A Marketing Career: It Began With Data

Finding my place in the marketing universe. 

While this website content (up until now) might paint a picture of me being some sort of crafty lady-homemaker busy with baking treats and knitting scarves, it's a pretty stark contrast of the 'me' I share with the outside world (or at least, the version of me I better identify with) in my daily life. I think the need for creativity is consistent for me, but as far as what drives me professionally - what motivates me to stare at a screen for many hours a day, is a very different story. (e.g. I would never start a bakery, for example- yikes).  for my career, I tend to enjoy problem solving, creating beautiful solutions to messy challenges. I can get a bit hyperactive on the crafting and invention ideas if I'm bored at work. 🫠

I've had a good amount of hobbies in my life: many of them are creativity-driven or productive outlets for stress. I know marketing. For the last 10+ years, I've discovered, absorbed, collected, learned and have personally performed just about every type of strategy and/ or task within the digital (and traditional) marketing industry. 

My First Time (with GA)

I remember the first time I poked around a basic instance of Google Analytics (much different from the GA4 of 2023). This was back sometime around 2011 when I was working as a project manager turned marketing manager at a content marketing and SEO startup; SEO and "SERPs" were new terminology and "content is king" was coined as the recipe for success.  As I clicked around the various reports of the dashboard and went deeper into each segmented rabbit hole, I knew I was hooked. It wasn't the numbers themselves, or the traffic volume that wowed me: it was the sheer potential, everything that could be gleaned from the data; you could see users' intent, sitting neatly behind all of those metrics. I used to joke with nerdier colleagues that Google Analytics was my 'gateway drug' into the marketing world: my first stepping stone towards the tech I actually cared about (e.g. removing friction from the user experience, and how to anticipate user intent), but that's a story for a later time. 

I remember being fascinated by the onsite user behavior analytics data, and the psychology behind the different actions and clicks. Seeing the trends in bounce rate and traffic sources, and the infinite branches of funnel paths - all of it was a nerdy paradise, and not only was it intriguing - it was something I could understand. It was almost easy to read the data and translate it into a story for others to hear. The data was more than data: it was answers to questions we hadn't thought to ask yet.  The data, and understanding the hidden story behind it - that was the first thing in the marketing world that seemed certain, logical and obvious, and I wanted more.

Understanding Users VS Communicating "at" Users

All of the other marketing conversations in the office about campaigns, 'lame' PR communications, and the latest trick to force-feeding our customers emails with products they don't want: I wanted none of it. I've referred to marketing (jokingly) as one part fluff and one part data, and I like the data piece. As I've evolved throughout my marketing career, I realize I like some of the fluff, too, but only when it's done in a way that actually offers value, and not when it's purely manipulative and FOMO-inducing (which is primarily the tactic for how that content marketing startup company stayed afloat).

Sharing is Caring

Regardless of how my journey in marketing began, I've decided the best way I can offer value to more than just one client at a time is to share what I've learned over the years: industry secrets, hard-learned truths, and my recommended resources. I plan to share it here on my site. And since marketing operations is the hottest 'black box' profession in the industry, I'd love to share my insights and recommendations on marketing operations, too. (i.e. how to determine if you need someone who specializes in marketing operations functions, what marketing operations is/does, and what business leaders should know about how marketing operations (and revops teams) need to operate and report to). These are just some of the ideas I'm working on to share with you all, and I can't wait.