Chief Marketing Officer

by | Sep 7, 2023 | Uncategorized

Job Description

Chief Marketing Officer

Full Time | Remote Position

Vacation Races is an endurance event company that hosts running events at National Parks around the country and in stunning locations around the globe.

Chief Marketing Officer Position Overview

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Vacation Races is responsible for leading and overseeing all marketing efforts to drive brand awareness, customer acquisition, and total revenue growth. As a key member of the executive team, the CMO will collaborate with all departments to develop and execute strategic marketing initiatives aligned with the company’s vision and objectives. This role requires a deep understanding of the outdoor and travel industries, as well as a passion for creating exceptional customer experiences.

The CMO owns all customer-facing communications, working with production teams to ensure the consistency of all outward facing communication (including website, social media content, sms, and emails). It is expected that this role will travel up to 10% of the time both domestically & internationally.

This is a critical role that spends most of the time listening to ever-changing market demands, but can also deliver exceptional content and communications to the marketplace. This role will frequently transition from tactical management to strategic planning, keeping the larger goals in mind while executing beautifully and with precision. The role will build a team of high-performing marketers who can get the right message to the right people with minimal waste. In developing the Marketing team, the CMO will work with the CEO in hiring decisions, and in providing team members with the mentorship, training, and resources they need to be successful in their roles.

Who We Are Looking For

  • A Data Hunter – We are looking for someone with an insatiable appetite for customer input, and who has the skills and expertise on how to find it. The landscape of reaching potential customers is ever changing, and requires a perpetual reinvention of our systems. We need someone with a deep and versatile set of skills and knowledge of how to best reach our target audience, can read between the lines of customer input, and work with the production team to identify new ways to reduce waste and increase customer satisfaction.
  • An Experimental, Growth Mindset – Acquiring data is one thing. Understanding how to leverage data in order to increase demand is another. We’re looking for someone who likes to experiment, and is not afraid to fail. A marketer that can read between the numbers in order to guide new initiatives, rather than simply optimizing the channels we’re using now. An understanding of how to leverage AI tools is a plus. An Athlete – We need someone who is passionate about endurance events, travel and tourism. Someone who is a part of the endurance event community but remains deeply curious about the industry, and is willing to challenge industry norms in an effort to give our customers the best experience possible. Backgrounds working in other B2C industries are a plus – we don’t want to be beholden to historical event strategies.
  • A Proven Leader – The ideal candidate is someone who has experience building and leading event marketing teams. Someone who can influence the experiences we offer, to be perfectly aligned with the expectations of our participants. We need someone who can hold themselves accountable to an impressive standard. They can model a healthy work-life balance for their team and will exercise empathy and understanding when possible. The work environment should be built with a culture of direct communication, trust, and an unwavering gratitude for our customers.

Key Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities for the CMO

  • Develop and implement a comprehensive marketing and growth strategy to firmly establish and elevate the Vacation Races brand to increase revenue
  • Work with the CEO to proactively identify and address talent gaps. Hire, train, and manage members of the marketing team in the scope and performance of their roles and responsibilities. Due to the remote nature of our organization, frequent and regular meetings with the team is necessary and expected. Special concern should be given towards keeping burnout and turnover to a minimum, all while maintaining a culture of transparency, accountability and ownership.
  • Drive customer acquisition through effective offline and digital marketing campaigns, including SEO, SEM, social media, email marketing, content marketing, and paid advertising
  • Work with the CEO to develop KPIs for the marketing team, and regularly report on marketing ROI to the executive committee
  • Oversee the identification, development, and execution of engaging and impactful marketing campaigns, ensuring consistent messaging across all channels
  • Analyze market trends, consumer insights, and competitor activity to identify opportunities for growth and innovation
  • Collaborate with the production teams to align marketing efforts with the development and launch of new events and experience
  • Manage the overall marketing budget effectively, allocating resources to maximize impact and drive profitability
  • Educate and lead the company on efficiency and effectiveness strategies.
  • Stay up-to-date with industry trends in marketing, emerging technologies, and changing customer demands to ensure Vacation Races remains at the forefront of the market
  • Serve as part of the Executive Committee, whose purpose is to make major strategic decisions to drive the business forward.

Qualifications “Requirements”

If you don’t have them all, please still give it a shot!

  • Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, Business Administration or Marketing.
  • Experience: 10+ years of leading event marketing teams in challenging environments; proven ongoing professional development.
  • Specific Skills:
    • Persuasive communicator, skilled at identifying the personal benefits of our customer base and can communicate that effectively to the entire market.
    • Skilled Project Manager, who can effectively prioritize tasks, and can maintain a cool head under the pressure of immovable deadlines.
    • Team motivator, able to “rally the troops” when needed to tackle the most pressing challenges.
    • Growth-oriented marketer, willing to experiment, while simultaneously able to pinpoint repeatable growth opportunities, and drive virality.
  • Passion: Relentless in their pursuit of excellence, never fully satisfied. Someone who can collaborate with partners at all levels across the organization to deliver value to our customers.
  • Personality: Authentic, charismatic, inclusive, kind, diplomatic, collaborative, big picture thinker, full of ideas with a bias toward action and results.

Ideal Characteristics for the Role

  • Unimpeachable integrity: Our remote work environment requires exceptionally high levels of trust and communication. C-Level references are preferred.
  • Financial Expertise: Someone who delivers pertinent, accurate & updated financial information at all times, and respects how critical planning and budgets impact overall success.
  • Experienced: We need someone with a long and proven track record of brand development and revenue growth.
  • Strategic Thinker: Someone who can carefully and deliberately anticipate threats and vulnerabilities to guard against and as well as opportunities to pursue.
  • Proactive, Driven: Someone who plans early, and takes little for granted. Someone with a passion to drive YoY double digit revenue growth.
  • Gritty: Relentlessly seeking out problems and solving them is the name of the game.
  • Self-motivated: Able to set goals and hold themselves and their team accountable.
  • Organized: Marketing over 40 events each year requires extreme organization and highly developed attention to details.
  • Empathetic: We are a people-first organization. We need someone who can understand how others feel and respond respectfully.
  • Artistic: We see our events as a canvas, and it is up to the Production team to paint something beautiful. An ideal candidate will take pride in the details, and will relish in the elegance of good design!
  • Passionate: Our company thrives on making all Stakeholders successful. This includes participants, contractors, employees, and partners. We seek someone who loves what we are bringing to the world.
  • Communicator: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
  • Inclusive: Our company thrives on making all parties successful. This includes participants, contractors, employees, and partners. We seek someone who loves seeing our model of communal success. Someone who will go out of their way to include everyone.

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