Job Details

As a senior member of the Marketing and Communications Leadership team, the key role of the Strategic Marketing Manager is to work with the department leadership team, manage and lead direct reports and collaborate with university clients to plan and execute effective paid and unpaid promotions for a broad variety of TRU initiatives. 

The Strategic Marketing Manager is a strategic and creative thinker who is highly skilled in the areas of brand management, paid advertising, media planning, earned media, and owned media and project management. The ability to balance strategic planning with tactical execution and creative marketing ideas with data-driven decision-making comes naturally to you. 

Leading all things paid media (online and offline), the Strategic Marketing Manager is responsible for the strategic planning, development, execution, reporting, and performance optimization of advertising campaigns. 

As a collaborative individual, you are highly adept at managing your own team as well as cross-institutional team efforts. You understand the importance of strong relationships to accomplish great work. 

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

• Responsible for the planning and execution of online and offline marketing campaigns, which align with institutional priorities as well as the strategic marketing goals of the requesting department or faculty. 
• Utilize a variety of digital marketing tactics such as social media, search engine marketing (SEM), pay-per-click (PPC), retargeting, landing pages, A/B testing and others to drive traffic and maximize conversions. 
• Lead activities related to project fulfillment: write project and creative briefs, issue requests for proposals (RFPs), manage vendor relations, purchase media, manage budgets, utilize project management software, develop timelines, review artwork with the Creative Manager, and sign off on final projects. 
• Support the Executive Director of Marketing and Communications in meeting core strategies and priorities. 
• Supervise Senior Marketing Strategist team including hiring, training, performance evaluation, and coaching. 
• Oversee incoming campus-wide marketing requests and assist direct reports with prioritizing projects, working with clients, and providing marketing direction. 
• Work within a cross functional teams including leadership, strategists, writers, graphic designers, web designers and clients to develop and deliver ideas from concepts to final designs.
• Establish and maintain relationships with external suppliers - request quotes, select vendors, establish timelines, oversee quality control and financial accountability related to production. 
• Establish and maintain relationships with advertising representatives – buy media, secure viable discounts, seek and engage in new opportunities to drive traffic, maximize ROI and grow the TRU brand. 
• Engage and collaborate with external agency partners on projects.
• Collaborate with Integrated Planning and Effectiveness team to inform marketing strategies. 
• Create, maintain, and conduct analytics reporting across multiple platforms and extract KPI’s for future campaign development and go-to-market strategies, complete with formal proposals and recommendations on tactics.
• Remain abreast of marketing and advertising trends to continuously cultivate new initiatives and ideas.
• Present campaigns and projects to internal and external departments, and communicate about strategies, creative and budgets
• Serve as an active member on a variety of relevant institutional committees. 

REPORTS TO
Executive Director, Marketing and Communications
 

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in appropriate specialization such as marketing or communications, or equivalent experience. 
• Five (5) to seven (7) years of experience in team management in an agency, marketing department or personal business. Work experience in a large complex public sector organization is an asset.

Skills Knowledge or Abilities Related to the Job: 

• Extensive knowledge of marketing concepts and best practices. 
• Extensive knowledge of paid, earned and owned media – their value and when to use them. 
• Expert knowledge of media planning. 
• Understanding of online analytics and reporting utilizing Google Analytics or other tools within social media and customer relationship management (CRM) systems to create actionable analytics for evaluating activities and making data-drive decisions. 
• Working knowledge of: graphic design, web interface design, multimedia, and website development. 
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal. 
• Strong business acumen, project management, interpersonal and presentation skills. 
• Team leader – Ability to foster continuous improvement in quality of individual direct reports’ writing, productivity and institutional knowledge. 
• Team player – collaborative and contributing member of a departmental leadership team. 
• Ability to work against tight deadlines in a fast-paced environment keeping a keen eye on detail and accuracy. 
• Ability to work on multiple initiatives and projects simultaneously. 
• Ability to lead across departments to ensure projects are properly prioritized and executed by other groups. 
• Must be a self-starter, highly motivated, able to “turn on a dime”, think through problems to come up with innovative solutions. 
• Knowledge of post-secondary education preferred. 
• Technical experience should include: 
  • Ability to work in a Macintosh and Windows environment; proficient with Microsoft Office products and familiarity with HTML. 
  • Experience using project management software. 
  • Working knowledge of content management systems and customer relationship management systems.