Marketing Manager

The Better Government Association (BGA), an award-winning government watchdog organization based in Chicago, seeks a full-time Marketing Manager with digital strategy and execution skills to shape and execute short-, mid- and long-term campaigns around marketing the BGA: fundraising and awareness campaigns, events, and general brand awareness. This person will report directly to the Director of Digital Strategy.

The Marketing Manager is a key player in spreading the BGA’s good work, has a sharp eye for design and solid copywriting skills, and will make it their mission to bring more eyeballs, bodies and dollars to the BGA. The Marketing Manager will work to complement and support the efforts of the Engagement Editor, who manages all content promotion and distribution on the programmatic side of the organization (investigations, policy and perspectives).

The BGA is a nonprofit organization that combines investigative journalism, advocacy, and civic engagement to promote good government at the local, county, and state levels in Illinois. Its offices are located in Chicago.

Responsibilities:

Manage the execution of the BGA's marketing and plan, with specific mandates for:

• Coordinating and executing BGA’s online development and awareness campaigns with a focus on audience insight and “digital constituent pathways,” i.e. building analytics-driven initiatives that connect active (and potential) BGA users with fuller participation, actions and donations.
• Coordinating strategy and executing promotion around BGA events (Yearly Luncheon, Investigative Awards, Idea Forums, Candid Conversations, Watchdog Trainings) in collaboration with Development team and Civic Engagement team.
• Design and publish e-mail newsletters, website pages, and lead social media publishing as needed for mar-comm campaigns around fundraising, events and general branding efforts
• Maintain the marketing-communications campaign and events calendar
• Manage digital advertising budget and plan (Google Adwords, Facebook, etc.) and track effectiveness toward improving efforts and maximizing impact, in collaboration with the Engagement Editor, who handles all communications efforts for the programming departments.

Serve as key knowledge base on how our audience interacts with the BGA online, by managing analytics programs for key digital tools and producing regular reports

Lead process for Annual Report, BGA brochure(s)

Hire and manage Marketing & Communications intern(s)

Assist in a variety of other duties/tasks as needed to support the marketing, communications, civic engagement and developments operations.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree (preferably in marketing, digital communications, not-for-profit management) 
• 2 years in online-focused marketing, ideally for a mission-driven organization 
• Demonstrable experience working to support and push efforts to build your group's footprint via digital efforts (web, email and social media campaigns) plus familiarity with traditional methods (direct mail, advertising) and comfort with supporting live events 
• Strong, confident and consistent communicator, online and in-person. 
• Clear interest, experience with, and instincts for people: You are a constituency builder; it's your job to know who and where our people are, and how to find more of them. 
• Steeped in and able to execute the most effective approaches in digital marketing 
• Experience and high levels of proficiency with Google analytics, and platform-centric analytics (Facebook, etc.) to track effectiveness of campaigns and build strategy. 
• Experience with Web publishing and digital communications tools (CMS, email/broadcasting services) 
• Eye for design (skills – Adobe Cloud, etc. – a plus.) 
• Self-starter capable of working at a fast pace, independently or part of a team. 
• Strong copy-writing skills: creative, influential, smart and substantive. 
• Strong editing skills (attention to detail; you catch mistakes) 
• Strong grasp of key issues impacting city, county and state government 
• Ability to identify problems and suggest solutions; or even better, see new opportunities.