eFinancial

Fidelity Life is a leading provider of financial security for middle market consumers. With a history of innovation, the company is redefining the life insurance industry with patented products and processes. Fidelity Life pioneered the use of predictive analytics to streamline the new business process and revolutionize the speed that policies can be issued. Established in 1896, Fidelity Life enjoys a long track-record of success and continues to build its reputation of sound fiscal management and customer-focused innovation.

In concert with Fidelity Life, eFinancial is an online and call-center-based insurance agency with a proven direct-to-consumer life insurance model. Using a proprietary and patented sales technology platform, eFinancial’s licensed agents help thousands of consumers each day with their unique life insurance needs – often with just a single phone call. To complement this channel, the company recently expanded to offer an entirely digital purchase experience.

Fidelity Life and eFinancial are part of iA Financial Group and are revolutionizing the life insurance industry to make protection more accessible and affordable for everyday Americans. With integrated marketing, product manufacturing, and controlled distribution, the enterprise is uniquely positioned to grow.

Job Summary

At Fidelity Life and eFinancial, we observe a ‘work from anywhere’ philosophy and support team members across the U.S. This is a 100% remote position with an opportunity for candidates who live in the Chicago area to work in our Des Plaines, IL office if desired. The Marketing team comes together twice annually for teambuilding summits in Chicago.

Fidelity Life and eFinancial are seeking a Director of Marketing Optimization to meaningfully advance high-impact, lead generation experimentation and digital conversion rate optimization across direct-to-consumer customer acquisition channels. In this strategically important position, the individual will establish an experimentation center of excellence and support increasing testing velocity across all existing and future touchpoints of the prospect and customer journey. The Director will lead people, initially managing a Marketing Analyst responsible for overseeing Marketing tools and a wide variety of analyses. Over time, the Director will expand their team as positive results from experimentation warrant adding new talent.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Marketing Analytics, the Director of Marketing Optimization will work across the organization to implement and scale successful experimentation endeavors across Marketing, Contact Center, Sales, and Retention teams to increase operational efficiency, sales conversion, and ROI on customer acquisition investments. The ability to test and learn at scale is an important competitive capability that will enable Fidelity Life and eFinancial to capture more of the U.S. life insurance market – ultimately supporting our Mission to make life insurance more accessible and affordable for everyday Americans.

Key Responsibilities

Testing & Experimentation

With input from members of the Marketing team, support the evolution of our experimentation practice to grow from a nascent capability to a fully scaled competitive advantage
Evaluate funnel performance data and conduct user studies to form hypotheses and design tests
Estimate and measure test impact to inform prioritization and resource allocation
Partner with teams across the organization to design measurement plans to accurately evaluate experimentation endeavors across digital marketing, call center operations, and sales / retention
Evaluate competitive and comparative digital experiences to generate innovative test ideas
Drive the conversion rate optimization (CRO) agenda across multiple owned and operated channels
Develop new messaging, claims, value propositions, and brand awards to test across touchpoints
With design colleagues, create new digital page designs, ads, and tools to improve funnel efficiency
Leverage insights and advice from colleagues in UX/UI and frontend dev to implement advanced functionality to improve landing page performance and lead form capture rate
Test variations of ‘Thank You’ pages and other aspects of the lead generation experience to improve inbound call response and/or outbound contact rates
Champion the collection of additional prospect data points and, combined with appended data, use the data to improve marketing and sales outcomes and customer experience
Conceive new ways to personalize digital experiences to improve performance – based on user inputs, product campaigns, and other data available
Explore and implement ways to collect information from consumers to improve sales call center routing, prepopulate consumer data in agent CRM, and enable a tailored prospect experience
Regularly survey the competitive landscape to discover new features, messages and products
Occasionally ‘secret shop’ our customer acquisition experience and provide reports on how we compare to the contact methods, cadence, and messaging of an agreed-upon competitive set
Test new voicemail, SMS, email, and other communications across the prospect journey
Support more meaningful uses of lead scoring and appended data / flags to improve Marketing and Sales performance
Play a key supporting role in testing new marketing channels and media investments; help deliver pilots and proof of concepts that can be scaled into long-term sources of profitable new business
Partner with sales to implement workflow, CRM tools, training, and other enhancements to improve the sales experience for prospects and agents
Partner with sales to test script variations tailored by channel, brand, campaign, or demographic
Partner with sales to improve wrap up codes, or sales dispositions, to improve agent efficiency
Partner with sales to expand HOOPs on weekends and evenings with new tests / IB call campaigns
Support contact strategy (dialing cadence, email/SMS) and message testing for unsold prospects
Support testing on brand websites and digital purchase experiences
Support the evolution and testing of contact strategies for policyholders (e.g. failed payment)
Actively contribute to innovation, bringing the needs of the consumer and unmet market opportunities to the internal teams to consider for the testing roadmap
Keep a pulse on external Marketing and Sales methods, tools, industry news, and other trends; use these observations to advocate and build support to capitalize on emerging testing opportunities

