Senior Manager, Brand & External Communication

Role Overview

• Lead the next phase of Forward’s brand strategy, positioning, tone, and visual identity for our customers, partners, and employees
• Support the evolution and ongoing and management of brand guidelines to ensure consistent brand execution across all touchpoints
• Drive cross-functional alignment on key brand proof points, messaging, and competitive points of differentiation
• Act as the brand steward to protect the Forward brand and ensure all creative output across functional groups is consistent, meets the needs outlined in the brief, and drives intended results
• Own creative agency relationships, onboarding of new agency partners as needed, and internal creative execution to ensure impactful results that drives brand awareness and new customer acquisition
• Identify and manage brand partnerships that help elevate Forward’s mission and positively impact our SMB customers
• Own brand health measurement and reporting
• Lead social media strategy across owned channels (existing & new) and shape monthly editorial calendar based on our key strategic pillars to drive engagement, thought leadership, and positive brand reputation
• Build Forward’s content marketing engine focused on SMB education, product value/benefits, and industry insights to support customer engagement and drive brand loyalty through added value content
• Identify innovative content formats that resonate with our customers and manage all end-to-end production and execution including brief development and keyword optimization strategies
• Identify key social media KPIs and own measurement and reporting across all social media and content platforms
• Manage corporate reputation and messaging by developing a PR strategy that supports brand reputation, government affairs, and builds industry credibility
• Support our government affairs team by partnering to develop customer advocate programs, paid and earned media opportunities in high-quality relevant platforms, and working with other industry advocacy groups to build positive category support
• Source and manage PR agency relationships, measurement, and ongoing program development
• Partner with sales teams to develop Forward’s narrative to support new partner/BD efforts including competitive points of differentiation, benefits to partnering with us, and strategic differentiation
• Elevate sales content with data support to create partner impact statements that highlight our unique benefits, enhance credibility, and build the Forward brand for our partners
• Develop self-serve tools for partners and identify the optimal delivery methods for maximum impact including digital portal, newsletters and other channels
• Create high-impact incentive and relationship-building programs in partnership with sales to help win the hearts and minds of our partners as we maximize value to our customers
• Support the sales team with all onboarding, training, and other sales materials that help drive Forward’s credibility and attracts new partners to help us grow and scale
• Assess partner event opportunities and develop plans to most effectively capitalize on these events to drive partner engagement and new partner partner activation

Requirements

• 8+ years of progressive experience in Brand Marketing, Marketing Communications, or a related field; B2B experience on a financial services/fintech brand preferred
• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related discipline
• Experience overseeing marketing automation tool, media monitoring tool, and social media platforms
• Proven track record of successfully evolving and governing a comprehensive brand strategy and visual identity
• Experience managing and directing both internal creative functions and external PR/Creative agencies
• Deep expertise in Content Marketing strategy, execution, and optimization
• Demonstrated ability to develop and lead strategic Corporate Communications and PR programs
• Strong proficiency in leading social media strategy across various owned channels to drive engagement and thought leadership
• Ability and desire to establish and build strong, cross-functional relationships to collaborate on programs to drive value to the company
• Exceptional organizational and project management skills for leading end-to-end campaign and content production

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• commuter benefits
• a flexible time-off policy
• paid parental leave
• 401k match for US employees
• wellness reimbursement
• volunteering days
• annual professional development budget
• charitable donation match