Hickory Farms, LLC is a leading retailer of food gifts and specialty foods available online, in catalogs, in leading mass merchants, supermarkets and 500+ seasonal retail shopping locations in the US and Canada. In business since 1951, we are driven to be the best retailer in the food gifting space.  Our corporate headquarters are in downtown Chicago, IL. We also have offices in Joliet, IL, Toledo, OH and Toronto, Canada. Under new ownership since 2015, we are strengthening our team to reinvent the brand and grow revenue by developing new products and growing our loyal customer base to expand our reach. We have a high energy culture where every member of our nimble, entrepreneurial team makes an impact every day.

The company is privately held with more than $150 million in revenue and fewer than 100 employees.  We are investing in strengthening our team to reinvent the brand and grow revenue through the development of new products and by growing our customer base to expand our reach. Every member of our nimble, entrepreneurial team makes an impact every day in a high-energy culture that we describe as “a 67-year-old start up.”      

Hickory Farms has an exciting new opportunity for a passionate, data-driven Email Marketing Automation Specialist, responsible for designing, executing and managing marketing automation and targeted content through email and SMS. This hands on role will own all aspects of our email marketing automation to drive subscriber engagement, revenue growth, and personalized customer experiences. This position will report to the Email Marketing Manager and be based in our downtown Chicago office.

Primary Responsibilities

• Technical buildout of automated/triggered customer lifecycle journeys, transactional and adhoc email campaigns using Salesforce Marketing Cloud, including development of custom SQL queries, automations and journey builder
• Execute enhanced audience segmentation and personalization used to drive email program
• Set up, manage and monitor email subscriber data extensions and automations
• Manage all data integration into/out of ESP, including importing new data and acting as marketing and customer data expert
• Support execution of day-to-day email marketing activities including set up, audience targeting, testing and deployment of promotional, transactional, and dynamic content-driven campaigns
• Report on key email and SMS metrics and provide recommendations on opportunities
• Advise on ongoing email testing optimization including A/B and multivariate testing
• Collaborate with internal/external resources and vendors on implementation of new email tools, platform updates, optimizations, and to resolve issues
• Keep up on email marketing industry benchmarks, best practices and emerging trends, and bring new ideas to the table

Qualifications

• 3+ years digital marketing or marketing operations experience
• 2+ years as a power user of Salesforce Marketing Cloud (ExactTarget) platform required
• Strong knowledge of Salesforce Marketing Cloud data structure and functionality
• Ability to take marketing concepts and translate them into marketing automation programs
• Solid understanding of basic data principles, how data is structured and organized, how it flows between systems, etc.
• Proven ability to manage complex projects with multiple stakeholders and vendors to deliver results in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment
• Knowledge of email marketing best practices and CAN-SPAM laws
• AMPscript and SQL proficiency
• Analytical experience and aptitude; able to derive actionable insights from data
• Experience in ecommerce, retail, and highly seasonal product offerings strongly preferred
• Passion to continually learn and expand hands-on technical skills
• Salesforce Administration Certification a plus
• Basic HTML skills a plus
• Bachelor’s degree in business or marketing