Meet The Team: Deborah Nolan - Marketing Manager

This November, we're excited to spotlight Deborah Nolan, Marketing Manager at WWT Washington, in our ‘Meet the Team’ series.

While marketing often operates behind the scenes, its importance in driving the success of a business can’t be overstated. Without it, vital connections with our visitors and the wider community wouldn’t be possible. Deborah shares her experiences, challenges, and the essential role marketing plays in bringing our wetland reserve to life.

Hi Deborah, thank you for taking the time to chat with us today. To kick things off, can you tell us how long you’ve been at WWT Washington Wetland Centre and how you first got started in your role?

Hellooooo! I’ve been at WWT Washington for over 8 and a half years, first starting as maternity cover for a 10-month initial contract and managed to gently nudge my way into the permanent team!

I had to learn quick, I'd always had an interest in nature but this was a new level looking at all manner of birds and other wildlife that Id never even heard of. It was a whirlwind at the start, learning the processes of the business, planned marketing activity as well as meeting lots of new people (does anyone else struggle to remember names at the start?!).

What inspired you to become a marketing manager?

I fell into marketing after university and have worked my way through different roles, gaining a variety of experience in different industries. I’ve always been a creative person and marketing has the right amount of creative aspect, which I enjoy. Although I was once told that marketing people just 'colour in all day'... oooh, you know nothing my friend!

Moving into a manager role from previous executive or assistant roles has given me more control over budgets, coming up with plans, key strategies and managing campaigns from beginning to end. There's a lot of responsibility to spread the word of WWT Washington and it's my job to do it... the pressure is on!

Can you describe a typical day?

No day at WWT Washington is the same! In marketing terms, social media is one of my priorities, so my first thing is to open our social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram mostly) plus our scheduling platform Hootsuite. I like to try and get ahead of the game planning social media a week or two ahead and responding to any queries, comments or messages.

Then to work looking at our digital channels, searching for any campaign results and updating our insights. This includes our mobile app which launched earlier this year (more on that later...).

I also plan and coordinate events, looking for ideas, discussing with the team who run activities and sorting all marketing and promotional assets for those. Other things include planning press, advertising, organising interpretation design and implementation, plus lots of other things alongside my lovely colleague Charlotte.

It really is a varied job and I get involved with all sorts of other things with the reserve team and even the keepers from time to time! If I can get out with my camera or phone to take some photos and videos then it has most certainly been a good day!

What are the most rewarding aspects of your job?

I love being able to get outside in nature. It’s such a privilege to work in a place where you can step outside for some fresh air or a lunch break and see a whole world of wildlife within seconds – very few marketing jobs have that and I feel so grateful for it every day.

I enjoy taking my camera out phone out and setting up to film some Monday Mindful Minute videos, getting my hands on some collection birds or darting out if there is a rare bird species on site – it often doesn’t feel like work!

I’ve also made great friends with many of the team, and this again reminds me that I really am very fortunate!

What kind of training/experience or education is required to become a marketing manager?

Marketing is often a role people fall into, and it was the same for me. I’ve mentioned I’ve always been a creative person, and this was evident through my university choice. I studied Animation and Design at Sunderland University from 2005 to 2008, under the very naïve assumption that I’d end of bagging a job at Disney Pixar doing character design or storyboarding. Unfortunately, animation wasn’t for me! I kept the creative side alive by doing freelance design work, which started for friends and family, but soon gathered a few clients along the way.

After finishing university, I was chatting to one of my high school teachers (at the gym, it’s a long story!) but he mentioned he knew a marketing role coming up and it might be something of interest. I hadn’t done any marketing work before then and I was so pleased to have been offered the job. It was a steep learning curve but I soon developed a love of marketing and the satisfaction of being able to see when it’s effective.

To get something official, I signed up to do a CIM level 4 marketing qualification back in 2011. Working in a marketing role while doing the course meant I could put what I was learning straight into practice! I’ve since moved through a couple of different jobs, getting experience in different industries and dealing with a variety of different people, before getting the job at WWT Washington in 2016.

