Account Manager (And Artist of Campaigns!)

The Shelf is a full-service influencer marketing creative + strategy agency with our own proprietary SaaS platform. We use our in-house software to plan, execute, manage, and optimize our clients’ campaigns from start to finish. This “start to finish” is where you come in, because you’ll be running our campaigns… and trust me when I say you’ll be leading the charge. At any given time, it’s not unusual for our AMs to co-manage anywhere from 6-11 large-scale influencer marketing campaigns for our clients (sometimes more).

It’s also worth noting right here that we have our hands full running campaigns, guys. So, we will only contact those candidates who are most likely to be a good fit for the role. We’ll respond quickly when that’s the case. But if you don’t hear from us, please don’t feel slighted. Rally on – there’s a role out there that’s probably a better fit for your awesome skillset.

[Take a breath]

We’re about to do a deep dive into the ins and outs of what it means to be an Account Manager with one of the fastest-growing private companies in America (Inc 5000’s words, not ours – but humble brag nevertheless). By now, you may already have gotten an idea that this job is only going to be a good fit for a select (read, very select 🕵️‍♀️ ) few.  The awesomest out of the bunch.

We know it takes time and resources to onboard and train the right people. Then more time and resources to retrain new people when the right people move on to other endeavors OR – cue screeching strings from the original black and white version of Psycho – we onboard and train someone who ended up not being the “right people.”

So, to make sure we’re a good fit for each other, we have our Account Managers (and basically everyone else) start out with contract work first. This includes up to 3 weeks of contract work (up to 10 hours per week for a max of 30 hours) just to test things out. Why contract work? It gives you the chance to run screaming from the insanity of agency life and it gives us a chance to make sure you’re a good fit for this role. 

And don’t worry:  we’re happy to walk through this more if you get to the interview stage.

This is a remote position. And, if your brain just registered “remote” as “time for some 😎 chillaxing”, think again buddy.  Despite this being a remote role, we expect a high level of commitment and communication, no different than if you were working in an office. (Seriously, there’s NO difference as far as the time and effort required  to be a total BOSS in this role.) We are a small, but formidable team.  Each person’s efforts are crucial to our success as an organization. And slacking doesn’t slip by unnoticed.

But…

If you are someone who takes initiative 🦸🏽‍♀️ and aims to support your team and clients in the best possible ways, it will be noticed and you will have plenty (PLENTY!) of opportunity to grow within the company. You will be working remotely during typical business hours and interacting with our team and clients on the regular – so get ready to show your face on Google Hangouts.

We are looking for someone who is equal measures kind yet firm, sassy yet smart, cool yet humble. We want someone who’s serious about doing their job, yet doesn’t take themselves too seriously. If you’ve got an ego or an attitude, you honestly won’t make it past the first interview. The Account Management team is really nice, collaborative, and helpful. We expect the same sort of kickass attitude from newcomers.

Though not mandatory, we prefer that you come with agency experience or a similar background that translates well into #agencylife. The fast-paced, ball-juggling nature of agencies is not for everyone. And it’s easier to know if a scrappy agency is the best place for you if you’ve done the agency thing before. We want to avoid bringing in new team members who are more turtle than hare. More polar vortex than spring bloom. Because no one wants to work with somebody who sucks. If you’re the type of person who is easily overwhelmed by any kind of hustle and bustle, by clients who need your attention, and by tasks that compete for your attention, well… 😏

That’s pretty much why we’re looking for someone who HAS worked in an agency environment, has assessed that #agencylife IS the right pace for them, and IS excited to dive in with us. I’ll caveat this by saying if you don’t have agency experience BUT you thrive in a fast-paced, overwhelming (😁) environment, apply anyway!

👨‍👨‍👧‍👦 Co-managing campaigns: Each account manager co-manages at least six campaigns at any given point in time (usually more), depending on the complexity of the campaign. You’ll need to stay on top of the status of each of your campaigns, as well as keep your manager informed. At the start of a campaign, you’ll be working closely with your client to collect all remaining details needed to hammer out a formal campaign brief.

