Customer Growth Marketing Manager

Windstar Cruises, awarded World’s Best Small Ship Cruise line, offers intimate yacht-style experiences and unique voyages to the world’s best small ports and hidden harbors. Our fleet of three sailing yachts and four all-suite yachts carries 148 to 342 guests, delivering personalized and immersive travel experiences. Our mission is to enrich lives through inspired travel with values centered on being guest-obsessed, open, fun-loving, genuine, polished, and responsible.

About the role

The Customer Growth Marketing Manager is responsible for identifying, developing, and activating high-value niche audience segments to drive demand for Windstar’s new destination-led products and experiences. This role focuses on audience strategy, segmentation, partnerships, and content activation, ensuring new products launch with clearly defined target audiences, compelling messaging, and scalable demand-generation models. As part of the cross-functional New Experiences Task Force, the Manager collaborates with New Product Development and New Experience Development to align audience strategy with product concepts and guest communications.

Responsibilities

• Audience Strategy & Segmentation
  • Define and develop comprehensive audience profiles and ideal customer profiles (ICPs) for priority niche segments (e.g., equestrian, golf, river cruise converters).
  • Design CRM-driven segmentation and lifecycle journeys aligned to audience motivations, decision behaviors, and booking pathways.
  • Identify growth opportunities, acquisition levers, and messaging frameworks unique to each niche audience.
• Demand Activation & Campaign Planning
  • Develop full-funnel audience activation strategies supporting new product pilots and launches.
  • Translate audience insights into campaign strategies that drive awareness, engagement, and conversion.
  • Align demand plans with product launch timelines, itinerary deployment, and seasonal audience moments.
• Partnership Development
  • Identify, evaluate, and establish partnerships with relevant organizations, events, communities, publications, and influencers aligned to target niche audiences.
  • Develop co-marketing and partnership programs that support list growth, content amplification, and qualified demand generation.
  • Build long-term partner activation plans aligned to product roadmaps and deployment schedules.
• Content & Creative Direction
  • Partner closely with Creative and Content teams to develop compelling, audience-specific storytelling and campaign assets.
  • Translate audience insights into content pillars, creative briefs, and messaging frameworks.
  • Ensure content and toolkits are delivered for internal stakeholders and travel advisors to support consistent messaging.
  • Develop content strategies aligned with audience-specific moments (e.g., competitions, seasonal cycles, major events).
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Work with New Product Development to align audience strategy with approved product concepts, positioning, and value propositions.
  • Collaborate with New Experience Development to ensure guest communications, onboard messaging, and journey touchpoints align with delivery models.
  • Participate actively in NET operating rhythms, including standups, steering reviews, and shared workflows.
• Measurement & Performance Tracking
  • Track and report on audience growth, lead acquisition, content engagement, PR reach and quality, and contribution to demand for new products.
  • Monitor early indicators of audience-to-pilot velocity and campaign effectiveness.
  • Use insights to refine segmentation, messaging, and activation strategies over time.

Success Measures

• Growth and engagement of defined niche audience segments.
• Quality and volume of demand generated for new product pilots and launches.
• Effectiveness of partnerships and co-marketing initiatives.
• Alignment of audience messaging with product positioning and experience delivery.
• Clear audience insights informing future product and experience development.

Requirements

• Experience
  • 5+ years of experience in lifestyle, luxury, sports, or travel marketing strategy.
  • Demonstrated experience marketing to niche or high-affinity audiences (e.g., equestrian, golf, river cruise, or similar).
  • Proven success in partnership development and co-branded marketing initiatives.
• Skills & Capabilities
  • Strong audience strategy and segmentation expertise, including CRM-driven lifecycle marketing.
  • Experience developing and briefing creative content across channels.
  • Analytical mindset with the ability to track performance against KPIs and optimize campaigns.
  • Highly collaborative communicator with the ability to influence across Marketing, Product, and Operations.
  • Comfortable operating in a test-and-learn environment supporting pilots and new initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

• CRM expertise (HubSpot preferred).
• Experience supporting product or experience launches in travel or hospitality.
• Familiarity with PR, influencer marketing, and partnership-led growth models.
• Experience working within cross-functional or matrixed team structures.

Work Environment & Physical Requirements

• Office-based with periodic travel for partner engagement or experience launches.
• Ability to manage multiple initiatives in parallel under evolving timelines.
• Flexibility to support pilot launches and campaign activations.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental & Vision coverage.
• HSA & FSA options.
• Life & Disability insurance.
• Accident, Hospital & Critical Illness insurance.
• Pet Insurance.
• Paid Vacation, Sick Time, and Holidays.
• 401(k) with Company Match.
• Employee Assistance Plan.
• Education Assistance.
• Employee Discounts & Travel Deals.