Project Management, Collaboration & Communication

Take ownership of the experimentation project tracker (Asana board) and lead cross-functional calls for brainstorming, planning, asset production, test configuration, data analysis and reporting
Evangelize and inspire peers across the organization to imagine new test opportunities
Collaborate with cross functional teams and build business cases for resources needed for testing
Establish deadlines and obtain buy-in from relevant parties needed to complete key aspects of experiment planning (e.g. measurement, designs, configuration, etc.) and drive a strong sense of commitment and accountability to meet milestones to keep experiments on track for launch
Effectively manage multiple experiments simultaneously, each at various stages of execution
Traffic information between teams to ensure seamless coordination of various steps of a test
Manage the configuration of tests in relevant platforms (e.g. VWO, Builder.io, Regal, etc.)
Submit JIRA tickets for feature requests to data engineering and tech teams to support experiments
Run QA and validate data for new experiments prior to and after initial launch
Proactively communicate the planning and launch of new tests to relevant stakeholders through internal channels (e.g. Microsoft Teams, Asana, daily stand ups, Marketing team meetings, etc.)
Partner with members of Marketing Operations, Research & Technology, Performance Analytics, Digital Web, and other relevant teams to coordinate testing efforts and strengthen communication
As needed, collaborate with legal to determine viability of new tests and obtain necessary approvals
Regularly communicate the status of tests, including progress, early results, and estimated duration
Ensure tests do not compete and proactively prevent risks that could potentially invalidate data
Be accountable for the accurate completion of test initiatives, including disabling test variants
Formalize conclusions and lessons learned from tests and report that out to key stakeholders
Provide recommendations for next steps or new variations on a test after it has concluded
Oversee the full roll out of winning tests into ‘business as usual’ operations
Capture the ongoing impact of winning experiments across Marketing or the broader Enterprise

Ongoing Analysis, Optimization and Reporting Results

Gather data and evaluate the individual and collective impact of testing efforts
Take early reads on emerging tests to identify issues or provide indications of success or failure
Help design dashboards to capture and present relevant information related to experimentation
Partner with analytics colleagues to obtain access to data to evaluate testing impact and results
Champion data engineering or technical work required for better analysis and reporting; create business cases and advocate for feature requests in prioritization reviews
Coordinate tagging efforts to ensure all required data points are available prior to digital testing
As needed, support the advancement of new Marketing pilots and test efforts, identifying opportunities to improve performance
Communicate test impact to establish a strong value-added benefit to Marketing stakeholders
Prepare presentations for stakeholders that articulate strategy, plans, and results

People Leadership and Resource Management

Supervise the Analyst responsible for the Marketing team’s management and optimization of tools – ensuring the successful implementation of processes to regularly pressure test our lead flows, contain costs, troubleshoot service issues, and unlock the benefits of new features and tools
As positive results from experimentation warrant adding new talent, the Director will attract and develop talent to meet the evolving needs of the Marketing team and broader organization
Drive strong performance standards across direct and indirect reports, setting ambitious goals and promoting a culture of analytically driven decision making and a high degree of accountability
Support the development of direct and indirect reports by sharing knowledge and acting as an advocate for sound testing methodology and profit-oriented decision-making
Manage external resources – including freelancers, agencies, and vendors

Other Responsibilities And Duties

While the experimentation practice is in early stages, the Director will have the unique opportunity to serve as a key player in support of transformation efforts, strategic investments, and growth endeavors as the team evolves. These high-profile, strategically important projects will not only help expand the organization’s internal customer acquisition capabilities and expand our target market reach but also enable the Director to gain executive exposure and develop new skills to support their long-term career development within our organization.

