Amy Kirk, Digital & Events Manager at the Bathroom Manufacturers Association, sits down with us to share valuable insight into what the future of digital marketing holds.
Why did you choose to pursue a role in digital? For example, has it always been your passion or was it pure happenstance?
It was a bit of both, to be honest, I have always had a passion for marketing and Graphic Design in particular which is my field of expertise. As my career has developed those skills in graphics have blended perfectly into the world of digital marketing. I am now at a point where I don’t see myself doing anything else and thrive on learning more about it as the medium continues to grow.
What personal skills or attributes do you think are most important in the digital sphere? Why these skills/attributes in particular?
You need to have a passion for social and be prepared to embrace new trends. Digital Marketing is an ever-changing field to work in no one would have predicted 10 years ago that video content would be the go-to medium for messaging or that print media would become a dying art. When I was studying and learning about marketing some 15 years ago video was not even on peoples radar and now it’s a huge part of my role.
Digital Marketing isn’t a learnt skill, it is every developing and you need to be willing to go on the journey alongside it.
What sort of challenges do you face in your role? Is there a particular challenge that you experienced in the past that stood out?
The challenges of the role are also the draws of it for me. The fact that this medium is ever-evolving means that every day truly is a school day. Other challenges often come from non-marketing people understanding that digital marketing isn’t just ‘playing on Facebook’ all day. Creating engaging content, the timing of posts and targeting of the audience can be every bit as scientific or formulaic as any other role. This is why the metrics are key, showing the conversion and engagement data can often be an eye-opener.
What one thing would make your working life easier?
A time machine hahaha! If I could travel forward to see the trends of the future my life would be made.
How is the role of digital perceived in your organisation?
It is appreciated within my organisation, I’m very fortunate to have a CEO who is supportive of all areas of marketing and understands the benefits of digital communication. Being able to work collaboratively with him and with our Comms Manager makes my life a whole lot easier
What do you think the secret of success is when working in the digital arena?
Patience… Not every campaign will hit the mark, viral content isn’t easy to produce and sometimes you will feel like you are way off the mark with the direction you are going in, but digital takes time. It takes time to grow your audience and often even longer to get that audience to engage with you. Be patient and trust the process
At React & Share, we’re obsessed with helping our clients measure and report their efforts - what measurements do you think digital teams should be presenting to internal stakeholders?
Metrics are key, using software that tracks your social/web analytics across your sales stream like Salesforce for example will give you clear conversion rates. If you don’t use a CRM to this level a simple spreadsheet can go a long way. Track your post frequency, engagement, reach and reaction on social. Cross-check this with whatever your overall aim is, for example, if you are looking for increased web traffic compare your social engagement with your analytics and look for those spikes. If this is a new venture for your business I find a cost comparison can work wonders. Compare the cost of a traditional ad/pr campaign to the cost of a digital/PPC campaign and track the results across the two, it may just provide some surprising results.
Looking into your crystal ball, what do you think will be the next big thing in digital?
Conversational marketing, in particular the continued growth of chatbots and online chat. We have almost gone full circle, it used to be marketing and sales were hand in hand creating pitches to present in person or over the phone. We moved away from this approach as the consumer and business got tired of the cold call hard sell approach and email marketing took the lead. With GDPR and spam emails overwhelming many of our inboxes I now think a shift back to more personal one to one communication is on the increase but with a digital twist.
