Our Marketing department requires a dedicated and passionate Digital Brand Lead to take ownership of Cape Union Mart & K-Way, guiding and supporting a small digital team to deliver a rich customer experience which is aligned to business objectives and industry best practice. This role also includes relationship management across numerous teams, as well as driving improvements to business processes.

The role will require the incumbent to oversee the effective planning, QA and execution of all digital content on a day-to-day basis, working across teams to drive sales, build a loyal online community and execute campaigns, promotions & launches in line with the merchandise & marketing strategies. A key focus area will be to monitor ongoing performance across social media, mailers and performance media using data & web analytics to identify areas for improvement and sharing feedback and insights on a regular basis. The incumbent will be expected to take ownership of cross-functional meetings from a Digital Marketing perspective.

It's important that we find individuals who are a great fit for our business. The ideal candidate will be a team player, have a high attention to detail and enjoy working in a fast-paced and high-pressure environment. This is a fast-changing role with evolving expectations, and we are looking for someone who has a natural aptitude for social media, content development and pushes the boundaries of digital marketing whilst sharing knowledge and learnings with the rest of the team. We're looking for people who embody our values and aren't afraid to challenge the status quo.

Key Duties

• Takes ownership of the digital marketing strategy, including overseeing the creation and management of the digital content plan and alignment with the overarching brand strategy.
• Ensure effective and accurate execution & deployment of digital content in line with the overarching campaign calendar.
• Perform analysis of relevant campaigns and strategies and provide recommendations on how to optimize future efforts.
• Facilitate the use & optimisation of all available tools to drive conversion, personalisation, automation and A/B testing.
• Represent the Digital Team in all relevant meetings by contributing on digital best practice, pushing innovation & driving cross departmental collaboration
• Act as the key contact for day-to-day management of external digital agency & internal teams (eg. Merchandise teams).
• Compile & circulate weekly and monthly performance reports.
• Control & track the digital marketing budgets.
• Perform regular competitor reviews & analyses and relay key findings.
• Leadership of the Digital Content team as a center of excellence, delivering world class content, maximizing revenue & inspiring our online communities.

Job Requirements

• Knowledge, Experience & Qualifications
  • Minimum of 4 years’ experience in a similar position
  • Matric and related tertiary education in digital/ marketing
  • Strong understanding of
    • performance media (Facebook & Google)
    • email communication strategies
    • overall digital insights & analytics.
  • Experience with ESP’s, Google Analytics, Facebook & Instagram.
  • Experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud advantageous
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (specifically MS Excel)
  • Domain knowledge in retail, online advertising and eCommerce.

• Competencies
  • Goal oriented and self-motivated – must be able to work independently with minimal supervision
  • Flexible and adaptable – must enjoy working in a fast-paced and at times challenging environment
  • Ability to work and build relationships cross-functionally and with a wide range of individuals with different skill sets
  • Strong organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills (written and verbal)
  • Strong sense of ownership & responsibility – track record of performance meeting targets & objectives
  • Data-driven & analytical background, capable of digging into data and telling stories about that data
  • ‘Can do’ positive attitude – eager to grow, learn and develop your skills
  • Decisive, structured and organised, with a keen eye for detail
  • Fast learner with a strong aptitude for systems
  • Passionate about online, digital, eCommerce, retail & data

Detailed Job Requirements

There are 2 primary focus areas for this role. The first is to act as a leader for the relevant Digital Content Coordinators, providing guidance and support as needed in order to fulfil their roles. The second is to take ownership of the relevant chain(s) from a digital perspective, including relationship management across numerous teams, the creation and management of the digital content strategy to drive sales, build and inspire a loyal online community and execute campaigns, promotions & launches in line with the merchandise & marketing strategies.

Key Performance / Focus Areas

Content Management & Planning

• Provide guidance and input on the creation of the digital content calendar.
• Act as the gatekeeper to ensure all digital creative adheres to industry best practice, is tailored to channel requirements (e.g copy limitations, formatting & layouts, legibility etc.) and free of grammatical errors.
• Prioritise the customer experience always, ensuring that the end-to-end journey is considered, easy to navigate and propels the users to engage in the desired manner.
• Facilitate collaboration between community managers and digital content coordinators in order to leverage tactical opportunities to entice customer engagement or proactively address customer demands via social media.
• Drive process & communication improvements between teams to ensure there is visibility & alignment of the content calendar across teams e.g merch

Channel Management

• Perform frequent channel audits to ensure all relevant channels are up to date, accurate & in line with the brands overall look & feel.
• Facilitate the use & optimisation of all available tools to drive online conversions, personalisation, automation and A/B testing in collaboration with the eCommerce Brand Lead and other internal support resources.
• Drive the use of data & web analytics for digital and provide feedback and insights to the relevant teams / individuals as required.
• Monitor & input (when required) on digital agency communication assigned via the relevant collaboration platforms and provide input on potential process improvements or optimizations.
• Provide input on digital media plans and offer additional business context when required.
• Advise on new to market channels and tools that will assist in improving the over-all online experience and ensure we’re first to market with new technologies.
• Channel diversification & experimentation roadmap.
• Testing of new ad formats (Reels, Shorts, TikTok Shop).

Performance & Optimisation

• Monitor and track daily, weekly & monthly performance against targets and liaise with the relevant teams / individuals to optimize where necessary
• Compile weekly & monthly performance reports & insights and use these to drive enhancements & innovation (eg. campaign or mailer ideas)
• Take ownership of relevant review & planning meetings on behalf of the digital team
• Work alongside the eCommerce brand lead to analyze site metrics and related stock, sales & customer data to identify opportunities to improve and personalize the customer experience from social media through to online conversion.
• Continuously seek ways of improving processes and levels of service with all stakeholders, both internal and external
• Actively participate in the optimization activities of the business by proactively contributing ideas, identifying areas to add value & driving continuous improvement.
• Carry out regular competitor reviews & best practice research.
• Distill detailed digital reports and share noteworthy findings and actionable insights with relevant teams/individuals.
• Integration of in-store digital tools (QR, digital screens, geo-targeted push notifications, loyalty apps).
• Omnichannel performance metrics - e.g., online-to-offline conversions, “click & collect,” and store footfall attribution.
• Oversight of SEO strategy and alignment of web content to search performance.
• Keyword research, site performance metrics, and technical SEO collaboration with IT/eComm.

Teamwork & Collaboration

• Ensure that relevant teams are briefed and updated on any activity that may impact their areas (eg. Customer Services, eCommerce, merch etc)
• Handle queries & escalations from relevant stakeholders as required (eg. Customer Services)
• Collaborate daily with the eCommerce team to ensure synergy in the customers online experience from social media through to check-out.

Leadership

• Act as an ambassador of Digital Marketing within the business.
• Live the values of the company through DARE, showing trust, innovation & passion.
• Take ownership of own personal development by actively looking for opportunities to grow and develop with the organisation in order to be the best in the industry.
• Ensure an active vs passive steering of the overall marketing strategy.
• Review & manage performance of the relevant Digital Content Coordinators by setting individual objectives, providing regular formal and informal feedback (eg. Win-Win contracting) and encouraging personal and professional development.
• Upskilling internal teams through digital best practice workshops.
• Embedding digital-first mindset across marketing.

Strategy

• Develop the digital strategy for brands