Marketing Manager

Contract: 6 months Fixed Term Contract, with the opportunity to move to a permanent role -  40 hours per week

The Role

We’re looking for an ambitious, hands-on and commercially minded Marketing Manager to help shape and deliver impactful marketing across ACM and Metropolis – two distinctive yet connected brands within the creative industry. ACM develops the next generation of creative talent, equipping students with the skills, experience and industry connections to build careers in music and the wider creative industries, while Metropolis operates at the heart of the professional music industry, working with the artists, producers and businesses shaping culture today.

You’ll turn ideas into action, planning and delivering campaigns that build awareness, engage audiences and drive measurable results, from student recruitment and applications at ACM to audience and commercial growth at Metropolis.

You’ll take campaigns from brief to delivery, working closely with creative teams to produce compelling content and communications across our marketing channels. You’ll help tell the stories that connect our brands with the audiences that matter, while ensuring every campaign has a clear purpose and measurable objective.

You’ll keep a close eye on performance and audience response, using data, insight and results to understand what’s working and where we could do better. You’ll bring ideas and recommendations to the table, be willing to test and refine, and use what you learn to improve campaign performance, while working within the agreed brief, objectives and direction.

We’re looking for someone who is curious, proactive, solutions-focused and commercially minded, with the confidence to get stuck in, move at pace and make things happen. You’ll take clear ownership of your work and its outcomes, keep the team informed and contribute ideas that seek to elevate our output. 

Campaigns & Delivery

• Plan and deliver integrated marketing campaigns across ACM and Metropolis, from initial brief through to launch and reporting.
• Manage campaign timelines, assets and channel activity to ensure work is delivered on time and to a high standard.
• Develop engaging campaign messaging and work with designers, content creators and videographers to bring campaigns to life.
• Deliver activity across paid media, social, email, web and other relevant channels.
• Adapt campaigns to different audiences, objectives and stages of the customer/student journey.
• Take ownership of day-to-day marketing activity and keep projects moving.

Performance & Optimisation

• Be clear on objectives and KPIs for campaigns and track performance against them.
• Monitor campaign performance regularly and identify opportunities to improve results.
• Use data, analytics and audience behaviour to understand what is driving performance.
• Test different creative, messaging, audiences and channels and apply learnings quickly.
• Optimise campaigns throughout their lifecycle rather than waiting until the end to assess performance.
• Report on results clearly, highlighting what happened, why it happened and what we should do next.
• Be comfortable changing direction when the data tells you something isn’t working.

Creative & Brand

• Help create marketing that is distinctive, relevant and true to the ACM and Metropolis brands.
• Work closely with creative teams to develop high-quality campaign assets and content.
• Challenge briefs and creative thinking where there is an opportunity to make the work stronger.
• Ensure messaging is audience-focused, compelling and designed to drive action.

Audience & Growth

• Develop a strong understanding of our audiences and what motivates them to engage, enquire, apply or buy.
• Identify opportunities to reach new audiences and improve conversion.
• Support audience segmentation, retargeting and CRM activity.
• Keep up to date with changes in digital platforms, audience behaviour and marketing best practice.
• Look for practical ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our marketing.

Key Performance Indicators

• Contribution to the achievement of ACM student recruitment, application, conversion and enrolment objectives, supporting the wider Marketing & Growth strategy.
• Contribution to Metropolis audience growth, lead generation and commercial marketing objectives.
• Performance of marketing campaigns against agreed objectives, KPIs and budgets.
• Growth in relevant website traffic, enquiries, leads and conversions across ACM and Metropolis.
• Campaign engagement & conversion with an ongoing focus on improving performance.
• Effectiveness of paid media, social, email, CRM, SEO and other marketing activity.
• Quality, relevance and consistency of campaign messaging and creative output across both brands.
• Successful delivery of key recruitment and commercial campaigns, including Clearing, product launches, Open Days and other priority campaign periods.
• Effective use of audience insight, analytics and campaign data to identify opportunities, inform recommendations and optimise activity.
• Ability to respond to campaign performance and changing priorities, making timely and informed adjustments where required.
• Quality and timeliness of marketing campaigns, content, briefs and assets, delivered in line with agreed priorities and deadlines.
• Effectiveness of collaboration with internal teams, creative teams and external partners.
• Effective management of marketing resources, ensuring activity is delivered efficiently and provides value.
• Quality and timeliness of marketing reporting, providing clear insight into performance, learnings and recommended actions.
• Continuous improvement in marketing activity, processes, audience journeys and campaign performance.
• Demonstration of ownership, accountability and proactive communication, including keeping stakeholders informed and raising opportunities or challenges early.

About You

We’re looking for someone who gets things done.  You’ll be a confident marketer who enjoys being close to the work, someone who can take a brief, turn it into a campaign, get the right people involved, launch it and then dig into the results to make it better.

You’ll be:

• Hands-on – happy getting into the detail and making things happen.
• Results-focused – interested in impact, not just outputs.
• Curious – always asking what could work better.
• Creative – able to spot a strong idea and turn it into compelling marketing.
• Analytical – comfortable using data to make decisions and optimise activity.
• Commercially aware – understands that marketing needs to deliver a tangible outcome.
• Organised – able to manage multiple campaigns and deadlines without losing sight of the detail.
• Collaborative – great at working with creative teams, stakeholders and external partners.
• Proactive – uses initiative and looks for ways to keep things moving

Essential

• Proven experience delivering multi-channel marketing campaigns.
• Strong practical understanding of digital marketing, including paid media, social, email, SEO and web.
• Experience using data and analytics to evaluate and optimise marketing activity.
• Excellent copywriting and communication skills.
• Strong project management and organisational skills.
• Experience working collaboratively with creative teams.
• A track record of delivering measurable marketing results.

Desirable

• Experience in music, higher education, entertainment, culture or the creative industries.
• Experience with lead-generation campaigns.
• CRM/marketing automation experience.
• Experience managing paid media. 

This job purpose reflects the core activities of the post. As the Department and the post-holder develop, there will inevitably be some changes to the duties for which the post is responsible, and possibly to the emphasis of the post itself. ACM expects that the post-holder will recognise this and will adopt a flexible approach to work. This could include undertaking relevant training where necessary. Should significant changes to the job purpose become necessary, the post-holder will be consulted and the changes reflected in a revised job purpose.