A Day in the Life of a Marketing Campaign Manager: Kayleigh Boam's Journey

Kayleigh Boam is a Marketing Campaign Manager in the Marketing and Communications team, responsible for planning and executing multi-channel marketing campaigns, which help to support the Infrastructure, Environmental Science and Monitoring and Surveying divisions in the UK.

As a Marketing Campaign Manager at SOCOTEC UK & Ireland, Kayleigh Boam’s journey to the role wasn’t a traditional one. Unlike many in her team, she didn't follow the university route; instead, carving a career through practical experience, determination, and a commitment to continuous learning through apprenticeships.

Having joined SOCOTEC nearly a decade ago in a completely different capacity, Kayleigh's story is one of self-belief, and seizing opportunities when they arise. In this blog, we explore how she transitioned from a telemarketing role she didn't enjoy into a fulfilling marketing career, and what drives her to keep pushing forward to this day.

Kayleigh on...her background

“Originally, I started in a very different role at SOCOTEC. It was very interesting at first, but as the business started to evolve and the team started to change, my role shifted more into more of a telemarketing role, which I did not like. I am not a telemarketing person. I had asked if I could go into a different role, which was like a bids and tenders coordinator and was told no.

“To which Charlotte [Hughes, Marketing Director], turned round and said, ‘If they can't utilise you, I will’. I think Charlotte saw potential that I don't think anyone else did. I sort of fell into supporting marketing when I was asked to help with the rollout of GDPR. That was where I started with Marketing, supporting with data and researching GDPR, making sure that we were legally compliant with our marketing data.

“After I did that, Charlotte asked me to look after some more data management tasks.  And from there I ended up managing our email marketing, which lead to designing things and using InDesign! I'd never used InDesign in my life, and had no idea what it was – so I had to teach myself how to use that.

“What started out as essentially a telemarketing role slowly turned into a marketing role, but it was very sort of administrative to begin with.”

Kayleigh on...finding her path through apprenticeships

“I think around the time that Rebecca [Davison, Head of Digital Transformation], joined the team, I started to become acutely aware of the fact that I was the only person in the team that didn't have like a university education and started to feel a little bit inferior, not because anyone made me feel inferior, but because I told myself that I was inferior. Charlotte recognised that in me pretty quickly, and once we were over the worst of COVID, she suggested that I look at apprenticeships.

“I managed to get a distinction in the course I began with, which was a Level 4  in Marketing with the Oxford College of Marketing. Once I’d completed that, I wanted to continue my momentum, so I decided to do another one. I got my result for the Level 3 Leadership and Management course in December 2025, and started the Level 6 Marketing Manager in January – it was a bit non-stop!"

Kayleigh on...the impact of continuous learning

“I would say there's a direct correlation between additional learning and having progressed in the team and in my role. I think it probably would have been the only way I would have ever been able to sit there and go, ‘I'm actually qualified to do what I do’. That was probably the biggest pain point for me up until then, that no matter what kind of marketing I was doing and whether it was good or bad or perceived to be really good or not, I was always telling myself that I wasn't qualified to do it and therefore I wasn't good enough.

“My learning has not only propelled me to a more significant role within the business, but it's also helped me develop the confidence to do what I do and know that it's good enough. Having that qualification certainly helps me to do the day-to-day stuff, it helps to just be confident enough to not only protect the brand, which is something I'm really, really passionate about, but it makes it easier to do that because I feel like I have the background knowledge to back that up.”

Kayleigh on...advice for others considering a similar path

“I would say to anybody who is as I was, in their 30s and doing jobs just to get by, having not really done anything that they're passionate about and is considering something like this, they would usually tell themselves it's too late and perhaps be fretting about if it doesn't work out, having bills to pay and financial responsibilities. I would say, let the fear make you work even harder because it's worth it at the end: it's never, ever too late to do something new.

“Never rule out an apprenticeship, is something I’d say to anybody, either my age, older than me, or somebody just starting out. If there's somewhere you want to be and something you want to achieve in your career, do not rule out an apprenticeship because what you get out of it is so worth the effort you put into it.

“The kind of education that I've had through working at SOCOTEC would probably have cost me a lot of money from a very young age, that I would probably still be trying to pay back now - and I've done it all for free. When you look at what the apprenticeship levels are equivalent to, a Level 6 is equivalent to a Bachelors/undergraduate degree. While it’s a lot of hard work, and you don't have as much time to dedicate to studying alongside work, the practical experience of the day job does actually assist with that learning, anyway.”

Kayleigh on...her future goals

“Being a Marketing Director, in Charlotte's role would be something that I aspire to. I do continuously tell her, ‘do not leave because I'm still learning from you!’. At the moment, as much as I might want that, it sounds quite scary to think about. I think the shorter term may be to be made ‘Head’ of something. I don't know what that would be, or what it would look like.”

“It's not just because I really like working for her, it's because I do see her as a really essential source of knowledge and information. The stuff that she knows is really, really valuable, as well as being a really good manager of people.”

“I love being part of the Marketing & Communications team, and feel so lucky to be working with so many talented people. They have supported me through my journey, and I don’t think I’d be who I am without them.”

“I recently completed the last of my Level 6 classes, and will soon embark on my End Point Assessment journey, which will take around 6 months to complete. I am excited to get stuck in to that process and start exploring what comes next…maybe the Level 7 qualification.”