Director, Growth Marketing - Wheaton - Christianity Today

Description

The Director, Growth Marketing - Subscriptions leads Christianity Today's (CT) Membership Growth pillar with a strong emphasis on hands-on execution and people leadership. In this role, you will own subscription strategy across CT Magazine, CT Online, CT Pastors, and subscription-adjacent products. You will be responsible for the full subscription lifecycle, overseeing acquisition, conversion, engagement, renewal, and win-back to ensure a healthy and growing subscription base aligned with CT's mission to serve the church with thoughtful Christian journalism.

This role manages a small but high-impact team focused on audience-based marketing. As a player-coach, this individual will both drive strategy and stay close to the work, building simple structures and processes, managing budgets, and collaborating with other leaders to align membership growth initiatives with CT's broader ministry and revenue goals.

Functions and Responsibilities

1.Drive Member Growth & Retention

• Own the subscription growth and retention roadmap, including goal setting, prioritization, and execution across acquisition, engagement, and churn reduction for CT Magazine, CT Online, CT Pastors, and related digital offerings.
• Design and optimize key subscription lifecycle stages, including registration, onboarding, paywalls, checkout, renewal flows, and win-back journeys for both digital and print products.
• Develop and refine subscription strategies across key channels (web, app, email, internal promotion, partnerships, and paid media) to increase subscriber volume, ARPU, and lifetime value.
• Ensure the Membership Growth function is collectively accountable for acquisition, conversion, and renewal metrics across the subscription portfolio, with clear ownership and visibility into performance.
• Partner with Product and Technology teams to improve conversion funnels and subscriber experiences across CT's digital properties and apps, including paywall experiences, landing pages, and account management tools.
• Work closely with senior leadership to shape pricing, packaging, offers, and discounts (e.g., annual vs. monthly, bundles, CT Pastors+, print/digital combinations, student and international pricing) grounded in data and mission priorities.
• Lead a structured testing program (A/B tests on pricing, offers, messaging, paywalls, user flows, and renewal experiences) with clear hypotheses, success metrics, and learning loops.
• Implement performance metrics and KPIs to forecast and report on subscription revenue, retention, and customer health, and to inform ongoing strategy and prioritization.
• Serve on relevant project teams as needed, representing subscription and retention interests in product, editorial, and technology initiatives.
• Partner with leadership to support subscription revenue forecasting and scenario planning.

2. Membership Growth Team Management & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as a hands-on people leader for CT's Membership Growth team, providing day-to-day leadership, coaching, and support to team members focused on legacy subscribers, pastors, and paid media.
• Manage and mentor a small but mighty team working on audience-specific memberships as well as paid media & ecommerce.
• Assist team in prioritization, production and development as leaders in their own areas.
• Create clarity on responsibilities and handoffs across the team, ensuring that each person understands their role in the funnel and how their work contributes to overall membership growth goals.
• Ensure each key audience segment (legacy subscribers, pastors and ministry leaders, and other strategic segments) has a clear strategy, funnel plan, and lifecycle approach,and that your team is equipped and supported to execute those plans well.
• Direct paid media in planning, executing, and optimizing performance marketing campaigns across search, social, display, and other channels in support of subscription acquisition, re-engagement, and ecommerce performance.
• Oversee the integration of ecommerce efforts so that store promotions, merchandising campaigns, and ecommerce initiatives support both direct revenue and subscription journeys.
• Identify skills gaps and development needs within the team and create opportunities for training, stretch projects, and ongoing learning.
• Work cross-functionally, particularly with Analytics, to define and refine channel-level targets (e.g., CAC, ROAS, LTV:CAC, engagement and retention metrics) and ensure each channel's goals are tied to overall subscription and membership objectives.
• Collaborate with Customer Service to identify and address common subscriber pain points, improve cancellation and save experiences, and inform product and communication improvements.

3. Christian Marketplace Engagement & Ministry Stewardship

• Develop deep understanding of the unique Christian audience segments and their needs, demonstrating sensitivity to diverse theological perspectives.
• Ensure membership strategies, offers, and communications are aligned with CT's theological commitments, editorial voice, and ministry posture.
• Champion ethical practices in subscription growth and retention, including clear value propositions, honest messaging, transparent pricing, and respectful renewal and cancellation experiences.
• Steward subscription relationships as ministry relationships, recognizing members and subscribers as partners in CT's mission rather than just customers.
• Perform additional job-related duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Economics, Data/Analytics, Communications, or related field required.
• 7–10+ years of experience in subscription growth, lifecycle marketing, product growth, or digital revenue strategy in a media, SaaS, or content-driven organization.
• Demonstrated expertise in digital subscription or recurring revenue models, including acquisition, onboarding, engagement, churn reduction, and win-back.
• Hands-on familiarity with performance marketing (e.g., search, social, display, programmatic, and/or affiliate), including planning, optimization, and measurement.
• Proven experience owning and managing budgets, including forecasting, channel allocation, and ROI analysis.
• Significant people management experience, including leading and developing a small team with manager- and specialist-level contributors (ideally including paid media and lifecycle roles).
• Experience working in a mission-driven, editorially focused, or faith-based organization preferred.
• Demonstrated understanding of (or strong interest in learning) the Christian marketplace, church dynamics, and ministry needs.
• People Leadership & Mentorship: Enjoys developing others; able to coach, support, and challenge team members in ways that help them grow and perform at a high level.
• Hands–On Execution: Comfortable working directly on plans, funnels, campaigns, and reports; not limited to high-level strategy.
• Performance Orientation: Strong command of subscription and media economics (CAC, LTV, ARPU, churn, ROAS) and how they inform decision-making.
• Lifecycle & Systems Thinking: Understands how different stages in the subscriber journey connect; designs integrated journeys rather than isolated campaigns.
• Customer Empathy: Committed to creating membership experiences that respect and serve CT's diverse readership and ministry partners.
• Revenue-Minded: Results-oriented with an eye for new monetization models and category expansion.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Effective at building consensus and alignment across multiple teams.
• Innovation & Adaptability: Embraces new tools, approaches, and technologies (including AI where appropriate) to responsibly improve growth and retention
• Integrity: Holds to ethical advertising standards and maintains the trust of CT's audience and ministry partners.
• Theological Discernment: Ability to evaluate advertising opportunities through both business and ministry lenses, understanding how content impacts CT's witness and audience trust.
• CT headquarters are located in Wheaton, Illinois
• Work Location: Remote
• Type: Full time, 37.5 hour workweek
• Benefits: CT offers a comprehensive benefits package - check out our careers page to learn more

Salary Description

• Exact compensation may vary based on experience, skills, and location