Day In The Life Of: Aspire's Head of Marketing.

​Have you ever wondered what it is like to be in charge of Marketing for a multinational business? Thinking of taking a step up in your marketing career and wonder what life is like as a head of department? Find out what a Day in the life of Aspire's Head of Marketing is really like with our Aspire blog series.

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Archana is Head of Marketing at Aspire and Mum to her 5-year-old son. She also is currently pursuing a part time Exec MBA and has a fashion and lifestyle blog called fashionforroyals.com. Balancing these things is challenging but fun and keeps Archana on her toes while providing a great sense of purpose. Archana is based at Aspire’s Birmingham office, managing the marketing team for Aspire globally and splits her time with the London office, travelling down once a week. Let’s get chatting with Archana to dig deeper into what a day in her life is like balancing work and her personal life.

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Before work: It’s an early start as I wake up and get my son ready for the school. I’ll usually have breakfast on the go, mostly shakes or toast, and I’ll do a coffee run on my way to the office. I can’t seem to get a good start if I don’t have my coffee!

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8am: I like to start my day early and will be in the office at 8am. I love to do my early morning calls or reports first thing as it frees up the rest of the day. If I’ve traveled to the London office, the rest of my day is usually filled with lots of meetings.

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9am: After finishing my calls with the Asia offices, I put together a list of priorities for the remainder of the day.

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10am: I usually have a meeting or two in the morning about current projects and upcoming initiatives. With offices across the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore it is important that we frequently analyse which channels are performing strongest in each region and plan future strategy accordingly.

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11am: By mid-morning I take some time to catch up on social media, both our own and that of our competitors. I will also read the news and articles to ensure I keep on top of marketing trends globally. I always like to dedicate an hour a day to catch up on what is happening in the industry.

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12am: Lunch for me involves taking time out in a café or catching up on my personal list of tasks. I try to get moving at lunchtime and will enjoy a walk while calling friends or family.

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1pm: After a healthy lunch that gets my energy levels back up, I return to the office recharged. I will read through my emails and look at anything that has come in that requires immediate attention. I prefer to go through my emails at set times, rather than checking throughout the day, as I find it can be distracting while completing other tasks.

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2pm: The afternoon’s usually pass in a whirlwind of meetings with staff or vendors. I will also focus time on supporting the team.

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3pm: I will take some time to plan for upcoming marketing projects based on the actions from the day's meetings. At present, we are working on refining and implementing a marketing automation project of global scope, which takes up significant amount of my time. I’m also involved in developing a project brief for our new website. Another task which I juggle alongside is working on client acquisition campaigns. Between these multiple projects, time just flies!

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4pm: Aspire has our own blog and insights section on our websites where we share thoughts on the current market or trends that will affect our specialist industries. I try to put together content at least once a week utilising my years of experience in marketing and have recently published posts on The importance of personalisation in marketing and Top types of digital content.

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5pm: As the work day draws to a close, I try and dedicate the last hour to planning ahead. I try and make sure all emails are answered and then create a list of top-level tasks for the next day.

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After work: I try to exercise at least 3-4 times a week as it keeps me energetic and positive. I enjoy going to the gym, doing yoga or swimming. In the evenings I also dedicate at least an hour to spending time with my son either taking him to a class, playing games with him or just chatting about his day.

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Later in the evening, I might get a good book to read in bed, watch Netflix sometimes or go through my MBA course work or work on my blog. I tend to spend two evenings a week working on my blog and another two a week on my MBA – I