Direct Marketing Growth Manager

About the role

Lendable is embarking on an exciting journey to enhance its direct-to-consumer marketing efforts, which includes a complete rebranding initiative to Zable. This position plays a role in establishing and optimizing the direct mail channel, transforming it into a highly efficient and scalable engine for growth. You will take charge of the entire direct mail workflow, from the creative aspects and logistics to analytical modeling and performance reporting.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Formulate and implement a detailed direct mail strategy, setting ambitious goals for volume, response rates, and return on investment, all grounded in customer lifetime value metrics.
• Drive the rapid and sustainable growth of the direct mail channel, ensuring that expansion aligns with economic viability and profitability.
• Oversee the financial aspects of the channel, including forecasting, budgeting, and maintaining strict adherence to customer acquisition costs and lifetime value calculations.
• Develop and refine response and propensity models to identify the best recipients for mailings, optimal offers, and ideal timing for outreach.
• Create and manage a data pipeline that integrates both first-party and third-party data to enhance targeting capabilities.
• Execute segmentation strategies, holdout tests, and incrementality assessments to continuously evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of each mailing campaign.
• Lead the creative development process, including copywriting and offer design, to maximize response rates and conversion metrics.
• Handle all logistical elements of mail production, including managing vendor relationships and ensuring timely delivery.
• Optimize offer strategies by analyzing eligibility criteria, risk factors, and customer lifetime value considerations.
• Generate and maintain comprehensive reporting that connects mailing activities to sales funnel progression, revenue generation, and lifetime value, providing regular updates on performance metrics.
• Collaborate effectively with data, product, risk, finance, and creative teams to refine targeting strategies and enhance offer effectiveness.
• Recruit, mentor, and develop team members as the channel grows, leveraging AI technologies to improve team productivity and efficiency.

Requirements

• A minimum of 7 years of experience in direct mail, customer relationship management, lifecycle marketing, or performance marketing.
• At least 2-3 years of experience managing a marketing channel or function from start to finish.
• Hands-on experience in constructing response or propensity models, with proficiency in SQL or Python for data sourcing, cleaning, and integration.
• A proven track record of successfully scaling an acquisition or retention channel with measurable impacts on key metrics such as customer acquisition cost, return on investment, and incremental lifetime value.
• Strong knowledge of unit economics and customer lifetime value, utilizing these concepts to size, forecast, and justify investments in the channel.
• Experience managing operational elements, including creative briefs, print production, logistics, and vendor management.
• A solid understanding of targeting and measurement methodologies, including segmentation, holdouts, incrementality testing, and attribution analysis.
• Excellent communication skills to foster collaboration and trust with finance, data, product, and engineering teams.
• Demonstrated experience in applying AI technologies to enhance analysis, creative processes, modeling, or automation workflows.

Nice to have

• Experience within financial services, regulated industries, or consumer sectors where offer management and eligibility criteria are crucial.
• Background in creating data pipelines or enrichment systems utilizing both first-party and third-party data sources.
• Experience in building a marketing channel or function from the ground up.
• Familiarity with credit and lending offers, pre-approval processes, and risk-based targeting strategies.
• Experience in recruiting and developing analytics or marketing teams.

Skills & tools

• Proficiency in SQL
• Expertise in Python
• Familiarity with AI applications for analysis, creative development, modeling, and automation

Practical notes

This position is hybrid, requiring employees to work in the office three days a week. Benefits include private health insurance, retirement savings plans, an employee referral program, complimentary lunches and snacks on office days, and sustainable commuting options. Specific benefits may differ based on location and role.