Interview with kristin Digital Marketing Manager

“Innovation needs to be part of your culture. Consumers are transforming faster than we are, and if we don’t catch up, we’re in trouble.”

I have a chat with Digital Marketing Manager Kristin who is content specialist and marketing manager in the tech industry.

She shared her valuable experiences and her career journey in digital marketing.

Below, you can see the full Q&A and learn more about a digital marketing roles.

1. An introduction about yourself.

Hi! I’m Kristin. A Dutchie from Amsterdam. Marketing Manager at a software company saltoks that develops software for access control solutions.

2. How did you become a digital marketer? Could you tell us about your career journey, starting with your education?

To be honest, my career started far from marketing, as an event coordinator, and after that office manager and online content specialist.

I’m very creative by nature and I love to learn and develop. In combination with my operational skills, hard work, and great opportunities I was able to grow into my role of Marketing Manager.

3. What leads up to finding “the perfect” story for a brand?

I think the most important thing is knowing your audience. I don’t mean some brief research where you map out which marketing campaigns would make your audience inclined to buy faster.

I mean really getting to know them. What problems do they face on a day-to-day basis? How does that affect them? How often do they run into these problems.

Do they have friends and family that struggle with the same issues.

How does this relate to your brand? The better you know your audience the better you can tell a brand story that inspires and ignites emotion, which makes people relate and feel a strong connection to your brand.

4. What has been the biggest challenge for you as a digital marketer, and how did you overcome it?

I want to do it all! For me, it’s quite difficult not to get too excited. There are so many cool things to discover and implement in the world of digital marketing!

My main challenge is to stay on course and keep my eyes on the price. Another struggle is that I am not big on data.

A very unpopular viewpoint these days. I really think that the best marketing campaigns are equipped with both data and personality which is not always measurable.

I get that companies don’t want to take too much of a risk, but if you don’t take risks and back every little detail up with data, you won’t ever discover new things that could work a gazillion times better.

5. According to you, what are the top five skills that a digital marketer should possess?

1. Empathetic – if you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you’re naturally good in sales
2. Good in time management – in marketing you need to be able to schedule your time efficiently in order to meet deadlines
3. Pragmatic – always have the goal in mind so you won’t get demotivated or stuck
4. Innovative – a natural curiosity to experiment with new tools/strategies
5. Creative – you can learn any skill, content writing, design, etc. but this will be so much easier and fun if you are creative and enjoy the process!

6. Who and/or what influences your work and why?

I read a lot. I love that we develop software that on the surface seems like another IoT product, but we actually change lives all around the world.

By reading about the people that could benefit from our software I get inspired to go beyond the product, which hopefully makes us stand out.

7. Would you like to suggest any online courses for those who want to improve their marketing skills?

I think the philosophy behind copywriting is extremely important in any profession.

You have the power to influence people with your words. This means you get to do that every single day.

There lies a lot of power in something that gets overlooked easily. Whether it’s writing an e-mail, a sales page, or an Instagram caption.

I am a big fan of Alex Cattoni from the Copy Posse and followed one of her courses.

8. Are there any hobbies or interests that helped you develop your marketing skills?

I love writing and I wish I could design so I try (and fail) a lot in that department.

These hobbies definitely are the building blocks of where I am today.

9. What are your favorite tools to use as a digital marketer, how are they helpful?

I’m a big big fan of productivity tools such as Notion and Trello (I even get teased about it).

Anything I can get my hand on to stay organized and get a clear overview.

For the more creative stuff, I love Procreate, Sketch, and Instagram stories.

10. Is there a digital marketer who you admire or think they are killing right now?

I absolutely can’t get enough of Neil Patel who has helped so many big tech companies with their digital marketing.

I also adore Gary Vaynerchuk because of his no-bullshit approach. Someone who is not as big, but should be is Steph Morrow, Head of strategy at Vice media.

I still use her example she used in the HelloMasters podcast where she says that if you only look at data all companies would just publish porn and videos of cute cats.

Some Works Done By Kristin

Follow kristin to stay updated with her amazing work on her website LinkedIn, Instagram.