Overview

The Global Digital Director is responsible for setting the company's digital and B2C ecommerce strategy and communicating and championing it company-wide.  They will be passionate about the power of books to change children’s lives and for ensuring that Usborne books are represented in all online channels in an irresistible and effective way to reach all our audiences, attract new audiences and encourage existing visitors to return.  And for upholding the digital expression of Usborne’s global brand and brand values in every engagement, in every communication and in everything we do online.  The role reports to the Global Brand and UK Marketing Director

The Role

• Digital and Social Media strategy - create and deliver a digital and social media strategy to drive sales, build community and showcase the Usborne brand.

• Objectives and KPIs - define, explain and champion digital objectives, best practice and initiatives to a wide range of stakeholders from other departments including design and editorial.

• Online sales - oversee global B2C ecommerce solutions and ensure all online sales channels and metadata are optimised.  Have an entrepreneurial mindset and consider new propositions for selling Usborne products digitally. 

• Budget - manage digital budget for B2C ecommerce and content management software development and tools.

• Usborne DNA - ensure the Usborne voice is reflected across all online channels in a way that upholds the brand values of our books and company to make knowledge irresistible with meticulously crafted books for all children.  Work with Usborne designers to reflect these values and the unapologetically kid-centric look and feel of Usborne books in the online environment.

• Innovation - remain curious, lead experiments and showcase digital opportunities to the company.

• Cross functional digital community - encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing and digital best practices. Support digital stakeholders, throughout Usborne for example, Quicklinks, Foreign Language teams, Usborne Books at Home, Trade Sales (UK and Export), Marketing and PR, to get the most from their tools and channels.

• Technology partners - ensure selected partners deliver against objectives and uphold SLAs.

• Line management - provide leadership and mentorship to the Digital Editor and other relevant staff to ensure the online community is inspired and engaged every day.

• Planning - provide support for all digital initiatives within the wider team and company and where appropriate identify new tools to be incorporated into the respective Technology, Global Brand and UK Marketing change management programmes.

• Content plans - oversee content plans for the global website, social media and newsletters to ensure they engage our audience, support marketing campaigns effectively and of course are search engine optimised and meet accessibility guidelines.

• Customer journey - champion the digital customer experience and ensure all journeys are optimised, on brand and encourage audiences to explore all the online content that supports Usborne books.

• Audio - deliver an audio experience which showcases Usborne’s audio worldwide.

• Analytics - manage Usborne.com ROI and share and communicate analytics with relevant stakeholders and ensure practices evolve regularly to implement what is learnt from engagement and sales figures.

• Domain management - work with our domain management platform to register and maintain domain names that reflect the Usborne brand, and where necessary oversee domain name retrieval.

The successful candidate will have

• Experience running a successful, global ecommerce website with multiple store fronts and multilingual content.

• Entrepreneurial outlook, identifying opportunities wherever they arise.

• Content production and merchandising skills.

• Strong editorial and writing skills, with meticulous attention to detail.

• Excellent data analysis skills.

• Experience of managing software development projects which are delivered in an Agile way.

• Proven capability in managing diverse stakeholders.

• Senior leadership qualities and experience.