Overview of the Role

As Marketing and Publicity Assistant you will support the division’s Marketing Manager and Publicist, assisting with campaigns designed to drive profitable sales of titles, developing and strengthening key author brands, and successfully launching debuts. You will provide significant administrative support, ensuring the smooth running of all marketing and publicity campaigns, as well as providing creative input where necessary, helping to develop highly creative consumer marketing campaigns across physical, digital and audio products.

The role has a strong digital and social media bias, and the successful candidate will be a digitally savvy social media adopter, who will be eager to assist with the division’s social media accounts, feeding into campaigns run via these channels.

This role is ideally suited to an organised and detail-focused candidate who has bags of creativity, initiative and energy. They will have a keen interest in commercial fiction and be excited at the prospect of applying creative flair throughout their day-to-day work, ensuring that our campaigns continue to stand out at the forefront of a competitive market.

About Avon

Avon is a division of HarperCollins, one of the UK’s most prolific and innovative multi-platform publishers. Specialising in commercial fiction, Avon publishes a wide range of titles across crime, women’s fiction, historical and saga, for a predominantly female readership. With books that sell through the high street and the supermarkets as well as in digital, Avon is home to million-copy, Sunday Times and international bestsellers such as C.L. Taylor, Helen Fields, Sue Moorcroft, Phillipa Ashley, Mandy Robotham, Kitty Neale, Daisy Wood and Katerina Diamond.

Avon offers the chance for employees to contribute to discussions across the division, ensuring constant learning and development opportunities as new projects arise. As an exciting, market-leading division, Avon prides itself on being at the forefront of digital and industry developments, continually challenging the norm and aiming for best-in-class commercial fiction at all times.

Avon Books won Imprint of the Year at the British Book Awards 2020, and in 2018 was named Publisher of the Year by the Romantic Novelists’ Association, and longlisted again in 2021.

For further information, please visit www.avonbooks.co.uk

Key Responsibilities

Marketing:

• Assist the Marketing Manager with the creation of social media plans for authors across the division.

• Lead on all social media scheduling and provide support to the Marketing Manager across all Avon social media channels.

• Help to instigate regular and lively interaction with the general public across the division’s social media, developing a clear Avon ‘voice’.

• Support the implementation of marketing campaign initiatives that achieve impact and cut through across a range of channels including radio, print, mobile, social, email, digital, video, and events.

• Under the supervision of the Marketing Manager, create, test and send the Avon newsletter, in time owning the email schedule and email reporting.

• Assist the Marketing Manager with NetGalley, working together to agree content and upload books.

• Implement pre-defined social media posts, and monitor performance of social media channels, working towards a clear strategy for growth and engagement.

• Create interesting and engaging social media posts that generate conversation amongst the Avon audience.

• Assisting with the Avon website, helping to report on its performance.

• Assist with digital advertising campaigns.

• Ensure that all administration enabling control and visibility of marketing spend is up-to-date and accurate, including raising POs and setting up new suppliers.

• Helping to create presentations when necessary, in particular for company highlights and for author pre-publication meetings.

• Handling blogger communications via the avon.bloggers email and assisting and compiling creative mail-outs to bloggers via the blogger newsletter/database.

• Handling the Avon newsletter, compiling and sending Avon’s regular newsletters and assisting on solus newsletter campaigns.

Publicity:

• Ensure that all information for The Bookseller preview is submitted on time, liaising with the wider team as necessary.

• Creating fliers and other relevant material for marketing/publicity purposes as required.

• Sending out book mailings and creative mailings as requested, ensuring deadlines are hit.

• Assisting with the writing of press releases as necessary.

• Helping the Publicist and Marketing Manager to establish brand partnerships, liaising with new contacts as necessary.

• Supporting on local media outreach (following database training) and supporting on regional appearances.

• Updating and reaching out to festivals and awards on a rolling basis.

• To help ensure that all relevant publicity material is available and updated i.e. author photos, author bios, photos, calendar, AIs, websites, and any other external-facing material. Liaise with the publicity team and authors on general requests for author photos, questionnaires and the like.

• In time, support authors with publicity outreach.

• Helping to ensure that all PR databases are kept up to date on a regular basis.

• Logging reviews as they appear and helping to communicate to authors.

General:

• Support the Marketing Manager and Publicist to ensure campaigns run smoothly, on time, and on budget.

• Collate and organise digital and print marketing assets and ensure the marketing folder is up to date and filed logically.

• Own and build relationships with central marketing, the corporate comms team, and other marketing teams across the business to champion regular social and email coverage for our books.

• Document campaign activity, adding results to M&P plans.

• Take ownership of the weekly Marketing Update email, ensuring it is up to date.

• Competitor tracking: capture key marketing and publicity campaigns, learnings and share with the team.

• Take ownership of the Avon ebook tracker, listing weekly changes in chart positions and presenting to the team.

Experience and Skills Required:

• An effective multi-tasker

• Social media and digitally savvy with experience of using a range of social media channels

• Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint

• Excellent organisational skills

• Great attention to detail

• Strong eye for design

• Creative and innovative approach to their work

• Strong verbal and written communication skills

• Passion for commercial fiction – in particular, the Avon list

Benefits 

• Hybrid working model (3 days in the office)

• 28 days holiday plus bank holidays (option to buy and sell holiday days) 

• Enhanced pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave 

• Private healthcare cover and life assurance 

• Summer Hours  

• Free access to HeadSpace, employee assistance programme (24 hour helpline), mental health first aiders, and a wellbeing portal 

• Season ticket loans (from day 1 for entry level) and cycle to work scheme 

• Relocation Rent Support Loan  

• Employee networks: HC All In (open forum), Elevate (for ethnic minority colleagues), HarperParents, Menopause at Work and Pride at HC 

• Unlimited training on our Learning and Development portal, management courses (up to MA level) and mentoring programmes 

• Virtual GP and eyecare vouchers 

• Gym membership discount 

• Onsite physiotherapy (London only) 

• Charitable donation matching and  2 volunteering days 

• We're a certified Carbon Neutral company 

• Free e-books and audiobooks, newspaper subscriptions and discounts on books 

• Subsidised canteen and retail discounts 

• Onsite prayer room 

If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position and/or your application to this role, please reach out directly to recruitment@harpercollins.co.uk with subject heading ‘Vacancy Query’ plus the job title and we will aim to get back to you within 5 working days.

Please note, if you are interested in the role you would need to submit your application via Applied. We do not accept email applications.