Marketing Account Manager

We didn't get here by accident. Smartbug has built a reputation that most agencies only aspire to: HubSpot North American Partner of the Year, a fully remote team of specialists who punch well above their weight, and a client base that doesn't just hire us — they stay with us. That last part is the one we're most proud of.

Remote by design and strategic by nature, we've never believed that great work requires a corner office or a campus cafeteria. What it requires is the right people, deeply aligned on outcomes, working with clients who trust them to deliver. That's the culture we've built — one where expertise travels, relationships run deep, and the work speaks for itself.

We're obsessed with client outcomes. Not vanity metrics. Not feel-good reports. Real, measurable growth that makes our clients look like heroes inside their own organizations. When Smartbug is in your corner, your team wins — and that's exactly why our clients keep coming back.

We're growing, our client portfolio is expanding, and the relationships we've built are stronger than ever. What we need next is a leader who understands that the hardest part of this business isn't winning clients — it's becoming so embedded in their success that leaving simply isn't an option. If you've built that kind of loyalty before, if you know what it takes to transform a good client relationship into a decade-long partnership, and if you're energized by the idea of architecting that function at scale — we want to meet you.

The Marketing Account Manager is the primary relationship lead and the “face” of Smartbug for our clients. In this

structure, you focus entirely on client satisfaction, client relationships, client “stickiness”, ROI, trust, and

retention. You serve as the bridge between the client’s business goals and our internal strategy and

delivery teams.

Your mission is to ensure that the client feels valued, heard, prioritized, and that their goals are delivered.

You own the “human” element of the partnership, acting as a high-level advocate for the client internally

while managing the commercial health and long-term loyalty of the account externally. This role supports

a portfolio that includes senior living clients, so experience managing accounts in the senior living

industry—or in a similarly relationship-driven, multi-stakeholder environment—is a strong plus.

What you'll do

Relationship Management & Communication:

• Primary Relationship Lead: Serve as the main point of contact for all client communication, ensuring a high-touch, concierge-level experience.
• Executive Presence: Build and maintain strong relationships with client stakeholders and C-suite executives, moving beyond a vendor relationship to become a trusted advisor.
• Meeting Ownership: Own the client meeting cadence end to end—agendas, recaps, follow-ups, and action item tracking—so every touchpoint is prepared, professional, and documented.
• Feedback Mastery: Proactively solicit client feedback, conduct NPS/satisfaction check-ins, and identify potential friction points before they impact the relationship.
• Strategic Alignment: Partner with strategy team members to communicate and reinforce the roadmap they build, translating the “why” behind the work into terms the client’s business cares about.

Account Health & Retention:

• Retention Ownership: Directly responsible for client happiness and account retention, ensuring that every client in your portfolio is a potential reference.
• Onboarding Experience: Guide new clients through a smooth relationship kickoff, setting clear expectations around communication, cadence, scope, and escalation paths.
• Account Health Monitoring: Track health signals across your portfolio—engagement, sentiment, deliverable timeliness, results reporting—and escalate at-risk accounts early with a clear recovery plan.
• Client Advocacy: Act as the “Voice of the Client” within SmartBug, ensuring their needs and concerns are prioritized by the delivery teams.
• Conflict Resolution: Lead high-level conversations around client concerns or pivots in business direction, maintaining poise and professional integrity.

Commercial & Portfolio Growth:

• Commercial Oversight: Monitor the financial health of the account, ensuring the partnership remains profitable and within the intended commercial scope.
• Scope Management: Identify out-of-scope requests early and partner with delivery leadership to handle change orders and scope conversations cleanly and professionally.
• Renewal Management: Own renewal timing and the renewal conversation, partnering with Sales, Finance, and delivery leadership on terms and contracting.
• Organic Growth: Identify opportunities for account expansion and partner with Sales and Strategy to propose additional services that drive further value for the client.
• AI & AEO Growth: Identify AI and AEO opportunities across your portfolio, such as agent builds, AI-search visibility gaps, and AI strategy needs, and own the growth and renewal of AI retainers in partnership with the CRM Strategist
• Brand Advocacy: Drive the collection of client reviews, case studies, and awards to celebrate the success of the partnership.

Client & Industry Fluency:

• Business Fluency: Develop a working understanding of each client’s business model, buyers, and success metrics so conversations stay grounded in what actually matters to them.
• Industry Awareness: Stay current on the trends and pressures shaping your clients’ industries. For senior living accounts, this includes occupancy and census goals, the resident and adult-child decision journey, and the difference between community-level and corporate stakeholders.
• Platform Literacy: Maintain enough fluency in HubSpot and relevant client-side systems to speak credibly about status, reporting, and value without needing a specialist on every call.

Required Qualifications

• Experience: 5–7 years in high-level account management or client services within a digital agency environment.
• Emotional Intelligence: High EQ with a proven ability to manage complex human dynamics and build trust with senior-level executives.
• Communication Mastery: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with a focus on “storytelling” the value of the agency’s work.
• Organization & Follow-Through: Highly organized and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple accounts and competing priorities without letting commitments slip.
• Commercial Acumen: Understanding of agency economics, including retention metrics, lifetime value (LTV), and account growth.
• HubSpot Literacy: Sufficient knowledge of the HubSpot ecosystem to confidently discuss project status and strategic value with clients.
• AI Literacy: Sufficient understanding of AI agents, AEO, and AI-search visibility to explain results and opportunities to C-suite stakeholders in business terms
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Business, or a related field.

Strongly Preferred Qualifications

• Senior living experience: managing clients, accounts, or marketing programs in the senior living industry (independent living, assisted living, memory care, or CCRCs), including familiarity with occupancy and census goals
• Familiarity with senior living CRM and sales platforms such as WelcomeHome, Sherpa, Enquire, or similar
• Experience managing accounts with multi-location or multi-community stakeholder structures, where corporate and local decision-makers both have a voice
• Experience in a HubSpot Partner agency environment or with HubSpot-centric client engagements
• Familiarity with CRM platforms (particularly HubSpot) sufficient to discuss strategy, reporting, and project status with clients
• Experience with customer success platforms or tools (e.g., Gainsight, ChurnZero, or similar) for tracking account health
• Demonstrated experience managing a portfolio of accounts with $1M+ in combined ARR
• Experience working remotely in a client-facing role, with a track record of maintaining strong relationships in a distributed environment
• Background in digital marketing, inbound strategy, or marketing operations to strengthen client conversations around campaign performance and ROI
• Experience facilitating executive business reviews (EBRs) or quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with senior-level stakeholders