Chief Marketing Officer

Spring Hill College, Alabama’s oldest institution of higher learning, was founded in 1830 by Michael Portier, Mobile’s first Catholic bishop. Spring Hill is also the first Catholic college in the Southeast, the third oldest Jesuit college and the fifth oldest Catholic college in the United States.

Reporting to the President, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is a dynamic self-starter who brings an enthusiasm and passion to the position, which provides strategic leadership for all of the College’s marketing and communication efforts. He/she is willing to participate in hands-on aspects to achieve aggressive goals set for marketing and communications while partnering with the VP of Enrollment Management, the VP of Advancement, and the Chief Information Officer to direct and integrate all external communications with regard to message content, branding consistency, and effectiveness of producing the desired outcomes. This includes developing appropriate insight to facilitate operating units’ understanding of constituent needs and behaviors. The CMO will have responsibility for developing marketing strategies and public relations/mass communication activities consistent with the approved goals of the individual units (e.g., new student recruitment, alumni and donor engagement), supervising a staff of four professionals in marketing communications, social media and marketing analytics, and, if needed, identifying and leading the work of external resources/agencies to supplement in-house staff. This position requires: in-depth conceptual knowledge of the College’s mission, ability to work in a team environment with extensive collaboration, ability to directly engage staff in executing specific tasks, ability to develop new and existing relationships and partnerships for the overall benefit of the College, and to be highly organized, multi-task capable, and have attention to detail The two most critical competencies are (1) the ability to quickly assimilate the College’s overall competitive situation and design and execute a strategic marketing plan that positions the College favorably with prospective students and their parents and with likely college decision influencers in the marketplace and (2) the ability to drive awareness, leads, website traffic, and applications using the Spring Hill brand through significant improvements in digital (website, social, SEM, etc.), better synergy with admissions and advancement, and a greater measurement and accountability for results. This involves the design and execution of a digital marketing program that tracks, measures, and reports the results of its placement and impact. Ideally, the CMO will be experienced in a lead generation environment where she/he has already demonstrated an ability to create the infrastructure (technology applications) and the strategies and tactics to increase qualified leads.

**Essential Functions** * Leads and executes the College’s marketing and communications initiatives, a high potential and exciting opportunity to change the future of the third oldest U.S. Jesuit institution of higher education. The CMO crafts a vision for marketing, develops a strategic marketing plan, and implements it in a self-directed manner. This responsibility requires significant experience and demonstrated proof of results across a variety of dimensions, including, using institutional and marketplace data and research and analytical tools for insight development that enables analyzing the overall marketing situation and then developing and implementing a strategic marketing plan to achieve the College’s student admissions and fund raising goals. * Develops awareness building and lead generating programs through digital assets. For example, these programs would include but are not limited to: * optimizing website design to motivate, incent, and capture more leads; * SEO activities that have improved organic rankings; * Paid search activities that increase web traffic; * Social media/communications of positive programs that create viral transmission among the target, garnering data linking social activity to increased awareness, web traffic, or leads; and * Video creation, production and distribution, including concept, content preparation, and logistics related to video production. * Collaboratively engages key functional leaders, in particular Admissions, Advancement, and Student Affairs to first develop the insight through research efforts to enhance program offerings, student experience, and alumni and donor experience and thereby enhance the overall performance of the College in these key areas. * Orchestrates the creation and approves all marketing communications, including advertising, social media, direct mail, website, collateral materials, the Spring Hill College magazine, copy writing and public relations, to ensure consistency of brand/image of the College. This duty requires, e.g., experience managing and producing publications, such as the SHC Alumni Magazine. * Develops verifiable mechanism(s) for measuring results (e.g., Google analytics, Search Engine Optimization, measuring unaided and aided awareness of SHC on key brand attributes within the target group; number of leads created by non-list vehicles, etc.). * Stewards the College’s brand/organizational identity to grow in size and strength and become increasingly recognizable. Utilizes collateral, messaging, and other marketing strategies to execute this duty. * Manages crisis communications for the College (in conjunction with the College President). * Supports the College’s academic, co-curricular, and community efforts through the marketing and communication of these programs. * Oversees the recruitment, hiring, and supervision of the marketing staff, including any student interns. This duty contemplates that the CMO can oversee and mentor performance and productivity, as well as demonstrates knowledge of and adherence to the College’s policies and procedures. * Ability to take responsibility for creating and delivering the College’s public relations message and strategy and coordinating outside public relations resources. The CMO serves as a liaison in communicating with media, television exposure, and all other beneficial press. This duty may include overseeing or creating press releases and ensuring that news and events are reported accurately and in real time. * Performs other duties as necessary or as requested. **Marginal Functions** * Attends College and community functions as a representative of Spring Hill College where appropriate, e.g., alumni meetings, sporting events. * Serves on ad hoc Administrative Committees that may occasionally be created for specific projects/activities.

* Education: Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution providing the relevant business, communication, strategic-thinking and entrepreneurial skills required for this position. An advanced degree from an accredited institution preferred. * Experience: 10+years of directly related work experience to include a minimum of three (3) years of direct management experience over a team of professionals. Preference for someone from industry who recently migrated into academia or somebody from industry who can migrate into academia– and who possesses strong digital competency. * Other Preferences: * Advanced credentialing, e.g., MBA with Marketing emphasis. * Successful candidates will be organizationally astute and have a demonstrated the ability to develop partnerships in a multiple stakeholder environment. * Licenses: A valid motor vehicle license and approval from the College’s automobile insurance carrier is required. * Other Considerations: This person is considered a responsible employee in accordance with College Title IX policies.