Marketing and Direct Response Manager

Position Status: Full time, salaried, exempt

Work Location: Negotiable within the U.S. We have an office in Washington, D.C. and are open to remote work from various geographic locations within the United States.

Posting Date: 11/21/22

Position summary:

Free Press and Free Press Action work to amplify the voices of people and communities in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what’s actually happening in their communities. We work at the intersection of media and technology to strengthen our democracy.

We’re looking for an innovative marketing and direct response manager to execute Free Press’ direct response marketing and digital fundraising strategy, as well as manage our day-to-day digital communications program.

The marketing and direct response manager works across teams to develop the marketing strategy for Free Press’ advocacy, fundraising, and messaging campaigns. This includes using digital tools and strategies to creatively reach campaign goals, and increase online engagement, growth metrics, fundraising and long-term memberships. They set, meet, analyze and report on ambitious metrics goals for our marketing and direct response program. They develop content for our email campaigns and other digital communications as needed and must be a strong writer.

The marketing and direct response manager reports to the managing director. This job requires flexibility in work schedule, generally aligning to the U.S. East Coast business hour, but with evening and weekend work during peak campaign cycles or in the lead up to special events. Regular local, regional and national domestic travel is required, including to events or meetings hosted by others.

Free Press is composed of two separate organizations, Free Press and Free Press Action Fund. Both entities share the same overall mission and employees will have time assigned to one or both entities. This job description refers collectively to the two organizations under the name “Free Press.”

Primary Responsibilities:

• Execute digital fundraising efforts & strategy: Assist in the development of our online fundraising strategy. Manage execution of multi-channel fundraising programs (Action Kit, Mobile Commons, direct mail program). Track and report regularly on progress towards our annual online fundraising goal. Assist in providing updates and information to the development team as needed
• Execute direct response marketing strategy: Draft, create and edit compelling content as needed. Identify opportunities for direct response marketing — building on relevant cultural or newsworthy moments to increase engagement and action on our list. Discern and advise campaign and programmatic staff on what digital assets or strategies are best suited to advance programmatic or digital goals. Work with the campaign team to ensure the digital content they are drafting is using digital best practices
• Manage the day-to-day operations of our digital communications work: Manage the digital communications email program in consultation with the director of marketing and direct response. Create engaging messaging arcs for our members in consultation with digital consultants and campaign staff. Manage day-to-day email queues, targeting, testing, sending and scheduling emails. Develop testing plans in consultation with the director of marketing and direct response and consultants. Represent the marketing and communications department in internal meetings with report-outs and updates
• Grow our base and increase engagement: Execute strategies to grow our email and SMS list organically and through list acquisition. Increase engagement among members, donors and the general public through impactful digital communication components. Manage import of newly acquired names.
• Evaluation & Learning: Maintain up-to-date insights on current digital and online trends and implement new strategies as needed. Share learnings with the broader team. Implement changes and suggest opportunities for testing. Assist in the development of annual digital/marketing and communications equity goals
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Work in collaboration across teams to ensure good communication and cohesion
• Advancing Race Equity: Clearly and consistently articulate an understanding of racial equity and structural racism and the centrality of this analysis to the work Free Press does and how we operate.  Integrate that knowledge into work projects and interactions by addressing structural implications and disproportionate impacts of policies, activities and decisions on race, class, gender and other group identities within the context of job responsibilities and projects

Desired Skills and Attributes:

• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills

• A commitment to racial equity and experience working with communities of color

• Must value and respect differences of race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, ability and socioeconomic circumstance

• Must be a creative self-starter, able to work independently and with limited oversight to accomplish agreed upon objectives and to evaluate results

• Able to work under tight deadlines, navigate competing priorities and effectively adjust work plans to respond to emergent challenges or opportunities

• Able to remain positive, tactful and composed under pressure

• A team player with a low-ego approach to collaboration with both internal and external colleagues

• Must be able to develop and maintain relationships with a wide range of external organizations

