External Communications Manager - The Custom Group of Companies

Summary
As an External Communications Manager, you will play a pivotal part in fostering meaningful connections between our business and external stakeholders. Reporting to the Vice President of External Communications, you will partner with teams across the Commercial business to develop audience-focused content for activation across external communications channels in support of the Commercial portfolio and objectives.
With a proven ability to drive results through collaboration and a passion for fostering relationships that benefit both the business and customers, you will create and implement engaging, educational content for Commercial audiences. Your core areas of focus will include strategy and content for social media, the corporate blog and earned media, and direct customer communications support.
The role is based in Parsippany, NJ with a hybrid 3:2 (in-office: work from home option) and travel to other facilities and events, as needed.

Essential Duties
Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Gain a deep understanding of the Commercial business and its products, its core audiences including Architects, Specifiers, Building Owners and Commercial Contractors, the industry landscape and corporate positioning and translate that into compelling content that reinforces company's leadership in the space.
• Partner with Commercial Product Management in the communications and content planning process to support the Commercial portfolio, balancing customer interests and business objectives.
• Serve as the primary representative for External Communications in all Commercial marketing planning meetings to align on business priorities and timelines, and make commitments on where External Communications will support each initiative across channels.
• Partner with the External Communications Center of Excellence (CoE) on earned media strategy and execution for Commercial, including the development of integrated communications plans to highlight product announcements, customer and project profiles, and thought leadership. Develop press releases, talking points, web and social media copy for announcements and other key external communications as needed.
• Lead social media and blog content strategy and development for Commercial, determining how to best support business and audience needs on owned channels. Lead content ideation/story mining and content development for products and services, partnering with Creative Services to incorporate content requests into briefs and leveraging external partners as needed to develop compelling content that is aligned to campaign guidelines and approved claims, as well as channel best practices.
• Manage the end-to-end editorial workflow for Commercial blog content focused on products & solutions, in collaboration with stakeholders and partners, from ideation and SEO strategy to assignment and article development—ensuring content moves through the workflow process, has the necessary approvals, is optimized and ready for publishing. Ensure content assignments come in, are published, and retired (when applicable) on schedule.
• Partner with the External Communications CoE to integrate content plans into the respective editorial calendars for earned, social media and blog channels.
• Collaborate with the CoE to drive both reactive and proactive social media engagement with current and potential followers. Ensure the shared social care response database is up-to-date for all topics and serve as the point of escalation when needed.
• Leverage monthly/quarterly reporting and real-time access to dashboards to continuously assess earned media, social and blog performance and share of voice for the Commercial business to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Deploy benchmarking and social listening tools to keep a pulse on competitive and market trends. Actively share insights with internal partners across the Commercial business, providing inspiration and thought leadership on new ways to engage target audiences.

• Cultivate a deep understanding of Commercial customer needs through direct engagement (e.g., sales ridealongs, events and virtual meetings).
• Provide External Communications counsel, collaboration and templates to our top-tier customers, supporting and amplifying their efforts to increase external visibility of their business success and social impact within their communities.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Marketing, or a related field.
• 7-10+ years of related experience.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills: proven capability to manage everything from strategy to the small details needed to execute the programs
• Strong writing and editing skills, and ability to effectively partner across multiple stakeholders, external and internal writers and designers to shepherd content to final, approved state.
• Ability to move with intention around work and drive consensus across a diverse, cross-functional organization.
• Knowledge of and ability to leverage data analytics to inform decisions and drive continuous improvement.
• Ability to travel as needed - approximately 10%.

Nice To Have

• Confident written and verbal communicator across multiple stakeholder groups and levels
• Willingness to challenge the status quo and identify new opportunities to explore.
• Knowledge of media relations and proven ability to secure coverage in support of business objectives.
• Understanding of social media platforms and community management, including experience with enterprise tools for social media engagement, reporting and listening.
• Experience with blog/SEO best practices, content marketing platforms and workflow management.