Head of Marketing

Job description

​At Nedstar, a leading global supplier in the commodities market, we're on the lookout for a proficient Head of Marketing. This role demands an ability to seamlessly weave strategy into every marketing initiative, ensuring our narratives resonate compellingly across global markets. Are you enthusiastic about leading our marketing team, strategising dynamic marketing campaigns, leveraging impactful content and varied creative formats tailored for international audiences? We seek a marketing professional with at least 3 years of experience as a marketing leader, someone adept at amplifying brands, creating demand, capturing it, and creating measurable outcomes to align our marketing efforts with our strategic goals.

About the role and key responsibilities

As our first in-house Head of Marketing, you will oversee a diverse team of passionate young professionals within Nedstar, talented freelancers, and external specialists from partnered agencies, all of whom have been carefully selected for their alignment with Nedstar's core values. Alongside this team, you'll work closely with our dedicated commercial managers, each focused on specific niches in global markets, such as food & beverage, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and the industrial sector. Together with our commercial team, you will jointly steer the course of our commercial success reflected in the number of deals we close and the subsequent growth we achieve.

In the past few years, Nedstar has ignited its marketing initiatives. Though we have clear short-term marketing plans, the role of the Head of Marketing goes beyond the playbook. You'll start a special journey to improve our marketing strategies, aiming for long-term success. This role offers a chance to delve deeply into our products and industries, and if you're keen to shape a role, grow with it and willing to learn quickly, this position is made for you. As our full-time in-house Head of Marketing, you'll have an array of key responsibilities to steer Nedstar's marketing efforts towards further achievements.

• Team management and hiring: lead and grow a diverse team of in-house professionals, freelancers, and external agency specialists, ensuring alignment with Nedstar's core values and objectives. Create a hiring plan including a timeline that is aligned with the marketing strategy.
• Strategic planning and sprints: craft and refine a comprehensive marketing strategy aligned with Nedstar's vision and growth targets. Execute this strategy through weekly sprints to ensure timely achievement of objectives.
• Partnering with the commercial team: Creating a clear marketing plan for entering new markets (next on our list is the US and Asia), make sure marketing created leads are followed up correctly.
• Branding: refine and maintain Nedstar's brand image, ensuring consistent representation across all platforms.
• Content strategy: work closely with our content marketer to enhance our content plan, highlighting Nedstar's unique value. Guide the crafting of brand-consistent narratives and the development of compelling visuals and videos. We believe in a dual approach. Not only should you be adept at managing processes, but you should also be capable of handling production tasks whenever needed.
• (Paid) social media: collaborate with our content marketer to shape and drive our social media strategy, maintaining active and engaging profiles across all pertinent platforms.
• Conversion rate optimisation: together with our external agency, analyse, test, and optimise user journeys and touchpoints to maximise conversions.
• Lead nurturing & email marketing: develop strategies to cultivate and engage leads, leveraging email campaigns to drive engagement and conversions.
• Performance marketing, Search Engine Advertising (SEA) & Optimisation (SEO): Oversee paid and organic search strategies to maximise visibility and engagement.
• Website development: lead the evolution and optimisation of our website in collaboration with our development agency, ensuring it effectively communicates our value and offers a seamless user experience.
• Data analytics: utilise marketing technology to derive insights, measure effectiveness, and refine strategies.
• Public relations: knowledgeable about the added value of PR. Can foster positive relationships with the media and other stakeholders, positioning Nedstar favourably in the public eye.
• Recruitment marketing: support our recruiter to attract top talent, highlighting Nedstar as a premier employer.

About Nedstar

As Nedstar broadens its horizons in the global commodities market, our goal is to solidify our commercial trajectory. Situated in the historical centre of Amsterdam, we are a Dutch trading, import, and export house specialising in bulk alcohol and ethanol. Our strong commitment to quality, service, and sustainability distinguishes us from the rest. Particularly, our strong emphasis on organic and biological products underpins our marketing strategy, where content-driven initiatives and performance marketing are at the core of our marketing activities. Although the commodities market is traditionally reserved, Nedstar operates with the agility of a scale-up, continually seeking fresh opportunities to grow our market share. This is where the marketing team comes in.

