Marketing Manager, Ball Seed Company

Ball Horticultural Company is seeking a customer-centric candidate to lead the marketing efforts of Ball Seed, North America’s leading wholesale horticultural distributor. Ball Seed provides innovative plants, extensive experience, best-in-class customer service, and reliable supply to professional growers.

The Marketing Manager is responsible for developing and executing the marketing strategy for Ball Seed. The role involves working closely with sales management, sales representatives, product managers, and customers to support customer acquisition, engagement, and retention through effective promotion of the products and services Ball Seed sells. Our company is located in the west suburbs of Chicago (near Naperville, Geneva, Wheaton).

Job Responsibilities & Duties:

• Develop and execute marketing strategy and budget to support Ball Seed’s position as the #1 total solutions provider to horticultural growers in North America. 
• Obtain and analyze market data using insights to support lead generation and customer acquisition strategies. 
• Lead the charge in developing integrated touchpoints for customer engagement such as: catalogs, technical information, various digital channels, events and advertising, providing our internal marketing agency with content and plans for execution. 
• Coordinate and promote industry events including trade show participation and customer events in the Gardens at Ball. 
• Expand the use of our website and online ordering platform. Proactively identify new channels, fresh ideas, tactics, and creative approaches for driving leads. 
• Create and track marketing KPI’s to analyze marketing performance against business goals. 
• Collaborate with the sales team to align marketing activities with the sales process and trigger commercial conversations.
• Collaboratively partner with other groups across the company to make marketing a powerful driver for the growth of our business.

Requirements:

• Bachelors degree in Marketing, Business or related field and a minimum of 5 years' experience in horticulture or as a B2B Marketing Manager. 
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with self-awareness to work effectively in a fast-moving environment where accountability and responsiveness to one another is critical. 
• Proven positive marketing impact on company values and product offering that contributes to the improvement of company performance. 
• Demonstrated track record of working effectively with sales professionals to help grow sales and solidify long-term customer relationships. 
• Ability to integrate data and company values to create impactful messages to customers. 
• Ability and desire to work in an organization with a strong matrix company culture. 
• Effective and creative presentation skills that convey our product story to drive sales. 
• Proven experience managing multiple projects and timelines with agility 
• Experience with project management software (Workfront, etc.).