Marketing Director

Build and Lead the Marketing & Sales Team for a Luxury Nature Resort

Backland is a luxury nature resort located on 160 private acres surrounded by the Kaibab National Forest in Northern Arizona, near the Grand Canyon.

We are looking for an exceptional Marketing Director / Head of Marketing to take ownership of our marketing operation and build and manage a talented remote marketing team.

This is not a position for someone who simply waits for the owner to assign marketing tasks.

We are looking for someone who can take a business objective such as:

“We need to increase weekday occupancy among couples this fall.”

…and turn it into a coordinated plan across paid advertising, email, content, direct sales, and our website — determine what needs to be done, assign the right people, make sure the work gets completed well, measure the results, and improve from what we learn.

Your Mission

Your job is simple to describe:

Build and lead a marketing organization that consistently generates profitable bookings for Backland.

You will report directly to the owner and be responsible for turning high-level company goals into marketing strategy and execution.

An important part of this role will be helping us determine the right structure for the marketing department.

We already know there are several important capabilities we need to cover, including:


Email, CRM, and lifecycle marketing
Reservation and phone sales
Paid advertising and growth marketing
Content creation and social media
Website conversion and marketing technology
Marketing analytics and reporting

Some of these functions may require dedicated specialists. Others may be combined into broader roles. Some may be handled internally while others are better outsourced.

We are not committed to a specific number of employees.

We want our Marketing Director to help us build the smallest, strongest team capable of executing our marketing strategy exceptionally well.

What You Will Own
1. Marketing Strategy & Planning

Work directly with the owner to understand:

Revenue goals
Occupancy needs
Target guest segments
Seasonality
Promotions and offers
Brand positioning
New experiences and products
Business priorities

Then turn those goals into an actionable marketing plan.

You will:

Develop quarterly, monthly, and campaign-level marketing plans.
Maintain a coordinated marketing calendar.
Determine which marketing channels should support each initiative.
Establish priorities based on business impact.
Create campaign briefs and assign work.
Establish deadlines and make sure projects ship.
Identify new opportunities.
Continually evaluate what we should do more of, less of, start doing, or stop doing.

We do not need someone who simply gives us more marketing ideas.

We need someone who turns good ideas into results.

2. Build the Marketing Team

One of your first responsibilities will be evaluating our existing resources and helping determine the best structure for the marketing department.

You will help answer questions such as:

Which marketing functions require dedicated specialists?
Which responsibilities can reasonably be combined?
Which roles should be full-time versus part-time?
Which activities should stay in-house?
Which activities would be better handled by outside specialists?
Where are our largest current capability gaps?
In what order should we hire?

You will then help recruit and build the team.

This may include hiring and managing people responsible for areas such as:


Email / CRM / Lifecycle Marketing

We need someone to take genuine ownership of our email and CRM program, including:

Prospect nurture
Abandoned-booking campaigns
Promotional emails
Newsletters
Segmentation
Automated lifecycle flows
Reservation communication
Pre-arrival campaigns
Upsells
Post-stay communication
Review and referral campaigns
Repeat-guest marketing
Win-back campaigns
Testing and optimization
Deliverability and database health

We currently use Cendyn for CRM and email marketing.

Reservation & Phone Sales

We need excellent sales coverage for guests who are considering a Backland stay.

This function may include:

Answering inbound reservation calls.
Responding to reservation inquiries.
Calling back missed calls.
Following up with prospective guests.
Recovering promising abandoned bookings.
Overcoming objections.
Closing reservations.
Upselling additional nights, room upgrades, dining, packages, and experiences.
Maintaining lead information.
Tracking why prospective guests do or do not book.

This is not simply customer service.

The objective is to convert existing demand into revenue.

Paid Advertising / Growth Marketing

We need strong ownership of customer acquisition through channels such as:

Meta Ads
Google Ads
Retargeting
Metasearch
Audience testing
Creative testing
Budget optimization
Campaign optimization
Attribution
CPA and ROAS analysis
Landing-page testing

We want someone constantly asking:

Which campaigns are generating profitable bookings?
Which audiences are working?
Which creative is winning?
What is our true cost per booking?
Where is our funnel leaking?
Where should we increase or reduce spending?
What should we test next?
Content & Creative

Backland is an extremely visual product, so we need a strong content engine supporting the entire marketing organization.

This function may include:

Short-form video
Reels and social content
Paid-ad creative

Email creative
Promotional graphics
Photo and video editing
Content repurposing
Organic social publishing
Maintaining and organizing our creative library
Coordinating UGC, photography, or outside creators when needed

Content should be created for a marketing purpose, not simply to keep a social media calendar full.

Our paid, email, sales, and website teams should be able to communicate what creative they need, and the content function should deliver it.

Website, Conversion & Marketing Technology

Depending on the team we build, some of this work may be handled internally or through outside technical specialists.

It includes:

Website and landing-page optimization
Booking-funnel conversion
Analytics implementation
Tracking and attribution
Marketing integrations
SEO
Conversion-rate optimization
Marketing technology
Testing website messaging and offers

You do not need to personally perform all of these functions.

You need to make sure they are covered by the right people.

3. Lead and Manage the Team

Once the team is in place, you will be responsible for making it effective.

Your responsibilities will include:

Recruiting and interviewing candidates.
Designing practical tests for potential hires.
Onboarding new team members.
Establishing clear responsibilities and ownership.
Setting KPIs.
Assigning projects and priorities.
Conducting regular meetings and one-on-ones.
Reviewing work and providing feedback.
Training and coaching employees.
Holding team members accountable.
Identifying performance problems early.
Helping strong employees grow.
Improving systems and processes over time.

