Brand Marketing Lead

Overview

You're the brand lead at a 43-person fertility startup that's trying to normalize conversations about egg freezing and donation. You'll run campaigns, build content programs, manage social presence, and find creative ways to reach women considering fertility options and intended parents seeking egg donors. This is a small company, so you'll be hands-on across multiple channels while also thinking strategically about brand positioning.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Early-stage (likely Seed/Series A based on 43 employees)

Size: 43 employees

Growth: Hiring for senior marketing role suggests growth mode, investment in brand

Market Position: Category creator - their egg-sharing model (freeze your eggs for free if you donate half) is differentiated in fertility space

Challenge: Fertility is still a sensitive topic. They're trying to make it mainstream while navigating emotional, medical, and ethical considerations.

Marketing Reality

Your Channels:

• Organic Social: Instagram, TikTok likely primary channels given target demo (women in their 20s-30s)
• Content Marketing: Educational content about egg freezing, fertility options, personal stories
• Earned Media: PR, founder/brand stories, thought leadership
• Partnerships: Influencers, fertility clinics, employer benefits programs, community organizations
• SEO/Blog: Long-tail fertility education content

What You're NOT Doing:

• Paid acquisition (likely separate person/function)
• Product marketing (small company, but different focus)
• Lifecycle/retention marketing (probably CSM/ops owns this)

Resources: Limited. You'll be scrappy. Expect to write, edit, design briefs, manage contractors, and execute yourself.

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Campaign Strategy & Execution (35%) | Content Creation/Mgmt (30%) | Partnerships/PR (20%) | Internal Meetings/Reporting (15%)

Key Activities

• Campaign Development: Concept and launch brand campaigns that make fertility accessible and less taboo. You're trying to shift cultural conversation while driving awareness and consideration.
• Content Engine: Build and manage editorial calendar across blog, social, email. This includes writing/editing, working with freelancers, sourcing user stories, coordinating with medical advisors for accuracy.
• Social Media: Own strategy and probably execution for Instagram/TikTok. This means community management, responding to DMs (sensitive questions about fertility), tracking engagement, testing formats.
• Partnership Development: Identify and build relationships with influencers, fertility advocates, women's health brands, employer benefits platforms. Negotiate collabs, co-marketing, affiliate relationships.
• PR & Earned Media: Pitch stories to journalists, prep founders for interviews, manage agency relationships if budget allows, respond to media inquiries about fertility topics.
• Analytics & Reporting: Track brand lift, organic traffic, social growth, campaign performance. Report to CEO/CMO (poster is Head of Marketing, so likely your manager).

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Sensitive Subject Matter: You're marketing fertility services. People have trauma, strong opinions, ethical concerns. Every piece of content needs careful consideration. Comments can get intense.
• Limited Resources: 43-person company means small budget, small team. You'll wear many hats—strategist, writer, project manager, community manager. There's no big agency doing the heavy lifting.
• Measuring Brand Impact: At early stage, pressure to show ROI but brand work is long-term. You'll constantly justify spend and prove value while executives want to see immediate lead gen.
• Category Education: Most people don't understand the egg-sharing model. You're not just marketing a service, you're explaining a novel concept and convincing people it's legitimate/ethical.
• Startup Chaos: Priorities shift, product changes, founder has new idea that derails your roadmap. You need to be comfortable with ambiguity and fast pivots.
• Regulatory Constraints: Fertility is regulated. Legal review on claims, medical accuracy requirements, can't make certain promises. Creative gets watered down by compliance.

What Success Looks Like

• You launch 2-3 breakthrough campaigns per year that get media coverage and cultural conversation
• Organic social followers and engagement grow 3-5x in first year
• Brand search volume and direct traffic increase measurably
• Partnership pipeline generates steady stream of qualified leads and co-marketing opportunities
• You build repeatable content systems that don't require your constant involvement

Who You're Marketing To

Primary Audiences:

• Women 25-35 considering egg freezing (donors in the Split program)
• Intended parents 30-45 seeking egg donation (recipients)
• Employer benefits decision-makers considering fertility benefits

What They Care About:

• Donors: Cost (the free freeze is the hook), safety, ethics of donation, control over their eggs, how selection works
• Recipients: Egg quality, donor screening, success rates, legal/ethical concerns, cost vs traditional IVF
• Employers: Employee demand, competitive benefits, cost vs traditional coverage, implementation ease

Messaging Challenges:

• Donors and recipients have different concerns, sometimes in tension (donors want control, recipients want access)
• Balancing medical accuracy with approachable, non-clinical tone
• Addressing ethical questions about commodifying reproduction without being defensive

Requirements

• 5-8+ years in brand marketing, ideally with consumer health, wellness, or fem-tech experience
• Track record of culture-shifting campaigns that got attention (awards, press, social virality)
• Hands-on execution skills—you can write, brief designers, manage projects, not just strategize
• Comfortable with sensitive topics and navigating regulatory/compliance constraints
• Deep fluency in modern brand channels: social-first thinking, influencer/partnership marketing, earned media
• Startup experience—you've built programs from scratch with limited resources
• Genuine passion for fertility/family building (this is non-negotiable given the mission)
• Comfort reporting to founder/exec team and defending long-term brand investments