I've also recently completed a Level 6 CIM Diploma in Professional Digital Marketing and I’m excited to see where this takes me and what I can do to push WWT Washington further into the limelight!

What advice would you give to someone aspiring to work in marketing and become a marketing manager?

Talk to people, communication is such as important part of marketing! I’d also say to think about the future - one of my friends jokes quite often that I live in the future, looking at Christmas and New Year in spring, but needs must!

Staying on trend is also key. Marketing techniques are changing all the time and focussing on digital marketing is a great way to go as campaigns can be constantly tweaked and results monitored daily, even hourly (if that was your thing!). That's why I love our app!

Then, just lots of practice. Write. Research. Write again. Staying fresh and quirky is a definite needed vibe!

What are some of the challenges you face?

Time – it’s always an issue! Due to working in a busy visitor centre, there’s often times when the marketing side of things needs to take a bit of a back seat and there’s quite often a game of catch up, especially during school holiday periods!

Can you tell us about something you’ve helped to create or introduce at WWT Washington whilst leading the marketing team…

I mentioned the app earlier, but this is a new and exciting project for WWT and I’m so chuffed to be the person that instigated the trial. 6 months of planning and we eventually launched the app in February 2024.

The app is a great engagement tool and will help us tell our story even more to visitors. I want to really share the work we do as much as possible and I’m hoping the app will open us up to new audiences and help more people in the area find out about us and our work locally, nationally and overseas!

It’s a work in progress, and we’ve very much only scratched the surface of possibilities that the app is capable of, so I’m excited to see what the next year brings!

If you could swap roles for one day with a co-worker, who would it be and why?

I would love to spend the day as a reserve warden. I’ve spent a lot of time with the team but like many, rarely appreciate how hard they work (as do the rest of the team!).

There’s a lot of planning needed to manage the reserve and it’s a HUGE undertaking with such a small team – over 100 acres of wetlands, woodlands and meadows to cut, clean, dig, plant and everything in between. The team are out there day after day – whatever the Great British weather throws at them – working to help encourage local wildlife to our site and improve biodiversity for that wildlife. Getting hands-on with some of their outdoor tasks would be fantastic!

Plus, on a purely selfish note, I've completely fallen in love with nature and birdwatching since joining the team, so being outdoors and having the opportunity to do this even more would be an added bonus!

Do you have a favourite animal or mammal on site?

If we’re talking wild species, the first ever animal I ever wrote a press release about was the avocet (pictured below). It’s a bird that is still pretty rare in our local area, so is a fantastic species to see each year. Plus, they're gorgeous, so what's not to love!

I have too many of our collection species that I love. The Orinoco geese are so cute, the red shoveler make the best dabbling noises and of course the Asian short-clawed otters are really cool (I also got to hold one of Mimi and Musa’s otter cubs during a health check back in 2016, which was AWESOMEEEE!)

What’s the best spot-on site to you?

There’s lots of areas of site that are great to spend a few moments. I love a combination of wetland and woodland so the amphibian ponds are probably my favourite place to spend some of my time.

During the summer, there’s lots of life with loads of dragonflies and damselflies flitting around there and on sunny days you can sometimes see newts and other pond life under the water's surface. Plus there’s always lots of warblers around the trees and reeds giving their all with their summer choooons (yes, as a Geordie it’s not pronounced tunes…)!

In autumn and winter there’s some lush sounds from the leaves blowing and dappled light reflecting on the ponds on windy days. There’s still lots of little nature surprises to find including fungi and winter thrushes, but my favourite moment here was a kingfisher darting over the path around the ponds as I crunched my way over fallen leaves - what a buzz I got that morning!

Say hello!

If you see me out and about, I'll usually be the one with a camera or a phone in my hand taking (some would say too many...) photos! Come and say 'hi' and we can have a natter about birds, photography, Disney, cake or whatever floats your boat. I'm an eclectic mix of conversation waiting to be had!

• Share this article