As needed, support the advancement of new Marketing pilots and test efforts, identifying opportunities to improve performance
Participate in efforts to professionalize our business operation, taking on special projects as needed to implement new processes or practices to improve Marketing and Sales effectiveness
Support and participate in department-wide initiatives, including but not limited to ongoing lead supply and agent capacity matching, contact strategies, lead treatment and lifecycle marketing strategies, analytics and reporting capabilities, website and landing page assets, and more
Support consumer research initiatives, if requested – including but not limited to Net Promotor Score, lost customer, segmentation, and other consumer insights efforts
Play an active role in shaping the future strategy of our business, ranging from new product development and consumer targeting to technological advancements and new capabilities

Qualifications

7-12 years of brand-side experience in roles related to data analytics and direct-to-consumer marketing with 4-6 of those years focused on driving ongoing experimentation across a direct-to-consumer, digital-first performance marketing and sales teams
Bachelor’s degree in marketing or equivalent field required
Advanced testing experience (CRO, LPO, A/B, and multivariate) in lead generation and ecommerce environments with a track record of delivering a minimum of $3 million in annual business value
First-hand experience in digital and traditional insurance distribution channels highly desired; experience in telephonic call center models strongly preferred
Digitally-savvy and fluent in direct response, direct to consumer, marketing strategies with proven track record executing successful experimentation and conversion rate optimization at scale
Experience with people leadership, with a history of directly managing teams of at least (2) people
Experience indirectly influencing teams, with a proven track record of motivating collaboration that delivers high-impact business outcomes from the collective work of cross-functional team members
Skilled at navigating the complexities of a highly regulated industry and accomplishing breakthrough, revenue-generating work in a compliant manner
Strong strategic acumen and growth-orientation with a record of effectively optimizing Marketing and lead screening within a captive call center agent environment
Creative, long-term problem solver who is willing to roll up their sleeves daily to solve problems and activate resources to capitalize on opportunities
Nimble and decisive team player with a proven ability to take calculated risks and link marketing plans/outcomes to measurable business impact
Self-starter who readily takes initiative to drive and deliver results; high degree of comfort with ambiguity and agile in adapting to changing business needs
Passionate about data and analytics to present results in a clear and logical manner, and glean insights for continuous growth and improvement
Positive and energetic with a keen sense of urgency and results-orientation
Proven ability to cultivate an environment that supports fast decision making and accountability across the team; experience optimizing the marketing function to perform at the highest levels
Highly collaborative working style with an ability to build relationships with diverse constituents; a candid, open communicator, who is sensitive to multiple styles and perspectives
Strong presence, character, and integrity; ability to influence across the organization
Exceptional analytic acumen and comfort working with data to direct/prepare insightful dashboards and reports

Skills

Ideal candidate has demonstrable and varied experience implementing and utilizing A/B testing platforms (e.g. VWO, Optimize), inbound call platforms (e.g. Invoca), contact center software (e.g. Five9, Genesys), Google Tag Manager, and campaign automation (e.g. Marketo, Hubspot)
Familiarity with Marketing platforms including Google Analytics/Google Ads account, Facebook Ads/Facebook Business Manager, Microsoft Ads, display networks, and 3rd party ad tools
Ability to establish a strategy, oversee execution, and pivot based on new discoveries or environmental factors
Successfully able to operate effectively in an entrepreneurial environment and be action-oriented to drive initiatives where no prior process or precedent may currently exist
Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with strong attention to detail
Deep written and verbal communications capabilities with ability to simplify complex data
Strong ability to create and deliver performance updates and management presentations to convey business results to Marketing and finance colleagues
Experience with data visualization tools (e.g. PowerBI and Google Data Studio)
Advanced MS Office proficiency including Excel and PowerPoint

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