Marketing Manager, Brand Communications

About hand2mind:

We bring learning to life! Trusted by teachers for more than 55+ years, hand2mind creates engaging, classroom-tested materials that empower children to learn by doing. We are a 150-person strong, family-owned company that's been voted one of the Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces for the last four consecutive years. In addition to building high-quality, hands-on learning materials for the classroom like VersaTiles and Cuisenaire Rods, we also develop educational toys for the home that make learning math, reading, social-emotional learning, and STEM fun and interactive. As a company, we are committed to our employee's personal and professional development. That's why we offer a competitive benefits package, a supportive culture, and training and development opportunities by Harvard and UCLA professors. We are looking for professionals who are truly just kids at heart! We hope you'll come join our award-winning team today!

Team & Position Description:

We are currently seeking a Marketing Manager, Brand Communications to join our Marketing team! Here's what makes this team awesome: we market products to administrators, teachers, and parents; we launch award-winning, best-selling educational materials; we are on a strong growth trajectory with ambitious plans for 2024 and beyond.

What you'll do day to day:

• Develop a collaborative, performance-oriented Brand Communications team with 4 direct reports.

• Oversee organic and paid social media, with emphasis on growing the hand2mind audience on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest channels.

• Lead content strategy team for ecommerce retailers (Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc.) to drive both discoverability and conversion, along with building brand awareness.

• Personally own the relationship with and drive the agenda for our Public Relations agency.

• Manage annual educational trade advertising contracts, plan content calendar, and brief internal Creative team to develop necessary assets.

• Serve as point person for seasonal marketing campaigns by working collaboratively with all Marketing channels to organize briefs, and oversee creative asset development.

• Manage the annual budget for all Brand Communications channels, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively to execute against strategy.

• Cultivate the hand2mind Affiliate and Influencer programs to develop hand2mind brand advocates.

• Own and set KPIs, strategies, and priorities to facilitate continuous improvement and optimization of all channels. Monitor and report on KPIs.

What we're looking for (Key Performance Objectives):

• Required:

• Create a talent development program for the Brand Communications team that allows new marketers to gain experience across different channels within the team by Q3 2024.

• Grow the hand2mind following on TikTok by 500% in 2024, and 15% across Facebook/Instagram.

• Develop and launch new-to-world YouTube content to tie in with product marketing initiatives.

• Adjust PR strategy to focus on high-impact placements that support our strategic initiatives in the consumer and education space, with placements beginning in Q2.

• Revamp project management system to prioritize data-driven decision-making techniques for the content strategy team by Q3.

• Preferred:

• Audit educational trade advertising spending and strategy, and implement findings in time for Back to School season.

• Relaunch the hand2mind Affiliate and Influencer program, with 50 key partners onboarded by EOY.

We are a drug-free workplace and an EEO employer.

Please note: This role will be filled by our internal recruitment team, so no assistance is needed from any outside staffing agency at this time.

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