Head of Marketing and Communications

This role requires hands-on execution, ensuring marketing activity is creative, impactful and delivers clear return on investment, supporting visitor growth, supporter engagement and revenue generation.

 A key focus of the role will be significantly growing our digital presence and online audiences, building engaged communities that convert into members, donors and advocates for our work.

We are a fast-paced and innovative organisation and are looking for someone who enjoys exploring new ideas, testing new platforms and continuously evolving how we engage audiences. Marketing activity will balance creativity and innovation with strong commercial discipline, ensuring resources are used effectively to maximise income and therefore impact for animal rescue, conservation and the charity’s long-term sustainability.

Marketing Strategy

·        Lead an integrated marketing and communications programme that raises awareness of the sanctuary and drives engagement and support.

·        Bring the Wildheart brand to life across all channels, ensuring consistent and compelling storytelling about our rescue animals, conservation work and impacts.

·        Design and deliver annual and seasonal marketing plans which grow income across the sanctuary’s revenue streams, including visitation, memberships, experiences, adoptions and shop sales.

·        Identify new audiences, opportunities and partnerships that expand our reach.

·        Identify opportunities to enhance the Charity’s profile, improve efficiency, boost online conversion rates and enhance the customer experience through research backed proposals.

·        Utilise our CRM data set to analyse customer behaviour and optimise our audience communications and advertising campaigns.

At all times map strategies back to a clear ROI with sound datasets and reasoning.

Digital Marketing and Audience Growth

·        Lead a digital-first approach to marketing, placing online engagement at the centre of our strategy.

·        Grow audiences across social media, website and email channels to build a passionate online community around the Charity.

·        Oversee the creation of engaging digital content that showcases our animals and their rescue stories, conservation work and visitor experiences.

·        Use insight and analytics to continually improve reach, engagement and audience growth.

·        Lead discussions on paid and organic digital advertising strategy

·        Evaluate digital marketing campaigns against goals

Expand organic and paid acquisition channels, including content creation, PPC and social media

Amplifying our Voice

·        Identify and build relationships with key media, influencers and partners to amplify our voice

·        Be responsive to trends that provide opportunity to increase our profile

Align campaigns with relevant national awareness days and initiatives to maximise engagement

Website and Brand

•        Ensure the website remains engaging, up to date and optimised to promote visits, memberships and donations.

•        Ensure all digital channels reflect the Wildheart brand and support key campaigns.

Ensure that new content is landed and website is updated, optimising the online user experience and improving our conversion rates.

Data and Insight

•        Monitor marketing performance and audience trends across digital and visitor channels.

•        Use insight to inform campaigns, improve engagement and guide future marketing activity.

Report on marketing activity and performance to senior leadership.

Budget and Team Management

•        Manage the marketing budget and ensure resources are focused on the most effective activity.

•        Track marketing performance and adjust campaigns where needed to maximise impact.

•        Lead and develop a small marketing team and oversee agencies and contractors

Ensure marketing activities across the organisation are well coordinated and departmental initiatives are supported.

Person Specification

Qualities:

•        Passion for wildlife conservation and the mission of The Wildheart Trust and Wildheart Animal Sanctuary.

•        Creative thinker with a strong instinct for storytelling and audience engagement.

•        Well organised and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Collaborative leader who works effectively across teams

Skills and Abilities:

·        Digital marketing: comprehensive understanding of social media, content marketing, SEO, email marketing and campaign analytics.

·        Communication: excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong storytelling ability.

Leadership: ability to manage people, agencies and projects effectively.