Direct Marketing Manager (Acquisition)

Role:                                  Direct Marketing Manager (Acquisition)  

Closing date:                     23/04/2025

Interview date:                  13/04/2024

Hybrid working (8 office days per month)


Our offer to you

We pride ourselves in being a great place to work, providing a supportive culture with opportunities to grow and develop your career, achieve a healthy work life balance and to be recognised for the great work you do. You will receive:

• Competitive salary and pension scheme
• 33 days holiday (inclusive of bank holidays) - increasing to 38 days over 5 years
• Hybrid, Flexible working
• Cycle to work scheme Electric Vehicle Scheme
• Health and Wellbeing portal – access to financial, health and wellbeing support and an Employee Assistance Programme
• Discounts – you will have access to Blue Light and NHS Discounts as well as discounts on mobile phones, gym membership, cinema tickets, restaurants, holidays and shopping

About Us

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a team of over 1,400 employees and over 31,000 volunteers, united by our goal of saving lives through essential first aid services, training and campaigning.  As a charity with rich heritage and a long history of serving humanity, we are proud of our past and excited about creating a healthier, safer, more resilient future. 

St John Ambulance works at the heart of communities, supporting and enabling them to access and receive physical and mental health first aid. We do this through developing and providing effective community response and outreach services (e.g. Ambulance response & Nighttime Economy) and using our longstanding expertise to empower people with vital clinical skills and the confidence to use them (e.g. our Volunteers and Community Advocates, NHS Cadets and Young Responders programmes). There is also a buoyant social enterprise network which delivers first aid training and supplies medical consumables to businesses and consumers.

Job Summary

Taking a leading role as part of the Individual Giving management team, you play an important part in helping to achieve a step change in the growth of the net voluntary income of St John. The role will work closely across Individual Giving and the wider Fundraising Directorate to develop an evolving supporter acquisition strategy that will aim to recruit new supporters with a focus on digital. The role needs to focus on managing the implementation of the strategy including using insight and data to develop, implement, manage, monitor and evaluate campaigns across a range of channels, with a cutting edge and contemporary approach whilst staying current with the continuously changing legislation and support climate. Responsibilities include working with agencies and suppliers to project manage the full cycle of direct marketing campaigns.

About You

• Significant experience in a third sector direct marketing role
• Track record in managing effective digital campaigns on a national or regional basis
• Experience of using fundraising databases e.g. Raiser’s Edge, Microsoft Dynamics or similar
• Extensive experience of using a variety of fundraising channels including digital, email social media, direct mail, telemarketing and SMS
• Experience of leading a revenue generating team, including generation of six figure acquisition income 

About the Role

• Oversee the supporter acquisition programme, taking responsibility for outstanding donor recruitment with the highest standard of quality and compliance and ensuring a diverse programme mix; ensuring they are in market on time, on budget and on brand.
• Develop an annual plan of acquisition activity; monitoring and analysing all campaign results, with ongoing test and learn mechanisms in place to drive continuous improvement and making recommendations for future activity to effectively maximise income and ROI
• Working collaboratively with key fundraising and data teams; lead the development and continuous improvement of new supporter product development
• Strong agency relationship management across a variety of partners and suppliers, from building relationships and negotiating to contract and routine performance reviews
• Lead on all KPI tracking, trend analysis and interrogation of results at all levels; including programme optimisation to ensure targets are met and contingency planning as required.
• Work closely with key colleagues across individual giving and in other directorates to ensure they are involved in relevant aspects of acquisition activity  

Please see the job description for more detail (this can be viewed on our website or once you click apply)

If you are a current St John Ambulance employee, please apply here: Click here

For all other candidates, or St John Ambulance volunteers wishing to apply: please apply below

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive high volume of applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

St John Ambulance are committed to increasing the diversity of our team and making sure we best reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.   At St John, everyone is valued and supported to thrive, we have several networks including Multi Culture, Disability and Accessibility, Pride, Family and Carers and Women’s groups.  We do not tolerate any form of discrimination and engender a sense of belonging for all, by creating an environment of mutual respect, where we value unique differences and demonstrate authentic allyship. We believe passionately in equality, diversity and inclusion.   

St John Ambulance is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice. Therefore, all successful applicants will undergo pre-employment checks, including DBS Clearance, as part of the onboarding process, if applicable to the nature of the role

Please note: St John does not accept speculative CVs and will only review CVs sent in application for an advertised vacancy.