Director of Digital Strategy, Washington & Jefferson College (W&J)

Washington & Jefferson College (W&J) is searching for staff members to contribute their talents to our campus community. W&J seeks to create a transformative learning experience for its increasingly diverse student body, and bolster an inclusive environment in which everyone’s voice is heard and appreciated, and individuality is celebrated. W&J is dedicated to the values of a liberal arts education that is both liberating and practical, and supports a community committed to multicultural and global understanding.

The Director of Digital Strategy is part of the leadership team in the Communication & Marketing office at Washington & Jefferson College, reporting to the Vice President of Communication & Marketing. The Director of Digital Strategy is responsible creating, implementing and measuring a digital marketing strategy to drive brand visibility and traffic to the website and its social media channels to prospective and current students, parents, alumni, donors, and influencers. The Director will shape and execute digital marketing strategies that authentically communicates the W&J experience and engages key audiences with compelling visual design, messaging, and storytelling that drives action and ensures brand consistency.

The Director will be a highly organized, detail-oriented, creative individual with knowledge of all aspects content marketing strategies for web & mobile, digital advertising platforms, and for the major social media channels and platforms, and how to leverage digital media assets including online video, mobile ads and email marketing. The Director will identify goals, objectives, and key performance metrics for W&J’s digital assets; continually monitor, analyze and report on usage and effectiveness; and provide actionable insights and decision support. As the College web site is the primary presentation of its brand, the Director will oversee content marketing, information architecture and best practices to ensure the website is nurtured and maintained.

The Director will also be responsible for the development, implementation and maintenance of its intranet site, electronic campus communications, digital advertising, email marketing, marketing automation technology, data analytics and performance. The Director of Digital Strategy will work with the Offices of Enrollment Management, Alumni Relations & Development, Academic Affairs, Athletics and Student Life on a content marketing strategy to ensure optimization and consistency in messaging, brand and measurement.
As this is growing department, the candidate will provide direction and guidance on the building of a digital marketing team that may include full-time staff as well as contractors/third-party agencies.

Job Duties:

Design, implement, optimize and managed digital marketing strategies that utilizes data and analytics to measure and enhance performance and results;
Develop, implement and maintain a robust, user-friendly website including information architecture, SEO, content marketing best practices, video, blogging and more;
Work independently and with external vendors to create digital marketing tools and assets that amplify brand stories (photos, video, etc.) and are optimized for search engines;
Improve search-engine rankings by increasing strategic keyword density on pages, developing relationships with external websites to obtain quality inbound links, and by implementing other SEO best practices;
Track digital advertising costs to stay within budget, reallocate funds as needed, and ensure demonstrable and sufficient return on investments;
Oversee vendor(s) for paid search and other web advertising campaigns so as to improve the outreach and marketing capabilities of websites;
Conduct A/B testing, competitive research, and demographic research using relevant digital marketing platforms, including, but not limited to social media, Google Ads, and Bing.
Create, update, and distribute monthly, annual, and on-demand reports and data analysis of campaigns across digital marketing platforms; highlight results, trends, and costs in an understandable and relevant manner.
Monitor website use and trends; analyze this information for optimization and conversion through Google Analytics reports and other reporting methodology.
Create and disseminate e-newsletters and digital communications to students, faculty, staff and external audiences; develop reports to track engagement with newsletters and drive audience engagement growth.
Champion digital marketing best practices, opportunities, technologies, and methods to internal clients using data, testing, analysis and interpretation from College, competitor, and industry marketing activities. Research potential digital marketing opportunities, trends, industry developments, and software.

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, journalism or related field and 7+ years of experience in leading digital marketing campaigns, SEO, PPC, email marketing and social media.
Minimum 3-5 years in managing inter- and intra-departmental teams. Ability to facilitate multi-office workgroups.
Demonstrated ability to optimize web content to advance search performance (SEO), increase website engagement, enhance the mobile experience and increase lead-generation.
Experience in developing, implementing and measuring digital marketing campaigns with robust analytics, A/B testing, metrics and recommended improvements.
Experience managing, nurturing and measuring a complex website, with a strong focus on user experience, content strategy, testing, and information architecture including UX and UI principles, Google Analytics Suite (Adwords, Tag Manager, webmaster tools), as well as mastered proficiency in CSS, HTML and JavaScript.
Superior analytical skills and understanding of key performance metrics and analytics reports, and how to incorporate these into data-driven decisions on campaigns.
Strong project management capabilities with experience in developing standards, schedules and workflow processes to meet deadlines and client needs.
A self-starter who can also work with others to evaluate, development, implement and measure digital marketing campaigns
Familiarity with higher education communications supporting recruitment, fundraising, engagement and academic program marketing a plus.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to present complex/technical information to executive-level stakeholders in a business-focused setting.

Preferred Qualifications:

Master’s degree in related field.
Agency, non-profit or higher education experience

Application Instructions

Apply for this job at https://washjeff.applicantpro.com/jobs/. Please submit cover letter and resume. It is recommended that all documents be in PDF format and uploaded at one time. Review of applications will begin immediately.