SEO Business Director

GroupM; London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job description

Business Director, Organic Search

Job title: BD, Organic Search, Channel Development

Group: Mindshare Worldwide

Client: Nespresso

Reports to: Digital Strategy Lead

Mindshare is a media services company that accelerates Good Growth for its clients. Our company values of energy, empathy and impact bind together our diverse global family of 10,000 people from every culture and with every specialist skill you can imagine. People at Mindshare create ideas and solutions that help not only our clients but also the industry and the world.

You can check out some of our people stories and client work and awards on LinkedIn or Instagram or hear about the company in the words of our own people here.

What We Can Offer You

At Mindshare Worldwide, we offer a competitive salary package, with 25 days holiday increasing with service to a maximum of 30 days, with the option to buy an extra 5 days per year. We also have an enhanced pension scheme, Bupa healthcare, a monthly wellbeing fund and early finishes on a Friday during summer. These are just some of the great benefits we offer.

Based ten minutes from London Bridge tube station, our office has a rooftop with 360 views of London – a great space to hang out with colleagues and friends!

We also offer an extensive training programme to help guide your career development; there’s a wide range of options to suit everyone at all levels of your career.

Our Values & Behaviours

Our new values of Energy, Empathy and Impact not only align with our Good Growth ambition but represent our commitment and dedication to our people, helping them grow their careers, fostering creativity, embracing humanity, and changing the world. At Mindshare, we are open to difference. We believe in being open and supportive of our people and all their differences to help them succeed. Be different at Mindshare and use your difference to shape the world through media.

Channel & Solutions

Channel & Solutions exists to evolve how we engage with clients across all things digital – whether it be strategy, activation, or consultancy. For us, it’s about how we leverage and integrate our capabilities, tools and people to drive growth for clients. We understand that setting up and optimising media isn’t enough; we need to understand the eco-system that influences true business performance and the role media plays in influencing that and be able to adapt it to drive stronger business outcomes.

The Role

The Business Director role is a senior role that requires delivering best-in-class global/regional digital marketing and media solutions for key global clients. You must be digitally ahead, connected, diplomatic, pro-active, and solution-oriented.

A role exists within the Mindshare Global Owned Media team to support a growing team, covering primarily SEO, CRO and Asset Optimization. As an Owned Media Business Director, you will play a pivotal role in owning key client relationships, supporting the team skills development, and aiding in the business development of the Owned & Earned product offering and functions. The Owned Media Business Director will also be required to manage the Account Directors in the team and support new business pitch work and upselling of existing clients across our functions (Strategy, Operations, Analytics & Activation).

The successful Activation BD will be someone that is solution-oriented, proactive, able to work collaboratively with teams, clients, agency partners and MS teams. Experienced in working across multiple markets, across different cultures and able to operate at both a macro and micro level when looking at best-in-class digital activation. They will take pride in their work and always strive to elevate the quality of what they do and be able to drive channel experts to deliver sophisticated solutions that drive client value. You will have a proven track record in managing, leading, and inspiring a team of Organic Social specialists. You will be expected to demonstrate your Digital expertise to help drive world-class delivery of SEO solutions forward whilst also being comfortable with managing all elements of a soft P&L. The ideal candidate will also have the ability to comfortably discuss the impact of digital activity and possess the skill to cross-sell and up-sell other digital channels to help grow our clients’ business.

Reporting Structure

The role will also hold a seat on the channel solutions Leadership Team and will report directly to Digital Lead. You will work very closely with other BDs, Operations, Partners, Managing Partner as well as the department head.

The Ideal Candidate

As a leader, you will have a proven track record in managing, leading and inspiring and integrating specialist teams from across the business and within the client. Each proposal may be different and require different stakeholder engagement; therefore, a wide understanding of the digital eco-system is paramount.

You will be expected to be able to demonstrate Digital expertise that covers Organic Search practice whilst also engaging further to incorporate organic influence, content and creative impact and the role of deep insight and analytics to inform decision-making.

Internally, you will be responsible for all elements of a soft P&L, identifying and growing opportunities for the client and the agency. The ideal candidate will also have the ability to comfortably discuss the impact of digital activity and possess the skill to cross-sell and up-sell other digital channels to help grow our clients’ business.

