Senior Marketing Executive

12 Month FTC Maternity Cover

Reports to : Head of Customer Growth

About Us

The Independent is an online news publisher that was established in 1986 as a national newspaper independent of party-political affiliations or proprietorial influence. In 2016, The Independent became a fully digital publisher, moving away from print in pursuit of sustainability, and to safeguard its values and journalism for the future. The Independent has always thrived through innovation and change. It was the first British newspaper to add a Saturday magazine; the first to give photography the same prestige as news copy; the first to challenge the Westminster lobby system of closed briefings; the first broadsheet to move to the more compact ‘tabloid’ format; the first to launch a concise quality compact paper; and the first – and only – major newspaper to pull off a successful transformation to fully digital publishing. Through The Independent, Independent TV, eCommerce, indy100, subscriptions and other ‘reader revenues’, The Independent plans to continue the work of many decades, bringing much-needed independent journalism to over 100 million unique global visitors a month, make its voice ever louder and more insistent the world over. We have an international editorial team with our main offices in London and New York. In 2024 The Independent’s portfolio of brands increased through a new licensing partnership with BuzzFeed Inc. to operate the BuzzFeed brands in the UK - BuzzFeed UK, Tasty, Seasoned and HuffPost UK. The additional brands echo the existing business ethos and allow for increased audiences and a further strategic diversification of revenue streams.

Job Purpose

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Marketing Executive to join our marketing team as maternity cover. This role reports directly into the Head of Customer Growth and will be assessed on your ability to plan, implement and report on campaigns that drive customer growth through delivering new registrations, app installs, newsletter sign-ups, subscriptions and donations. You will be primarily responsible for building, deploying and reporting on campaigns within our Customer Engagement Platform, Braze. You will also work closely with our performance marketing agency on paid media campaigns and conversion rate optimization tests onsite. You will be joining us at an exciting time of rapid growth for The Independent, so it is vital that you feel confident managing a varied workload, collaborating closely with multiple stakeholders and managing tight deadlines.

About You

This is an exciting opportunity for you if you’re an enthusiastic marketer keen to build your experience in performance marketing within a collaborative and fast-paced environment. You enjoy being hands-on, are curious about what drives results, and are motivated to learn through real campaign delivery and close collaboration with others. With the right support and exposure, you’ll play an important role in helping optimise campaigns and uncover opportunities to improve customer growth. A hands-on performance marketing specialist with 2+ years’ experience. Strong commercial awareness and can identify opportunities in the market. Solid experience of implementing CRO tests and paid media campaigns. Proven capability in building, deploying and testing owned campaigns within a multi-channel customer engagement platform (CEP)/CRM system. Comfortable conversing with data, product and editorial teams, as well as working closely with a performance marketing agency. Highly motivated, results orientated and eager to learn.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We champion diversity in our teams and in our reporting. As a growing and global brand, we must have a workforce that’s more representative of our readers, viewers, clients and partners, and a workplace that creates a sense of belonging for everyone. We are committed to hiring and developing a diverse workforce regardless of background, and we support our people to thrive in their careers here.

The Data & Marketing Department

The Data & Marketing department is the intelligence powerhouse of the business, representing the customer. Our goal is to inspire, engage and grow a loyal readership by harnessing data-driven insights and innovative marketing to deliver personalised, impactful content experiences that builds lasting trust, diverse revenue streams, and a thriving future for quality journalism. The department consists of four teams: Data Science & Engineering, Data Intelligence & Monetisation, Research & Insight and Customer Marketing.

Customer Marketing

The purpose of this team is to attract, engage and retain readers whilst driving customer revenue, increasing ad revenue and enhancing brand loyalty. They do this through the effective communication of the value of our brands content and products to individual consumers and convert casual readers into loyal customers by developing personalised customer experiences at scale which build deeper, longer lasting relationships in turn driving revenue for our business. They collaborate holistically across the business to identify new initiatives that drive data collection which feed the insight loop, develop and amplify products and services which enhance our strategic growth pillars. Their goal is to shape the future of customer engagement, leveraging data, creativity and innovation to build meaningful relationships with millions of readers worldwide.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities - what is delivered

• Assume responsibility for the day-to-day implementation of acquisition campaigns across The Independent, working closely with the Head of Customer Growth.
• Prepare and distribute regular performance reports for the teams you will collaborate with, including monthly reporting.
• Work in conjunction with the performance marketing agency to coordinate CRO tests and paid media campaigns to meet our registration, subscription and donation targets each month.
• Write creative briefs and work with the marketing team designer to ensure successful delivery of required campaign assets.
• Oversee the build of email campaigns, mapping out key deadlines to ensure projects are delivered on schedule.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders from marketing, product, editorial and the data team to deliver projects that impact conversion objectives across the business.
• Own the delivery of our introductory offer campaigns, including maintaining and updating these offers in our subscription platform, Piano, and in the app stores.
• Continuously evaluate our ‘always-on’ acquisition campaign activity to deliver tests and innovations that improve performance.
• Work alongside The Independent affiliates teams on promoting key ecommerce events, such as Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday, via our newsletters and dedicated marketing promotions.
• Work in collaboration with the Privacy Manager to ensure all campaigns are GDPR compliant.

Mandatory requirements:

• Proficient in conceptualising, building and reporting on email campaigns within an ESP or CEP system.
• Experience in growing a digital audience/user base across key stages of the customer lifecycle up to the point of conversion.
• Experience in delivering successful performance marketing campaigns (either owned or paid channels)
• Results-driven mentality, able to continually critique and optimise performance with a positive mindset.
• Ability to demonstrate a campaign’s performance through data.
• Confident working with complex audience segmentation.
• Excellent collaboration skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work on multiple projects to tight deadlines.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Brilliant collaboration skills - able to work cross functionally to drive results.

Desirable requirements:

• Experience using Braze (Customer engagement platform).
• Experience using Piano (Customer data and subscription platform)
• Experience working in news, media and publishing.
• Degree level professional qualification in Marketing or equivalent.
• Ability to understand and troubleshoot basic HTML/Liquid.
• Familiarity with The Independent and BuzzFeed brands, websites and products on and off-platform is an advantage

Our Values – you will deliver across all our values.

Inclusive: Wechampion diversity in our teams and in our reporting. Working as a team, we put transparency and effective communication at the heart of everything we do.

Innovative: From the very beginning, The Independent has been breaking the mould. We take risks and are always looking to try new ideas in pursuit of excellence.

Independent: Nobody tells us what to think; we make up our own minds and aren’t afraid to do things differently. Like our readers, we value honesty and integrity above outside influences.