Fast Facts

Ascend Learning seeks a data-driven Director of Lifecycle Marketing to lead dynamic email and SMS marketing strategies aimed at customer acquisition and retention, while building and mentoring a high-performing marketing team.

Responsibilities: Develop and implement lifecycle marketing strategies, manage email and SMS campaigns, build analytics frameworks for performance measurement, and mentor a marketing team.

Skills: Proficient in Hubspot and enterprise CRM, advanced analytics, user personalization, and marketing automation best practices.

Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree with 8+ years in lifecycle marketing, proven experience in analytics and reporting, and strong leadership skills.

Location: This position will be remote in the United States with no travel required.

Compensation: Not provided by employer. Typical compensation ranges for this position are between 120,000 - 180,000.

We Impact Lives Through Purpose-Driven Work in A People First Culture

Ascend Learning is the connection between a powerful portfolio of brands serving students, educators, and employers with outcomes-based, data driven solutions across the lifecycle of learning.

Our values-driven culture unifies our teams and inspires a mindset of action, innovation, and collaboration, with a relentless focus on customers.

We're always looking for talented, passionate professionals to join us in our mission to help change lives. If this sounds like an environment where you'd thrive, read on to learn more.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

We are seeking an enterprising, energizing and data-driven Director of Lifecycle Marketing to deliver email and SMS marketing that strongly differentiates us, attracts customers, and compels them to stay with us for life.

At the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), our mission is to provide world-class fitness and wellness professionals with the knowledge and tools to transform lives. We help personal trainers, coaches, their clients, and fitness and wellness enthusiasts live healthier and happier lives.

Possessing exceptional leadership, analytic and strategic thinking skills, the Director of Lifecycle Marketing will build out and elevate our lifecycle marketing capability, ensuring it is powerfully segmented, strongly lands our points of competitive differentiation, and compels consumers to purchase and keep coming back. Reporting to our VP Marketing, the Director of Lifecycle Marketing will be responsible acquiring customers, converting them to members, and inspiring them to expand their credentials with us. This role will develop and mentor a high-performing team focused on reinforcing and growing our position as an industry leader, leveraging our unique and highly differentiated products, and securing customers for life.

WHERE YOU’LL WORK

This position will work remote in the United States.

HOW YOU’LL SPEND YOUR TIME

• Deliver an integrated lifecycle marketing strategic roadmap and plan that drives lifetime value, encompassing overall brand, personal training, performance, corrective exercise, membership, nutrition and wellness certifications, and new products. Achieve a deep understanding of these businesses.
• Lead all email and SMS marketing work, ensuring it is uniquely insightful, persuasive, motivating and clearly establishes how we are different and better than competition.
• Develop and implement a robust reporting and analytics framework to measure campaign performance, with a focus on building automated dashboards that provide real-time insights for key stakeholders.
• Lead the strategy for user personalization across all lifecycle marketing efforts, using behavioral triggers, predictive models, and customer data to deliver highly relevant and timely communications.
• Leverage and integrate advanced marketing technologies to build a unified customer view and power sophisticated segmentation and automation.
• Act as the primary owner of our lifecycle marketing tech stack, identifying new tools and systems to enhance personalization, improve efficiency, and drive incremental revenue.
• Responsible for flows aimed at acquiring customers, converting them to members, and retaining them (including at risk and win back).
• In support of our enterprise-wide product-led operating model, partner with product leadership to ensure our fitness and performance, nutrition and wellness and membership and professional enablement lifecycle marketing accelerates sales.
• Use data to drive all decisions. Develop and regularly share the results of all programs, including KPIs (open rate, CTR, conversion), tests, key learnings and indicated actions.
• Leverage customer insights, behavioral data, and testing to segment and continuously improve our lifecycle marketing and optimize the customer journey.
• Understand and refine key target segments and use this insight to customize our customer flows to make them as compelling and effective as possible.
• Partner with the brand and product marketing and creative teams to ensure strategies are executed in the most persuasive, breakthrough and effective way.
• Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing team, including 2 lifecycle marketing managers and a specialist agency, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration and accountability.
• Partner with the broader marketing team to support marketing and promotional calendars that ensure our efforts are cohesive and leverage seasonal trends to drive relevance and revenue.
• Monitor competitive lifecycle programs, including analysis and action-planning.
• Stay current with consumer and industry trends, emerging technologies and new marketing tactics to ensure our lifecycle marketing remains in tune with our evolving consumer and reflects the latest best practices.
• Adeptly manage multiple workflows and prioritize projects across teams.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 8+ years’ experience in lifecycle marketing, driving growth for national consumer brands.
• Deep expertise in Hubspot and enterprise CRM and how to use them to execute and continuously optimize results.
• Proven experience in advanced analytics and reporting, including building automated dashboards (like Tableau, Power BI, Google Data Studio, etc).
• Demonstrated expertise in user personalization and behavioral segmentation, with a track record of using data to create dynamic, one-to-one customer journeys.
• A strong understanding of the entire marketing technology ecosystem, with direct experience in implementing and leveraging platforms beyond basic email service providers (ESPs).
• Familiarity with marketing automation best practices and a history of using technology to streamline workflows and scale lifecycle programs.
• An inspirational leader skilled in leading teams, securing cross-functional support and motivating others to achieve what no one thought possible.
• Demonstrated ability to identify differentiating strategies that fuel overall company and product sales.
• A beautiful writer, adept editor and persuasive speaker.
• Must be a curious thinker who loves problem solving: asking questions, digging deeper, and getting to the why. Drives innovation and makes decisions based on deep understanding of the data.
• Deep knowledge of lifecycle marketing analytics and testing methodologies.
• Familiarity with email and SMS compliance regulations (e.g., CAN-SPAM, GDPR).
• Strong sense of ownership, urgency and drive.
• A positive, “what’s possible” thinker who thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

BENEFITS

• Flexible and generous paid time off
• Competitive medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• 401(k) employer matching program
• Parental leave
• Wellness resources
• Charitable matching program
• Hybrid work
• On-site workout facilities (Leawood, Gilbert, Burlington)
• Community outreach groups
• Tuition reimbursement

Fostering A Sense of Belonging

We seek out and celebrate all people and perspectives and cultivate an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive, feel valued and be their authentic selves. Our culture is firmly rooted in the belief that by embracing our differences and drawing on diverse perspectives, we are a stronger, more innovative, and more successful organization where employees experience a sense of belonging.

About Ascend Learning

As a tech-enabled services company, Ascend Learning is a national leader in developing and delivering data-driven online educational content, software, assessments, analytics, and simulations serving institutions, students and employers across healthcare, fitness and wellness, public and workplace safety, skilled trades, insurance, financial services, cybersecurity, and higher education. We're committed to accelerating the learning pathways that can move people into careers where they have the knowledge and skills to have an impact and help change lives in the communities they serve. Headquartered in Burlington, MA with additional office locations and hybrid and remote workers in cities across the U.S., Ascend Learning was recognized by Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group as one of America's 2023 Greatest Workplaces for Diversity.

Ascend Learning, LLC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer (M/F/Vets/Disabled). No agency or search firm submissions will be accepted. Applications for U.S. based positions with Ascend Learning, LLC must be legally authorized to work in the United States and verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

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