1:1 Marketing & Direct Response Manager

Bernstein-Rein

Kansas City, MO

OVERVIEW

The 1:1 Marketing & Direct Response Manager is responsible for developing and executing customer contact strategies that drive acquisition, retention, engagement, and frequency. This role manages integrated direct response programs across direct mail, email, CRM, and customer loyalty channels - from audience strategy and campaign planning through deployment, budget management, measurement, and optimization.

The ideal candidate combines advertising and marketing experience with strong project management, analytical thinking, and executional discipline. This individual will collaborate across strategy, creative, media, data, production, and account teams to deliver coordinated customer communications and measurable business results for our clients.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Develop integrated 1:1 contact strategies designed to support customer acquisition, retention, loyalty, engagement, and frequency goals.

Plan and manage direct response campaigns across direct mail, email, CRM, and other addressable customer channels.

Manage campaigns from strategy through execution, including audience definition, segmentation, contact cadence, messaging, creative development, production, deployment, quality assurance, and reporting.

Build customer contact plans that determine who should be reached, through which channel, with what message, and at what frequency based on lifecycle stage, behavior, and business objectives.

Manage multiple nationwide, regional, and market-specific campaigns simultaneously while maintaining accuracy, timing, budget, and alignment across channels.

Partner with data and analytics teams to support audience selection, list management, suppression strategies, matchback analysis, campaign measurement, and performance reporting.

Monitor campaign performance across key measures such as response, conversion, cost per acquisition, engagement, retention, frequency, revenue, and return on investment.

Translate campaign results into actionable recommendations that improve audience strategy, messaging, channel selection, contact cadence, and future performance.

Develop and maintain campaign budgets, forecasts, production estimates, and reconciliations. Proactively identify and communicate budget risks or changes.

Collaborate with creative, strategy, media, production, analytics, account management, and external partners to ensure programs are strategically aligned and executed accurately.

Contribute to regional and market-level marketing efforts when needed, including localized acquisition programs, new-market support, and integrated campaign activation.

Stay current on direct response, CRM, loyalty, personalization, customer engagement, measurement, and emerging marketing technologies.

REQUIRED SKILLS

Strong understanding of direct response and 1:1 marketing principles, including acquisition, retention, loyalty, lifecycle marketing, and contact frequency.

Experience developing and executing contact strategies across direct mail, email, CRM, or customer loyalty channels.

Strong account and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple campaigns, stakeholders, budgets, and deadlines simultaneously.

Demonstrated attention to detail and accountability across audience files, creative versions, production specifications, deployment schedules, budgets, and reporting.

Ability to move effectively between strategic planning and hands-on campaign execution.

Strong analytical skills, including the ability to interpret campaign performance and translate findings into clear, actionable recommendations.

Experience managing campaign budgets, estimates, forecasts, and reconciliations.

Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly present strategies, results, and recommendations to internal teams and clients.

Collaborative working style and ability to coordinate effectively across creative, media, data, production, strategy, and account teams.

Creative problem-solving skills and a proactive approach to identifying opportunities, resolving executional challenges, and improving performance.

Ability to work independently in a fast-paced agency environment while maintaining a high standard of accuracy and quality.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, business administration, communications, or a related field.

Minimum of three years of marketing or advertising experience, including direct experience with direct response, CRM, email, direct mail, loyalty, or lifecycle marketing programs.

Demonstrated experience developing customer contact strategies and managing campaigns from planning through deployment, measurement, and optimization.

Experience working with audience segmentation, campaign reporting, matchback analysis, attribution, or marketing performance data.

Experience managing campaign budgets and coordinating with internal teams, production partners, or external vendors.

Advertising agency experience is strongly preferred.

Healthcare, retail, financial services, or other high-volume customer marketing experience is a plus.

Experience supporting field marketing, local-market campaigns, or grand openings is a plus but not required.

Ability to travel as needed.

ABOUT BR

At Bernstein-Rein, we believe retail intelligence comes from consumer insights, a true brand purpose, and more than half a century of unrivaled experience. Our Retailigent® approach leverages consumer and B2B expertise to uncover insights and craft brand purposes that transform dreamers into disruptors. BR’s core mission has remained the same since 1964: to impact the future of retail.

If you’re up for the challenge and want to join a team committed to accelerating our clients’ growth, we encourage you to apply.

Bernstein-Rein is an Equal Opportunity Employer