Your goal is to create a department that operates effectively without the owner needing to personally manage each marketing employee.

4. Coordinate Marketing Across Channels

One of the most important parts of this position is making sure our marketing activities work together rather than operating as separate silos.

For example, imagine we d ---------- :

“We need to increase Sunday–Thursday bookings from couples during October.”

The marketing response might involve:

Paid advertising targeting the right audience.
An email campaign to relevant past guests and prospects.
New couples-focused creative.
A landing page or website changes supporting the offer.
Reservation sales following up personally with high-intent leads.
Reporting that tells us which elements actually produced bookings.

Your job is to make sure the entire campaign comes together.

5. Marketing Analytics & Accountability

We want a marketing department that is accountable for business results.

You will establish a clear marketing dashboard and regularly report on the metrics that matter.

Depending on the channel, these may include:

Direct booking revenue
Occupancy
Website conversion rate
Cost per booking
Customer acquisition cost
ROAS

Email-attributed revenue

Email conversion
Lead-to-booking conversion
Reservation sales conversion
Upsell revenue
Campaign performance
Channel profitability

We are not interested in reports dominated by vanity metrics.

We want to know:

What worked?
What didn't?
Why?
What did we learn?
What are we doing next?

What Success Looks Like

Within six months, we want the owner to be able to say:

“I still help set the direction for Backland, but I no longer have to personally manage marketing execution.”

You should understand what is happening across every major marketing function.

Everyone working in marketing should know what they own.

Campaigns should launch without the owner repeatedly following up.

Good ideas should become completed projects.

Results should be measured.

Problems should be identified early.

Poor-performing activities should be changed or stopped.

Successful activities should be expanded.

And the marketing organization should continually become stronger.

Who We're Looking For

You may be a great fit if you:

Have significant experience in digital marketing.
Have successfully managed marketers or remote employees.
Have recruited and built teams before.
Understand marketing funnels and customer journeys.
Understand paid customer acquisition.
Understand email and CRM marketing.
Understand content and creative strategy.
Understand sales conversion.
Are highly organized.
Are comfortable making decisions.
Have excellent spoken and written English.
Communicate proactively.
Can manage multiple projects simultaneously.
Are analytical and comfortable working with numbers.
Can distinguish between marketing that looks impressive and marketing that produces revenue.
Give clear, constructive feedback.
Enjoy developing people.
Take ownership instead of waiting for instructions.
Can work independently.
Are willing to challenge an idea respectfully when you believe there is a better approach.

Hospitality, travel, luxury, e-commerce, or direct-to-consumer experience would be especially valuable.

You Do NOT Need to Be the Best at Everything

We are not looking for someone who claims to personally be:

An elite media buyer
An expert email marketer
A graphic designer
A professional video editor
A world-class copywriter
A web developer
An SEO expert
A reservation salesperson

That's why we are building a team.

We are looking for someone who understands these disciplines well enough to:

Identify what capabilities we need.
Hire the right specialists.
Give them clear direction.
Evaluate their work.
Coordinate their efforts.
Hold them accountable.
Measure the results.

Ideally, however, you should have at least one area of marketing in which you have deep hands-on expertise.

We want to know what that is.

Player-Coach Mentality

Backland's marketing department is still being built.

This is not yet a large corporate marketing organization where the Marketing Director spends all day attending meetings and reviewing presentations.

You should be willing to jump in when necessary.

That might mean:

Reviewing and improving an email.
Digging through campaign data.
Writing a campaign brief.
Helping an employee solve a problem.
Reviewing an ad.
Building a spreadsheet.
Researching a competitor.
Helping develop a sales process.
Fixing a project that has gotten off track.

Over time, as the organization grows, this position should become increasingly focused on leadership.

Right now, we need a player-coach who can build the team as well as lead it.

About Backland

Backland is a luxury nature resort located on a private 160-acre property surrounded by the Kaibab National Forest between Flagstaff and Williams, Arizona.

Our guests come to experience nature without sacrificing comfort.

Backland offers unique luxury accommodations, panoramic views, incredible dark skies, private hot tubs, an on-site restaurant, stargazing, kayaking, hiking, and convenient access to the Grand Canyon.

Learn more at ---------- .

How to Apply

Please do not send us a generic cover letter.

Instead, answer the following questions:

Tell us about the most significant marketing team or department you have managed. What functions were you responsible for?
Have you ever built or recruited a marketing team? What roles did you hire and how did you d ---------- what positions were needed?
What marketing discipline are you personally strongest in?
Tell us about one marketing campaign you were responsible for. What was the objective, what did you and your team do, and what measurable result did it produce?

Imagine you joined Backland and we told you:

“Our occupancy four months from now is weaker than we want it to be. We need more couples to book Sunday through Thursday stays.”

Briefly explain how you would approach the problem.

Imagine that Backland needs strong capabilities in email marketing, reservation sales, paid advertising, and content creation. How would you d ---------- whether to hire four specialists, combine some of these responsibilities, use part-time employees, or outsource certain functions?
Tell us about a time someone reporting to you was not performing well. What did you do?
If you were hired, what would you want to understand and accomplish during your first 30 days?
What metrics would you want to see every week if you were responsible for Backland's marketing?
What hours are you normally available to work?

At the very end of your application, include the phrase:

ONE AMAZING TEAM

Applications that do not follow these instructions will not be considered.