Main purpose of the position
Reporting to the Chief Executive and part of the Senior Leadership Team of St Martin-in-the-Fields Ltd (SMITFL), the role is the lead for SMITFL’s marketing activity in support of its extensive cultural programme, destination and tourism work, on and offline retail activity and B2B commercial venue hire. It also takes responsibility for the marketing and communication of church-based activities.
The role has responsibility for all arts and cultural campaign strategy, building and fostering audiences and the gradual expansion and day-to-day management of the Marketing team. The role will manage St Martin’s digital channels and be responsible for developing effective understanding of our data to help planning and future strategic decision making. The role also has responsibility for delivering a world class visitor welcome across our site and for ensuring that the experience of visitors whilst they are with us is warm, welcoming, inspiring and memorable.
As we develop a more holistic approach to marketing and communications across all five of St Martin’s entities and as the St Martin’s Trust launch a major fundraising campaign in 2025 (the ‘Yes’ campaign), the post will play an instrumental role in ensuring the wider campaign needs are delivered and the core messaging is supported on site and on line.
Key metrics include:
- achieving sales targets across a wide and diverse programme of ticketed events
- driving visitor numbers to the site
- improving our digital profile and content
- effective research (including understanding and segmentation of current audience groups and building new audience segments)
- helping to elevate the communication and awareness of our brand and the powerful narratives that St Martin’s can convey – across on and offline platforms.
No two days are the same and this role requires the ability to anticipate and respond to a wide range of projects and requirements and to target a wide range of audiences and visitors for everything we do. From concert goers, congregation members, tourists, corporate event managers, film location companies and more, the role is broad, and the marketing activity required to support our thriving site is complex. The post holder will work with an unusually extensive range of stakeholders and colleagues and will ultimately help to build brand awareness, visitor numbers and revenue for St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Main duties and responsibilities
Develop brand and audience strategies
- Lead on the development of data and evidence-based marketing strategies to achieve ambitious revenue targets across SMITFL’s customer and business facing activity;
- Help build St Martin’s brand awareness and profile;
- Increase our understanding of and engagement with current and future audiences through research, data insight and segmentation;
- Develop audiences which are underrepresented as part of a clear audience development strategy;
- Deepen our engagement with casual visitors passing our site;
- Continually identify opportunities to maximise our brand profile on a local (London), national and international level; and
- Ensure that the marketing strategies appropriately support and align with the central ‘Yes’ positioning and fundraising campaign activity.
Lead marketing campaigns
- Lead the marketing team in defining and delivering effective marketing strategies for SMITFL and the church using advertising, social, CRM and SEO for live ticketed events, hospitality activity, tourism and heritage, retail activity and B2B venue hire campaigns;
- Implement communications for all church and faith-based activity in partnership with key members of the clergy team;
- Be responsible for the development of clear briefs to guide freelance creative professionals;
- Ensure consistent, compelling and engaging copy for all marketing campaigns; and
- Work with key internal stakeholders to plan, develop and implement inspirational and engaging social media content and campaigns across all of St Martin’s activity.
On-site Marketing, Visitor Experience and Placemaking
- Devise and maintain effective digital and signage wayfinding across the site;
- With colleagues and external partners, develop and maintain appropriate display tools toenrich the cultural and heritage experience of the public and their understanding of St Martin’s work and impact; and
- Ensure that the standards of visitor welcome are defined, consistently applied and professional in nature and that all visitor touchpoints are managed to enhance visitors’ positive perceptions about St Martin’s.
Digital Strategy
- Lead on the redevelopment of our digital and social platforms and be responsible for creating and implementing a new digital engagement and content strategy;
- Monitor and oversee social channels and be part of a cross site communications group to develop and deliver a plan which reflects the broad range of St Martin’s activity. Develop a responsive and engaging plan to rapidly grow followers of our channels;
- Lead on the development and implementation of a new e-commerce strategy to increase online sales for our shop; and
- Develop cross and up sell strategies to maximise revenue generation.
Sales and box office management
- Be responsible for the sales and box office function, managing the box office manager in running Spektrix;
- Lead in setting prices and maximising sales yields, working closely with the box office manager, concerts manager and external stakeholders as necessary;
- Work with the Chief Executive and Head of Finance to set annual marketing budgets and income targets and carry out day-to-day financial management, ensuring all financial procedures are adhered to; and
- Monitor ticket sales and work with the team on responding and developing appropriate strategies in order to achieve targets. Provide management reports as required.
Insight, Reporting and Evaluation
- Devise and implement effective methods of evaluation delivering an evidence-based approach to marketing strategy and planning;
- Set and monitor budgets and expenditure; report regularly on financial aspects of the team’s activity including at Board level;
- Optimise the return on investment of paid media campaigns across channels, on and offline;
- Create an audience insight process within St Martin’s, using data collected on site, research activity and market intelligence to feed into marketing, digital and programming strategies; and
- Provide regular reports and analysis to share with the Senior Leadership Team and Board.
Lead and develop the Marketing team and external suppliers
- Plan the resourcing of projects; agree task allocations, priorities and workload;
- Be willing and prepared to be hands on as part of a small but growing team;
- Lead on the performance management and development of direct line reports;
- Be responsible for relationships with key external suppliers; and
- Create a work environment that aligns with St Martin’s values and principles and find ways in which the marketing function can help demonstrate those values.
Data Protection
- Have overall responsibility for compliance with data protection and privacy policies and all applicable legal and regulatory requirements (including GDPR).
Knowledge, skills and abilities
- At least 5 years’ experience in marketing ideally within an arts, events, tourism, faith based or cultural organization;
- A knowledge of or interest in classical music/live music is highly desirable;
- Strong experience in developing digital strategy, platforms and content;
- Proven experience in identifying target audiences and in creatively devising marketing campaigns that engage, educate and motivate customers;
- Experience in communications planning and working closely with PR agencies;
- Ability to manage a wide and diverse range of projects, being hands on as necessary;
- Ability to ensure successful completion of tasks to deadline and on budget;
- Experience of working with box office systems, ideally Spektrix, desirable;
- Excellent computer, numeracy, literacy and organisational skills;
- Meticulous attention to detail and excellent time keeping; and
- Willingness to attend events in order to understand audiences and oversee visitor experience standards. Some late night or weekend working required on occasion.
Personal attributes that will help the post holder:
- Experience of a faith-based organization or an understanding of the workings of a church is highly desirable;
- Ability to manage relationships with an unusually wide range of colleagues and stakeholders and work as team leader, team player or independently;
- A strong degree of emotional intelligence and a willingness to embrace a wide range of opinions;
- Ability to respond calmly yet confidently to last minute challenges;
- Confidence in dealing with the public face to face and a positive can-do attitude with a willingness to help; and
- Sympathetic with the aims and ethos of St Martin-in-the-Fields and a demonstrable commitment to our values.
How to apply
To apply for this post, please email the following to peopleandculture@smitf.org by close of play on Monday 6th May 2024:
· A supporting statement, explaining why you believe you will excel in this role; and
· An up-to-date CV detailing your relevant achievements.