Vice President, Marketing & Communications

About the position

The purpose of the VP, Marketing & Communications role is to design and drive brand narrative and build awareness and clarity of ICW Group's value proposition in the marketplace. The position will interface with internal stakeholders including senior leadership, product/service departments, and underwriting teams to position ICW Group as a leader in the insurance industry while aligning brand values with business objectives. This includes, but is not limited to, strategic development and tactical implementation for the company's marketing plans and programs, external digital and social media storytelling, and leveraging data analytics to optimize investments. The totality of work seeks to increase ICW Group's brand awareness, preference, and market share.

Responsibilities

• Leads development of the overall Brand strategy and Marketing execution.
• Leads the creation of the entire brand strategy, who ICW is, what we do, how we are different, and the ICW 'why.'
• Develops and implements both short-term marketing plans and long-term strategic alignment with ICW Group's long-range plan.
• Instills a performance- and outcome-driven orientation into the marketing practice.
• Manages the end-to-end customer journey, leveraging multiple media channels to influence customer buying behaviors, generate qualified leads, and ultimately enable profitable sales growth.
• Executes comprehensive marketing plans that help achieve customer, agent, and policyholder acquisition and retention goals.
• Uses business intelligence and analytics to create and evaluate the vitality of the marketing plans.
• Facilitates and drives relationships with key stakeholders to plan, communicate, and drive the development and deployment of marketing campaigns.
• Collaborates with multiple departments to gain high degree insights to execute marketing strategies that drive both campaigns and long-term brand growth.
• Forges and expands relationships with key customers to understand how ICW Group can best meet/exceed their needs.
• Works with business unit and branch leadership to help achieve acquisition, retention, and revenue goals.
• Develops communication and messaging that aligns with organization objectives.
• Leverages key customer data and insights to elevate ICW Group's value proposition and helps develop key selling points that drive ICW Group brand differentiation.
• Develops engaging and compelling marketing communications, creating emotional connections to target consumers.
• Develops lead-nurturing, lifecycle communication and segmentation campaigns.
• Develops powerful creative briefs that distill business goals into actionable insights for the creative team.
• Leads the Enterprise Marketing team to develop tactical communications support to a variety of departments.
• Determines/measures overall cadence of communication for maximum impact and customer satisfaction across different geographic and demographic audience segments.
• Acts as a champion of the message and storytelling that will drive overall differentiation, customer loyalty and interest in our products and solutions.
• Provides ROMI optimization and oversight to achieve revenue and profitability objectives.
• Tracks key metrics and success criteria, driving balance of effectiveness and efficiency of spend for all programs.
• Defines ROMI goals and evaluates success using relevant KPIs.
• Measures overall impact of marketing program on defined metrics.
• Evaluates, monitors, and measures the impact of the quality and quantity of inbound/outbound lead generation initiatives.
• Monitors and optimizes campaign effectiveness across prioritized markets, channels, and stakeholders.
• Develops data analytics and insights that drive strategy.
• Inspire a data-driven culture with advanced analytics to optimize brand strategies.
• Leverages market research to keep abreast of competitive and future market trends.
• Develops and manages marketing professionals.
• Leads and mentors a team of high-performing marketing professionals.
• Establishes and adheres to hiring criteria, onboarding and training requirements for team members.
• Oversees the performance management and talent development processes for the team.
• Creates a coaching and mentoring environment amongst team members.
• Manages team budget, technology and other resources, workload and other marketing services.
• Ensures adherence to all Company policies and procedures and Compliance responsibilities.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree from four-year accredited college or university required with a major or emphasis in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, or related field.
• MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 12+ years of progressive experience in brand strategy or marketing required, with a major preference in the insurance industry.
• Minimum 7 years of experience in a leadership role required.
• Proven ability to develop and execute strategic marketing plans that align with business objectives and drive measurable results.
• Demonstrated success in developing innovative marketing campaigns that capture consumer attention and drive engagement.
• Experience with Data, measurement, and analytics competency.

Nice-to-haves

• Strong marketing background.
• Ability to lead and be strategic, as well as drive tactics and get work done.
• Ability to work collaboratively to create a results-driven, team-oriented environment.
• Demonstrated ability to forge highly effective cross-functional partners.
• Proven ability to leverage multiple marketing assets to achieve business goals.
• Exceptional ROI-tracking skills.
• Working knowledge of email automation & web analytics tools (Pardot, Google Analytics) a plus.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent people and management skills.
• Experience putting forth new methods and ideas and has a high degree of curiosity relating to marketing.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Benefits

• Competitive benefits package, with generous medical, dental, and vision plans.
• 401K retirement plans and company match.
• Bonus potential for all positions.
• Paid Time Off with an accrual rate of 5.23 hours per pay period (equal to 17 days per year).
• 11 paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Support for continued learning.