Head of Campaign Marketing

Role Overview:

To take ownership of an exciting and innovative opportunity to help develop, manage and grow the UK business for Star’s On-demand Business Services. You must have exceptional leadership qualities, as well as a desire to develop, own and execute the Campaign Marketing vision and strategy.  You will promote the brand and differentiate Star with a compelling value proposition to ensure commercial success. You must clearly articulate Star’s value and segment propositions to help stimulate business growth.

You will have an understanding of the market for managed services and how cloud computing is transforming the way technology is delivered and paid for. You will have experience of supporting the business-to-business direct sales and marketing process and know how to support the sales cycle from campaign development, execution and opportunity development, through to the successful conclusion of sales deals. You will have highly developed messaging skills that clearly communicate the ‘quantifiable’ benefits to customers and prospects in order to persuade them that choosing Star as their provider for virtual private cloud services is the right choice.

Purpose

This role requires an appreciation of market trends and drivers for adoption of cloud services in order to facilitate the creation of engaging customer focussed propositions to CIOs in the UK mid-market.  You will lead the Campaign Marketing function to promote Star’s On-demand Business Services to medium sized UK businesses, with a focus on key vertical sectors.

You must be confident and visionary enough to create and own the campaign marketing plan as well as find the answers to the ever developing challenges surrounding the go-to-market environment.  This role will only suit an individual prepared to commit themselves to the cause and who can challenge conventional thinking and practices with new and innovative ways of engaging with and supporting UK businesses in the mid-market.

This is a team role with critical interfaces across the business and will only suit someone used to operating as an interdependent collaborator. You will need to be highly visible throughout the business and regularly present in the regional sales offices in order to understand the challenges and provide the required levels of support.

You will provide insight and leadership in the following areas:

• Market segmentation
• Relationship marketing techniques, focused on the UK’s CIO community
• On and off-line marketing, including social networking
• Campaign creation, execution and reporting – utilising CRM and direct marketing techniques
• Delivering a platform for success for Sales to generate pipeline opportunities

Principle Accountabilities

You will work as a key member of the Star Marketing team and liaise closely with Head of Solutions Marketing and Head of Brand, Online, and Communications as a peer whose role is interdependent both within the marketing team and across other key departments in the business. Those other key areas include, but are not limited to: Sales, Customer Services, Product Management, UK Cloud Alliance, Finance, Operations and Vendor Management teams.

The Head of Campaign Marketing will initially manage two reports and together will deliver engaging value proposition campaigns to Star’s target audience of mid-market companies and defined vertical sectors.

• Define and continuously develop the campaign marketing strategy and execute the go-to-market plan
  Help define marketing strategy in conjunction with other marketing, sales and product development functions, by providing intelligence around: analysis of campaign effectiveness, superior techniques of engaging the target audience, appropriate events to attend, CRM and email marketing developments, relationship marketing initiatives, market segment penetration
• Utilise the data, information and market knowledge available to Star and obtained through analysts to draw insight that in turn makes the proposition to the customer more relevant
• Work with other functions within marketing to deliver content, collaterals and assets to help meet objectives for lead generation, awareness creation, sales support etc.
• Work closely in particular with sales teams and regional directors to give them the support they need to be successful
• Establish credibility and confidence with all teams within Star and directly with customers and prospects
• Manage any third party providers or marketing agencies appropriately and to budget
• Work within Star’s existing systems and processes and seek to develop and adapt over time
• Ensure communication and activity is always representative, consistent and professional
• Ensure all key internal stakeholders are regularly updated with future plans and feedback/results from previous campaigns
• Continuously develop and maintain close integration with Sales to guarantee seamless processes and team working
• Support UK Cloud Alliance go-to-market and partner engagement

Key Perfomance Indicators:

• Build an unrelenting momentum in the market for Star and it’s On-demand Business Services
• Fully communicate the value proposition to the target audience
• Accelerated growth of large solution deals in the pipeline and closed business
• Increased number of segment deals as a result of sector solution focus

Profile of job holder:

• Proven leader and track record in successful campaign marketing
• Ability to align Star messages to customer demand and market trends
• Proven background in growing revenues for customer focused solutions
• Experience of managing and developing teams
• Must have extensive technology and campaign marketing experience to Senior Marketing Manager level, preferably in managed services, mid-market oriented vendor
• Ensure differentiation is clearly defined by tapping into Star’s messaging for:
  o The Star value proposition
  o Segment, Solution & Service level propositions
  o Quantifying the value of Star’s proposition to the customer
• Spearhead segmentation programme to ensure Star is a credible and highly visible provider in the chosen vertical sectors
• Experience in B2B solutions marketing and solution selling concepts
  o Appreciation of the CIO community and how to engage them
  o Utilising social networking where appropriate
• Experience of working closely with Sales, Product Marketing and Product Management functions
• Energetic and flexible individual possessing a high level of self-confidence and ability to influence individuals at all levels
• Excellent communication, presentation and inter-personal skills
• High levels of initiative, drive and self-motivation
• Experience in complex, highly dynamic environments where the ability to learn quickly and contribute immediately is required
• A Bachelor’s degree in business and/or technology
• Act as a senior member of the marketing team to help drive innovation and strategy
• Confident in front of prospective customers, articulate, well read and a good orator
• Experienced in supporting sales processes, such as Solution Selling and Miller Heiman, and working with senior sales professionals
• UK based, with flexibility of working nationally
  o You will be expected to travel between all the Star offices regularly and build a strong personal profile throughout the business

Essential:

• Up-to-date with the concept of “cloud services” for business customers
• Able to understand and communicate technology and Star’s vision
• Able to implement relationship marketing and lead nurturing techniques
• Ability to take ownership of CRM systems automated processes for marketing and lead handover to sales
• Understanding of the data requirements for the business and ability to source appropriately
• Relevant experience and expertise in working with sales teams and driving programmes that help the effectiveness of a sales community
• Excellent written and verbal skills
• Degree level qualified in the any of the following areas: Computing, Engineering, Business Studies, Marketing
• Relevant IT market experience
• Self-motivated problem solver
• Must be a team player first and foremost, with ability to assimilate information and make decisions 
• Effective under pressure with a strong ability to prioritise and deliver
• Understanding of UK mid-market and CIO community

Desirable:

• Understanding of the IT market and the developments in cloud computing embracing:
  o PaaS
  o IaaS
  o SaaS
  o IPT & Unified Communications
  o Virtualisation & data centre services
  o Business Application landscape 
• Experience marketing to the following vertical sectors:
  o Retail
  o Digital media
  o Professional services
  o Technology
  o Hi-tech manufacturing