Vice President of Marketing & Communications

The Opportunity

The NMFTA is a 501(c)(6) membership association whose mission is to promote, advance, and improve the welfare and interests of the less-than-truckload (LTL) motor carrier industry and the motor carriers operating in commerce, both domestically and internationally. Its membership is comprised of motor carriers operating in interstate, intrastate, and international commerce. NMFTA publishes the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC), a standard that provides a comparison of commodities moving in commerce, and its online version, ClassIT. NMFTA assigns the Standard Carrier Alpha Code (SCAC), a unique two-to-four-letter code used to identify transportation companies and publishes the Directory of SCACs online. NMFTA also assigns the Standard Point Location Code (SPLC), a numeric coding system designed to identify points in North America that originate and receive transportation with their geographic location, which is available to users online. NMFTA’s classification system organizes all freight into 18 major categories. NMFTA is unique among trade organizations, playing a key role in commerce by distributing SCAC and classification codes used by the trucking industry.

The Vice President of Marketing & Communications will join the leadership team and will develop and lead the strategy and implementation of NMFTA’s marketing and communications functions to align and deliver on the strategic goals of the organization. In this newly created role, the VP will have oversight of the association’s membership, meetings, and customer service departments. This leader will work cross-functionally to grow NMFTA’s audience and engagement through all channels, including membership, events, journals, and publications, while ensuring a consistent brand position throughout. This role is an opportunity to advance NMFTA’s mission, increase awareness, promote and sell its flagship products, expand NMFTA’s audience, and execute strategic campaigns in support of NMFTA members. The VP will join an organization with a great culture and a flexible, hybrid work environment with one to two days in the office located in Old Town Alexandria, VA.

Vice President of Marketing & Communications

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop the strategic marketing and communications plan and build out the function’s processes, systems, resources, and capabilities to successfully implement the plan. This position will have the authority to hire two management level staff members.
• Lead branding efforts to establish and integrate branding throughout the association’s marketing and communication products.
• Lead NMFTA’s internal marketing and communications team, maintaining a focus on campaigns and communications that directly grow NMFTA’s audience and revenue from membership, events, journals, publications, and resources.
• Create a plan to strategically highlight timely events and initiatives, communicating outcomes in a way that ties back to NMFTA’s mission.
• Drive campaigns that are tailored to audience segments, increasing the efficacy of messages received from NMFTA.
• Create NMFTA’s social media, advertising, and email campaigns to grow NMFTA’s audience and owned and earned media.
• Lead, support, and collaborate with the team in content creation and planning to best leverage all platforms (e-newsletter, member magazine, social media, and blogs).
• Lead the marketing and communications effort with structure that optimizes the timing and impact of campaigns and collaborate internally with NMFTA’s engaged team to achieve success.
• Develop a process to capture data and other key information, including analyzing trends in membership acquisition and retention, journal subscriptions, other publications, and event registrations.
• Leverage data and analytics to ensure consistent measurement and adjustment based on web, email, and customer behavior metrics.
• Manage vendor relationships to derive the highest value while maintaining costs.
• Work collaboratively at the executive level as a change agent to create a new strategic marketing direction.
• Maintain awareness of current trends and newest trade tools and apply to marketing strategy to ensure future success.

Required Skills, Experience, and Qualifications

• At least 10 years of marketing and communications experience within a professional or trade association.
• 3 to 5 years of senior leadership experience with strong track record of growing audience awareness.
• 3 to 5 years of experience supervising and developing a young, less-experienced but energized team.
• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communication, or related discipline.
• Strong written, analytical, and oral communication skills, including ability to distill complex issues into compelling communications.
• Prior experience working under pressure and operating as a strategic partner to Executive Director.
• Comfortable analyzing data to help better target where and when to place messaging.
• Understanding of or use of digital marketing and willingness to build from the ground up with appropriate team.
• Experience building a marketing function from the ground up is a plus.

Personal Qualities and Competencies

• Ability to execute independently and as a member of a team.
• Ability to make decisions in a changing environment and anticipate future needs.
• Ability to identify and develop staff talents, looking for and capitalizing on opportunities to motivate, celebrate, and reward successful performance; ability to proactively pinpoint and address talent gaps.
• Self-reliant, resilient.
• Good problem-solver, results oriented.
• Ability to meet deadlines without sacrificing quality.
• Product marketing experience is a plus.
• Expert communication skills and an entrepreneurial, innovative nature.

Compensation

A competitive compensation package will be offered to attract an outstanding candidate. 

To Apply

To apply, please send a cover letter and current resume (Microsoft Word® format preferred) here. The cover letter should outline how your experience fits the requirements of the position as this will be an important factor in considering your candidacy.

Sterling Martin Associates is committed to providing equal opportunity for employees and applicants in all aspects of the employment relationship, without regard to race, religion, color, age, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, political affiliation, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.