Director, Digital Marketing

WorldStrides is the global leader in educational travel and experiential learning. The company was founded 55 years ago and has grown to provide a wide range of programs for more than 550,000 students annually from more than 5,000 K12 schools and universities to over 100 countries around the world. WorldStrides offers experiential learning programs in educational travel, performing arts, language immersion, career exploration, service-learning, study abroad, and sports. Each of these experiences helps students to see beyond the classroom and to see the world - and themselves - in new ways.

About the Position

We are looking for a creative and experienced Digital Marketing Director for our K-12 Group division to further expand WorldStrides' digital marketing strategies. This position will lead and manage WorldStrides' online presence across its branded websites, paid media, and social media channels.

To be a successful Digital Marketing Director, you must possess excellent marketing skills and demonstrate strong leadership abilities. This is a critical cross-functional role that partners closely with other areas of the company such as Product Marketing, Sales, IT, and Creative Services to develop the best possible front-end web experience while maintaining high standards of quality and performance. The role will direct integrated digital marketing strategies and programs that support growth initiatives across multiple product lines within K-12 Group.

The position requires strong technical, organizational, and communication skills, and a passion for user-centered design and technology. In this role, you will be required to drive website traffic, develop and execute paid media digital marketing campaigns, monitor, interpret, and act on analytic data, direct our social media strategies, and optimize the functionality of our digital infrastructure and ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Manage external digital marketing agencies to implement advertising across various channels (search, social, display, programmatic, etc.) to drive qualified leads at acceptable CPA thresholds, and ultimately generate sales.
• Lead the development and implementation of the short and long-term strategic vision of the branded websites, to include SEO, CRO, and web analytics strategy.
• Lead the development and implementation of the short and long-term strategic vision of WorldStrides' owned social channels, to include paid promotion and target audience building.
• Implement best practices for optimal web and social media engagement across channels. Conduct market research on competitors and key influencers to identify best practices and promotional tactics of most interest to our target customers.
• Partner with product marketing and creative teams to define digital marketing strategies and requirements to support business goals.
• Evaluate, recommend, and implement a scalable suite of digital platforms/tools to meet the growing needs of the business to become more digital-first in its marketing and commerce strategies.
• Evolve and optimize website and landing page performance by designing and implementing user and CRO testing strategies. Evaluate test results, and recommend appropriate changes.
• Review and proofread all digital content such as blogs, social media content, advertisements, and website copy. Ensure messaging and tone are on brand and consistent across channels.
• Grow reach and traffic from search engines through SEO strategies. Direct and prioritize the implementation of SEO on-page and technical optimizations.
• Strong knowledge of, and aptitude in, Google Analytics, creating an appropriate tagging strategy that allows for monitoring and interpretation of digital analytics.
• Develop KPIs/dashboard/metrics, working with digital agencies, to communicate metrics to leadership, key stakeholders, and SMEs as needed.
• Supervise and manage a digital marketing team (front-end development, UX/UI, SEO, and social media professionals). Prioritize and assign work on a daily and weekly basis. Ensure the team delivers quality work on schedule.
• Ensure development of robust project plans - including budgets, timelines, content development, distribution, and effectiveness/ROI measurement.
• Audit and plan digital enhancements and upgrades, leveraging data to make recommendations on content governance and site design.
• Maintain focus on the customer in all plans, programs, and strategies.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with cross-functional team members in a matrix environment.
• Keep abreast of the latest consumer and marketing trends and advancements in technology. Recommend new approaches or tools to improve digital performance.
• Strong focus on continuous improvement and processes combined with creative strength to transform digital marketing for the company and its lines of business.
• Ensure compliance with legal and brand requirements.
• Responsible for issue remediation and support.

Work Perks

• Fun & driven environment.
• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage, life, accidental death and dismemberment, accident, critical illness, and disability insurance, FSA healthcare, FSA dependent care, HAS with employer contribution, and generous 401k match.
• 10 paid floating corporate holidays, 1 paid volunteer day & 25 PTO days to start - accrue up to 28 over 3 years, 4 mental health days, and 5 bereavement days.
• Tuition reimbursement up to five thousand, two hundred fifty dollars annually or one thousand dollars towards professional certification annually.
• Opportunities for paid and discounted travel.
• Flexible work schedule providing on-site, remote, and virtual office opportunities.
• Encouraged participation in our Employee Resource Groups and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion council.
• Fitness Center and cafe onsite at select locations.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Paid Parental, Caregiver, and Disability leave.
• Team Member Discount Program.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree with 10+ years in Digital Marketing experience - specifically management of digital paid media campaigns, web development platforms, content management tools, and social media campaign management. eCommerce experience is a plus.
• Proven experience successfully managing large-scale, cross-functional, global websites with multiple stakeholders.
• SEO, SEM & Social - experience working with the major search engines and social platforms and understand the best practice to drive leads and sales. Experience with marketing automation tools a plus.
• Strong leadership capabilities in leading and developing teams and measuring performance.
• Measurement - ability to leverage the latest software such as Google Analytics, Sprout Social, etc. to measure the success and ROI delivered by digital campaigns.
• Creativity for developing new and existing ways to engage with target audiences through digital media/marketing techniques.
• Audience analysis - experience in identifying target audience and devising strategic campaigns that engage with that audience.
• Communication - excellent communication skills, oral and written along with demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a multi-department, multi-stakeholder environment where priorities and participation shift.
• Strong analytical and planning abilities ensuring attention to detail.
• Adaptable, versatile, and the ability to keep up to date with consumer and marketing trends and advancements in technology.
• Experience prioritizing and supervising the implementation of multiple projects comprising short and long development cycles with minimal supervision.
• Understanding of at least one or more Content Management Systems (WordPress, Sitecore, HubSpot etc.).