A Day in the Life of a Student Marketeer – following Jane Johns, Penna’s Head of Education
No day is ever the same in student marketing, is it? From preparing for pitches, to talking technology with performance media experts, to indulging in a little Netflix to wind-down.
Read on for a day- in-the-life of Jane Johns, Head of Education here at Penna.
Monday 8th February, 8am:
We’ve been posting on social media far more in 2021 as Penna Education, raising our profile and celebrating some of the great student recruitment work we do for clients. My day starts with a flick through my socials, particularly checking the engagement on our Valentines Day TikTok.
We try and keep things fun at Penna Education – and this video has had a great response!
I encourage all of my networks to follow the team, sharing the links below.
8:30am
Having caught up with my hashtags, it’s down to business.
The whole team have been preparing for a pitch taking place at 11.30am today. It’s with a university we work with on HR, but don’t currently work with on student recruitment. We’re really excited by the opportunity to bring these areas together for them, so lots of energy and expertise has gone into the preparations.
I start by reacquainting myself with our research, then we have a final run through as a team.
11:25am
Time for one last cuppa, and a calming look out over the snowy rooftops of London before I get my game face on.
11:30am
Pitch time! We’ve got experts in performance media, socials, creative comms and (of course) education on the call, plus the two account managers who would be the main client liaison.
We answer some insightful questions from the client and leave smiling.
12:00pm
Reflecting on our presentation. My gut feeling is the client likes our team – they’re a friendly and knowledgeable bunch.
The team did a great job, and all went smoothly over Zoom.
Today’s a cold and wintery day, the snow is still coming down. Time to move rooms for warmth!
12:30pm
I’m now looking at a tender we’re putting together for a University in the Midlands.
I get into the flow of writing and reviewing, and work on our submission
3:00pm
I jump on a call with our Birmingham team, who look after our HE clients on a day to day basis. We’re helping a number of our Education clients move their budgets towards cost effective performance media as we’re seeing much better return on investment.
3:30pm
Time for a tea and some preparatory work for another pitch next Wednesday, this time for an institution based on the South coast.
We’ve also got a tender due tomorrow, so the project team have a call to dot the i’s and cross the t’s of the submission. All looking strong!
4:00pm
There’s a meeting this month of our Education Advisory Board, a group of HR and student marketing experts from leading UK institutions. It’s a sounding board for ideas, best practice and professional highs and lows for all involved (and, in non-COVID times, an opportunity for a networking lunch too!)
At the next meeting we’ve got six speakers confirmed, one HRD and five marketing directors. We’ll be discussing what they look for when working with agencies so that we can understand their challenges and opportunities and share best practice.
6:00pm
It’s been one of those days, I look up and see it’s dark outside!
Time for tea, fish cakes and couscous (plus a slice of restorative cake). The kitchen’s the warmest place in the house, so I take my laptop and focus on some metrics for a tender.
The end of the day is often when I catch up with admin. Making sure the team take some time off is a priority when we’re so busy, as is spending some more strategic time together. I organise a huddle for the next morning, coffee optional!
6:30pm
I unwind with an episode of Inspector Montalbano (if you loved Line of Duty, give it a go).
Feeling prepared for the rest of the week, it’s time to start switching off. Before we go again tomorrow!
Jane Johns is Head of Education at Penna