Fractional CMO - Nebraska

So, what is Crux? It’s the nitty gritty, the heart of the matter. It’s substance, the bottom line. We know the traditional agency model isn’t an ideal fit for everyone, so we take a different approach. Think of us as the “un-agency.”

When you join Crux, one of Kansas City’s Best Places to Work, you become part of an entrepreneurial team that’s committed to elevating brands and amplifying missions. Trusting, accountable and unrelenting, we’re driven to help each other—and our clients—succeed.

We’re looking for a talented and energetic Fractional CMO to lead a dynamic team. You’ll have the strategic chops to develop effective marketing plans for our clients and be the fractional executive needed for each organization assigned to you.

You’ll work with other members of the Crux leadership team to uphold TEAM CRUX values and build processes while supporting your account team in executing integrated, multi-channel marketing campaigns. You should be as comfortable seeing and managing the big picture for clients and team members as you are getting into the weeds to move deliverables forward. You should also be an exceptional verbal communicator; extremely detail-oriented; and obsessed with marketing strategy.

This candidate must:

• Be an exceptional role model for the company values
• Have strong project management skill
• Value relationships
• Make a strong first impression
• Be highly adaptable to a changing work environment and shifting client demands
• Be well organized and highly responsive
• Demonstrate maturity
• Have strong written and verbal skills
• Work collaboratively across multi-disciplinary teams
• Be able to lead, inspire and manage a team of resources

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Client Engagement/Marketing Strategy:

• Hold the keys to the client relationship and to the marketing strategy. Our goal is to build trust with key stakeholders so that they allow us to “drive” the strategy forward. Sometimes that means challenging their thinking, in a professional way, to stay the course toward driving results.
• Understand the client’s business and growth goals and what success looks like in a marketing engagement.
• Understand what value means to the client and how to make the client feel like we are thinking about them every day/every week.
• Develop/recommend quarterly KPIs in collaboration with the client and then track to/report on those.
• Hold regular meetings that are meaningful to the client, sharing results that align with the goals, listening and learning how their business is performing, investing the time to bond with our clients and ideate.
• Share key insights when it comes to audits and analytics vs “traffic reports” pulling out only what is meaningful intel, going back to driving toward results.
• Focus on the client experience and sticky-factor, how do we delight them in every encounter.
• Focus on work deliverables and shifting client priorities to align back to goals and driving results.
• Show up at our client’s office weekly or bi-weekly to get more face time and meet/build relationships with more members of the team.
• Review all deliverables through the client lens.
• Be responsive as soon as possible, even if it’s just a quick “I’m on it.”
• Communicate good news and bad news in real time. Stay positive and own mistakes/mishaps.
• Understand when the bring resourcing to the client, making introductions to the broader team.
• Build meaningful 30/60/90-day plans that clearly define deliverables and tie back to strategy and KPIs.
• Becomes the stewards of our client’s budgets, acting and recommending strategies that meet their goals.
• Crux is fun, fresh, fearless and factual. Remember to use that tone in our client communications, as well.?
• Tracks client P&L across client roster and holds self and team members accountable for meeting revenue goals.
• Assists with administrative duties for client relationship such as scheduling meetings and organizing digital assets.
• Seeks new business development opportunities, within current client base and among prospective clients.

Team Management:

• Partners with Traffic Manager to bridge client and production team needs, setting clear deadlines and maintaining schedules to ensure work is on time and within budget.
• Hold check-in meetings with the specialty teams to see progress and to ensure things are on track.
• Be a good collaborator and teammate with the specialty teams, fully completing creative briefs and schedules to ensure we get it right the first time.
• Delivers timely, honest and constructive feedback and praise in the moment.
• Strategic thinker, mentor and coach who seeks development opportunities to help team members grow their professional skills.
• Sets short- and long-term goals with team members and aids in attaining them.
• Remove roadblocks internally to support team and client deadlines.
• Collaborate with other team leaders to guide process, direct strategy, inspire teams and resolve issues.
• Be the subject matter expert in one or more marketing functions to coach, mentor, and guide the marketing team.
• Partner with executive team on quarterly goal to increase efficiencies, working on the business not in the business.
• Lead cross function project teams to deliver work that supports the overall business and/or broader client roster.

Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS

• 15+ years of business experience working in a professional or corporate environments. Ad/marketing agency experience is a plus.
• 10+ years experience building comprehensive multi-channel marketing strategies at the executive level.
• 5+ years reporting into/participating in C-Suite.
• Experience setting marketing KPIs aligned with business goals.
• Experience managing marketing budgets including, paid media, agency fees, and internal resources.
• Experience leading teams of varying sizes in a collaborative work environment.
• Strong leadership skills, including the ability to coach and develop team members and motivate and inspire others.
• Strong strategic marketing skills, aligning best practices with new ideas and creative execution to achieve success for clients.
• Exceptional skill in writing, copyediting and proofreading.
• Proficient with social media platforms.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint) and Google Analytics.
• Experience with Adobe Creative Suite (especially Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator).
• Highly skilled in research practices and ability to guide large-scale research projects for several clients across multiple industries at one time.
• Experience working directly with Executives, and ability to properly communicate status of client accounts, team challenges and share ideas for improvement.
• A self-starter (proactive vs. reactive in style) with strong professional interpersonal skills.
• Ability to help team members effectively manage projects by prioritizing and use of best practices in meeting project deadlines.
• Proven ability to thrive in a deadline-driven environment and hold your team accountable for meeting deadlines.
• Ability to adapt to an ever-changing emerging business work environment.