🔎 Influencer selection: You’ll also be in charge of selecting relevant influencers based on the campaign requirements AND your client’s preferences. This includes influencer outreach – oftentimes en masse – and negotiations to gauge each influencer’s interest and availability to participate in the campaign. (It would be nice if you have some experience with outreach and/or negotiations, though not required.)

✅ Client approvals: As the campaign progresses, there will be various rounds of client approvals, including their final influencer selections and post approvals. This will require you to be in constant communication with influencers to guide them through the process.

📣 Official influencer liaison: Throughout the campaign, you’ll be working very closely with the influencers themselves… negotiating, building relationships, checking their content, answering questions, providing suggestions, helping them complete their deliverables, ensuring all requirements have been met, and validating that all tracking-related code is intact and correctly installed. Basically: you become an influencer wrangler.

📊 Reports: You will also be creating a report at the end of each campaign, which we’ll share over a presentation with our clients. This is where you need to put your data hat on. And then your presentation hat, too.

🎉 Etc.: There’s really quite a bit more to the role. For candidates who progress through to the phone interview stage of the hiring process, that’s when I’ll walk you through the full scope of job duties.

Here is a fun visual breakdown of the qualities and characteristics (related to this role) that we find important when hiring. (There are more qualities listed below that we feel are more global… these are specific to the Account Management role.)

• We provide the usual benefits: 👩🏽‍⚕️ Medical, 🦷 Dental, and 👁 Vision. (The medical insurance is through Aetna, which is really pretty good.)
• We just started doing 401K’s (with a pretty sweet match, too)! Yay!
• We are all remote now, thanks to COVID-19… so that might be a perk if you hate commuting.
• If we ever decide to have an office again, you can be darn sure it’ll be super cool-looking and dog-friendly! 🐶
• We’re a small company without the typical corporate hoops… People who perform well end up advancing quickly.
• We’re a small yet nimble team that works hard and is incredibly supportive of one another. Particularly when looking at our Account Management team, you will find that each person is supportive and ready to lend a hand. (While the work itself might be challenging, we don’t want our people to feel challenged to get the help or coaching they need.) Our AM team meets as a group weekly just to check in and help each other through any and all campaign challenges. We also make time weekly for workshops so that everyone can get up to speed on the various things to learn in the industry (and with our platform too). Lastly, we meet with each smaller team daily to ensure that everyone feels ready to tackle their tasks for the day! Got more questions on culture or team structure? Feel free to ask me!

• We’re a team of 50.
• We’re growing.
• We’re about as scattered as a team can be… East Coast, West Coast, the middle of the country… a bunch of us are in Canada, 1 in Ukraine, 1 in Russia… we like to keep our options open in terms of company retreat locations.
• About half of us are really funny.
• We’re currently working with some pretty amazing brands: Famous Footwear, Zenni Optical, KISS, Lenox, a big chain of malls (I don’t think I’m allowed to say who), a big toilet brand (again… I don’t think I’m allowed to say who, but you probably sit on this brand every morning), Honest Co., Hershey, Yelp… just to name a few.

We’re a pretty down-to-earth bunch, so if you’re interested in applying, in lieu of an elaborate cover letter, you can email me at sabrina@theshelf.com AND email  Christina at christina@theshelf.com.  Include bullet points with the info requested in the next section…

👀 (Keep Reading)

• The job you are applying for.
• A link to your Linkedin profile.
• What job site sent you our way.
• Your location.
• Your phone number.
• A rundown on how experienced you are with the influencer marketing space… Have you worked with them? Have you done client work in the influencer space? Stuff like that.
• A summary of why you feel like you’d be good for this role.
• A note about your agency experience, if you have any (and why #agencylife is for you). Or, if you don’t have agency experience, why you thrive in this sort of fast-paced environment.
• Please let me know what sort of salary you have in mind. I’d hate to waste your time if you’re wanting a salary that’s beyond the realm of possibility for us.
• BONUS – Send a video clip with your application and share why you’re a good candidate and what makes you stand out for this role.

