Senior Strategic Account Planner

Senior Strategic Account Planner

SSDM Digital Marketing · Troy, MI 

• $85K/yr - $95K/yr  Hybrid (4 days in office, 1 day WFH) 
• Full-time  Mid-Senior level
• 1 - 25 employees · Digital Marketing Services
• Skills required:  5+ years experience in account planning, agency or similar, analytics, research and data platform experience. Senior marketing experience preferred.

About SSDM

SSDM is a growing digital marketing agency that is seeing a massive spike in new business opportunities. And we don’t mean to brag, but the vast majority of our pitches are because someone has come knocking on our door and asked us to participate.  Every spidy sense we have is tingling with the belief that 2024 will be one of the largest growth spurts in our 15 years of business. And we want someone great to come help drive that success and grow with us.

Do you have experience in marketing to seniors?  Are you obsessed with data, client success, taking action, and changing the game? If you are part ninja with a touch of nerd, come work with SSDM We want your skills on our team to play a significant role in pushing our fast-growing company to new heights.

About the job

In this inaugural addition to the team at SSDM, you will be presented with the opportunity to help shape the way we craft our client’s strategies and tactics with far more insight and detail.  You will help us see around the bend and forecast changes in their industries and their target consumer behaviors, allowing us to guide our clients into those changes in ways that will allow them to benefit and lead their industries.  You will also bring a Sherlock-like ability to analyze data and hone in on even the most subtle shifts…and then translate those shifts into actionable plans. 

You will work with both leadership and our account heads to dive into a wide range of in-depth intelligence, data, research findings and trends. Your analysis will support strategic, business performance, brand and direct initiatives.  The vast majority of our work produces measurable outcomes, but our client’s needs and business objectives run the gamut.

Ideal Fit

You are a proactive problem solver with natural business acumen, a good dose of marketing experience and extremely high standards. You have often been told that you are a gifted strategist with a “can do” attitude. You are agile and experimental, bringing new ideas and moving fast to achieve goals.

Working well in a small, highly collaborative and occasionally, fast-paced team environment is a proven fit for you.  You effectively analyze data and research to develop powerful strategic marketing decks, campaign insights and recommendations, creative briefs and more. Direct response/ performance marketing is something you are as passionate about as brand work, and easily present your ideas both internally and to the client.  Being both a team player and self-starter are required. You should be equally comfortable in a lean entrepreneurial or large corporate client environment. We are looking for the right fit as much ( if not more) than the experience level.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Acquire in-depth knowledge of, and be conversant in key clients’ businesses, issues and trends. Prefer you come to this role with experience in senior care marketing.  You will use your existing and some newly acquired knowledge to define problems, find opportunities and develop insights and develop actionable plans, strategies and presentation decks with your recommendations.
• Read, collect and cross-tabulate data, analyze and interpret to draw valid conclusions from a growing collection of agency online resources (GWI), reports and research, as well as directly searching online. We will look to you for recommendations on additional resources that are the best fit and value for our client mix.
• Write assessment reports, presentations, business comms or draft stories
• Analysis and contributions will include new business opportunities, performance and channel mix/evolution solutions, CRM, strategic roadmaps and communication flow logic, all of which will be supported by category insights, trends, competitive environment, segmentation and brand positioning

Required Qualifications and Skills

• 5+ years related experience in planning at an advertising agency or client side with details about contributions and accomplishments
• Knowledge of and experience with senior care marketing (health and housing) preferred
• Strong communication and presentation skills, adept at developing trust with internal staff and external clients and competent working relationships
• Highly organized, detailed, multi-tasking, and client service-minded approach
• Strong analytical and trending skills and quantitative/qualitative research experience
• Ability, desire and discipline to dig deep into category, marketing and consumer data to generate business implications, target opportunities, and consumer creative insights
• Proficiency in Google Business Suite and research/data platforms and tools. We are currently investigating subscriptions (GWI, Forrester type) to bring on board, but will look to you for recommendations for different or additional access.  
• Must have a basic understanding of how to use AI to create greater efficiencies in your work.
• Manage up and sideways effectively. Align with leadership’s goals, keep your manager and team consistently informed and be accountable to all. Provide clear direction/briefings, expectations and follow-up with peers in other areas.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefit package, including;

• 15 PTO Days
• Medical/health insurance (select from several options), company pays a portion of your premium
• Dental insurance (select from several options)
• Vision insurance
• Life insurance, company provides $50,000 
• Short-term and long-term disability
• Company match 401K
• Paid maternity/paternity
• Mid-week WFH “heads-down” day (few or no meetings)
• Profit sharing vestment that starts on day 1 and fully vests at 5 years
• Quarterly reviews with leadership that  will define the exact actions and timeframe required to grow your title and income.

What does success look like in the first 30, 60, 90 days?

30 Days - you have your schedule and structure established with regular 1:1s, you build strong relationships with leadership and team members. You begin to delve into client industries and digest campaign histories and strategies.

60 Days - you hold regular strategy sessions to share valuable suggestions with account leads and leadership. You have recommended new data/research resources and begun to meet with clients, showcasing to them some initial findings and recommendations.

90 Days - you begin build and execute successful ad strategies and understand the nuances of our client’s needs, challenges and objectives. You begin to eke out insights that hint at changes around the bend and formulate recommendations that help SSDM and our clients prepare and excel within those changes.

What is our team like?

We previously made some mistakes in selecting and hiring folks  at SSDM that were not ideal fits.  We have corrected those mistakes and worked diligently support and grow the best of our hires.  We have also become much more rigorous and experienced in hiring the right team members.  We think our team is amazing and seek to bring only other equally capable, driven, intelligent doers into the mix.  We gather as a team outside of the office on occasion and have full team events multiple times a year.  We think the “team” attitude and devotion to our clients’ outcomes is a big part of our secret sauce.

You will report to the VP of Agency Experience who has done account strategy work in the past, but you will also work closely with the partners and account leads.  You will get to know and be welcomed by everyone.

The hiring process/steps

1. Initial virtual interview with Agency Experience and Ops leads
2. If step 1 goes well, invite to an in-person team interview in our offices. You come prepared to present us with evidence of your contribution and outcomes in previous business roles. You will also present to us your preferred process and approaches for cleaning and arriving at the most valuable insights and outcomes.
3. If step 2 goes well, requests to complete a number of personality and skill assessments
4. If step 3 goes well, professional reference checks
5. Offer. If more than one candidate makes it to step 4 and references are equally good, we will ask each to complete one more additional test in order to identify the individual to whom we will extend an offer