ACB Ideas
McLean, VA (Tysons Corner)
Full-time in-person (option to work remotely on Fridays)
Position Summary
At ACB Ideas, our mission is to translate #1 New York Times bestselling author Arthur Brooks’ ideas into products and experiences that meaningfully improve people’s lives. We are seeking an innovative marketing and communications leader with a proven record of leveraging digital platforms and traditional media to grow our brand and diverse educational offerings.
Building on our strong, existing social media footprint, website, email newsletter, magazine column, podcast, and online diagnostic assessment, we are entering a new chapter of significant growth. Our near-term offerings include a new book launch plus expansion into a membership community, private seminars, and a certification course.
The Senior Director, Marketing and Communications will bring creativity and agility to move nimbly across our rapidly expanding platforms to unify and scale our marketing engine - bringing coherence across channels, improving conversion and retention, protecting brand integrity, and building the team and systems required to grow sustainably.
What You’ll Own
This role is accountable for building and running an integrated, multi-channel marketing strategy that:
- Strengthens and protects a high-trust personal brand
- Deepens engagement with existing followers
- Educates and converts new followers into subscribers, members, and customers
- Drives measurable revenue growth across products and launches
- Creates repeatable systems so we’re prioritizing the right things and executing them well
Key Responsibilities
1) Marketing Strategy & Growth Planning
- Create an integrated marketing strategy across channels, including objectives, audience segments, positioning, messaging, and performance targets.
- Build a clear, prioritized roadmap spanning brand, content, growth, lifecycle, and launches—aligned to business goals and team capacity.
- Develop a scalable approach to audience development.
2) Multi-Channel Platform Management
- Oversee and optimize our full ecosystem: social platforms, website, email/newsletter, podcast, column, and assessment funnel.
- Establish a consistent editorial cadence and content architecture that ties channels together while respecting the unique strengths of each.
- Ensure message discipline and brand consistency across all outbound communications, campaigns, and partnerships.
3) Launch & Go-to-Market Leadership
- Lead go-to-market planning and execution for major growth moments:
-- Upcoming book launch
-- New membership offering
-- Private seminars
-- Certification course
- Own launch planning: audience targeting, offers, landing pages, email journeys, partnerships, content calendar, and performance measurement.
4) Conversion, Lifecycle & Retention
- Improve conversion and retention across the funnel using customer journeys, segmentation, and lifecycle marketing.
- Refine offers, pricing, packaging, and messaging based on audience insights.
- Build onboarding, nurture, upsell/cross-sell, and win-back programs for subscribers, customers, and members.
5) Brand Stewardship & Creative Direction
- Act as brand steward for voice, tone, positioning, and visual identity—maintaining authenticity while scaling output.
- Provide creative direction to internal and external resources (design, video, copy, social, email) to ensure excellence and consistency.
- Create simple, usable brand guidelines and “go-to” templates the team can operate with.
6) Analytics, Insights & Infrastructure
- Define the measurement framework: core KPIs, dashboards, reporting cadence, and campaign retrospectives.
- Use insights to inform strategy (audience growth, engagement, CAC, conversion rates, LTV, churn, cohort performance).
- Strengthen marketing systems and infrastructure (CRM, email platform, analytics, attribution, landing pages, testing).
7) Team & Vendor Leadership
- Build and manage a small, high-performing marketing function over time (internal hires + contractors).
- Manage external agencies/consultants across creative, paid media, PR, web, SEO/AEO/GAO, podcast production, etc.
- Establish clear briefs, timelines, QA, feedback loops, and a culture of accountability and learning.
What Success Looks Like (First 6–12 Months)
- A clear, aligned marketing strategy and operating cadence the whole team can follow
- Improved cross-channel cohesion: consistent messaging, smoother handoffs, fewer “random acts of marketing”
- Defined funnel and lifecycle journeys for key offerings
- A simple, trusted metrics dashboard and regular performance reviews
- A right-sized team and vendor bench with strong briefs, workflows, and quality control
Ideal Candidate Profile
You’re both strategic and hands-on. You can set direction, write the plan, and also roll up your sleeves to ship work in a lean environment. You have excellent judgment about what to prioritize, and you’re comfortable operating close to a founder/thought leader brand where trust and authenticity matter.
Ideal Experience & Capabilities
We recognize not every candidate will have all of the following skills or experiences. If you have most of them, we encourage you to apply!
- 10+ years in marketing leadership roles with a thought leader, creator, public intellectual, or author-driven brand
- Demonstrated success managing multi-channel platforms and driving measurable growth
- Strong go-to-market and launch experience (books/media launches a plus)
- Deep understanding of content ecosystems: social, email, web, podcast/video, community/membership
- Track record building marketing systems: analytics, CRM/lifecycle, conversion optimization
- Strong creative instincts and ability to lead a brand while maintaining the founder’s authentic voice
- Experience managing teams and external partners with high standards and clear accountability
- Excellent writing and messaging skills; able to translate complex ideas into compelling narratives
- Experience with membership/community growth and retention
- Performance marketing experience (paid social/search) and experimentation frameworks
- Familiarity with SEO/AEO/GAO and modern audience discovery strategies
- Experience marketing assessments/diagnostics, certification programs, or education products
Working Style & Values
- High ownership, high integrity, low ego
- Fast-moving, organized, and calm under pressure
- Deep respect for the audience and the responsibility that comes with influence
- Commitment to quality - words, visuals, data, and customer experience
