Meet the latest addition to our growing marketing department, Liz Hearmon, our Marketing Manager. Liz joined us just over six months ago and has already had an incredible impact on the department and overall business.

With over 15 years of experience, Liz has a wide range of expertise from education, health and safety, medical education, fitness industry, and now construction.

Can you describe a typical day at your job?

The days are varied, but they tend to be a mix of:

• checking my emails and various meetings
• updating and building out our CRM
• strategic planning of marketing activities
• photography and filming as part of our site visits
• supporting our website development and social media content

In my day to day I ensure we are doing everything we need to be doing from a marketing perspective while working closely with our business development team and community and engagement manager.

I also communicate regularly with various other teams, such as maintenance and furniture, to find out more about the many projects they are working on how we can let our clients and partners know about our projects and initiatives.

What are some of the challenges you have had to overcome in your role?

The main challenges I’ve had to overcome in my role are mainly industry related, as I don’t have extensive experience in the construction industry. This has meant that I’ve to get my head around all of the key stakeholders, including strategic partners, customers, etc., as well as all the overall industry and opportunities. So, lots of industry learning, and more to come still, but I’m having a great time.

What advice would you give to someone who was thinking about going into Marketing?

Marketing in the construction industry has certainly been very interesting for me, so far – it’s very varied so you’ll get to indulge in email marketing, website updates, lots of social media and there are a lot of opportunities to do video and photography – people want to see what’s going on with the projects. It is important to remember that Health & Safety is incredibly important in construction sites, but our teams here at COEL are wonderful and always have all the PPE you might need on hand.

If you’ve got any interest in the design & build environment, whether your looking to work for an architect firm or a full construction firm, I’d say give it a go because there is a lot of opportunity in the construction industry.

Did you always want to work in construction?

No, I didn’t really see myself working in construction specifically, but I’ve always found it interesting. I used to work at Anglia Ruskin University in their Built Environment department as part of their science and technology department so I have worked closely with architects, researchers and engineers and found it intriguing.

But in all honesty, I’ve never seen myself work in any specific industry – I just love marketing and learning about new industries and so I tend to find myself in roles where I can do just that.

What is your favourite thing about COEL?

Definitely the people! Everyone from day one has been wonderful. As a woman coming into a construction company, there was a bit of nervousness when I first joined, but I have to say that everyone is so professional and supportive – and everyone looks out for each other.

It’s evident even from client feedback, that COEL goes above and beyond to do what it can for its client, partners and its people. It’s been a real pleasure so far.

What is your favourite thing to do outside of work?

When I’m not at work I love doing creative things, such as singing, song writing, recording – I have my a small recording studio at home.

I’m also a big fan of music, so you will often find me at music festivals and gigs, I’m trying to do one a month this year. Plus I love travel and cruising.

Do you have a personal ambition to still fulfil?

I think there will always be ambitions left in you, no matter what age you are. Producing an album of music from different genres is up there for me, as well as retiring in sunny Spain.