• Spanish language fluency is a plus

• Dedication to Free Press’ mission of fighting for everyone’s rights to connect and communicate, in addition to the overall success of the organization

Experience and Qualifications:

• No minimum education is required; a bachelor's degree may be an indicator of capacity for this position
• 3 or more years of directly relevant experience in a nonprofit public interest organization or similar setting is required
• Strong interest in media and technology issues and demonstrated experience working on those or similar issues
• Expertise in a range of digital tools and tactics, with a sharp understanding about the different ways they can be leveraged in different campaign contexts to win
• Working knowledge of modern CRM or fundraising platforms (such as Action Network, ActionKit, EveryAction, New/Mode, and others like them)
• Excellent digital writing skills, with the ability to condense information and convey it clearly and concisely
• Demonstrated ability to use online tools to communicate with and motivate target groups to take action via email, text messages, social media and paid marketing
• Enthusiasm and experience in data and testing content
• Proficiency using Excel to compile analytics reports
• Experience with basic HTML
• Ability to design basic digital and social media content using programs like Photoshop and/or Canva
• Ability to quickly learn new tools and CRMs
• Experience with effective use of SMS in advocacy and fundraising campaigns. Experience using Mobile Commons is preferred
• Experience with email acquisition buys with vendors like DailyKos and Care2, and via advertising platforms such as Facebook
• Demonstrated capacity for full-charge “ownership” of program or administrative areas that are integral to day to day organizational functions
• Experience supervising volunteers or interns
• Experience liaising with colleagues in allied organizations
• Attention to detail, flexibility and demonstrated capacity to operate in a fast-paced environment
• Must have ability to succeed in a predominately telework/remote office environment, including working with an off-site manager, adopting and maintaining strong digital security practices, and fostering connection and community with colleagues located throughout the U.S.

Covid-19 Vaccination:

All Free Press employees must be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus or have an approved medical or religious/ethical/moral accommodation.

Compensation:

Free Press is committed to offering competitive pay and generous benefits, including

• group medical, dental and vision insurance
• short- and long-term disability insurance
• employer contribution to retirement plans (no matching required)
• health-reimbursement accounts
• paid family leave
• annual paid time off is a total of ten weeks, including vacation, health-care leave and holidays
• stipends for business use of personal phones and for home office locations
• all employees receive computers and equipment necessary for the job

This position is categorized as a “tier 2” position, in the context of five possible functional classifications at Free Press, ranging from coordinator (tier one) to executive (tier five).

The starting salary at Free Press for a marketing and direct response manager who meets the above qualifications is $65,000 - $75,000. Starting salary is based on the selected candidate’s qualifications and experience. To counter pay inequality and uphold internal parity, we use a nonnegotiable starting salary system, while benchmarking our pay to competitive markets in the nonprofit sector.

Free Press Is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We value excellence and diversity in our workforce. People of color, women, people with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, gender-nonconforming and formerly incarcerated individuals are strongly encouraged to apply.

If you meet some of the qualifications above, we encourage you to apply or to reach out for more information. We know groups subjected to systemic oppression– including people of color, women, people from working class backgrounds, and people who identify as LGBTQ – are less likely to apply unless and until they meet every requirement for a job. Therefore, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other communities who are marginalized.

How to apply:

Complete our online application.  Fully answering the application questions is an important part of the application process; 4-5 sentences in response to each question will help us understand your thinking.

Our hiring process includes an initial 20-30 minute interview with one staff person, one or two hour-long interviews with 3-4 staff members, and reference checks after the final interview.

We provide reasonable accommodations for the application, interview, or any other aspect of the employee selection process to applicants with disabilities. Please email amartyn@freepress.net to request an accommodation.

Key dates:

Applications submitted by December 9, 2022 will be reviewed with priority; applications submitted after that date will be reviewed on a rolling basis.   This search will remain open until the position is filled. The ideal candidate will be available to begin work in January 2023.