 years, and I’m also a certified car detailer (as a hobby). I’m even certified by 3M for PPF applications, given my commitment to my car hobby. So this is a space I know very well.
What I can tell you firsthand is that Griot’s has a very strong product line, and the brand enjoys unique market positioning. Their products are truly first-rate, and there’s significant upside potential for the company and this role. Feel free to ask me anything you’d like about this market!
About the Role
We’ve known this hiring manager for nearly two decades. She’s phenomenal. In fact, we’ve tried to recruit her away on several occasions, and despite our clients offering her more money, she has stayed due to the strong company culture and vision.
The focus of this position will be driving traffic and working with the broader marketing, creative, and ecommerce teams to drive the DTC business. While you are responsible for the tactical component, you will also play a role in continuing to the strategy to identify opportunities for growth.
We’re looking for someone with a test-and-learn mentality who can bring new ideas to the company’s VP of Marketing to further expand Griot’s Garage.
In general, you’ll be managing paid media, organic search, email, social media, and bottom-of-the-funnel site experience, along with conversion rate optimization. You’ll be partnering with both internal and external partners on bottom-of-the-funnel initiatives.
The client runs an extremely entrepreneurial organization and is looking for an up-and-coming star who can identify legitimate growth opportunities and integrate them into the teams’ modus operandi.
This is probably not the right place for someone who is too corporate and siloed in their thinking. We’re looking for someone who knows how to work with a small, agile team of 3–8 people, along with a few external agencies.
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 …
- 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 and why this position is 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.
- 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.
- The leading and lagging KPIs that will determine your success in this role. In a nutshell: How you’ll 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 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, Allan Seibert, at (706) 318-1196 for this info. Or simply use the email link when you apply for the role below.
Responsibilities:
- A hybrid responsibility for both tactical and strategic digital marketing initiatives that drive revenue to the D2C and Amazon channels.
- Develop and implement marketing initiatives such as targeted Emails, SMS, SEM, Paid Media, Paid Social, Circulation strategies (Circulation and catalog NOT a must have but definitely a nice to have), and Amazon Ads.
- Management of a small team along with a few agency resources.
- Partner with the internal and external partners to identify and optimize traffic and conversion
- Evaluate any tools, agencies, or other resources needed to help optimize and grow the business
- Develop strategies for promotional campaigns to be executed via Email, Site and Social channels
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve the customer experience and drive sales to the D2C site and Amazon
- Utilize web analytics and site data to optimize the channel mix, spend, ROAS, CX, messaging, segmentation, etc… Use data to optimize the digital strategy.
- Ensure that other organizational resources such as research, marketing, creative and partner agencies are utilized to their fullest abilities to drive maximum growth and return for the D2C business (D2C site and Amazon)
- Work cross-functionally with Marketing, Creative, Ecommerce, Product Development, IT, Sales, Purchasing, Contact center, store, finance, etc.
- Support sales forecast; track and analyze performance, build promotional plans, work with outside agencies, and manage/mentor/guide direct reports.
- This will be a player-coach style role where you’ll report to a VP of Marketing and will be expected to help drive the digital marketing strategy but at the same time still have the hands-on skillset to roll up your sleeves and get into the weeds.
Qualifications:
- Minimum of 6-10+ years of Digital Marketing experience
- Minimum of 3-5+ years of D2C Experience both site and amazon is required to be considered.
- Must have hands-on and strategic experience leading Paid Media channels (Search, Shopping, Display, Retargeting, Sponsored Ads, etc.)
- You will own the Paid Media agency relationship. We’re looking for someone who has both hands-on and agency management experience with Paid Media.
- Experience leading and optimizing an Email strategy. You should have experience with Email, SMS, Segmentation, and Automation for a D2C ecommerce business
- Experience leading and optimizing Paid and Organic Social strategies
- 2-5+ years of experience managing an internal team and external agencies
- A track record of providing input to the D2C strategy and the ability to roll up your sleeves and help execute (We will be interviewing around successes and Digital KPI improvements)
- Experience optimizing for better SEO
- Web Analytics and Site Analytics experience
- Hands on and strategic level for all digital channels that drive traffic, retention, and engagement.
- Experience owning or partnering with a bottom of funnel resource to optimize for Conversion.
- Previous experience developing and optimizing Amazon Ads and driving Amazon 3P revenue (you will have an Amazon Manager and agency reporting to you in this role).
- Digital Marketing experience for a D2C ecommerce business outranks Amazon experience in this role for those of you reading this and wondering if you should apply. If you’re a little lighter on the Amazon experience but strong with the D2C .com side you should apply.