Role Responsibilities

• Build global client relationships and manage scope requirements.
• Provide creative and strategic direction to the team to improve client project performance.
• Utilize your specialist owned media knowledge to educate the client teams around our product offering and operations.
• Support Account Directors to own all aspects of Owned Media including trending Owned Strategies, CRO/Analytics, Asset Optimization, and importantly the integration with the wider biddable teams.
• Oversee and manage development of account directors and managers within the team.
• Collaborate and take ownership of new business and pitch scenarios.
• Attend client QBRs and support the team with demonstrating quality client service.
• Ensure you hit deadlines and manage workflows and tasks for all search-related deliverables.
• Integrate seamlessly with client account teams rather than search as an added service.
• Work closely with all digital strategy & planning teams [EU/Global/Local], being a connection point for the client in regard to EU execution.
• Connect with account teams and market leads to ensure cross-team integration and WoW consistency.
• Responsible for the Digital capability (execution) for a market/group of markets and proactive development of our capabilities.
• Responsible for contribution for multichannel New Business, including but not restricted to supporting pitches, building creds, launching new products and services, upselling/cross-selling, prospecting etc.
• Surface and share great work from the team and ensure that case studies are regularly created.
• Integrated partnership within the GroupM Nexus community for driving channel excellence & growth.
• Support Senior leadership and line manager with regular updates on up-and-coming innovation, changes to the industry landscape.
• Provide direct support to your Line Manager and Head of, Business Director(s), Account Director(s) and wider team.
• Full accountability for talent certification which will include encouraging teams to be 100% certified at all times, organize training sessions with partners when required.
• Ensure all team members have SMART objectives and development plans, tailored to their needs and these plans are being executed, reviewed & tracked.
• Constantly review all our processes, test & learn, optimization, budget management and other processes to identify opportunities for improvement in effectiveness or efficiency.
• Key contributor to defining, designing and delivering all processes, way of working etc. Including improving and scaling what’s already in existence, creating new ways of working and eradication of old ineffective and inefficient ways of working and where possible the inclusion/development of automation to help us operate more effectively.
• Overall responsibility for the soft P&L for the group of markets assigned. Build, own and operate the Digital P&L and provide regular monthly updates to line manager. This will also include creating an annual Business Plan and updating the New Business sales Pipeline.
• Commercially driven and forward-thinking in the expansion of business opportunities, entrepreneurial in mindset and always looking to develop incremental or new services both centrally and locally.
• Competent and confident with managing media finance, agency revenue reporting, and solving any outstanding finance queries.
• Ensure the team is creating and updating account roadmaps for every client, covering testing, innovation, growth and other elements associated with the department vision.

Key Skills and Experience

• Excellent management skills to support the growing team in developing stronger client relationships.
• Ability to identify opportunities to upsell and manage client expectations; and predominantly support the Owned & Earned Media Partner with productizing and the growth of the Mindshare Owned & Earned services.
• Proactive nature and take the initiative to identify areas for improvement in team projects.
• Expert knowledge of owned asset optimization and the integration between digital channels is vital to this role.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills, being able to confidently and clearly present work to clients, media owners and internal stakeholders. Experience & gravitas to ‘fly solo’ & present to mid to senior weight clients.
• High level numeracy and analysis skills, to be able to interrogate data and come out with actionable insights to inform business decisions.
• Ability to thrive and work independently in an incredibly fast-paced, dynamic environment, as well as collaboratively driving energy, passion and direction of a 10+ member team.
• Excellent troubleshooting skills: ability to quickly and creatively solve issues (both technical and operational).
• Ability to communicate process-driven approaches clearly and effectively to non-technical individuals.
• Track record delivering high-quality results in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
• Experience and knowledge of the different stages of the project management life cycle.
• Substantial demonstrable success in managing and leading digital teams.
• Proven success in stakeholder management and ability to build relationships with clients and partners.
• Experience in leading new business pitches and driving organic growth.
• Proven commercial success of driving business growth and creating new revenue streams.
• Proven track record in performance media and e-commerce and good understanding of the wider media mix.
• Strong technology understanding (AdTech and MarTech) as well as attribution models, cross-channel planning and buying, etc.
• Strong project management and resource allocation skills.
• Leadership, collaboration, facilitation, and negotiation skills.
• The ability to quickly learn and understand new business environments.
• A proactive, 'can do' attitude. Self-starter and motivator with the ability to work in an autonomous fast-paced environment doing what is necessary to deliver with speed, agility and forward-thinking.
• The ability to achieve high-quality results by paying attention to detail. Team Player and willing to help with any task thrown at them.

Personal Performance Measures

The Business Director will predominantly be measured on the quality of work, innovation and their ability to adapt and adopt to the growing capabilities required for their client. Specific measures include:

• Feedback from client teams and local market – measured via constructive feedback and Customer Scores.
• Ensure the teams deliver excellent, flawless and growth-driving execution across digital/data assignments.
• Motivated teams - measured via 360 and informal feedback.
• Strong relationships with other departments via 360 and informal feedback.
• Regular involvement in New Business, internal projects, and new revenue streams such as added-value services and growth solutions.
• Year on Year revenue growth & Increase client profitability through commercially focused plans, automation, and innovations.
• Increase in revenue contribution from out-of-scope services and cross-selling.
• Quality of work delivered by you and your team and Performance against client objectives.
• Active contribution to the wider Mindshare Channels & Solutions initiatives in London and in the EMEA region, as well as contribution and involvement within GroupM Nexus workstreams.

*Please note this is a UK-based role and requires individuals to have the right to work in this location.*

#LI-LM1