Chief Marketing Officer Job Description

With more than a dozen CMO’s and VP’s of Marketing placed in the past two years, the recruitment of senior marketing leaders has become a major focus of mine. I’ve created this stand alone webpage to share a Chief Marketing Officer job description and a VP of Marketing job description, both of which I wrote. Be sure to check out my blog article, “CMO Confidential: Working Knowledge.”   Also, if you haven’t seen it, you’ll enjoy this excellent article by Gartner’s Jake Sorofman on “Five Things Digital CMO’s Do Better,” published by the Harvard Business Review. A must read for anyone in a senior marketing leadership role.

Chief Marketing Officer

As a member of the Corporate Governance Team, the CMO is responsible for working with the CEO, President, CFO, COO and Board of Directors in setting the Corporate Strategy and for the effective marketing of all bands to drive profitable top line sales.

The CMO is responsible for ensuring the talent of the Marketing Team will meet both current and future needs of the business as defined by the Marketing Strategy.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic

• Works collaboratively on the executive management team for the benefit of the employees, executives, shareholders and the company.
• Establishes and evaluates Corporate Marketing Objectives
• Provides strategic insight and guidance for accomplishing corporate objectives

• Sets overall marketing strategy and metric objectives for the following areas:
  • Promotions
  • Product & Pricing
  • E-Commerce
  • Merchandizing and Analytics
  • Communicates vision and marketing strategy to all areas of the organization

Leadership

• Provides leadership and professional interaction for the marketing group including a staff of 4 direct and 25 indirect reports
• Prepares and communicates Human Capital Planning report based on current and future needs of the organization
• Guides and encourages employees’ professional development to meet the
  Human Capital needs of the company
• Provides leadership and developmental opportunities
• Actively participates in succession planning to ensure the talent pipeline for all marketing activities is filled
• Holds functional area Marketing Manages accountable for performance and personnel development

Operational

• Plans, directs and coordinates the marketing of all products and services to ensure marketing strategy and plans meet changing market and competitive conditions.
• Promotes and services all brands under the Corporate umbrella.
• Ensures all areas of marketing work together to optimize the overall marketing strategy
• Develops and oversees budget and resource management
• Sets performance metrics for staff in terms of benchmarking quality of work, output and success of promotions

Position Requirements:

• Knowledge and Experience
  
  • B.A. in related field and 15+ years experience in a Direct Marketing company (M.B.A. a plus)
  • Knowledge and experience with industry-standard direct marketing practices, including:
  • Circulation management
  • House file management
  • List rentals for prospecting
  • Metric analysis
  • Promotion and list performance
  • Merchandise and analysis
  • Web metrics
  • PPC metrics
  • Promotion development
  • Catalog experience a must
  • Internet marketing a must
  • E-mail promotions
  • Copy writing

Creative guidance

• Strategic Planning and Vision
• Bottom line experience with running a business or business unit, including budgeting
• Understands technological trends that are shaping the direct marketing
• industry
• Customer knowledge
• Outside agency management
• Guiding creative development
• Multi-Brand, Multi-Channel direct marketing

Skills

• Time Management
• Project Management
• Internal team communication skills
• Analytical skills
• Research skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Performance Coaching

Abilities

• Ability to research and understand customer needs and attitudes
• Ability to understand and identify potential opportunities based on market share analysis
• Ability to interact with and be a part of the executive management team
• Ability to guide and direct managers to accomplish Corporate objectives
• Ability to manage multiple, and at times, conflicting objectives
• Ability to interact positively with the staff to inspire peak performance
• Able to travel 25%

Aptitude

• Collaborative
• Energetic
• Inspirational
• Visionary
• Analytical
• Intuitive
• Creative under pressure
• Disciplined and deadline driven

Vice President of Marketing

Company Profile: Dealstruck is a web-based peer-to-peer lending company (P2P) that offers a suite of financing products to small business borrowers designed to progressively graduate them toward conventional financing. This user-friendly platform serves business borrowers who are not eligible for bank financing and limited to costly non-bank options. Dealstruck operates in the United States and has a principal place of business located in Carlsbad, CA.

