Chief Marketing Officer

# Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

**Location:** In office — Toronto, Ontario

**Employment type:** Full-time, permanent

**Reports to:** President & Owner

**Travel:** Periodic travel across Canada and the United States to support franchise partners, training, market launches, and brand initiatives

## Build the Marketing Engine Behind Better Learning Outcomes

Prep Academy Tutors is a premium tutoring and academic-support company serving families through a growing network of more than 50 franchise locations across Canada and the United States. We deliver highly personalized in-home and online tutoring, helping students build confidence, master skills, and reach meaningful academic goals.

We are seeking a commercially minded, hands-on **Chief Marketing Officer** to lead the next chapter of our brand and franchise marketing growth. This is not a purely strategic or agency-management role. The successful candidate will set the marketing vision, establish scalable systems, and work directly with franchisees and the corporate team to turn that strategy into measurable local demand, qualified leads, enrolments, referrals, and durable brand equity.

The CMO will own the full marketing ecosystem: brand strategy and governance; performance marketing; website and conversion optimization; CRM and lifecycle marketing; content and social media; reputation and referral programs; market-launch marketing; analytics; and franchisee education, coaching, and accountability. The role is in-office and requires an energetic operator who can move comfortably between executive-level planning, creative direction, data analysis, vendor management, and practical franchisee support.

> **Our goal:** Create a consistent, trusted North American brand while giving every franchise partner practical, measurable marketing support to grow sustainably in their local market.

## The Opportunity at a Glance

| Area | What You Will Own |

|---|---|

| Brand leadership | Positioning, messaging, visual identity, brand standards, local-market adaptation, and reputation stewardship. |

| Franchise growth | Marketing playbooks, launch plans, training, coaching, campaign templates, and performance support for 50+ franchisees. |

| Demand generation | Paid digital advertising, local search, organic acquisition, partnerships, referrals, email nurture, and conversion-rate optimization. |

| CRM and lifecycle marketing | HubSpot architecture, lead routing, segmentation, automation, reporting, franchise adoption, and sales–marketing alignment. |

| Digital experience | Corporate and local-market web strategy, landing pages, SEO foundations, online booking/contact funnels, and continuous testing. |

| Team and partners | Build and lead a high-performing internal marketing function and manage specialist agencies, freelancers, and technology partners. |

| Measurement | Marketing investment, pipeline contribution, qualified-lead volumes, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, retention, referral activity, and franchisee adoption. |

## Key Responsibilities

### 1. Set the Marketing and Brand Strategy

You will develop and execute a multi-year marketing strategy that supports corporate priorities, franchise system growth, local market performance, customer acquisition, retention, and brand differentiation. You will translate company objectives into an annual marketing plan, operating calendar, budget, KPIs, and a clear cadence for measuring results and reallocating investment.

You will sharpen Prep Academy Tutors' brand positioning for parents, students, educators, community partners, prospective franchisees, and referral sources. You will protect a cohesive, high-quality brand experience across all customer touchpoints while creating practical approved assets and guardrails that allow franchisees to market confidently and effectively in their own communities.

### 2. Lead Franchise Marketing, Launches, Training, and Coaching

You will create a scalable franchise marketing system that makes strong marketing execution easier at the local level. This includes standardized market-launch plans, 30/60/90-day opening campaigns, localized annual marketing calendars, campaign-in-a-box materials, budget frameworks, local partnership guidance, referral programs, and playbooks for online and community-based demand generation.

You will develop and deliver onboarding training for new franchisees covering business-start-up marketing, local market analysis, ideal-customer targeting, competitive positioning, lead generation, HubSpot usage, follow-up standards, campaign execution, budgeting, and business planning. You will also provide ongoing group training and one-on-one coaching, identify performance gaps, and help franchisees convert marketing activity into disciplined growth plans.

You will establish clear service levels and routines for franchise marketing support, including office hours, training sessions, performance reviews, resource libraries, campaign briefings, and structured feedback loops. You will work closely with franchise operations and leadership to ensure marketing initiatives are practical, adopted, measured, and connected to each franchisee's revenue goals.

### 3. Build a High-Performing Demand-Generation Program

You will lead the development and optimization of multi-channel lead-generation programs across paid search, paid social, local SEO, organic social, content, email, referral, partnerships, retargeting, and other relevant channels. You will ensure campaigns are grounded in clear audience segments, compelling parent-focused messaging, appropriate geography, thoughtful offers, and reliable measurement.

