Demand Marketing Manager

Company Introduction

WorldStrides is the global leader in educational travel and experiential learning. The company was founded in 1967 to provide middle school travel programs to Washington, D.C. and has grown to provide a wide range of programs for more than half a million students annually to over 100 countries around the world. WorldStrides offers experiential learning programs in educational travel, performing arts, language immersion, career exploration, service-learning, study abroad, and sports.

Each of these experiences helps students to see beyond the classroom and to see the world – and themselves – in new ways.

Job Description:

WorldStrides is seeking a proactive, results-driven individual for the role of Demand Marketing Manager, reporting to the Director, Demand Marketing.

As part of our marketing transformation, we're building a modern, digital-first growth engine. Our goal is to reach more prospective families, deepen customer relationships, and drive enrollment across our portfolio of experiences.

The Demand Marketing Manager drives enrollment growth through acquisition programs across digital and direct mail channels. The role generates qualified inquiries, improves marketing efficiency, and converts prospective families into enrolled travelers. The ideal candidate brings deep digital lead generation expertise and strong analytical skills. They also have an ownership mindset: they spot problems early and act on them without waiting to be asked.

Responsibilities:

• Acquisition Strategy & Growth
• Develop and execute acquisition strategies that drive qualified inquiries, enrollments, and revenue growth.
• Partner with the Creative and Analytics teams to design marketing strategies that reach new and existing audiences.
• Build marketing programs aligned to business objectives, audience needs, and customer insights.
• Coordinate campaigns across digital and direct mail channels to maximize reach, engagement, and conversion.
• Channel Strategy & Performance Marketing
• Lead acquisition efforts across paid search, paid social, display, retargeting, direct mail, and emerging channels.
• Recommend channel mix and investment levels based on audience behavior, business objectives, and performance trends.
• Partner with agencies and vendors to ensure strong execution and measurable results.
• Stay current on emerging acquisition channels, technologies, and best practices to identify new growth opportunities.
• Audience Strategy
• Use first-party data from the CRM, website behavior, inquiries, and enrollments to inform segmentation, targeting, suppression, and lookalike strategies.
• Translate customer, campaign, and market insights into recommendations that improve targeting, conversion, and efficiency.
• Testing & Optimization
• Contribute to testing roadmaps and run experiments across audience, message, offer, creative, channel, timing, and landing pages.
• Optimize landing pages, forms, and conversion paths to improve lead quality and conversion rates.
• Analyze results, scale what works, and apply learnings to future campaigns.
• Measurement & Reporting
• Build and maintain performance reporting in Power BI. Track lead volume, conversion rates, cost per lead, cost per enrollment, and marketing ROI.
• Partner with the Analytics, Sales, and business teams to align acquisition strategy, messaging, and lead follow-up with enrollment goals.
• Help ensure a seamless customer journey from first engagement through inquiry and enrollment.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, business, communications, or a related field.
• 6+ years of experience in demand generation, acquisition marketing, or performance marketing.
• Hands-on experience in paid search and paid social lead generation, including audience targeting, retargeting, and conversion optimization.
• Proven record of driving measurable results across paid and owned marketing channels.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to translate data into clear actions and recommendations.
• Hands-on experience with Power BI or a similar reporting tool.
• Experience influencing marketing budgets and optimizing investment based on performance.
• A proactive problem solver who takes ownership and thrives in a changing environment.
• Strong project management, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Preferred: Experience in education, travel, or another high-consideration purchase industry.
• Experience with direct mail or other offline acquisition channels.
• Experience building and activating audiences using first-party data.
• Experience working with agency partners and external vendors.
• Experience developing testing strategies and measurement frameworks.
• Experience in a performance-focused or private equity-backed environment.
• Success Measures: Growth in qualified inquiries and enrollments.
• Measurable improvement in cost per lead and cost per enrollment.
• Improved acquisition efficiency across digital and direct mail channels.
• Testing programs that produce actionable insights and measurable performance gains.
• Effective collaboration across the Marketing, Analytics, Sales, and business teams.
• Work Perks: Comprehensive health benefits: medical, dental, vision, life, AD&D, accident, critical illness, disability insurance, FSA/HSA options with employer HSA contributions, and a generous 401(k) match.
• Generous paid time off including 11 paid company holidays, 25 PTO days the first year (prorated), 1 paid volunteer day, 4 mental health days, and bereavement
• Professional development support, including up to $5,250 annually for tuition reimbursement and up to $1,000 for certifications annually
• Opportunities for paid and discounted travel
• Flexible work schedule providing on-site, remote, and hybrid office opportunities
• Encouraged participation in a wide variety of Employee Resource Groups
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and wellness resources, including fitness centers at select locations
• Paid parental, caregiver, and disability leave
• Team Member Discount Program
• Engaging, collaborative, and fun work environment

The salary range listed for this position represents WorldStrides’ good-faith estimate of the base compensation for the role at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors such as relevant experience, skills and qualifications, geographic location, internal equity, and market conditions. The range does not include other forms of compensation or benefits that may be offered as part of the total rewards package.