Planning Manager – PWX Solutions

Location: New York

Position Overview

PWX Solutions is seeking a Planning Manager to work on forecasting and modeling for both print and digital business across a portfolio of leading media brands, including TIME, Condé Nast, and Hearst. This role partners closely with consumer marketing and finance teams to deliver accurate performance insights, support strategic decision-making, and identify opportunities for growth.

Key Responsibilities

  • Maintain and update circulation planning models on a monthly basis, ensuring accuracy and alignment with business performance
  • Partner with clients during monthly financial close to reconcile results and provide insights
  • Develop and maintain Excel-based models for digital and print forecasting
  • Produce and update monthly production and revenue forecasts
  • Analyze and explain monthly variances for leadership reporting
  • Collaborate cross-functionally to track campaign and acquisition performance
  • Deliver actionable recommendations based on data analysis
  • Prepare and distribute reports for monthly reporting packages
  • Support the development of annual financial and production budgets across multiple publications
  • Set print orders and review with the management team
  • Coordinate with AAM teams to support publisher statements

Qualifications

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail
  • Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel (modeling, forecasting, data analysis)
  • Ability to work independently and manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
  • Excellent communication skills with the ability to present insights clearly
  • Experience in publishing, media, or finance is preferred

To apply for this job email your details to amanda.maguire@pwxsolutions.com

Strategic Planning

Any new client relationship begins with a comprehensive review of your current business, pinpointing immediate needs, challenges, and goals. We study your recent successes and obstacles, identify methods to best meet your objectives, and then rigorously test those assumptions. Once clear goals have been outlined, we create a customized plan and regularly review progress to ensure we remain on target.

Strategic planning may include the following:

  • SWOT Analysis
  • Annual Review of Goals and Objectives
  • Predictive Modeling
  • Budgets and Financial Planning
  • Test Planning and Evaluation
  • Research and Competitive Analysis

Acquisition and Retention

At PWX Solutions, we understand the multi-faceted approach needed for an effective and comprehensive marketing strategy. For maximum success and revenue growth, we focus on both new business acquisition and retention marketing to help our clients reach profitability and longevity.

Driving New Business

New business acquisition is key for growing and maintaining your business. From the top of the acquisition funnel, we assist clients with identifying their target audiences, communicating effectively to prospects, and converting those prospects into paid customers or donors. Investing in a robust new business strategy will ultimately pay off over time, leading to increased ROI and profitability.

Maximizing Customer Retention

While new business feeds the funnel, a solid retention strategy is essential for revenue growth. Strong retention rates indicate satisfied customers, which is always our goal! Nurturing and engaging with existing customers is vital – replacing a customer is much more costly than keeping an existing one – and thus contributes to long-term profitability. Our marketers are experts at managing subscription and membership businesses, optimizing retention rates and maximizing overall net revenue.

Multi-Channel Marketing

A comprehensive marketing plan includes outreach across numerous channels to achieve the greatest possible results. We understand every client’s needs differ and provide customized offerings. PWX Solutions draws from expertise across digital and brick-and-mortar channels to recommend tactics to help clients exceed their goals. A staff of 150+ experts are organized by function and collaborate to deliver results. Our long-standing relationships with top vendors enable us to negotiate favorable pricing and bring best-in-class services, systems and processes to our clients.

Digital Marketing Solutions:

  • Website Optimization
  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Audience Development
  • Email Acquisition
  • Search Engine Marketing & Display
  • Paywalls / Content Monetization
  • eCommerce
  • Digital Partner Collaboration (Amazon, Apple, etc)

Offline Marketing Channels:

  • Direct Mail
  • Retail Sales / Distribution
  • 3rd Party Partnerships
  • TV and Video Advertising
  • Telemarketing

Marketing Operations:

  • Payment and Billing Optimization
  • Automatic Renewal
  • Vendor Relationships & Management
  • Service Selection and RFPs
  • Customer Service

Insights and Analytics

At PWX Solutions, we believe in collecting comprehensive data to inform our marketing campaigns, which contributes to their effectiveness. We provide clients with a suite of reports that helps them to track performance. Reports are customized to meet a client’s needs and objectives, and can be viewed, downloaded or emailed via our private client website.

We regularly review promotion reports – as well as daily/weekly campaign and source performance – for ways to optimize response. With an eye on the competition and industry trends, we execute regular testing to maximize P&L potential. We continually evaluate the long-term profitability of each source to ensure every marketing tactic we employ is making a valuable contribution toward a client’s objectives and bottom line.

Insights and Analytics may include the following:

  • Comprehensive Reporting/Analytics
  • Sophisticated Financial Modeling
  • Competitive Research
  • Price Optimization
  • Lifetime Value Analysis
  • P&L Management

ONLINE ORDER FORM OPTIMIZATION

CLIENT: LEADING SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL NON-PROFIT AND MEDIA ORGANIZATION

Better UX Improved Customer Experience - and Reduced Costs


Objective:
Optimize online subscription order pages across marketing channels.

