Head of Marketing

The Head of Marketing is part of Exeter Northcott’s Senior Leadership Team and holds a key role in taking forward Exeter Northcott’s vision to be the country’s best regional theatre. The Head of Marketing will support the CEOs to ensure the strategic development and growth of Exeter Northcott in sharing extraordinary stories with and for people in the South West because Stories Change Lives.

The purpose of this post

As Head of Marketing, the post-holder will lead the marketing team in the delivery of an integrated marketing and communications function that drives:

• strong and consistent box office and donations performance
• high-quality, meaningful audience engagement
• new audience acquisition and development
• clear articulation of Exeter Northcott Theatre’s charitable mission

The role will ensure marketing, sales and communications activity supports both commercial objectives and organisational impact, where audiences are invited not only to attend, but to connect, participate and support.

Terms & Conditions

Job Title: Head of Marketing
Reporting to: Joint CEO & Executive Director
Responsible for: Senior Marketing Officer, Marketing Officer, Communications Officer, Marketing Assistant
Hours: 39 hours per week
Salary: £44,595 pa
Holidays: 32 days (inc. statutory holidays) per annum

Key Duties & Responsibilities

1. Campaign Delivery

• Lead marketing and communications campaigns for all in-house productions, co-productions and fundraising campaigns.
• Lead the planning and execution of marketing campaigns across all visiting productions and hires, working closely with producers and internal teams to ensure each production is clearly positioned and effectively brought to market.
• Oversee campaign delivery across all channels, ensuring activity is delivered on time and within budget.
• Manage external agencies, media buying, designers and freelance suppliers as required.
• Manage the marketing budget, ensuring resources are allocated effectively, expenditure is monitored and activity delivers measurable return on investment.
• Nurture, develop and maintain press contacts and ensure all communications support organisational objectives and reflect agreed branding and tone of voice.
• Oversee website performance, digital user experience and conversion optimisation.
• Ensure digital content and communications are accessible, inclusive and audience-focused.

2. Income through tickets, memberships and donations

• Deliver box office income targets across the programme.
• Work closely with the Head of Development to deliver income though memberships and donations.
• Implement initiatives to increase attendance, ticket yield and repeat booking.
• Create campaigns and activity to increase secondary spend in particular the bar and other on-site activity.
• Work with the Head of Development on pricing, sales and audience-growth strategies in collaboration with programming and senior colleagues.

3. Mission-Led, Brand & Storytelling

• Ensure Exeter Northcott Theatre’s mission and values are reflected consistently across marketing, communications and audience-facing activity.
• Translate artistic work, organisational impact and community programmes into compelling and accessible storytelling.
• Maintain brand identity and tone of voice across all channels with oversight of copywriting, print materials and digital listings.

4. Audience Development, Data & Insight

• Oversee the end-to-end customer journey, identifying opportunities to improve audience communication and customer experience. Developing strategies to increase conversion, support retention, loyalty, encouraging repeat attendance and deepen engagement with the Northcott.
• Drive opt-ins to future communication and identify opportunities to gather further audience insight.
• Use audience data and campaign insight to inform future marketing communications and decision making.
• Report on campaign performance and effectiveness, audience behaviour and income delivery.
• Ensure audience data practices are managed within GDPR policies and support continuous improvement in data quality.
• Working with the Head of Development to lead the organisation’s CRM strategy, ensuring audience insight, segmentation and targeted communications support customer acquisition, retention, loyalty and lifetime value.
• Ensure the audience experience is coherent and high quality before, during and after visit

Senior Leadership Team

Working closely with the Joint CEOs to drive forward and deliver the strategic plan:

5. Empowered Team Ensuring the effective agency and consistent wellbeing of staff teams

• Supporting the development and implementation of effective HR policies, procedures and legal compliance with the Head of People.
• Facilitating effective communication and collaboration within and across departments.
• Advancing organisational culture change and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Championing organisational values, leading by example and promoting a culture of openness, collaboration, accountability, excellence and continuous learning.

6. Excellent Operations

• Developing systems and spaces to enable staff to do their best work.
• Developing systems and spaces to offer the best welcome to everyone.
• Driving operational efficiencies including technical and building upgrades

7. Financial Health

• Driving income generation and ensuring effective management of ENT financial resources.
• Undertaking scenario planning and stress-testing to inform financial decision-making
• Setting data-informed targets, managing budgets and presenting clear information for Board and Executive decision-making.
• Taking an active role in fundraising and maximizing all opportunities to raise money for the charity.

8. Strategic Lead Area: Communications

• Each member of the Senior Leadership Team holds designated responsibility for an area of operational compliance. The Head of Marketing has delegated responsibly for Advertising Compliance:
• Ensuring that all communications are accurate, legal and socially responsible

9. General SLT duties

• Writing a quarterly paper for the board meeting outlining key challenges and opportunities and outlining progress against targets.
• Attending regular SLT meetings and strategic planning sessions
• Attending board meetings as required
• Deputising for the Joint CEOs as required
• Representing the theatre and acting as a spokesperson for ENT as required

Person Specification

Essential

• Substantial marketing experience preferably in an Arts setting
• Demonstrable experience of team leadership