Within the US small business segment that Dealstruck targets, we focus on successful businesses that need financing to grow, and those that specifically 1) generate more than $250,000 annually in revenue; 2) have been in business more than one year; and 3) are profitable or are at least break-even. One of Dealstruck’s challenges is establishing itself as the leading Peer to Peer (P2P) commercial loan platform in the US, where small business borrowers can secure fast and fair financing.

Our initial product portfolio consists of a secured term loan (“CrowdLoan”), secured by personal guarantee and UCC1 filing) and an asset-based line of credit (“CrowdLine”), both of which are unique in the market today. The CrowdLoan term product employs crowd capital to provide near-prime businesses with lower rates, longer terms, and larger amounts than alternatives. The CrowdLine product provides small-ticket borrowers with access to the flexibility of a credit line without the lender sacrificing security or profitability.

Dealstruck employs approximately 15 people rooted in the values of innovation and hard work. The company is privately held, with a small, nimble management committee (board) composed of the CEO and two early investors.

Position Title: Vice President of Marketing

Location: Corporate headquarters are located in Carlsbad, CA.

Position Summary: The Vice President of Marketing is a newly created position that will be a key member of Dealstruck’s executive team and play a critical role in the company’s future growth.

General Duties: The Vice President of Marketing will:

• Provide the leadership and vision to strengthen existing client relationships, as well as identify and penetrate new market segments;
• Be the steward of the brand(s) and support all marketing efforts across the company, as well as new business initiatives. This will require very close cooperation with the CEO and Chief Strategy Officer;
• Work in conjunction with internal operating units, as well as with external agencies and business partners, to lead the development and execution of a substantial number of new programs and products;
• Proactively adjust market strategy and make recommendation to modify business strategy to meet changing market conditions;
• Use analysis to enhance company-wide marketing competencies, such as thoroughly understanding our customers and brand positions;
• Impact and improve organizational structure to achieve marketing goals;
• Develop marketing plans with emphasis on implementation, evaluation, feedback and measurement, including key performance metrics, to maximize ROI;
• Lead public relations, branding and thought leadership efforts on a national scale;
• Be instrumental in positioning Dealstruck as an industry leader in commercial finance services.

Reporting Relationship: The Vice President of Marketing will report to the Chief Executive Officer.

Direct Reports: The Vice President of Marketing will initially manage a PR Consultant and an outside marketing/SEM/SEO agency. New staff will be added as needed.

Key Internal Relationships:

Chief Technology Officer
Chief Strategy Officer
VP of Operations
Director of Sales

Key Objectives:

1. Existing Marketing Strategy Assessment: Assess the current state of Dealstruck’s marketing capabilities and gain a firm grasp of the competitive landscape.

-Review digital and traditional marketing plans;
-Evaluate use and extension of social media efforts;
-Evaluate efforts in event, association, affiliate and other marketing;
-Analyze positioning and value proposition against others;
-Enhance business development efforts by understanding the customer and the buying process;
-Investing in market assessment;
-Dialogue with current customers;
-Refinement of product offerings;

2. Inbound Pipeline Management: Achieve origination, revenue, and margin goals through the effective management of people and resources.

-Continuation and extension of lead generation strategies, by industry and segment;
-Continuance and support of current large-scale marketing activities;
-Oversee and adjust as necessary the company’s efforts to drive traffic to its website;
-Oversee and adjust as necessary the organization’s current advertising and promotional activities;
-Oversee and adjust as necessary the company’s event marketing- trade shows, networking events, etc;
-Oversee and adjust as necessary the company’s strategic partnerships.

