Marketing Lead / Head of Marketing

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Marketing Lead / Head of Marketing

About VenueScanner

Our mission: Connecting people in the world's best spaces

We are becoming the #1 destination for discovering and booking event spaces globally. We have built the best selection of venues across the UK and our recommendations engine matches event organisers with the spaces that are perfectly aligned to their requirements, and makes it easy to enquire, compare and book.

We provide venues - from major global chains to independents - with a powerful set of marketing tools to scale their venue hire business. We expand their reach to new customers, optimise their listings to attract the most relevant enquiries, and provide them with everything they need to convert new, high-value customers.

What you'll be doing

We are seeking a highly motivated & entrepreneurial marketer to lead our marketing operations. This is a fabulous opportunity for someone to grow their career - you will be the most senior marketing employee in the business, taking overall responsibility to grow demand (corporate event organisers using VenueScanner), with the opportunity to progress fast as the business scales in the UK and internationally. You will have real ownership of the marketing function and directly impact on the growth of the business.

You will inherit great foundations - a loyal customer base of corporate event organisers and venues, and highly profitable search marketing channels - and build the most loved B2B brand for venue finding & event planning globally. Under your leadership the VenueScanner brand will have 100% awareness and high loyalty amongst our ideal customers on both the demand (corporate event organisers) and supply (hospitality & events venues) sides of our marketplace. This is an exciting opportunity to lead our brand into our next phase of growth, as we scale from our first market, the UK, to the USA and then globally. With 2 direct reports (SEO & content) you will have total control of the end to end marketing funnel.

Core Responsibilities

• Understand the customer - as a foundation for the marketing strategy, you will deeply understand our ideal customer profiles.
  • On the demand side of our marketplace we service both corporate and private event organisers, but have a focus on mid to large sized UK companies, who operate internal (e.g. xmas party) and external events (e.g. conferences), and our key points of contact are PAs/EAs, Office Managers, Heads of People and other senior decision makers
  • On the supply side of our marketplace we focus our efforts on venues who's spaces best fulfil that demand, across multiple venue categories (Event spaces, Bar/Restaurants, Hotels, Activity Bars, Meeting rooms/Co-working)
• Own the marketing plan - you will co-develop the overall marketing strategy for the business with the Managing Director, and take personal ownership over its delivery
• Perfect the value proposition - working with the Managing Director and commercial team leads, you will ensure that we perfect our value proposition for our target customers at every brand touchpoint. We want to make it easy for customers to understand why VenueScanner should be their first choice to work with.
• Develop a full B2B marketing funnel - you will create a multi-channel marketing plan to directly capture our target customers at each stage in the purchase funnel. You will mix online and offline methods to ensure 100% awareness of the VenueScanner brand amongst our ICPs, make our services their first port of call, convert them efficiently, and maximise loyalty to our brand driving repeat. You will split your time 80% demand / 20% supply.
• Lead in search - Coordinating our SEO Manager you will optimise our well-established search marketing (organic and paid) channel to ensure VenueScanner is the leading brand in our competitor set for high-intent demand and supply-side leads.
• Delightful content & thriving community - Coordinating our Content & Community Manager, you will develop high-quality content that speaks directly to our target audience to support each stage of the marketing funnel, and you will find cost-effective ways to engage our community of ideal customers both online (e.g. Whatsapp, Slack communities) and offline (e.g. in person events / familiarisation trips).
• Influence onsite conversion - you will partner with Product & Engineering to ensure all new and repeat leads are optimally converted on our platform, maximising the potential value to both our Corporate Events and Venue Partnerships team.
• Manage and coach - You will manage our marketing function, taking on direct line management of our SEO Manager and Content & Community Manager, developing them according to our company progression framework. Additionally, you will operate a nimble and cost effective "satellite agency" of freelance specialists (including design and PR) to deliver the highest quality marketing campaigns with low overheads.
• Report upwards - As the most senior marketer in the business you will represent your function as part of the management team, working cross-functionally with all other departmental leads, and report on progress and performance against budget to director and board level - with a clear understanding on the overall unit economics of our marketing efforts.

Why we like you

• You have a minimum of 5 years relevant marketing experience in high pace environments
• You have deep B2B marketing expertise. You understand how to build a full B2B marketing funnel across multiple channels (e.g. events, partnerships, drip feed email campaigns) perfectly designed for our ideal customer profiles. You know how to craft great content and messaging and capture your target audience.
• Performance marketing is second nature to you, and you have hands-on experience across multiple digital channels, and proven track record in driving profitable campaigns.
• You know how to grow a truly loved brand. You have a clarity of execution when it comes to communicating our value proposition to our ideal customer on both the demand (event organisers) and supply (venues) sides of our marketplace, with a great eye for design.
• You have proven experience in identifying, acquiring and delivering highly effective demand partnerships to leverage the reach of tangential brands in our industry
• You're a doer - we're a small but hungry team. We have a bias to action and pace. We are looking for someone looking to expand their career fast, who's happy to do the work themselves, but also comfortable coordinating others as a "player / coach".
• Highly organised with strong attention to detail - this is a multi-faceted role, so it's imperative you organise your time effectively, work out what to prioritise, and ensure high quality output in any external marketing materials.
• Entrepreneurial - you are willing to roll your sleeves up, spot opportunities and try new things (even when they don't always work out). You know how to generate results through owned marketing, and that is not tied to simply increasing advertising spend.
• Strong understanding of unit economics. You know your LTVs from your CACs, and you are constantly thinking about refining our demand engine
• Nice to have - B2B SaaS experience and / of events industry experience

VenueScanner perks

High-growth environment: we're growing fast, which gives every team member the opportunity to progress their careers quickly. We work hard towards our commercial goals, but we have a lot of fun in the process.

Hybrid working: enjoy the benefits of working from our central London office (Trafalgar Square) three days a week with two days a week working from home.

Work from anywhere August: Escape to the country, work from the beach...in August you can work from anywhere in the world! The London office will always be available to use but there is no requirement to come in.

Socials: Monthly socials, ad hoc post work drinks, annual company retreat, epic christmas and summer parties (of course!)

Personal development: Our progression framework gives every team member the toolkit to develop their skill sets so they can grow their careers as the business scales.

Venue perks: regular invites to new venue openings and venue "fam" trips

Our Values

Stand Together | Lead by Example | Make it Happen Today | Winning Mindset | Customer First | Embrace the Journey

We chose the values as a team to define the type of business we want to work in and how we like to work with each other. They are rooted in everything we do and guide us in our day-to-day activity.

Stand together: We support each other in everything we do and work together to solve our problems. We go beyond our remit to succeed as a team and help our colleagues. We are open, respectful and candid with each other.

Lead by example: We're not afraid to get our hands dirty! We aim to continuously educate, train and improve ourselves; we inspire each other and are inspiring the industry. We are always accountable and take responsibility for the success of the business. First and foremost, the customer always comes first.

Make it happen today: We turn up, engage and achieve as a team. We deliver at pace and take calculated risks. We push for today rather than put off to tomorrow and analyse, iterate and improve for our customers.

Bring a winning mindset: We're resourceful and never give up. We're bold and daring and aren't comfortable being comfortable. We approach our work and our problems positively - our problems help us learn!

Customer First: We're nothing without our customers. We put them first in everything we do - from helping organisers to book their dream event, to driving value to venues. We build amazing products always with customers in mind.

Embrace the journey: We are excited not just by where we are going, but by the stage we're at. We celebrate each small win along the way. We see failures as necessary learnings that drive improvement. Each day we work hard and enjoy ourselves.