Direct Marketing Acquisition Manager (Direct Response)

Direct Marketing Acquisition Manager (Direct Response)

You will develop and oversee a specialist area of direct response marketing, taking responsibility for paid media activity resulting in giving and prize-led support, and the associated programme and products. You will ensure the highest standard of quality and compliance, across a diverse programme mix. You ll manage significant income and expenditure budgets and deliver exceptional fundraising campaigns to drive an ambitious growth plan, accelerating progress towards a cure.

Collaborating with different teams across the charity, you ll be planning, managing and delivering the direct marketing programme across a range of media including digital, TV, telephone, and print. Activities in the acquisition portfolio are diverse; from delivering an established, successful core programme to playing an important role in exciting cross-organisational projects.

You ll work with a team of three across a range of channels, media and projects at the charity; speaking to range of audiences with one theme in common compelling people to stand with us for a cure.

Key Responsibilities:

Programme and campaign management

Lead the development and delivery of the direct marketing acquisition programme and strategy, with a particular focus on the direct response elements.

To be responsible for reviewing and developing our Weekly Lottery Strategy to maximize income.

Oversee the delivery of the direct response acquisition campaigns; ensuring they are in market on time, on budget and on brand.

Deliver consistent, structured testing to ensure continuous improvement. Where appropriate and worthwhile, ensure testing is applied to all activity and reviewed with recommendations acted upon.

Involvement in charity-wide projects and groups; putting supporters at the heart of what we do, as well as playing a key role in the delivery of our Fundraising & Marketing Strategy.

Management of all key acquisition suppliers including routine reviews, briefing, optimisation and general relationship management.

Annual planning of acquisition direct marketing; including input to operational planning and development of relevant marketing plans.

Ensure the campaign planning and delivery cycle is adhered to across the team, and all stakeholders are well managed.

Ensure routine end of campaign reviews and analysis (with suppliers as well as your own), with proactive adaptation of plans to optimise results.

Ensure contingency plans and activities are in place to close any expected income gaps.

People management

Management and development of a team of three, with two direct reports.

Empowering team members to succeed and grow with clear, SMART goals and development plans in place.

Complete routine 1-1 meetings and annual appraisals with direct reports.

Developing a high performing team who work collaboratively across the charity.

Agency relationship management across a variety of partners and suppliers, from building relationships and negotiating, to contract and routine performance reviews.

Working closely with the Supporter Care and Data teams to ensure the acquisition activity and processes are well understood and that they can support the team as best possible.

Budget management and reporting

Annual budgeting of direct marketing programmes and campaigns.

Regular forecasting in line with the annual cycle, making recommendations around budget allocation and managing expectations throughout.

KPI tracking, trend analysis and interrogation of results at all levels.

Regular financial performance reporting.

Programme optimisation to ensure contribution targets are met and contingency planning as required.

Detailed reporting geared towards a longer-term view of performance, covering long-term & ROI modelling, lifetime value and considering supporter experience and engagement.

What we are looking for:

Budget management experience preferably across expenditure and income

Campaign management specifically direct marketing campaigns

Media planning experience across a range of media types

Agency management including creative and professional acquisition fundraising agencies as well as others such as printers and market researchers

Demonstrable people management experience

Ability to understand complex data sets and compile meaningful reports and analysis

Excellent attention to detail

Strategic and critical thinking

Getting the best out of people and agencies

Understanding of compliance in direct marketing

Additional Information:

Ways of working: As part of our Agile ways of working you will be required to work approximately 2 days a week from the office, which is subject to the requirements of the role and the business needs. Flexibility on where you work can be split between working from home and our office.

Roles that are classed as part of the Agile ways of working are not able to claim any costs for Mileage/Travel on Public Transport, Accommodation and/or Meals. This includes when attending the office for various meetings/events.

Our Office: Our office is at 3 Riverside, Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge, CB21 6AD.

Salary: Circa £44,000 per annum, plus benefits.

Please download the Vacancy Pack on our website for more information.

The closing date for applications is the 4th January 2026, with interviews being arrange once shortlisting has been completed. Please indicate in your covering letter if you are unable to attend an interview on a certain date. We would encourage you to submit your application at the earliest opportunity, as on occasion we may have to bring forward the interview date and/or the closing date based on the needs of the business. Although a possibility, this will only happen in exceptional circumstances. Please indicate in your covering letter if you are unable to attend an interview on a certain date.