Tips on how to get your application noticed (assuming that’s what you’re shooting for):

• Applications that are submitted using a job site (instead of being emailed to the above email address) will not be considered.
• Please don’t have typos. (#FunLittleTip: Install Grammarly. It’s a game-changer.)
• It would be great if you could try to sound cool. We write in a colloquial, one-with-the-people-while-still-being-basically-grammatically-correct style. And while this style of writing is not a requirement, keep in mind that we receive a decent number of applicants every day, and 90% of those applications are boring AF. The ones that have a fun “voice” and quirky writing style immediately stand out. In a good way.
• Lastly, put yourself in the shoes of the person in charge of interviewing… What do you think that person would want to hear? Talk about that stuff and leave off anything that isn’t super relevant.

Generally speaking, a lot of you will probably find this job post in line with your skill set, and I bet a lot of you probably have the skills necessary to perform the requirements of this role. But… the characteristics that define what it’s like to actually work with you are also very important to us. Think of these requirements more in terms of culture-fit requirements:

🕺 Our company has a very fast-paced environment. It might feel disorganized from time to time because we’re also a small company. We need each employee to be the type of person who can go with the flow. Who can adjust quickly. Who is able to embrace chaos with open arms when it decides to waltz through the door.

🏎 Due to the aforementioned fast-paced environment, you should be the type of person who is able to execute quickly… within time constraints. WHILE still maintaining quality. We don’t ask for the impossible. But what we don’t want to see are projects that are slapped together and riddled with issues when we’re in a time crunch. Instead, we’d like to see people make adjustments and figure out how to make it work. We’re looking for resourceful people who approach projects with that there’s-more-than-one-way-to-skin-a-cat attitude.

📈 I’ve never interviewed anyone who has said that they have bad work ethic… but there’s a big difference between people who show up and do what gets assigned to them, and those who take initiative… Those people who take pride in their projects and who go above and beyond because they have that drive for personal achievement and growth. We don’t want to micro-manage. We want to work with self-motivated people who are neurotic about quality.

✅ People who don’t proofread drive me nuts!

👿 While I feel like I shouldn’t have to mention this, we’ve worked with people in the past who ran around like a bunch of crazed loose cannons… yelling at coworkers, constantly complaining, deploying the cold-shoulder on a regular basis… passive aggressive. So if you’re not a nice person… that won’t really work for us. We really need everyone to exude positivity.

👂 You need to be receptive to feedback. This is a quality that we find candidates have trouble self-assessing. But try hard, because we give feedback when needed. We’re too small of a company to just let people do whatever they want to do. (Side-note… no one loves feedback. That’s fine. I don’t either really. But will you take it nicely? Will you incorporate it? Are you going to be passive aggressive while doing it? Have you ever been told not to “cut off your nose to spite your face”? These are questions you should ask yourself).

😺 Influencer marketing is constantly changing, so we’re looking for people who are curious and eager to learn. Let’s say, for example, a client mentions in passing how they’re doing whitelisting on Instagram (and we’ll assume you don’t know what that means). Are you going to just nod your head and say you understand it when you don’t? Or, are you going to jot down a note, do some research, and become a whitelisting expert for the next client conversation? Because we need the latter.

👩🏽‍💻 If you’re working remotely, you need to actually be working. No one likes a freeloader.

👆🏾 Are you ambitious? It’s not a requirement, but if you are… there’s lots of room for career growth. Plus, we like to hire our managers from within the team, so there is a very clear path to the next level (if that’s of interest to you).

Here at The Shelf, we truly believe it’s our differences that have allowed us to come together and form such a cohesive and all-encompassing whole. Our mission as a company is to help our clients stand out amongst the crowd… to be different and impactful. And since we’re a team made up of diverse people with all different backgrounds and experiences, we’re able to do this naturally. 🙋🏽‍♂️🙋🙋🏾‍♀️🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏾‍♂️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏾

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.

I could honestly go on and on (because I’m long-winded, in case you couldn’t tell that by now), but I’m going to stop here. The point is, you gotta have the chops AND play well with others. And if you’re giddy already, feeling like this job description is just so dead-on-b*lls accurate for you, perfect! We can’t wait to hear from you.

If you’re lacking a skill or two but still feel pumped, feel free to mention it in your cover letter. We’re a small company who’s big into personal growth and supporting up-and-coming go-getters!

Oh, and one last thing… Please add the word Toggle to your subject line when applying so that I know that you read this entire post.