Challenge:

  • Layout of existing order pages limited the number of offers/options and the user journey spread across multiple pages.
  • Client wanted increased flexibility for updating marketing messaging and legal disclosures.
  • Alternative payment options were not available.

Solution:

  • Designed new order page that clearly displayed the specific benefits of each offer in a user-friendly format.
  • Consolidated regional offers/types of orders within the same page to avoid users having to navigate between pages.
  • Redesigned order flow to include alternative payment options seamlessly.
  • Created the ability to incorporate updates and toggle dynamically based on type of offer or other business need.

Results:

  • Improved user experience by creating an all-in-one shop that the client desired.
  • Reduced cost for future maintenance and changes in content/offers; after testing changes rolled out to the client’s other brands.

RENEWAL REVENUE OPTIMIZATION

CLIENT: ICONIC MUSIC AND LIFESTYLE MEDIA BRAND

Model Increased Consumer Revenue more than 30%

 
Objective:
Generate additional revenue from existing customer base.

Challenge:

  • Introduce new, higher prices to support a premium product while limiting the number of customers lost.
  • Maximize the revenue on an individual basis, not by source of business/length of time as customer.

Solution:

  • Created and tested a scalable price structure to build a sample set of data.
  • Built a model to identify individuals who will likely support higher renewal prices.
  • Allowed the model to assign prices based on model score (not previous source of business).
  • Tested the model’s success in generating higher renewal prices while minimizing customer churn.

Results:

  • Identified individuals who were price insensitive.
  • Increased average price up to 33%.
  • Improved total revenue more than 30%.
  • Determined the optimal balance of increased price and minimal churn.

DIRECT MAIL PACKAGE OPTIMIZATION

CLIENT: GLOBAL MEDIA BRAND THAT CELEBRATES ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPITALISM

Saved $50k Annually with Direct Mail Best Practices

 
Objective:
Identify expense savings in direct mail program.

Challenge:

  • Client has mailed out an effective acquisition piece for more than ten years. Despite continual testing, it could not be beat.
  • Control package was expensive: a 6×9 envelope with a label and the contents of the package included a personalized order form that required a mail match process to include the correct form with addressing on the envelope.

Solution:
Developed testing that resulted in winner using standard practices to create more traditional business envelope size mail piece that improved or maintained response in the various offers mailed.

Results:

    Created new package that greatly reduced costs two-fold:

  • Simplified mail production process
  • Printed less expensive new mail piece

    • Recurring annual savings: $50k+

PAID SEARCH/SOCIAL

CLIENT: INDEPENDENT REGIONAL MEDIA COMPANY

Introduced SEM and Social for 43% Increase in Online Revenue

 
Objective:
Invest in new online channels that renew automatically to add to long term revenue growth. Diversify source mix to reduce reliance on direct mail.

Challenge:
In recent years, significant focus was placed on optimizing website and email channels to drive incremental new business.
Based on the success of existing web channels and automatic renewals, client was interested in expanding to paid social and SEM to increase online-generated subscriptions.

Solution:

    Launched offers in both channels with extensive testing and monitoring:

  • Optimized price point and varied premium offers for specific audience targets
  • Tested creative to increase conversions, stay up-to-date with seasonality and match product’s social branding
  • Adjusted bidding strategies to drive spend or reduce budget as needed to maximize ROI

    • Based on successful results, expanded SEM and Social promotions to another brand in client’s portfolio.

Results:

  • Generated over 17,000 new subs from search and social promotions to date.
  • Primary product offer increased revenue from online sources 46% in 2 years, due to the addition of new channels.
  • For the second product introduced, both SEM and Facebook generated profitable subscriptions in year 1, with significant profit growth projected as customers renew.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

CLIENT: MULTI-CHANNEL CONTENT PROVIDER FOR DESIGN OBSESSED AUDIENCE

Lowered CPA 20% in Search Engine Marketing

 
Objective:
Find new business subscribers within the target CPA through SEM. Utilize Google’s advertising platforms to drive magazine subscriptions.

Challenge:
Client needed to strengthen their marketing tactics in order to increase market share among a growing list of competitors.

Solution:

  • Initiated SEM to increase digital marketing presence.
  • After discovering which keywords and terms were most profitable, created multiple separate campaigns to further optimize results.
  • Established appropriate cost per acquisition goals and efficiently divided the budget to target the most relevant traffic to the most profitable areas of the business.

Results:

    Achieved positive results over first 12 months:

  • 130% higher click to conversion rate compared to Googles benchmarks
  • 20% lower cost per acquisition than target
  • 3% higher average order value

    • Increased SEM budget in accordance with ROI and continued to experience exceptionally positive results.