Over the past two years, we've significantly expanded our worldwide marketing presence. This journey has included the launch of an ever-evolving website, compelling blogs, product pages, insightful videos, and vibrant social media activity. Alongside our content efforts, we have actively engaged in PR, performance marketing, and advertising, primarily through Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn Ads, to bolster our market standing. We've set up a robust CRM system with automated workflows to manage our marketing leads. Despite these advancements, there is substantial room for further expansion. We see this role as essential in realizing that potential. While the overarching objectives are clear, you will have the unique opportunity to carve out your own role, create a successful marketing strategy, and expand our existing marketing team.
Your profile

You'll play a pivotal role in nurturing our young marketing and communication team, helping them carve out their unique strengths. Beyond just leadership, we envision the Head of Marketing as a co-working foreman, being hands-on and working alongside the team, not just directing from a distance. With expertise in project-based management, you'll support the team in efficient sprint-running and task management, ensuring everyone stays on track. Your collaborative spirit will be key in bringing different perspectives together, but we also value someone who can decisively make a call when it's crunch time.

Your educational background in marketing, media, or communication, serves as a solid foundation. You have a clear vision in your field that inspires and excites your colleagues. You're familiar with both traditional and digital marketing channels and stay updated with the latest societal trends. You're adept at guiding diverse team, fuelled by a strong culture of inclusion and psychological safety, where each individual feels supported and appreciated. While prior knowledge in trading or commodities is a plus, we're especially keen on your genuine enthusiasm for our markets.

You are commercially minded and can stand your ground in a complex organisation. Communication skills in English are a must in our company. If you can add a second language like French, German, Spanish, or Portuguese to the mix, it's fantastic. Dutch? That's a welcome bonus.

What we are looking for

• Bachelor or – preferably - a master's degree in marketing, media, communications, or related disciplines.
• Proficiency in English; knowledge of French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, or Dutch will be a plus.
• 3 - 5+ years of proven experience in B2B marketing management, preferably in commodities or trading.
• Being part of a close-knit team of 25, the ability to not only manage but also work hands-on, almost like a collaborative foreman, is crucial at Nedstar.
• A self-starter with a keen understanding of the topics that most influence our marketing outcomes.
• Comprehensive understanding of SEO (Google Search Console), SEA (Google Ads and Bing Ads), content management systems (Craft), CRM (HubSpot) and analytics tools (Google Analytics 4).
• Acumen for project management; familiarity with agile methodologies will be advantageous.
• Proactive, collaborative, self-critical and always seeking to improve. Possessing a growth mindset, which is one of our 5 core values.
• Empathetic management, effective communication, and team collaboration skills, along with a solid ability for creative problem-solving and adaptability in dynamic environments.
• Excellent skills in managing relationships with stakeholders.
• A quintessential NedSTAR - resilient, adaptable, and a spirited go-getter.

What is in it for you?

We believe people make Nedstar and we have a very enthusiastic and passionate team who work smartly to exceed expectations. We are incredibly proud to take care of our employees and give them all the support we can to be happy, healthy and high performing.

Perks and Benefits:

• Play an instrumental role in shaping Nedstar's marketing blueprint in a comparatively traditional market.
• You will have lots of autonomy and the sky is the limit: if you have a good idea, there is a high chance you can execute it. We also have the resources to do so.
• Nedstar is a multilingual, multi-national, global player: you will deal with lots of different markets: Europe, Africa, Asia, North/South America.
• We have a website, some blogs and social media channels, however we have just started. There are many marketing channels and formats to discover
• Our products are super interesting We source it globally from multiple origins like grains, sugar cane or fruits, we care about CSR and sustainability, and organically produced alcohol is a fast-growing market. There is a lot to tell
• We're committed to nurturing your talents, providing ample room for growth and continuous learning. This includes paid language classes, training courses, and a personalised coaching program.
• Competitive salary package with a bonus based on both your performance and the company's performance.
• Open, friendly, fun-loving company culture with experienced, enthusiastic colleagues happy to support you.
• Regular fun social activities, including boat trips (we bought a boat last year for after work downtime) and amazing annual company trips (last year in Italy).
• Delicious and healthy free office lunches. A beautiful, centuries-old canal house offices on the Herengracht in the heart of Amsterdam.
• Flexibility in your work hours. So, if you like going for a run during office hours, we encourage you to do so. Because we believe your well-being is paramount if you're to thrive and be at your best at work.

Interested?

If this sounds like your NEXT in your career path, please send apply via the form by clicking on the link below.

About us

As Nedstar broadens its horizons in the global commodities market, our goal is to solidify our commercial position. Founded in 2018, we are a wholesaler and distributor of ethanol related products catering to diverse sectors such as food and beverage, pharma, cosmetics electronics and other industries. Our strong commitment to quality, service, and sustainability distinguishes us from the rest. With a strong presence in emerging markets and an expanding reach in Africa, Europe, North America, Middle East and Asia, our vision is constantly scaling. Our team, located in the heart of Amsterdam, is dynamic, motivated, and multilingual, together speaking seven languages.

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