Vacancy – Press, Marketing and Operations Officer

NOTTINGHAM RUGBY – POSITION DESCRIPTION

Revision Date:

10^th June 2019

Position Title:

Press, Marketing & Operations Officer

Department:

NA

Reports To:

Chief Operating Officer

Site:

Lady Bay

This role is ideal for a person who wants to combine their love of sport with marketing, press and sponsorship in a club seeking to grow and develop into the future at The Bay.

The Press, Marketing & Communications Officer is responsible for assisting the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer in the creation and delivery of a marketing and communications strategy as well as campaigns and activity across the club. The role will work across the whole club, whilst ensuring that the focus of the role is around increased income generation opportunities.  The role will be responsible for reporting and delivering against the club’s Communications Strategy, written and agreed with the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer.

The role will also deliver a range of communications to the core Nottingham Rugby fan base to ensure satisfaction and loyalty to the club, aiming to build the fan base using our new data management system. As part of the communication strategy, the role will manage the creation and delivery of campaigns and activity specifically to grow the fan base and appeal to new audiences.

The Press, Marketing & Communications Officer role involves all forms of communication and a particularly good understanding of digital/new media is required. Managing and delivering campaigns and understanding how to effectively target particular audiences is very important.

The role is based at the club’s offices at The Bay.  The person will be expected to attend all home matches, cover away matches remotely and support the delivery of the varsity series and other club events as appropriate and agreed with the Chief Operating Officer throughout the year.

This role will report directly to the Chief Operating Officer.

Key Accountabilities

Club Sponsors

• Liaise with club’s sponsors to identify innovative marketing and promotional opportunities to the club’s database of supporters
• Support the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer to develop the business networking opportunities within the club
• Manage the distribution of the club’s sponsorship opportunities booklet with support from the General Manager to try to develop new business / sponsorship leads
• Manage the corporate and fans player sponsorship programme & deliver against these agreed benefits
• Actively seek new sponsorship opportunities through the use of networking events, social media and relationships the club has with current sponsors

Management of Commercial Programmes

• Develop and deliver a high-quality marketing strategy aiming to increase attendances at matchday, increased sponsorship, increased matchday corporate take up and additional income generating programmes, i.e. community camps
• Take a lead in marketing strategy meetings with the club’s marketing partners and Commercial Director
• Support the General Manager to develop a targeted approach to identify and target additional sponsors for the club / community department
• Delivery of the agreed media outcomes for sponsors within the club as part of the annual Media and Communications Strategy
• Organise and deliver all match day & match ball sponsors packages on matchdays to ensure they have a Brilliant experience and continue to support the club
• Support the office team in creating a commercial strategy to improve season ticket holder take up
• Identify potential commercial projects with local businesses in order to grow the club’s presence in the community 
• Utilise the club’s strong links with Nottingham Trent University and create promotions accordingly

Social Media

• Identify suitable content to maintain a regular and interesting social media output for the club, in particular on Facebook and Twitter and any associated third party social media
• Daily Facebook and Twitter club news updates
• Regular competitions on Facebook and Twitter
• Weekly team announcement for the team for matchday weekends – home and away as agreed as part of the strategy
• Weekly video coverage of The Coaching Team commenting on the team performance at the weekend
• Ongoing video coverage of player interviews and features as appropriate and agreed with the 1^st XV Head Coach
• Maintain up to date score status on the club’s Facebook and Twitter sites on home match days
• Manage volunteers from Nottingham Trent University who deliver social media and match reports on match days
• Ensure a proactive and engaging social media campaign to increase followers and likes

Club website

• Work closely with the club’s digital marketing partners to evolve the club’s existing website
• Maintain and develop the club’s official website and all associated websites, whilst also liaising with any third-party operators of websites associated with the club, ensuring that all Nottingham Rugby Sponsors are linked appropriately to the club’s site
• Design and create pages that are intuitive and easy to use for consumers
• Create engaging and creative content for the club’s fans
• Ensure regularly update of player interviews and features, club and team announcements and match previews and reports
• Maintain up to date score status on the club’s website on home match days and where appropriate re-tweet / re-post on away games.
• Update and maintain the club’s event listing pages
• Manage all aspects of the website under the supervision of the Chief Operating Officer
• Ensure proactive and engaging content management to maximise web traffic and visitors

E-communications

• Identify suitable content to maintain a regular and interesting club e-newsletter in conjunction with all other staff
• Ensure inclusion of player interviews and features, club and team announcements and match previews and reports
• Develop a series of high-quality email signatures, posters & promotional literature for use throughout the season to support the Marketing and Communications Strategy with the support of the club’s marketing partner
• Ensure a proactive and engaging e-comms campaign to maximize open rates and increase the following for Nottingham Rugby
• Work with the club’s digital marketing partners to ensure that new customer’s data is captured and maintained in a GDPR compliant manner

Meeting attendance and reporting

• Attend weekly team meetings and assist with work scheduling
• Provide a monthly report against number of website articles, number of website hits and unique visits, number of twitter and facebook followers and other additional information as agreed and required.  Agree a targeted increase in these numbers throughout the season as part of Marketing and Communications Strategy
• Provide an annual report against key objectives in conjunction with the General Manager
• Provide monthly reports on newsletter effectiveness

Media

• Attend all home matches and manage the media for home matches – prior, during and post as required
• Maintain the club’s links to local press including BBC Radio Nottingham and BBC East Midlands Today, West Bridgford Wire and Notts TV
• Attend PR days, conferences and events as required
• Liaise with external agencies to ensure media and marketing activity is maximized
• Target 3 TV appearances for Nottingham Rugby throughout the year, not necessarily rugby specific to raise the profile of the club
• Capitalise on the Rugby World Cup to help promote opportunities to increase income generation and profile for Nottingham Rugby
• Ensure a regular output of press releases each week aiming at generating coverage in news, features and other areas as well as sport
• Ensure team announcements are distributed according to league and cup regulations

Marketing promotions

• Manage the design, production and distribution of the match day programme, aiming to raise the sales of this product
• Provide and manage content for newsletters throughout the season in conjunction with the Press and  Media Partner
• Design and produce marketing and promotional materials in line with club requirements
• Assist with the production of all external publications to ensure they meet with the club’s external communications policy and fall within brand guidelines
• To provide marketing and promotions support to the General Manager and Operations Director as required

Skills and Attributes

Details

• Academic/Technical Qualifications

• O Level / GCSE grade A-C (or equivalent) English and Mathematics
• Studying or studied  for a Higher Level qualification in a relevant field or appropriate experience and knowledge

• Knowledge and Experience

• Some previous experience of marketing/media/sports clubs would be beneficial but not essential

• Computer Skills

• IT literate, knowledge of Windows (Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Outlook)
• Database management (Excel and/or Access)
• Social Media skills
• Use and knowledge of CRM systems
• Experience using WordPress
• Experience using social media scheduling tools such as Hootsuite
• Use of media editing software including as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premier

• Communication Skills

• Good written skills
• Knowledge of PR and media
• Ability to be persuasive and communicate on a variety of different levels
• Excellent customer service skills and a high level of professionalism

• Attitudes and Behaviour

• Self motivated and good at working as part of a small team
• Organised and good attention to detail
• Working on own initiative
• Keen interest in sport and in particular rugby
• Adaptable to the pressures of working in a small business environment
• Willingness to work in a flexible way as part of the Nottingham Rugby team