A day in the life of a Marketing Director

Have you every wondered what it might be like to be a marketing director or, if you are one, how your job compares to others?  Here in the first of our job profiles relating to ABE subject areas, our marketing director, Kate Winter, describes what her typical day might comprise of...

How I started
I started in marketing after working in an administration department for an events company. Marketing looked so much fun – the team were rushing off to exciting events, creating new collateral and organising press trips. When an opportunity came up for an assistant role, I applied and was put through a thorough assessment to see if I was the best candidate. One of the tests was reading through a research report and writing an article in three different styles. This was something I loved doing and still do to this day.

How it is now
From here I built on my marketing qualifications at the same time as working to build my career.  Now I head up my own team and I have the same passion for marketing that I had when I first started. I enjoy the variety, the pressure, and the creative aspects of the role. I really enjoy discussing opportunities and ideas with my team, and their dedication and enthusiasm brings great results as well as a lot of laughs on the way.

Here is my typical day:-

The start of the day
Mornings are taken up with emails from our partners, issues raised overnight on social media – for example students who want to know their exam results or who have forgotten their membership numbers – and urgent matters raised by my team or the business. We may have to change something on our website or provide a centre (college) with lots of collateral (flyers and branded giveaways) for an event. Every day is different.

Daily meetings
We have an informal team meeting once a week where we discuss what we are doing that week, where our dependencies are and any issues we have. As the head of the department it is my job to help resolve those issues where I can. For example one of my team might be going to an event and needs a laptop or phone so they can keep up with their emails or post messages on social media.

Right now we are going through a re-brand so that involves everyone on the team. We will look at a new piece of collateral that one of our designers has been working on, discuss what we like about it and what we want to change. That could be anything from colours used, to fonts, to application of our logo, right through to formatting, styles and where the piece we are working on will be used. We often eat breakfast together and the meeting will usually overrun by around an hour so that everyone can share their views.

Some days are full of meetings so I might be called into a Leadership Team meeting or into an interview.  I have one to ones with my team members every other week and I also have my own one to one with our CEO. I need to be super prepared for that meeting, so I note down all my team’s achievements for the week, and get my list of requests or queries ready.

There are often external meetings to attend – the last one was at the House of Commons in London.  Next month I will be heading off to Africa to meet our area managers and our centres. We also attend industry events so we can network and keep up to date with the latest trends.

IT & social media
Marketing is responsible for websites so we have a lot of interaction with IT.  Fortunately I have had responsibility for websites prior to my current role so I am used to technical terminology and function. I think this is absolutely necessary for today’s marketer – the tools and techniques for web and social sharing are just as important as the content.

If the day is lighter on meetings that is good but it will mean phone calls. I receive lots of calls from people wanting us to buy advertising.  Mostly I say no to these because we are focusing on digital initiatives.  Facebook is our most popular channel. We get great results using it – just recently we asked for alumni to share their stories with us. We received around 300 responses.

International communication
We are an international organisation so we have colleagues working all over the world and we have international partners including colleges and universities. Colleges often need promotional materials so we keep a stock of items that we think students will like. We also create posters for them which we make available in printed format as well as digitally.  There is lots of interaction with people from all over the world and we try to be as responsive as we can.  We use  skype, Google hangouts and go to meeting as well as tools like Whatsapp to keep in touch.

Projects
One of the things I like about marketing is that there are always new projects and initiatives.  At present we are working on a new website so there is a lot of interaction with the web development agency. They will come to us to present their ideas on the structure and style of our new site. I like to consult with my team and other areas of the business about what will work best.  When I have a clear idea in my own mind I will give them a call, note down all my thoughts and share with them.

Writing

Almost every day will encompass some copy writing in one form or another. It could be a press release, an announcement for LinkedIn, a new brochure, website copy, advertising or social media posts.  I usually need it to be quiet to write, which is hard in a busy open plan office. Lunchtimes or later in the day are good times to get that done.

Home Time!
At the end of the day if I am in the office I will change into my cycling gear and ride four miles home. I need that bit of time to think about the priorities for tomorrow. Then it’s dinner and early to bed before the whole thing starts again.

If you fancy building a career in marketing an ABE Marketing Management qualification is a great starting point.  Find out more.