The pace of agency life has the capacity to daunt even the most experienced of marketers, and it was particularly daunting for Emily Berriman, who joined us early in her career. In her one-year anniversary blog, Emily explains how she’s made the leap from resident ‘quiet girl’ to confident, certified marketing specialist – with awards on her mind.
As the resident ‘quiet girl’, I never thought I’d be writing a blog about how far I’ve come in my career; especially in such a short amount of time.
When you’re at the beginning of your career, it can be intimidating and difficult to understand exactly where to start. So I started at the beginning, absorbing everything and dipping my toes into it all.
By doing this, I found something that I was both good at and passionate about; the wonderful world of email marketing, which is where my StrategiQ journey began.
Why StrategiQ?
When looking for the next step in my career, I knew I needed a mentor and an ambitious agency that would continuously support my development and provide opportunities that would push me out of my comfort zone to reach my potential – and StrategiQ offered just that.
Working at StrategiQ means joining a group of passionate, dedicated and visionary people; a melting-pot of personalities, skill sets and specialisms. Working day-to-day in partnership with clients to action meaningful and measurable change.
What more could an ambitious marketer ask for?
Research and development
One of my favourite things about working at StrategiQ is the dedicated time for research and development. In just a year in my role, I have expanded my expertise outside of email marketing, accumulated 12 certifications and presented a research project to the company.
From the very beginning I have been provided with a comprehensive, CX-centred training plan which has given me a clear understanding of what I need to be able to achieve to succeed in my role and progress within the company.
With knowledge of Mailchimp solely as an ESP when I first joined StrategiQ, a big part of my development throughout the past year has been focused on getting up to speed with all the different CX platforms.
- My achieved platform certifications:
- Mailchimp
- Klaviyo
- Dotdigital
- LoyaltyLion
- Litmus
- Google Analytics
Our dedicated R&D time also allows us to attend industry events to help us stay up to date with the latest trends, learn from industry leaders and improve our client strategies.
One of the events I attended last year was the E-commerce Expo. The expo was full of insightful, educational talks from some of the industry’s best, discussing a huge variety of topics from the power of personalisation and data to CX optimisation and consumer expectations.
Read more about my time at the expo here.
The Dotties
In November 2022, the CX team were shortlisted for 4 awards at Dotdigital’s Dottie Awards:
- Marketer of the Year: Emily Berriman
- Marketer of the Year: Lauren Boyton
- Team of the Year
- Outstanding email creative: Yoga Ed
Who would’ve thought that 7 months into my role I’d be shortlisted for Dotdigital’s Marketer of the Year award… not me!
Being acknowledged externally for my work was a massive achievement for me, and ultimately, a huge confidence boost that has motivated me to work even harder.
With another 12 months of experience under my belt since the last awards ceremony, I look forward to The Dotties 2023 and putting myself and our clients forward for more awards.
Digital CRM
In December 2022, I completed the Institute of Data and Marketing’s Digital CRM course, hosted by Natalie Rockall. The course looked at all aspects of digital CRM, including how to set up a strategy, mapping the customer lifecycle, email marketing and how to implement the right CRM for a client.
Similar to all courses post-pandemic, the course was held online via video call. Although the course was online, Natalie ensured it was still interactive and engaging by including multiple break out sessions and small tasks to help us put our learnings into practice.
Completing this course was a great way for me to end 2022 as it solidified the knowledge I have gained since joining StrategiQ.
Conclusion
So, 12 months on, what does my role look like now?
As I continue to develop within the CX team, I am now a Junior CX Specialist, managing our email offering across the business using Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Dotdigital and Hubspot, ensuring that we are sending personalised messaging to the right people at the right time.
I’m also now confident in leading client customer journey sessions and presenting my findings back to our clients to help them get a clear understanding of where their pain points are across the customer journey and how StrategiQ can help them to improve it.
My expanded knowledge and confidence has also allowed me to support Lauren, Head of CX, in onboarding new team members and training them on the way we do email at StrategiQ, as well as email best practices.
Oh and I’m sure you’re wondering – no, I’m no longer the resident ‘quiet girl’.
Want to progress your career the way Emily did? Check out our vacancies.