Marketing Officer (Fostering)

Job Introduction

Role Purpose

Do you want to work in marketing that delivers social value? Driving brand awareness and acquiring new foster carers for our Fostering service serving the children of Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole?   

Yes? Then this feel-good factor marketing role is for you.   

You will be part of the council’s Commercial Marketing team, working closely with Corporate Communications and Web Services. You will also work on a daily basis with the Fostering service and South West Fostering Hub, immersing yourself, so that you can anticipate their needs and identify opportunities.  

You will work with senior members of the marketing team to develop the Fostering marketing strategy, and lead on implementing an integrated range of campaign tactics, iterating based on results.   The approach the Commercial Marketing team take to all campaigns and strategies is outcome driven, audience centric, and research based.  You will need to show attention to detail but be given plenty of room for creative flair.  

Experience implementing online advertising, social media and website content, video production, and events identification and scheduling is desirable.  The campaign programme for fostering needs to be ‘always on’ to ensure that the service has a continuous stream of prospects they can follow up.  

So if you enjoy creative and research led marketing, with the opportunity to make a positive difference to people’s lives, then this role is not to be missed. 

Main Responsibilities

• Implement multi-channel marketing campaigns including research, audience analysis, budget, timescales, stakeholder engagement, media planning and buying, creative development and concept testing, delivery, and evaluation
• Help identify and deploy audience profiling tools and techniques working with research and insight colleagues to segment audiences into different categories based on their likelihood to buy, change behaviour, adopt, apply or attend
• Work closely with internal clients to define marketing outcomes that support their business objectives
• Help monitor budgets, highlighting any variances and mitigating any risks
• Work with services to help them identify any gaps they may have which will prevent successful marketing outcomes being achieved e.g. lack of clear objectives, business development, sales, pipeline management, or customer relationship management
• Undertake invoicing and support income tracking on council advertising contracts
• Support the implementation of a ‘brand footprint’ methodology with internal clients (as required)
• Promote and protect the BCP Council brand by understanding the guidelines and when appropriate interrogating brand architecture
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the council, building and maintaining excellent relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, especially with Communications, Research and Insight, Policy, and IT (web) 
• Support the preparation of engaging and accurate campaign and marketing reports
• Support the continuous improvement of the team, and recommend more effective and innovative ways of working 
• Write good quality creative briefs that deliver the best from the creative services team and any copywriting requirements 
• Write, edit, and proof-read copy for a broad range of marketing tactics including web, social media, email marketing, video, out of home, print, press and radio as required
• Use analytical tools to report on and track the success of websites, social media, and email marketing 
• Analyse and interpret data to test and learn, adjusting tactical campaign plans accordingly

The Ideal Candidate

• 3 A-levels, NVQ 4, HND or diploma (or equivalent experience) in a marketing or related subject
• Experience providing marketing advice across a range of projects and initiatives
• Experience of implementing outcome focussed, research based, and audience centric, integrated marketing campaigns
• Experience of supporting a research and first and last approach, from interrogating available data for baselining and developing primary research, through to audience targeting plans, concept testing and evaluation
• Experience of implementing a wide range of marketing tactics including print, promotion, email marketing, out of home, web, video, social media, and radio
• Basic understanding of social media channels, including Facebook, X, TikTok and Instagram, LinkedIn, Nextdoor, SnapChat, WhatsApp for business
• Experience of supporting media planning and buying and developing plans that achieve a good return on marketing investment
• Experience of working with agencies and suppliers ensuring contracts are well managed
• Experience of writing, editing, and proof-reading copy for a broad range of marketing tactics including web, social media, email marketing, video, out of home, print, press and radio as required
• Experience of building collaborative and supportive working relationships with team members and multiple internal and external stakeholders and suppliers with ability to challenge as required Experience of challenging and reframing client briefs as required
• Experience of writing Creative briefs
• Good knowledge of IT and relevant marketing monitoring software
• Basic content creation (photo/video) and basic knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite to support team if required, an advantage
• Understanding of Content Management Systems to help support future website developments and collaborative working with IT 
• Good communications, relationship building, and influencing skills able to present ideas and challenge constructively
• Able to plan, prioritise and organise own workload in an environment of regularly changing demands and challenging deadlines
• Strong teamwork with a collaborative approach to working with colleagues across the council and with wider partners
• Able to support evidence-based, customer centric, and outcome-focussed decisions 
• Professional curiosity and willingness to drive own development
• Creative thinker with customer focus 
• Excellent attention to detail
• Coach others to encourage development of skills across the team and challenge poor behaviour
• Encourage and listen to ideas from everyone, and be positive about change
• Flexible approach to work, with a willingness to work occasional weekends or evenings

For an informal discussion about the role please contact melissa.atkins@bcpcouncil.gov.uk

About BCP Council

BCP Council provides services to a diverse community of 400,000 residents and employs more than 5,000 people. Our area includes over 15 miles of beautiful world-renowned coastline. We can offer career defining roles to transform and improve services. By working with us, you can help deliver a vision of a thriving, word-class, prosperous and inclusive place for generations to come.

Our Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package to colleagues. Find out more on As a result of the creation of BCP Council in 2019, we are working on simplifying our terms and conditions of service and will be creating a single pay structure which is to be applicable for all employees. It is important to us that we offer benefits that our colleagues value as part of their total employment package and we are reviewing these to make sure we have it right. We are in the process of establishing a timescale for implementation and colleagues joining us will be included in these changes. This is expected to be in place in 2024 or early 2025.