What does the Marketing Manager do?
My role encompasses all the different communication touchpoints with our various ‘stakeholders’ whether creating ads for a home care publication or Facebook, working on our website, writing articles on our blog and email newsletters, organising attendance at conferences and local events, posting updates on social media, editing videos or promoting webinars.
I enjoy both the strategic (long term planning of campaigns and approaches) through to the day-to day tactical things like scheduling our email marketing communications with customers or prospects.
I work closely with a number of other teams and individuals at CareLineLive including the sales team, our designer, and webmaster as well as our marketing team – Merina Martin, our Homecare Champion and Marketing Coordinators Abbie Armstrong and Nathalie Vallejo.
Describe a typical day
I’ll normally be at my desk super early – if there is work to be done I tend to be an early riser and I like to get things out of the way while I have a clear head and before the meetings, emails and Slack messages start. Early mornings are also a good time to connect with our Australian colleagues who are now at the end of their working day.
Our first official meetings of the day are generally a ‘stand-up’ – generally a Teams call.
Other meetings, inevitably online, may include updates with the various agencies we work with. I love managing these and working with other marketing specialists. I also try to spend time talking to customers and recently I’ve been creating a series of video interviews to better understand how they use CareLineLive day-to-day.
Outside of calls I spend a lot of time working in our marketing planner deciding what needs prioritising. We tend to post something on social media most days so that content needs drafting.
As well as organising events and liaising with local care associations, the Marketing Team writes copy for social media, the website and e-newsletters, occasionally for magazines and other websites. Any copy that’s completed is uploaded to the website and I’ll brief our designer Paul on visual assets for both the website and social media.
Merina and I have hosted a couple of webinars recently. Over 800 people registered for these and we spent many hours getting the slide notes and presentation just right. With something like this we’ll have done all the pre-event marketing and will follow up afterwards sending out copies of the slide deck and ensuring that the recording is available on YouTube and our website for people to watch as a catch-up. We also rework little snippets for social media posts. This repurposing of content in different formats is very much part and parcel of contemporary marketing – we try to maximise the work that we have already done rather than constantly splashing budget on bright shiny new things.
At this time of year invitations to exhibit at local care association events abound so we’ll be busy organising someone to attend and doing the behind-the-scenes admin getting that booked and then communicated about on social media.
What did you do before joining CareLineLive?
I’ve always worked in some aspect of marketing and prior to CareLineLive I was doing marketing consultancy as well as running a couple of small ecommerce businesses. My most recent freelance work was with a specialist health and pharma marketing agency. I’ve also delivered a lot of training over the years from Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications to how to run ads on social media.
What do you enjoy most about working at CareLineLive?
I have loved coming back to client-side work after years in the agency and freelance world. I’ve enjoyed spreading my wings to be managing so many aspects of marketing for a single organisation and it’s been great working with our in-house teams. This is the first role where I’ve worked so closely with a sales team and I’ve enjoyed learning about their processes. They are not stereotypical heavy sales staff at all – they genuinely want what is best for the organisation they are talking to. I’d not be happy with the ethics of selling something to someone if it wasn’t quite right for them.
I also really enjoy working with a senior team that are fully approachable. Most days I’m running things past our MD or Operations Director. I also catch up with one of our Board members fairly regularly – he has a particular interest in marketing and always helps me raise the bar. They are all very supportive and encouraging and it’s good to have their endorsement behind the various marketing activities I’m cooking up.
Finally I’m loving having a larger Marketing Team to work with – they have learnt the ropes so quickly and are bringing their own voices and perspectives to the work we do.
Worst part of the job?
I work four days a week and do often struggle to fit it all in. Whilst I love the flexibility of part time work, I also hate to be out-of-the-loop on my days off.
What is something that people in home care have to deal with that you want to help fix?
I may not be a digital native but I’m a huge fan of technology and I would love to see more home care agencies embracing the technology that can truly make their lives easier – freeing up time, improving their working processes and reducing their stress. That’s what CareLineLive is all about. I’m pleased to help spread the word about it.
Surprising or a fun fact about you
I’m a part time yoga teacher as well as a marketer. I got into yoga as I have a chronic back condition – keeping strong and flexible really helps with preventing pain and I love sharing that with others. Yoga is also a helpful antidote to the hours of screen time at work. It gets me away from my desk and when I’m teaching my mind is fully occupied on something other than websites, social media and emails.
