July 29, 2022
She’s our brand voice behind the scenes and the team member that does the grilling of the newbies here at Ortus, yet she’s managed to escape one herself despite joining our agency over a year ago now! We caught up with Bec, our Marketing Manager, to learn a little more about her journey so far and where we’d find her on a day off…
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Can you tell us a little about your career path that led you here?
It feels like forever ago now, but once upon a time I did actually go to uni and studied Fashion Communication & Promotion (which I loved!). The further education landscape is a little different now to what it was then, it was pretty much uni, uni or uni when it came to choosing where next after sixth form. Like every other 18yo, I opted for a course I took a genuine interest in without really considering what career I’d be able to land off the back of it, and to be honest it worked out pretty well! Despite a laser focus on the fashion industry, my degree centred heavily around marketing and content writing. Before the summer post graduation was out I’d bagged myself a job in the marketing department of a local firm that managed a bunch of leisure facilities in my local area (shoutout Tees Active). I learned stacks in a short space of time and moved on to working in a PR and brand marketing role at a leading Ecomm Agency where I stayed for five years learning every inch of b2b marketing with an online retail focus. My role changed from PR, to events and partnerships to more of a lead generation focus so I honed plenty of skills to take with me for the rest of my career. I came to Ortus with 2 digital agency roles under my belt so there was a lot of synergy with my previous employment and my position here! Fast forward a year and I’m still here! -
What’s a typical day like for you?
In terms of daily work, there isn’t really a ‘typical’ day and it purely depends on what key projects we’re running with at the time! Generally speaking the usual day to day bits of my role that happen regardless of bigger projects centre around our wider marketing strategy (stacks of content writing, running of our social platforms, a LOT of time in Hubspot developing email marketing workflows and utilising the reporting tools, working on wider content plans with our partners etc!).
Team Ortus are predominantly remote, so most weeks I’m at home at least 3/4 days a week, with a day a week dedicated to catching up with the team at our Teesside office. I visit our Newcastle HQ at least once a month too (it’s a beauty!). -
What do you love most about your job?
It’s not process driven. Don’t get me wrong some days I think having a role that requires a conveyor belt/checklist process day in day out makes it tonnes easier to measure your effectiveness/ prove your output, but a role in marketing (in my experience anyway) means you’re able to tap into so many different channels and learn something new you can bring to your role every single day. Everrrrry day’s a school day here. -
What’s your favourite thing about working for N21?
I posted about this not too long ago on my LinkedIn but it’s a mixture of feeling valued, being given bags of flexibility for a genuine work life balance (and my pup!) and feeling like I’m able to trust I’m in the right place/have the right support to level up my career. It’s very easy for a Marketing Manager to fall stagnant or have a glass ceiling in terms of progression, but N21 are super transparent on progression and nurture you in any way they can to see you climb the ladder.
We’re also off on an agency wide all expenses paid trip to Prague soon!✈ -
POV: You’ve got the day off work - How do you spend it?
A day in the Lakes with my pup and my paddleboard. I love love love being outdoors and the Lake District feels like a ‘happy place’. My mission before summer is out is to get Henry (my Boston Terrier) in a shark fin life jacket🦈 swimming confidently in the lake! (Highly unlikely given how bathtime goes but one can dream). -
If you weren’t in marketing what would you be doing?
I’m very into interiors and home styling so probably something down the interior design route! Pre dog mom life I spent most of my spare time decorating/rearranging the rooms in my house like a showroom - it’s safe to say it’s more of a ‘home’ these days! -
What’s the one thing you couldn’t live without?
My dog - he’s my little sidekick🐶. Failing that, a solid cleanser! -
What’s your next big project?
There’s lots going on in the background at Ortus at the minute, starting with a shift in our approach to our services. We’re due to make some big changes to our site to reflect this over the coming weeks so the eagle eyed among us will spot this soon! -
What’s your most used marketing tool?
Not so long ago we streamlined all of our marketing tools into a Hubspot Marketing Professional account and it’s made my life way easier (other crm tools are also available ;)). Everything from organic social, email marketing, blog posts, landing pages and forms are all built and managed through Hubspot plus our reporting too, so I’m in the tool every day without fail! However I’m big on Trello for the day to day management of my workload. -
What’s your one piece of advice for someone looking to pursue a career in marketing?
Don’t rush it and always be open to new approaches. Noone can confidently say they know absolutely everything there is to know about successfully marketing a business/product/service, because it’s forever changing. If you want to move with it, remain open to continuously upskilling yourself on new tools/tech that makes your role easier so you can spend time focusing on your wider strategy/future plans.
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