Director of Retention Marketing (Franklin)
POSITION: Director of Retention Marketing COMPANY: The Health Institute REPORTING TO: VP of Growth STATUS: Full-Time Employee COMPENSATION: $120,000 Annual Salary The Health Institute is seeking a Director of Retention Marketing to own the strategy and execution of our customer lifecycle, with accountability for retention revenue, customer lifetime value (LTV), subscription retention, and the performance of our owned marketing channels. This is a highly commercial leadership role at the intersection of marketing, analytics, customer experience, and revenue growth. You will own strategies across Email, SMS, Direct Mail, lifecycle marketing, subscriptions, segmentation, reactivation, and customer engagement. You will also play a critical role in supporting our Sales organization and practitioners by ensuring leads and customers receive the right communication at the right time throughout the customer journey. The ideal candidate combines commercial instincts, analytical rigor, customer empathy, strategic thinking, and exceptional execution. You should be comfortable owning meaningful revenue, managing a high-performing team, and moving quickly in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment. What You'll OwnRetention Revenue & Customer LTV Own the company's retention marketing strategy and customer lifetime value. Drive revenue through Email, SMS, Direct Mail, lifecycle marketing, subscriptions, repeat purchases, cross-sells, upsells, and reactivation. Establish and manage retention revenue goals and forecasts. Identify opportunities to increase retention, LTV, and profitable customer growth. Understand the relationship between CAC, retention, LTV, and overall marketing economics. Partner with Growth and Finance to establish LTV targets and measure performance. Email, SMS & CRM Own strategy, performance, and execution across Email, SMS, and Direct Mail. Develop channel strategies aligned to revenue and customer engagement goals. Lead promotional, educational, lifecycle, transactional, and behavioral communications. Develop sophisticated segmentation based on customer behavior, lifecycle stage, purchase history, engagement, interests, and program participation. Build personalized customer journeys rather than relying on one-size-fits-all communication. Own testing across messaging, offers, segmentation, frequency, timing, creative, CTAs, personalization, and customer journeys. Protect deliverability, engagement, and long-term list health. Lifecycle & Marketing Automation Own the lifecycle architecture across Email and SMS. Build and continuously optimize automated customer journeys. Develop lifecycle strategies across: Lead nurture Welcome Consideration Conversion Onboarding Post-purchase Subscription Engagement Cross-sell / Upsell Renewal Churn prevention Win-back Reactivation Identify gaps and friction throughout the customer journey. Develop behavior-based triggers and automated experiences that improve conversion, retention, and customer experience. Subscription Retention & Churn Own lifecycle communication for subscription and recurring-revenue programs. Develop strategies to improve subscriber engagement, retention, renewal, and LTV. Identify leading indicators of churn and develop interventions for at-risk customers. Build journeys around onboarding, engagement, milestones, renewals, failed payments, cancellation intent, and win-back. Analyze why customers cancel and translate those insights into retention strategies. Partner with Product and Operations when churn is driven by customer experience or operational issues. Develop and test save strategies, offers, education, and messaging designed to reduce preventable churn. Sales & Practitioner Communications Own lifecycle communication supporting the sales pipeline. Partner with Sales leadership to identify where leads stall or drop throughout the funnel. Develop nurture strategies that move prospects from lead → consultation → sale. Support practitioners and sales teams with timely customer and prospect communications. Build journeys based on lead source, interests, customer needs, and sales stage. Develop communications supporting scheduling, reminders, follow-up, objections, education, and re-engagement. Translate common customer objections into effective lifecycle messaging. Establish a clear process for updating customer communications as programs, products, pricing, and operational processes evolve. Direct Mail Own Direct Mail strategy as part of the broader retention ecosystem. Identify opportunities across retention, reactivation, cross-sell, subscription, and high-value customer segments. Coordinate audience selection, creative, offers, production, and measurement. Establish ROI and incrementality measurement. Integrate Direct Mail with Email, SMS, and other lifecycle channels. Customer Research & Insights Own the company's customer survey and research strategy. Develop ongoing programs to understand customer: Satisfaction Needs Purchase motivation Conversion barriers Program experience Churn drivers Product and service feedback Expectations Turn customer feedback into actionable business recommendations. Identify recurring themes and communicate insights to Marketing, Operations, Product, Sales, and leadership. Partner with Operations to ensure customer feedback translates into meaningful improvements. Customer Experience Partner with Operations to improve the end-to-end customer experience. Identify customer pain points through behavioral data, surveys, support feedback, churn data, and lifecycle performance. Develop communication solutions for customer confusion, education, and expectation-setting. Escalate systemic issues when operational or product changes are required. Ensure customers receive communications that accurately reflect the experience they ultimately receive. Audience Growth & Lead Nurture Partner with Paid Media and Growth to grow our first-party audience. Develop strategies to increase Email and SMS acquisition. Partner on lead-generation campaigns, landing pages, lead magnets, quizzes, offers, and educational content. Develop nurture strategies that convert leads into customers over time. Analyze lead quality and downstream customer value by acquisition source. Create feedback loops between acquisition and retention to help the business acquire higher-LTV customers. Analytics & Measurement Build a comprehensive retention reporting framework. Own performance reporting across retention revenue, LTV, Email, SMS, Direct Mail, subscriber growth, churn, repeat purchase, reactivation, lifecycle conversion, list growth, engagement, and deliverability. Analyze customer cohorts to understand retention and LTV trends. Partner with Analytics/BI to ensure reporting is accurate and actionable. Move beyond channel-level metrics to understand the incremental business impact of retention initiatives. Present clear performance narratives to leadership, including what happened, why it happened, and what should happen next. Team Leadership Lead, develop, and manage a small, high-performing retention marketing team. Establish clear ownership, priorities, goals, and performance expectations. Coach and develop team members while maintaining a high standard of execution. Prioritize initiatives based on business impact. Build efficient processes that allow a lean team to move quickly. Identify opportunities to leverage agencies, freelancers, technology, and automation. Qualifications 8 years of experience in retention marketing, CRM, lifecycle marketing, Email/SMS, subscription marketing, or a related discipline. 3 years of experience managing and developing marketing teams. Demonstrated experience owning a meaningful retention revenue target. Deep experience developing and executing Email and SMS strategy. Advanced experience with segmentation, lifecycle automation, CRM, and customer journeys. Demonstrated success improving customer retention and LTV. Subscription or recurring-revenue experience strongly preferred. Experience developing churn prevention and win-back strategies. Experience supporting sales funnels or longer consideration-cycle customer journeys strongly preferred. Direct Mail experience preferred. Strong understanding of CAC, retention, LTV, and paid media economics. Strong analytical capabilities, including cohort and customer-level analysis. Experience developing customer surveys and translating research into business recommendations. Strong cross-functional leadership skills. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Demonstrated ability t
