We are Big Sky Communications, A Ruder Finn Company
For more than 25 years, we’ve built and managed global Customer Marketing and Advocacy Programs for high-tech industry leaders. From program design and development, to advocate recruitment, request fulfillment, and content development, Big Sky works with clients to engage advocates, uncover compelling stories, and provide creative ways to share them. Clients include Adobe, F5, Google Cloud, J.P. Morgan Payments, NetApp, ServiceNow, Snowflake, VMware, and more.
The Opportunity
As an Account Manager, you will work with agency leadership and account directors on program strategy and planning as well as execute day-to-day program activities for assigned client(s). This role works collaboratively with our client(s) and internal Big Sky account teams to identify and recruit advocates, engage them in sales and marketing activities, develop compelling content, and share it through email campaigns, social, and other channels.
This role spans two important areas at Big Sky: Customer Marketing & Advocacy Program Management and Marketing Program Management.
Customer Marketing & Advocacy:
- Assist with Customer Advocacy Program planning and development as needed, including gaining insights into a client’s program challenges and opportunities
- Help develop and execute on strategies to evolve client programs
- Support creating program communications and process documents to promote Customer Advocacy value to client’s internal stakeholders, as well as to customers considering advocate participation
- Reach out to and develop relationships with client sales teams to identify advocates for program activities
- Conduct outreach to customers to qualify and assess their suitability to participate in reference activities, marketing content, media opportunities, and more
- Coordinate and conduct customer interviews to uncover and capture each customer’s story
- Craft story angles and work with a writer to produce high‐quality content – including customer stories, blogs, social media, slides, and more – that aligns with a client’s program strategy and key messaging. The content will highlight how the technology/ies enable our clients’ customers to address business challenges, achieve measurable technical and business ROI, better serve customers, and in some instances, improve communities.
- Manage content through development, reviews and approval cycles, and publishing
- Manage incoming requests from stakeholders in sales and marketing to fulfill requests for advocates to participate in marketing, PR, AR, events, and other activities
- Interact regularly with client contacts to provide status updates on program activities in progress
- Collaborate with clients, internal teams, and external vendors to accomplish work, as needed
- Track program activities in clients’ systems and provide ongoing support for program reporting
- Support special projects and other activities as needed
Marketing Program Management and Content:
- Collaborate with client contacts to establish a cadence for and to operationalize process for regular promotion of partner programs to key partner audiences through email newsletters and social media content (LinkedIn)
- Write short content for client social campaigns, coordinating as needed with client contact for content review/approvals
- Layout approved content and associated image/s for posting on LinkedIn and possibly other social channels
- Publish content to LinkedIn and possibly other channels
- Create email and newsletter templates in Marketo Engage and test and update to ensure reliable delivery of content to target audiences
- Write 3 to 4 short marketing emails weekly to send to key partners about new technology certifications, significant company news, and other timely information
- Work with a Big Sky writer and coordinate development of client newsletter/s to convey important topics to key external audiences
- Build newsletter or email content in Marketo Engage and use tool to distribute to target audiences; track outcomes using Marketo Engage analytics
- Provide overall project management for client adapting to client workflows and workstyles as needed to deliver full-service experience
Competencies You Demonstrate
Relationship Building, Influence, & Interpersonal Skills:
- Your interpersonal skills enable you to broadly influence and effectively forge partnerships both internally and externally.
- Your professional poise translates to the ability to represent Big Sky to client stakeholders.
Customer Advocacy Expertise:
- You understand how customer marketing and advocacy impact efforts to strengthen a client’s brand and increase revenue.
- Your work shows your solid communication skills.
- You’ve produced work that demonstrates a grasp of technical subjects and business trends.
Content Expertise:
- In your storytelling experience, you’ve combined technical details and real-world customer experiences into creative, informative, and inspiring stories (writing yourself and/or managing other writers).
- You are open to new approaches to telling customer stories, looking for ways to convey community, social, environmental, and other topics of interest to targeted audiences.
- Successful experience in marketing or PR for B2B-focused technology companies delivering enterprise technologies.
- You’ve interviewed business and technology professionals at all levels (practitioner to c-level) and combined your own research to capture and communicate relevant, relatable stories that clearly and simply convey technology benefits on company processes, employees, and ultimately on the customers and/or communities served.
- You have excellent command of the English language and a track record for mastering new subjects quickly.
- You enjoy creative challenges and are comfortable working independently to craft dynamic content in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
- You are collaborative, open to feedback and responsive; you solicit feedback and iterate work products with a positive and flexible attitude.
Strategic Thinking & Judgement:
- You think strategically and creatively to meet client objectives.
- You exercise independent judgement, critical thinking, and follow‐through to execute projects from initial stage through completion.
Project, Workflow Management and Technology:
- You are highly organized and thrive on creating efficiencies in detail-oriented, process-driven programs.
- You excel in your ability to prioritize work on multiple projects simultaneously.
- Self‐directed and resourceful, you’ve demonstrated your ability to thrive in a fast‐paced environment.
- You’re open to learning new technology tools, such as design apps and marketing automation solutions, to improve content creation and distribution.
Prior experience working in an agency is a plus.
Benefits & More
- As an Account Manager you will receive a competitive base salary and bonus opportunity
- Eligibility for our Health, Dental, Vision, company paid Life Insurance Plans, Flexible Spending Account, as well as 401k (match) plan.
- Monthly allowance for cell phone, office equipment, etc.
- Generous PTO policy with paid maternity/paternity leave
- Professional learning and development opportunities
- Workplace flexibility
- On-site and off-site social gatherings
Big Sky Communications provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Big Sky Communications will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Big Sky Communications believes that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as a global company, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.