You will manage digital advertising strategy and performance across platforms such as Google Ads, Meta, YouTube, LinkedIn where appropriate, and emerging channels. You will establish disciplined testing of audiences, creative, landing pages, offers, bidding strategies, and local-market variations. You will set clear guardrails for lead quality, cost per lead, cost per qualified opportunity, enrolment contribution, and return on marketing investment—not vanity metrics alone.

You will identify and cultivate scalable local-growth levers, including school and community relationships, professional referral partnerships, parent ambassadors, alumni and customer referrals, events, seasonal campaigns, and strategic partnerships that reflect the needs of families in each market.

### 4. Own HubSpot, Lead Management, and Lifecycle Marketing

You will serve as the executive owner of the marketing side of HubSpot and work with sales, franchise operations, and technical partners to ensure that it is configured and adopted as the system of record for marketing activity, lead management, customer communications, and performance reporting.

You will establish standards for lead capture, source tracking, routing, response-time expectations, lifecycle stages, pipeline definitions, segmentation, nurture sequences, re-engagement programs, and post-enrolment communications. You will build dashboards that give corporate leadership and franchisees a clear view of local demand generation, lead quality, follow-up performance, conversion, campaign impact, and opportunity gaps.

You will design email marketing and marketing-automation programs that guide parents through the decision process with useful, timely, brand-consistent communications. You will also develop retention, reactivation, referral, review-generation, and seasonal communication strategies that deepen customer relationships beyond the initial enrolment.

### 5. Improve Websites, Landing Pages, SEO, and Conversion Paths

You will lead the strategic evolution of the corporate and franchise digital experience. This includes website architecture, local landing pages, service pages, content hubs, calls to action, forms, booking pathways, lead capture, accessibility, speed, analytics, and search-engine visibility.

You will ensure that the website tells a clear and trusted story to parents while delivering a high-converting path from first visit through inquiry, consultation, and enrolment. You will prioritize conversion-rate optimization through evidence-based testing and use insight from calls, CRM data, and franchise feedback to improve the customer journey continuously.

You will establish a sustainable content and SEO roadmap focused on the questions, concerns, seasons, academic needs, and decision triggers of families. You will coordinate technical, on-page, and local-search initiatives—including local business listings and review management—to strengthen discoverability and credibility in every franchise territory.

### 6. Direct Content, Social Media, and Reputation Marketing

You will develop an editorial and social-media strategy that positions Prep Academy Tutors as a trusted, helpful authority for families navigating academic support. You will oversee the planning, production, quality control, and distribution of useful content in formats such as articles, parent guides, student-success stories, expert videos, social posts, email newsletters, case studies, webinars, and local-market materials.

You will establish social-media standards and a practical operating model that supports consistent corporate storytelling while enabling thoughtful, compliant, localized franchise activity. You will work with teams and franchisees to capture authentic stories while protecting student privacy, consent requirements, and brand reputation.

You will own reputation strategy, including review-generation programs, testimonial collection, response standards, and monitoring of brand sentiment. You will ensure that positive customer outcomes are ethically and consistently transformed into proof points that build trust with prospective families.

### 7. Apply AI and Marketing Technology Responsibly

You will identify and implement AI-enabled workflows that increase the speed, quality, and scalability of marketing work. Applications may include content ideation and production, creative testing, research synthesis, campaign reporting, lead scoring, personalization, local-market adaptation, knowledge management, and training support.

You will set sensible governance for AI use, including brand tone, human review, data privacy, customer confidentiality, permissions, accuracy, intellectual property, and responsible use of student and family information. You will maintain a practical marketing-technology roadmap that integrates tools only where they create measurable business value and can be adopted successfully by the franchise network.

### 8. Lead People, Partners, Budgets, and Performance

You will build, coach, and retain a capable marketing team that combines strategic thinking with reliable execution. You will define roles, goals, performance expectations, workflows, and development plans across key capabilities such as paid media, CRM, creative, web, content, design, analytics, and franchise marketing.

You will select and manage agencies, contractors, technology vendors, and other external partners with clear scopes, service levels, reporting expectations, and accountability for outcomes. You will manage corporate marketing budgets and guide local-market investment, ensuring funds are deployed with discipline and aligned to strategic priorities.

