Communications Manager, Owned Channels (Remote)

As Ballotpedia's Communications Manager, Owned Channels you will play a critical role in extending Ballotpedia's brand, products, services and programs through our owned channels. This includes communication strategy, planning, implementation, budget and measurement across channels such as, but not limited to, our website communication, mobile app, webinars, videos, podcasts, and our candidate survey.

Reporting to the Director of Communications, you will collaborate with and advocate for cross-functional planning within Ballotpedia's communication, operations, editorial, policy, external relations and candidate strategy teams to build and measure awareness for Ballotpedia products, services and programs.

This position also serves as the primary point of contact as an internal client service relationship between Ballotpedia's communications team and external relations team and will focus on managing and innovating communications surrounding the organization's online fundraising campaigns and initiatives.

Responsibilities:

As Communications Manager, Owned Channels you will oversee:

Owned Media Strategy and Implementation (70% of the time)

• Planning, managing and executing Ballotpedia's annual owned channel strategic plan
• Continually identifying and auditing current and prospective owned channels, developing recommendations to seize new opportunities
• Developing, gaining alignment on and implementing recommendations for "make it better" and continuous improvement programs for how Ballotpedia is using its current and prospective owned channels to build community, develop leads and drive online giving, not including social media channels
• Producing and continually improving the team's strategic approach for webinars, including developing and tracking key performance and engagement metrics
• Establishing and executing on point of contact (POC) client service relationship with internal departments, including External Relations
• Develop and continually update Ballotpedia's YouTube landing page, establishing a video strategy and annual implementation plan
• Managing development and implementation, in collaboration with external producers, for Ballotpedia's candidate connection-focused brand videos
• Identifying and tracking key owned channel performance metrics and reporting to key stakeholders

Internal Client Service (30% of time)

• Driving the owned media portion of all integrated communication plans to support cross-departmental projects and initiatives
• Completing ad hoc responsibilities including the Communications team's "service bureau" work, including copy editing, design, document reviews, proofreading, and monitoring, as needed
• Assisting the team with training, management, meetings, and planning

Qualifications:

The ideal Communications Manager, Owned Channels will have:

• Demonstrated interest in voter education and engagement and interest in Ballotpedia's vision, mission and values
• Up to 5+ years of progressively advancing communications experience, especially focused on owned channels, including, ideally work within a communications or marketing agency in account management or in-house in an organization's communications or marketing department
• Experience and familiarity with navigating the WordPress platform
• The creative ability to develop and implement attractive "calls to action" for Ballotpedia's key audiences including readers, candidates, donors and prospects
• A passion for community building and an understanding for how we use our owned channels to engage readers, donors, prospects, and candidates
• A hunger for lead development and how we are using our owned channels to acquire new readers, more candidate engagement, donations and prospect identification
• Experience with or interest in managing online giving - using owned channels to reach donors and prospects
• Proactive focus on continuous improvement and identifying and implementing a best practices-oriented, "Make It Better" approach
• Ability to develop and present plans/recommendations to internal and external stakeholders for owned media
• A first-class client-service orientation - delivering exceptional service to internal clients and external partners
• An innate desire for continuous improvement, always looking for ways to add value and make things better and bring industry best practices into play
• Ability to flex between strategic and tactical responsibilities and, in fact, you enjoy strategic planning as much as doing the tactical work
• A collaborative, empathetic spirit and a willingness to serve as creative team player and step up to support the team when needed - you contribute to a positive and open team environment.
• Understanding of an experience in integrated marketing communication planning and processes
• The ability to work without an agency and within a tight budgetyou can do your own heavy lifting.

Environment

The Communications Manager will work remotely from their home location. All Ballotpedia staff work remotely. To join Ballotpedia, you must have a computer with Internet access. Ballotpedia uses the Google Workspace (Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, and more), Slack, and Asana to accomplish our goals. Some familiarity with the Google Workspace, Slack, and Asana are helpful.

Ballotpedia has a flexible work environment, BP Flex, in which every employee enjoys unlimited vacation and flexibility in scheduling. Each employee will be oriented to the principles of Ballotpedia's flexible environment during new employee training.

Compensation

The starting pay range for the Communications Manager is $50,000-$70,000, commensurate with skill and experience.

In addition to salary, Ballotpedia offers an annual benefits stipend equivalent to $8,000 that is paid out in equal increments in each paycheck once an employee becomes benefits eligible. The stipend may be used to pay for a full benefits package, including health, vision, and dental insurance; retirement accounts; and more. If benefits are not elected, the stipend is taxed as regular income and added to salary.

To Apply

To apply, click on 'Apply for this job' below and fill out the form.

Please attach:

• Resume
• Cover letter detailing your interest in Ballotpedia's mission and this position and your salary expectations
• Collection of relevant communications writing samples (under five pages) Note: please include this in the same file as your cover letter

Please ensure that either your resume or cover letter include your current address. Applications without addresses will not be accepted.

About Ballotpedia

Ballotpedia is a collaborative team of fast learners and creative problem solvers who are eager to work hard to make the world a better place. We believe the world will be a better place if every citizen has access to information to make informed decisions about their vote in every election in which they are eligible to vote: primary, general, and special elections; federal, state, and local offices.

We work diligently to present the available information about elections, candidates, judges, ballot measures, policies, and more in a way that enables our readers to vote with confidence and to act as engaged citizens outside of the polling booth.

Ballotpedia readers, like Ballotpedia staff, are special people.

When we launched in 2007, we did not go out of our way to seek new readers. Starting with our small team of visionary idealists, nerds, and aspiring political journalists, we just wrote the best unbiased online articles we could, especially about ballot measures. Readers found those articles in droves. It turns out there was an unclaimed audience out there-people who wanted straightforward facts about political issues, and were willing to read at length instead of just scanning the headlines.

"If you build it, they will come:'' our readers came to our neutral oasis in growing numbers; we've had many millions of lifetime pageviews, we reached nearly half of all voters in 2020, and, in the month surrounding the November 2020 election, we were the 77th most-visited website in the U.S.

We've come to realize that we need to meet our readers where they are. In doing so, over the past five years, we've grown our email newsletter program from infancy to include more than 2,000,000 opt-in subscribers with more than a dozen newsletters to choose from. We are working in numerous ways to help put our neutral information in front of people at the times when they most need it, including on mobile phones while you're standing in the voting booth. We firmly believe that our readers, and the mindset we help them cultivate, are essential to the preservation of our great civilization in a world where too many others are fighting to get us all addicted to sensational posts and the irrational decisions they foster.

If this is a mission you'd be willing to work hard to achieve, and if this is a team you'd be willing to work hard with-JOIN US.