Digital Marketing Specialist

About ECC

Elgin Community College serves over 9,000 students at every stage of their educational journeys, including university transfer programs, career and technical education, continuing education classes, and adult basic education. As a community, we pride ourselves on nurturing a welcoming campus where every person—students, staff members, faculty members, and campus visitors—feels valued. The work of each ECC employee is central to the college's mission, and as an employer, the college fosters a positive environment through professional challenges, excellent benefits, and opportunities for recognition and camaraderie.

Job Summary

The Digital Marketing Specialist positions the college as a whole and by individual departments to develop, implement, track and optimize digital marketing strategies across digital channels. Provides strategic direction, analysis and insight to manage successful digital marketing strategies and programs as well as evaluate new opportunities in the evolving digital landscape to maximize ROI. Work with internal stakeholders to create, execute and track results for multi-channel marketing plans. Work directly with web services, marketing, and communications, content and creative services and external vendor/s to drive a full spectrum of digital marketing campaigns that impact institutional goals and priorities.

Required Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Bachelor's degree required in communications, marketing, advertising, or a closely related field.
• 3-5 years of full-time work experience in digital marketing, preferably for higher education, in an agency or in-house setting, and creating multi-channel digital marketing plans.
• Demonstrated success in digital marketing, email marketing, marketing automation, and student/customer acquisition, with deep knowledge of current tactics and best practices on execution, tracking, and measurement.
• Deep understanding of web analytics, data analysis, reporting, performance analysis, strategy development, and proficiency in Google Analytics.
• Fluency in SEO/AEO standards and strategy and improving organic search results.
• Proven track record of content strategy development and execution within digital marketing channels.
• Demonstrated experience developing and leveraging landing pages for PPC and SEO.
• Proven ability to work with creative, web, and strategy teams to create and execute effective digital marketing campaigns.
• Strong project management skills and demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex projects and budgets simultaneously.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; experience writing for different digital channels.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with cross-functional teams to achieve business objectives.
• Knowledge of and passion for staying on top of the latest trends in paid search (branded and non-branded), digital, and social advertising.
• Proven ability to think strategically and to scrutinize and optimize work based on data analytics.
• Energetic, resourceful and self-directed team contributor, with the ability to both collaborate effectively and work independently to manage multiple campaigns and establish positive relationships in a fast-paced, fluid environment.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Experience using marketing automation and email marketing software platforms, such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud and CRM systems.
• Ability to effectively manage budgets and pacing throughout a campaign to maximize conversions and ROI.
• Ensure timeline execution of advertising campaigns.

Desired Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Master's degree in marketing, Business Analytics, or Digital Marketing preferred, or equivalent experience and industry recognized certifications.

Essential Duties

• Researches, plans, and leads execution of digital marketing campaigns and solutions for brand awareness, student enrollment and events across paid search, paid social, email, mobile, display, and retargeting.
• Establishes key performance indicators to measure and improve return on investment for all digital acquisition efforts.
• In collaboration with web services, develops digital marketing reports and dashboards, and coordinates the development of tracking links within marketing campaigns.
• Collaborates with key members of the marketing and communication team and guides regular reporting on campaign performance and analytics using Google Analytics.
• Utilizes strong analytical ability to evaluate the student experience across multiple channels and touchpoints; assists with audience segmentation and lead generation within campaigns and optimizes campaign/s.
• Key partner to help define user journey and developing digital assets to address consumer/institutional needs from discovery through to the point of acquisition.
• Manages key vendor relationships to ensure maximum performance from purchased services and to track effectiveness.
• Key collaborator on SEO strategy and execution to improve organic search results.
• Works closely with the marketing and communications team, including graphic designers, photographers and videographers, to develop campaign assets and ensure the work is driving measurable increases in performance.
• Writes on-brand, value-based content using appropriate tone and style for email marketing, web pages, SMS/mobile push, and digital ads.
• Develops, tests, deploys, and optimizes automated and ad hoc email, SMS, and mobile messaging campaigns, including audience segmentation, personalization, and journey-based communications, using platforms such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
• Integrates digital ad campaigns with Google Analytics, Google tag manager, and other digital marketing software products such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
• Develops and executes comprehensive paid advertising strategies across various platforms, including Google, Bing, LinkedIn, Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.
• Conducts keyword research to inform ad copy and campaign setups to drive qualified traffic and achieve performance targets.
• Continuously optimizes campaigns through A/B testing, conversion rate optimization (CRO), and landing page optimization to improve click-through rates, conversion rates, and overall campaign effectiveness.
• Monitors and analyzes campaign performance data, including click-through rates, conversion rates, cost per click (CPC), cost per acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), and other relevant metrics.
• Utilizes advanced data analysis techniques to identify trends, insights, and opportunities for campaign optimization and expansion.
• Generates regular reports and present findings to stakeholders, recommending performance improvements.
• Serves as digital marketing advisor for the Marketing and Communications division, and at the institutional level.
• Researches and develops digital marketing strategies at the department, division, and event level, making certain they integrate fully with institutional marketing strategy.
• Project-manages the execution of digital tactics from numerous marketing plans, through different stages of development.
• Monitors digital marketing trends to inform Marketing and Communications team of upcoming changes and/or opportunities.
• Utilizes a project management system to communicate with clients, supervisors, and teammates to track all assigned work through completion.
• Contribute to the creation of campaign concepts.
• Maintain expertise in college-wide databases and marketing technology platforms (i.e., Salesforce, CRM, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Colleague, Tableau, and other identified systems), cultivating the ability to reach highly specific internal and external markets by running complex queries.
• Track and coordinate expenditures for digital advertising campaigns, including charge-backs for auxiliary and grant-funded digital advertising campaigns.
• Forecast and track monthly digital advertising spending.
• Monitor campaign pacing throughout the month.
• Represent ECC by attending institutional events, including Community Engagement events.
• Perform other job-related duties as assigned which pertain to the job description.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule which includes days/evenings/weekends as needed by the department.

Work Schedule

8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday

Rate Of Pay

This is a Full-Time Support Staff position at grade 15, with an annual salary range of $63,673 to $84,897. The salary offer will be based on education and experience, in alignment with the College's compensation philosophy and the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), if applicable.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance
• Life and Long-Term Disability Insurance
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA, DCA, Commuter)
• Retirement Plans (Pension, 457b, 403b)
• Time Off with Pay
• Professional Development/Expense
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Sick Banks

Physical Demands

Light (up to 25 lbs occasionally or 10lbs frequently)

Visual Acuity

Close visual acuity (e.g. computer, assembly)

Work Environment

Moderate noise

Environmental Conditions

Typical office or administrative