Marketing Lead -Organic Growth & Brand Visibility

Marketing Lead — Organic Growth & Brand Visibility

Full-time · Individual Contributor with Team Leadership · 3–8 years experience

Experience

3–8 years

Location

Pune, India (Hybrid) — open to remote for strong candidates

Team

Will manage writers, freelancers & outreach specialists

Function

Organic Marketing / Growth / Brand

Type

Full-time, on-payroll

GuavaTrips (guavatrips.com) is an AI-first personalized travel planning platform helping travelers design and book trips tailored to their preferences. As an early-stage startup, we are building GuavaTrips into a recognizable, trusted name in travel planning — discovered not just through search engines, but increasingly through AI assistants, communities, and trusted third-party content.

We are looking for a Marketing Lead to own organic growth and brand positioning for GuavaTrips — with a strong focus on domain authority and AI visibility (making sure GuavaTrips is found and recommended across Google, AI chat assistants, and answer engines). This is a research-heavy, relationship-driven role: less about running ad campaigns, more about strategically placing GuavaTrips' story and content across the right channels so that growth compounds organically over time.

You will plan and personally drive activity across directories, discussion communities (Quora, Reddit, niche forums), travel aggregators and content sites, blogging platforms, PR (including paid features/interviews), partner co-marketing, startup and news media, and AI-product discovery platforms — while managing a small team of writers and outreach specialists.

1. Organic Growth Strategy & Planning

• Build and own the quarterly/annual organic growth roadmap across SEO, digital PR, community, and AI visibility.

• Identify and prioritize the highest-leverage channels for GuavaTrips' audience and budget.

• Track domain authority (DA/DR), backlink growth, and referral traffic as core success metrics.

2. Directory Listings & Citations

• Identify and secure listings on relevant travel, business, and local directories.

• Ensure consistent, optimized business information (NAP, category, description) across all listings.

3. Community & Forum Engagement (Quora, Reddit, niche travel forums)

• Build and execute a genuine, non-spammy engagement strategy — answering questions, joining relevant threads, and building GuavaTrips' presence as a helpful voice in travel planning conversations.

• Recruit/manage freelancers or community managers to scale this without diluting authenticity.

4. Travel Aggregators & Travel Content Sites

• Build relationships with travel aggregator platforms and established travel content publishers for features, listings, and backlinks.

• Benchmark against comparable platforms (e.g. Thrillophilia, TravelTriangle, Pickyourtrail, Holidify) to identify placement opportunities they already use.

5. Blogging Platforms & Guest Content

• Plan and coordinate guest posts/contributed articles on relevant blogs and platforms (e.g. Medium, travel and startup blogs).

• Work with writers/freelancers to produce content that earns backlinks and citations rather than reading as an advertisement.

6. Digital PR, Paid PR & Paid Interviews

• Identify and coordinate paid PR features, founder interviews, and press placements in relevant publications.

• Manage PR agency or freelance journalist relationships where needed; ensure placements are editorial in tone.

7. Partner Content & Mentions

• Develop co-marketing and content-sharing relationships with travel partners (hotels, DMCs, tourism boards, complementary platforms).

• Secure mentions, backlinks, and joint content pieces from partner relationships.

8. News Portals & Startup Media

• Pitch GuavaTrips' milestones, product news, and founder story to startup and business media (e.g. YourStory, Inc42, Entrepreneur, etc.).

• Maintain a media contact list and a steady drumbeat of newsworthy angles.

9. Startup & AI Product Launch Platforms

• Plan and execute listings/launches on relevant startup and AI-product discovery platforms (e.g. Product Hunt-style sites, AI tool directories).

• Time these launches to coincide with product milestones for maximum impact.

10. AI Visibility (Generative Engine Optimization / AEO)

• Ensure GuavaTrips' content and structured data are optimized to be cited and recommended by AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, etc.), not just ranked by traditional search.

• Track AI visibility using tools (e.g. SEMrush AI Visibility Toolkit or equivalent) and report on share-of-voice versus competitors.

• Coordinate with the product/tech team on technical prerequisites (e.g. server-side rendering, structured data) that affect AI and search crawler visibility.

11. Research & Competitive Intelligence

• Continuously research competitor strategies, emerging channels, and content gaps in the Indian and global AI-travel-planning space.

• Bring data-backed recommendations, not just activity — this role should tell leadership what's working and why.

12. Team & Vendor Management

• Hire, brief, and manage a small team of content writers, community/outreach specialists, and freelancers.

• Coordinate across content, tech, and design teams to execute campaigns end-to-end.

• • Own budgets for paid PR/paid placements and report on ROI.

Experience

• 3–8 years in organic marketing, SEO, content marketing, digital PR, or growth marketing — ideally with some exposure to travel, consumer internet, or early-stage startups.

• Demonstrated experience running off-page SEO, link-building, guest posting, or community-led growth programs.

• Prior experience managing freelancers, writers, or a small team is strongly preferred.

• Exposure to newer AI visibility / answer-engine optimization practices is a strong plus (or clear evidence of ability to learn and apply new channels quickly).

Academic Background

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Mass Communication, Journalism, Business Administration, or a related field.

• MBA or postgraduate specialization in Marketing is a plus, but not mandatory if experience demonstrates strong strategic and execution ability.

Skills & Traits

• Research-driven: genuinely enjoys digging into what's working for competitors and translating it into a plan.

• Relationship builder: comfortable reaching out cold to publishers, forums, partners, and journalists.

• Strong writer/communicator: can brief content, review drafts, and personally write when needed.

• Analytical: comfortable with SEO/PR tools (e.g. Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Search Console) and reporting on metrics like DA, backlinks, and referral traffic.

• Organized coordinator: able to run multiple channels and vendors in parallel without things slipping.

• Startup mindset: comfortable with ambiguity, limited resources, and wearing multiple hats in an early-stage environment.

• People management: can lead, brief, and get the best out of a small team of writers/specialists.