You will regularly communicate results, risks, insights, and recommendations to the President, leadership team, and franchise network. You will bring a fact-based, constructive, and solutions-oriented approach to identifying what is working, what is not, and what should change.

## What Success Looks Like

| Time frame | Expected outcomes |

|---|---|

| First 90 days | Complete a practical audit of brand, marketing channels, CRM, website funnels, franchisee needs, marketing technology, team capacity, and measurement; establish priorities, baseline metrics, and a clear operating cadence. |

| First 6 months | Launch standardized franchise marketing playbooks and onboarding materials; improve lead capture, tracking, routing, and reporting; establish test-and-learn performance campaigns; and deliver a prioritized website/CRM optimization roadmap. |

| First 12 months | Demonstrate stronger marketing accountability across the network, improved quality and consistency of demand generation, higher franchisee marketing adoption, a mature content and referral system, and a clear evidence base for scaling the most effective local-market programs. |

## Qualifications and Experience

The successful candidate will combine strategic marketing leadership with a bias toward execution. You should be able to build the system and personally help make it work.

| Requirement | Preferred profile |

| Franchise or multi-unit expertise | Demonstrated success supporting decentralized local operators while maintaining brand standards, improving adoption, and driving measurable market-level performance. Franchise experience is strongly preferred. |

| Performance marketing | Deep working knowledge of paid search, paid social, analytics, audience strategy, campaign testing, attribution, conversion optimization, and reporting tied to commercial outcomes. |

| HubSpot and CRM | Strong hands-on experience with HubSpot Marketing Hub and CRM, including automation, segmentation, lifecycle design, reporting, lead management, user adoption, and data hygiene. HubSpot certifications are an asset. |

| Web and digital experience | Experience leading website strategy, landing-page development, SEO, local search, UX, analytics, content management systems, and conversion-rate optimization. |

| Content and brand | Excellent brand judgment and demonstrated ability to create clear positioning, strong messaging, scalable content systems, social-media strategies, and compelling creative briefs. |

| Training and influence | Outstanding facilitator and coach who can train new franchisees, influence independent operators, deliver candid feedback, and translate complex marketing concepts into usable actions. |

| Analytics and financial discipline | Comfortable setting KPIs, managing budgets, analyzing funnel performance, interpreting data, and making investment decisions based on lead quality, revenue contribution, and return on investment. |

| AI and technology fluency | Practical knowledge of AI-assisted marketing tools and marketing-technology ecosystems, with sound judgment around governance, privacy, and quality control. |

| Leadership and communication | A confident, collaborative leader with exceptional written, presentation, relationship-building, and cross-functional communication skills. |

| Education | Bachelor's degree in marketing, business, communications, or a related field is preferred; equivalent experience and demonstrated results will be considered. |

## Core Competencies

The ideal candidate is both **strategic and hands-on**. They bring commercial curiosity, sound judgment, urgency, creativity, and a strong service orientation toward franchise partners. They are comfortable working with incomplete information, turning ideas into operating systems, and creating clarity in a fast-moving environment.

They are an effective listener and teacher who understands that franchisee adoption is earned through useful tools, transparent reporting, responsive support, and proven local-market results. They have high standards for brand quality but understand how to make those standards practical at scale. They are equally comfortable reviewing a customer journey, challenging an agency's report, coaching a franchise owner, briefing a designer, interpreting a funnel dashboard, and presenting a clear recommendation to leadership.

## Why Join Prep Academy Tutors

This is an opportunity to shape the marketing function of a respected, mission-driven education company at an important stage of North American expansion. You will have meaningful influence over the customer experience, brand reputation, franchisee success, and growth infrastructure of a company that makes a tangible difference in students' lives.

You will work directly with the President and a passionate franchise network to build a modern, measurable, and highly supportive marketing engine. If you enjoy pairing thoughtful brand building with accountable growth, and if you want to help local business owners serve more families successfully, we would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

## Equal Opportunity

Prep Academy Tutors is committed to building an inclusive workplace and franchise-support environment. We welcome applications from qualified candidates of all backgrounds and will provide accommodations throughout the recruitment process in accordance with applicable law.

## Application Instructions

Please submit your résumé and a brief cover letter describing: (1) your experience leading marketing in a franchise or multi-location environment; (2) an example of a marketing system, campaign, or CRM improvement you built that produced measurable commercial results; and (3) why the opportunity to support families, students, and franchise owners at Prep Academy Tutors is compelling to you.