CRM Marketing Manager, Subscriptions

Job Description:

Here at Rakuten Kobo Inc. we offer a casual working start-up environment and a group of friendly and talented individuals. Our employees rank us highly in terms of commitment to work/life balance. We realize that for our people to be innovative, creative and passionate they need to feel valued and supported. We believe in rewarding all our employees with competitive salaries, performance based annual bonuses, stock options and training opportunities.

If you’re looking for a company that inspires passion, personal, and professional growth – join Kobo and come help us on our mission of making reading lives better.

The Role:

Rakuten Kobo is looking for a CRM Marketing Manager, Subscriptions to join our CRM & Lifecycle Marketing team.
Reporting to the Senior Manager, CRM, this role will own and optimize key customer journeys across Kobo Plus and Audiobooks, using lifecycle marketing to drive acquisition, trial conversion, engagement, retention and customer lifetime value.
This is a highly data-driven role at the intersection of customer strategy, personalization, experimentation and execution. You will develop targeted lifecycle programs across email, push and emerging channels such as SMS, using customer behaviour and insights to deliver more relevant experiences at every stage of the subscription journey.
You will partner closely with Kobo Plus, Analytics, Creative, Content, Marketing Technology, Product and other teams to identify growth opportunities, develop campaigns and always on journeys, test new approaches and continuously improve performance.
Success in this role means moving beyond individual campaigns to build smarter, more personalized lifecycle experiences that strengthen customer engagement and improve the long-term economics of our subscription businesses.

The Person
You are equal parts customer advocate, marketer and problem solver. You are curious about why customers behave the way they do and are excited by finding ways to make their experience better while improving business performance.
You are comfortable moving between strategy and execution: digging into performance data, developing a lifecycle hypothesis, briefing creative, working through targeting logic and evaluating whether a program worked.
Most importantly, you don't think of CRM as simply sending more emails. You see it as an opportunity to use data, technology, creativity and experimentation to build stronger relationships with customers over time.

What You'll Do
Own the Subscription Customer Lifecycle

• Develop and execute CRM strategies across the Kobo Plus and Audiobooks customer lifecycle, from acquisition and onboarding through engagement, retention, win-back and reactivation.
• Identify opportunities to improve trial-to-paid conversion, content discovery, addto-library behaviour, engagement, retention, and lifetime value.
• Build and optimize always-on automated journeys alongside targeted campaigns and promotional programs.
• Develop strategies for key customer moments including onboarding, trial expiry, declining engagement, churn risk, cancellation and win-back.

Drive Personalization & Experimentation

• Use customer behaviour, preferences, and lifecycle signals to create increasingly personalized and relevant communications.
• Develop segmentation strategies that improve targeting and customer experience.
• Build a strong experimentation roadmap across messaging, creative, offers, timing, frequency, audience and journey design.
• Partner with Analytics to understand customer behaviour, evaluate incremental 
• impact and translate insights into actionable CRM strategies.
• Continuously optimize programs based on performance, customer insights and test results.

Deliver Best-in-Class CRM Programs

• Own campaigns and lifecycle programs end-to-end, from strategy and briefing 
• through execution, QA, launch and post-campaign analysis.
• Write clear, insight-led creative briefs and partner with Creative teams to develop effective customer communications.
• Work closely with Marketing Delivery and Marketing Technology teams to ensure accurate targeting, data logic and execution.
• Maintain high standards for QA, customer experience and operational excellence across all communications.
• Help evolve Kobo's use of email, push, SMS and emerging lifecycle channels.

Partner Across the Business

• Work closely with Subscription, Content, Product, Analytics, Creative, Marketing 
• Technology and other teams to deliver against shared growth objectives.
• Support major subscription initiatives, product launches, promotions and strategic business priorities.
• Bring a strong customer and lifecycle perspective into cross-functional planning.
• Clearly communicate performance, insights, recommendations and opportunities to stakeholders.

What You'll Bring

• 3-5+ years of experience in CRM, lifecycle, retention or digital marketing, ideally within a subscription, e-commerce, streaming, media or consumer technology business.
• Demonstrated experience building lifecycle programs that improve conversion, engagement, retention and/or customer lifetime value.
• Strong understanding of subscription customer journeys, including acquisition, onboarding, trial conversion, engagement, churn prevention and win-back.
• Hands-on experience developing and optimizing email and push programs; experience with SMS or other direct channels is an asset.
• Strong knowledge of segmentation, personalization, marketing automation and A/B testing.
• A highly analytical mindset with the ability to turn performance data and customer insights into clear actions.
• Experience using marketing automation platforms such as Oracle Responsys, Salesforce Marketing Cloud or similar.
• Experience with analytics and reporting platforms such as Google Analytics, Tableau or similar.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple programs and stakeholders simultaneously.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail without losing sight of the broader customer and business opportunity.
• Curiosity about emerging CRM, personalization, AI and lifecycle marketing 
• capabilities.
• Knowledge of privacy regulations, consent management and CRM best practices.

The Perks:

• Flexible hours and hybrid remote working environment
• Subsidized in-office lunches
• Four extended long weekends in the summer
• Full benefits starting from your first day
• Paid Volunteer days, unlimited sick days, and 3% RRSP matching
• Work From Anywhere Program for up to 3 months (90 days)
• Lifestyle spending account
• Talent and development training budget
• Free Kobo device + free weekly e-book or audiobook
• Weekly Kobo Spark sessions
• Maternity/paternity leave top up
• Dog friendly office

About Rakuten Kobo Inc.
Rakuten Kobo Inc. is the world’s digital bookseller created by and for booklovers. Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten Group, Inc. and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo’s millions of worldwide users can read anytime, anywhere, and on any device. With a mission to make reading lives better for all, Rakuten Kobo connects readers to stories using thoughtful and personalized curation of eBooks and audiobooks, and the best dedicated eReaders and apps for reading. With the singular focus of making reading lives the best they can be, Kobo’s open platform allows people to fit reading into more moments in their busy lives. To learn more about Rakuten Kobo, visit www.kobo.com.

Rakuten Kobo Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Accessibility accommodations for candidates with disabilities participating in the selection process are available on request. Any information received related to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially.  

Rakuten Kobo would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted.  

#RKIND

Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.
Always improve, Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen
Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
Hypothesize - Practice - Validate – Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team

Rakuten is an equal opportunity employer. Accessibility accommodations for candidates with disabilities participating in the selection process are available on request. Any information received related to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially. 

As part of our Rakuten interview process, we encourage applicants to use their own words, rather than AI-generated content. Tell us your story in a way that's personal and authentic.

Rakuten would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted.

Beware of fraudulent job offers claiming to be from Rakuten. Rakuten does not send unsolicited job offers or request money during the recruitment process. Learn more: https://rakutenemploymentalert.com/

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the Compensation (base salary + discretionary bonus) for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for stock options, health, vision, dental insurance, RRSP matching, Personal Time Off (PTO), Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.