Snr Digital Strategist: CRM/WhatsApp Specialist

The Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Digital Strategist: CRM/WhatsApp Specialist to join our Africa Operating Unit to coordinate the integrated delivery of ground-breaking work.

As a Senior Digital Strategist, you will help define how CRM, 1st party data, and conversational platforms show up strategically for our client's brands represented across Africa. This will be a role that sits at the strategic heart of our Africa-level campaigns.

Owned channels, CRM, and WhatsApp sit at the forefront of our client's business. You will play a pivotal role in translating our client’s business challenges and objectives into fully integrated direct-to-consumer strategies, elevating consumer engagement, loyalty, and brand advocacy

What You’ll Do

• Be the voice of CRM and direct-to-consumer strategy for our client's brands you represent for continental Africa, supporting the leadership team, end-to-end teams and client services in delivering groundbreaking and effective consumer engagement strategy.
• Elevate our client's consumer engagement and loyalty by developing and executing advanced CRM strategies, leveraging owned platforms and WhatsApp as core direct-to-consumer channels.
• Drive strategies powered by strategic first-party data collection, advanced audience planning, and the use of Open Intelligence (AI tool).
• Design highly personalised customer journeys, implementing innovative conversational marketing and loyalty programs that foster long-term brand advocacy.
• Partner with integrators, media partners, and broader capability teams to proactively identify digital engagement opportunities and ensure seamless CRM integration across all brand touchpoints.
• Assemble strategy into presentation materials and be comfortable presenting complex CRM, data, and communication flows to senior level clients.
• Conduct on-site and remote workshops for category clients to optimise their CRM, loyalty, and conversational marketing strategies.
• Flex in your strategic approach, covering the following core competencies:
  • CRM & Lifecycle Strategy
  • Conversational Marketing (specifically WhatsApp ecosystem & chatbots)
  • First-Party Data & Audience Strategy
  • Loyalty & Advocacy Program Design
• Work with the end-to-end, data, and insights teams to utilise data analytics to optimise performance, measure conversion metrics, and add a strategic, data-driven layer to monthly reports for key clients.
• Inform CRM KPIs and define measurement and attribution solutions for clients.
• Work with client services and creative teams to inspire and guide ideation, ensuring creative assets and conversational copy are optimised for direct-to-consumer platforms and in line with approved strategy.
• Work with the broader digital and social team across the continent to ensure CRM strategies are implementable, unearth additional insights, and optimise customer journeys in real-time.
• Demonstrate what ‘good’ looks like for CRM and conversational strategy, ensuring we have a solid range of strategy frameworks and learning to drive our work and defining best practices and best-in-class case studies.

Experience Requirements:

• 5+ years of proven strategy experience in a digital agency, CRM/direct marketing agency, or working internally for a well-known platform or brand.
• Deep, proven specialisation in designing and executing CRM strategies, loyalty programs, and conversational marketing (specifically utilising WhatsApp Business Platform/APIs).
• Experience with first-party data strategies, audience segmentation, and leveraging data/insights tools (experience with Open Intelligence or equivalent enterprise CDPs/DMPs is a plus).
• Experience working for top drawer brands and with senior stakeholders or in a senior client-facing role.
• Strong experience working alongside other teams (creative, media, tech) delivering fully integrated marketing solutions.
• A passion for CRM, conversational commerce, and emerging direct-to-consumer technology trends.
• Solid experience with quantitative performance metrics, CRM analytics, and data-driven optimisation.