Direct Marketing Project Manager

JOB SUMMARY: Staples Direct Marketing team is responsible for developing and managing direct mail and email campaigns to Small Businesses. Our goal is to increase the loyalty of our customers and provide them with great offers. The Direct Marketing Project Manager will be responsible for implementation of several key initiatives which are critical to our strategy of retaining our best customers. The scope of work includes all aspects of a Direct Mail/Email campaign creation: budgeting, development of creative collateral, list selection, post-campaign analysis. This role requires an excellent collaborator, communicator and marketer with extensive hands-on direct marketing experience. The successful candidate is a problem solver in a fast-paced and highly diverse environment and is able to handle multiple projects simultaneously while ensuring accuracy and timeliness are not compromised. In addition, the candidate needs to be extremely detail-orientated, possess excellent written and verbal communication skills, and exceptional analytical skills.  Develop, manage and execute assigned marketing programs for customer development efforts. Function as primary program manager for all assigned programs, tasked with remaining on time, within budget, and error free. Formulate and test new strategies; provide reporting and analysis of program effectiveness; offer recommendations for enhancing program performance against strategic goals. Manage internal and external resources/vendors to meet marketing program goals, deadlines and revenue/cost goals. Identify opportunities to drive increased relevance, more targeted messages, and trigger based campaigns, as well as drive penetration among key categories aimed at increasing share of wallet with our best customers Develop, maintain and present program reporting to support business overall (forecasts, budgets, expense budgets, proformas), program performance (site/sales results, testing, trends), and other analysis as needed. Keep track of budget versus forecast versus actuals on a regular basis. Utilize internal budgeting/forecasting systems for forecasting and coupon maintenance. Partner with Circulation team to develop testing opportunities and execute contact strategies across vehicles and months. Collaborate/coordinate on campaign execution with regards to segmentation, inkjet personalization, creative versioning, and postal rates to ensure programs and projects are executed correctly and revenues/costs savings are realized. Create business briefs and partner with Account Services/ Creative & Production teams to drive development of direct marketing collateral. Ensure that creative conveys the direct marketing strategy and is developed within necessary deadlines. Provide extensive QC of creative live proofs from print vendor. Collaborate with other key functional areas including Merchandising, Finance, Legal, Pricing, Call Centers, and external vendors to meet marketing program goals and deadlines and address customer issues. Leverage and integrate key corporate or business unit initiatives into assigned marketing programs. Manage and develop other marketing programs as assigned. (i.e. ad hoc customer studies, competitive analysis etc.) QUALIFICATIONS: Bachelor Degree Required 2 to 4 years Related Work Experience Required Excellent project management, analytical, and communication skills Experience aggregating and synthesizing data into actionable business recommendations Ability to translate business requirements into both creative and data requirements Team player who can also work independently and take a leadership role.