Please describe your job: What do you do?
I lead our global digital marketing team working closely with our HQ in Japan. My team manages all of our online platforms – from the corporate website to our social media accounts. Part of this is about managing activities such as paid social advertising and search optimisation projects; part of it is about working with marketing professionals around the world to align our approach.
Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to?
I sit in our Global Marketing department reporting to the VP of Marketing Communications.
What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?
Obviously part of it is knowledge of digital marketing and web technologies. However, the really important things for my role are around cultural awareness, relationship management and communication. If you work in digital, everyone has an opinion of what the company – and you – should be doing. Quite often people don’t understand the complexities of how things really work. You have to be able to deal with criticism and be able to explain things in simple terms.
Tell us about a typical working day…
It usually starts early for calls with our colleagues in Japan and Australia. Then it’s on to catch ups with my team and a look at what actions are a priority for us at that time. We’ll have chats with people across Marketing and our agencies throughout the day as well as logging into multiple systems to get things done. I personally try to set aside a bit of time to look online at what’s going on in the industry too. I try to avoid looking at my phone too early or too late in the day – it’s important to not let work consume your life!
What do you love about your job? What sucks?
I love working with people from all over the world and I’m lucky enough to travel to places like Japan with work. I’m also a bit of geek when it comes to the internet so it’s great to be able to work in this space. Working at a large, quite traditional organization can have it’s down sides though – there are lots of people doing different things, lots of legacy processes etc.
What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?
We have all sorts of digital KPIs for my team and our campaigns. Goals should be defined for each individual activity based on what it’s trying to achieve. There also needs to be a realisation that doing the same thing again probably won’t get the same results otherwise you end up with silly targets.
How did you become the Head of Digital Marketing, and where might you go from here?
I actually started in the internal IT department. I got involved in several projects managing our intranet and setting up internal social networking tools. This helped show off my skills and got me noticed. I then started working with our internal design group and communications teams before joining Marketing, putting in lots of hard work and getting promoted. I’m always looking to expand my skills beyond digital and the next jump will hopefully be into a Director role.
What new technology are you most excited about (if any)?
Probably somethings random that popped up on Mashable! What I find most interesting is how people react to technology. Sometimes great ideas fall flat because people aren’t quite ready or find it scary.
Do you have any advice for people who want to work in marketing for a brand?
I think the key is to get involved in lots of different things. Don’t limit yourself to just one area of marketing or even just one area of the business. You pick up so many transferable skills and learn how businesses work. Understanding marketing principles and digital technology is one thing but you really need to understand your brand – the tone, the experience etc – and make sure this is evident in everything you do.
My second bit of advice would be don’t compare yourself to everyone else. It can sometimes look like your peers are doing the most exciting stuff in the world. They may have a job title that sounds really fancy or be jetting off to the other side of the world.