3. Staff Management: Extend the reach and establish leadership in the department.

-Reviewing the capabilities of each team member, as well as outside vendors;
-Mentoring, coaching, and training the team to achieve personal growth and company success;
-Working directly and cooperatively with peers to help them grow and succeed;
-Overall Corporate Strategy: Be an integral part of the company’s strategy:
-Identify potential new market segments;
-Participate in the development of new products;
-Find innovative and cost-effective ways to market those segments and products through multiple channels;
-Find opportunities to cross-sell, cross-promote, extend the brands collectively or individually;

Digital Marketing Knowledge Requirements:

Since Dealstruck is an online financial services platform, digital ownership is paramount for this position. Expectations within this element of the role include:

1. 1. 1. SEM / PPC: The importance of paid search cannot be overstated for online finance companies. The Vice President of Marketing will be expected to bring focus, discipline, and creativity to this channel. The VP of Marketing will work closely with third party partners to:
         • Better understand Dealstruck’s value proposition and its success metrics;
         • Research the marketplace to identify new opportunities for growth;
         • Review, refine, and enhance Dealstruck’s targeted keyword list and develop relevant text ads;
         • Develop strong landing pages that convert as per the pre-defined success metrics;
         • Ensure all tracking is in place and working across key data points; and
         • Manage appropriate returns on ad spend.
      2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The Vice President of Marketing must thoroughly understand:
         • Off-site influences (document sharing; social bookmarking; press releases; pins; +1’s; likes; shares) and,
         • On-site influences (sitemaps; editorial calendaring; semantic indexing; etc).
      3. Email Marketing: Currently, there is a significant opportunity to improve Dealstruck’s email marketing efforts through more sophisticated e-mail segmentation by thinking more strategically about how we maintain contact with our customers. The Vice President of Marketing must help the team identify and exploit new opportunities to grow this channel by treating different customers differently. Doing that will require:
         • Extensive hands-on, “in the trenches” experience in slicing and dicing the database and
         • Refining the promotional calendar.
      4. Web Design / User Experience: Although you won’t be expected to get into the weeds on web design and UX issues, it’s essential that you are snow proofed on issues like:
         • Wire framing;
         • User flows;
         • Interaction models; and
         • Style guides.

Experience and Abilities:

Experience Desired:

1. 1. • BA/BS in Business and/or Marketing;
      • 5+ years experience in both strategic marketing planning and execution in digital marketing, direct mail and alternative media;
      • 5+ years experience in strategy, branding, and research;
      • 2+ years experience in B-to-B multichannel direct marketing;
      • Proven experience/exposure to small business services, preferably in the financial services industry, at a national level;
      • Significant understanding of general digital technologies;
      • Deep understanding of marketing technologies to review, analyze and improve marketing efforts;
      • Strong base of brand management experience;
      • Proven success at project management as it relates to development strategies, tactics and roll out plans for new marketing initiatives, including management of outside vendors.

Desired Abilities:

1. 1. • Able to adapt leadership style to effectively communicate and build consensus across functions that are both highly analytical and highly creative;
      • Excellent communication skills: Internal and external spokesperson, equally comfortable talking with customers, employees and the executive management team;
      • “Hands-on” or “Player/coach” entrepreneurial style, one that looks to become involved in all elements of managing their functional responsibility, with high personal standards of commitment and integrity;
      • Excellent analytic abilities in forecasting and P&L management, business metrics, campaign analysis, segmentation solutions, media evaluation, customer valuation and customer strategy development;
      • Proven ability to manage change, drive transformation and successful implementation.

Personal Qualities:

1. 1. • Strong leader, builder, self-starter, motivator, highly collaborative team member;
      • Energetic and enthusiastic business leader with drive and ambition;
      • Innovative and creative thinker;
      • Flexible and open to change;
      • A scientific, experimental and analytical mind set—open to ideas while ensuring proper testing of alternatives.

Compensation Package:

1. 1. • Base Salary
      • Participation in bonus pool
      • Comprehensive health/dental/vision/LT/ST benefits