Sussex Innovation is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Job Description

We are looking to hire a Digital Marketing Innovation Advisor at the Sussex Innovation Centre near Brighton or based out of our sister site in Croydon. This is a pivotal role in the support team, and an excellent opportunity to leverage your understanding and practical experience of digital marketing to provide new or growing companies with strategic insight, coaching and hands-on support.

Sussex Innovation works with start-ups, inventors, innovators and academics to launch commercial projects to market or grow their existing business sustainably and profitably. You will be part of the on-site support team who offer strategic advice and practical support to foster that growth.

The purpose of the role is to use your practical experience with digital marketing to help start-ups and innovators develop and deliver effective digital marketing activity. On the ground, this activity will include working with our senior team to develop effective digital marketing strategies, action plans and metrics to launch digital marketing campaigns for early-stage companies.

Many of our members are technically brilliant but have little prior knowledge of running a business or the practical skills needed to develop effective digital marketing campaigns, so your job is to develop their operational practice and their confidence and skills in digital marketing to help them acquire customers and achieve scalable growth. Our goal is that they will eventually start to utilise an agency and/or a permanent team to mature into high growth businesses.

You will be working to advise our start-ups, academics and early stage companies in a consultative role which includes:

Working with our Market Research Advisor to test and qualify market segments, and helping founders to develop an in-depth understanding of their potential customers via social listening
Identifying digital marketing channels to effectively reach specific customer segments
Developing lean digital marketing strategies for on- and off-site SEO, paid advertising, on-site conversion, email marketing and social media
Developing campaign ideas for digital advertising, email marketing and social media
Estimating digital marketing costs and managing budgets
Executing campaigns using the practical skills of our team of graduate interns
Setting up methods to test digital marketing ROI and report against KPIs including qualified leads, SEO performance and conversion rates
Upskilling founders and their teams in digital marketing expertise
Providing digital marketing input as part of a multi-disciplined business support team
Work with our Student Enterprise advisor to deliver digital marketing workshops for student entrepreneurs
The role will also require you to play a part in the development and implementation of Sussex Innovation’s own marketing activities, working collaboratively with colleagues to help manage our website and landing pages, email marketing, content marketing, social campaigns and on- and offline events.

Person Specification:

The ideal candidate will have significant experience of digital marketing, ideally in an advisory role or as part of a digital agency. Experience at working with start-ups or early stage companies is highly desirable. Confidence to promote your and our services, sell your skills and work directly with clients to achieve their goals is crucial. We are looking for:

An intelligent self-starter, motivated and passionate about digital marketing. You’ll be able to hit the ground running and take responsibility for delivering on your KPIs
A love of learning, the ability to learn on the job and pursue self-directed professional development
Experience of leading or co-leading customer meetings and consulting to understand the needs of the client
Experience of working with start-ups and early stage companies, or experience of working creatively to reach a target audience within a tight budget is highly desirable
Experience of writing or co-writing digital marketing strategy documents and action plans
Experience of developing SEO strategies, on-site SEO, keyword research and managing technical SEO projects
Experience or certification with tools including HubSpot, Hootsuite, Google Analytics and AdWords is highly desirable
Experience using a content management system or website builder to confidently make updates, use shortcodes and manage staging and live sites is highly desirable
Ability to create metrics to understand the ROI of campaigns
Ability to oversee and train junior colleagues to deliver practical support to clients
Ability to work independently or as part of a team with clients and colleagues, and manage multiple simultaneous deadlines
Analytical mind and curiosity about innovative products and services
Good interpersonal skills

Salary circa £28,000 per annum, depending on experience, for a full-time position or pro rata for part time hours. We offer a competitive package of benefits and a supportive, collaborative working environment.

Location

We have roles available at either our University of Sussex location (close to Brighton) or our East Croydon station location. Successful candidates can be expected to deliver support at all our sites but to be primarily based at one. We can offer staff discounts to any of the available on-site services such as Sussex Sport. University Campus facilities also include an Ofsted rated Outstanding Nursery: Little Pioneers which is directly opposite our Sussex building.

How to apply

Please apply for the role as soon as possible, your application will be considered immediately. We will be conducting interviews later this summer. Please write to Helena Jevons, enclosing your C.V. and explaining in a detailed letter why you would suit this role and what personal qualities and experience you would bring to Sussex Innovation.