Marketing and Communications Officer

We are Forestry England, the country’s largest land manager, caring for the nation’s forests
for people, wildlife and timber. As a Marketing and Communications Officer, you will use creativity,
quick-thinking and superb copy to tell our amazing story and encourage visitors to our
incredible forests.

This role will work with our teams across Worcestershire, Shropshire and Herefordshire to
develop and support national and local marketing and communications campaigns. The successful candidate can either work from our office in Wyre Forest, or in Ludlow. 

Job description

Communications

• Develop and deliver compelling content to tell the story of sustainable forestry, from our
  work reintroducing and protecting wildlife to our drive to connect the public with nature.
• Promote good news stories and support key projects with activity including press releases,
  website updates and social media content.
• Help steer and plan public behaviour change campaigns, from littering to building
  unauthorised trails in our forests.
• Communicate our work to create more woodlands in the area, providing a rich habitat for
  wildlife, a beautiful space for people to enjoy and a sustainable source of timber.
• Plan and create written content for signage and interpretation around our forests for
  visitors to further engage with our work.
• Maintain and develop partnerships with external bodies with whom we share a common vision,
  such as Natural England.
• Track and measure the impact and effectiveness of our communications, including outreach,
  event participation, media stories, etc.
• Respond efficiently and effectively to ‘emergency’ situations as they may arise on the
  estate to provide professional communications support to front-line staff.

Marketing 

• Develop and evaluate the recreation hub marketing plan (including budget management) for
  Wyre Forest and Haughmond Hill to support local and national objectives.
• Proactively engage with recreation hub teams, and where appropriate forest beat teams, to
  ensure national marketing campaigns are planned and coordinated.
• Deliver and support local marketing of the recreation hub sites both directly and through
  site partners.
• Develop and maintain relationships with site partners to mutually support marketing and
  business objectives.
• Have an active overview of the recreation hub site pages on the Forestry England website,
  maintaining quality and relevance of content.
• Maintain and develop relationships with tourism bodies and holiday companies to promote the
  offer at our forests.
• Use market research and data collection to target a wide range of visitors across all
  seasons.
• Explore and support our emerging supporter development initiatives, such as corporate
  volunteering, individual giving and legacy giving.

 General

• Plan and deliver according to a yearly budget. 
• Work within and as part of the wider district engagement team to plan campaigns and
  initiatives collaboratively. This requires attendance at local delivery team meetings.
• Support the internal communications function by supplying engaging stories for the
  district’s intranet and encouraging better internal communications through attending local
  delivery team meetings.

Person specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate:

Experience

• Relevant experience in a marketing and communications environment.
• Relevant experience of developing content in all forms of media (electronic and
  print-based) to support communications and marketing objectives.
• Strong digital marketing knowledge and skills, including content creation, promotion and
  social media management.
• Creative flair and excellent written skills, with proven experience of copy writing and
  editing for the web.
• Proven organisational skills with the ability to work to tight deadlines and balance
  priorities whilst managing several projects simultaneously.
• Ability to work independently, use initiative and solve problems.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to liaise effectively with a wide
  range of staff and partners.
• Excellent IT skills including word processing and spreadsheets.
• Ability to work effectively in a geographically spread team.
• A relevant professional qualification e.g. CIM or CIPR or substantial experience
  (desirable)

Technical Skills

• The ability to write clean compelling copy to tell our story or market our offer, and
  situate it within a (fictional) marketing or communications campaign.
• Excellent IT skills including word processing, spreadsheets and using CMS.