This month in Brisbane we tackled the little-talked-about topic of Digital Marketer Success and explored what high achieving marketers are doing to stand out from the crowd and position themselves to stay relevant and perform well in their roles. The speakers at this event were: • Louisa Dahl, CEO, Interactive Minds • CJ Hardwick, Digital Marketing Specialist, Revelian • Michael Gillespie, Group Chief Digital Officer, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises • Laura Campbell, Director, Deloitte This is one of the first professional development topics we have covered in a while and there were a variety of approaches discussed, some personal journeys shared and even a whiteboard session!

Louisa's Session

Interactive Minds Founder and CEO Louisa Dahl kicked off the event and talked about the framework of high performing marketers that she has uncovered. After running nearly 100 events for digital marketers, Louisa has noticed that high achievers are consistently doing a number of activities which helps them to stand out.  She chose three key elements to take us through and spoke on the importance of leveraging relationships, how marketers can focus on results and why marketers need to market themselves. Some tips she shared included:
  • Plan the relationships you want to develop and do research, ask for attendee lists and know who you want to connect with.
  • Following up is key to building a long-term, valuable relationship. Put it in your calendar!
  • Take responsibility to set KPIs for your role so that you have goals and a measure of success.
  • Use the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) to focus your activities on those tasks that are generating the majority of results.
  • Marketers need to share thought leadership to establish your profile and position yourself for opportunities. If you don't tell others about your achievements, no one else will! Use content as a way to share.
Louisa also launched her new book, The Deliberate Digital Marketer, which covers the framework in full.

CJ's Session

CJ Hardwick of Revelian shared how he undertakes a professional skills audit to ensure that he keeps learning and keeps his skills up to date. He spoke of his ‘I know nothing’ approach and explained how he evaluates potential learning areas and creates a roadmap of the skills he wants to develop. He also demonstrated how he has implemented new technical knowledge to the benefit of his team. His presentation explored the value of side projects and why every marketer should be doing small experiments to try new things and keep learning. CJ embraces this approach and he has created a side business from product development to marketing and also regularly explores new tools and simple products to test things like Facebook ads effectiveness.

Michael's Session

Michael Gillespie took us on a journey through his career in e-commerce from getting books online at QBD, to developing pizza by drone with Domino’s Pizza Enterprises. His tips included:
  • Upgrade your skills however required in order to help your team
  • Consider all stakeholders but develop solutions with the customer first in mind
  • Make sure you consult with your developers regularly
  • Fail fast and learn
Michael also shared what he looks for when recruiting digital marketers and spoke about them needing a hunger, openness to learn and be willing to get their hands dirty.

Laura's Session

Digital Director at Deloitte, Laura Campbell was our final speaker and she showed us how she plans ahead a quarter a time, both professionally and personally, to achieve her goals. She places a lot of importance of setting KPIs and in getting her manager’s buy-in and support for her career aspirations and she encourages marketers to set KPIs and use data and evidence to demonstrate their effectiveness. Of particular interest to attendees was her ‘placemat’ of segmented objectives in a variety of areas. Laura also explained her proactive stance on accountability and spoke about how she micro-managers her career, planning her moves well in advance. 

She white boarded her ‘3x3’ method on the morning, showing how she maps the connections needed to achieve her objectives, based on their influence and her relationship with them. Laura also shared her personal planning approach showing us her home whiteboard and how her career aspirations fit into it. There has been a rush on whiteboard sales since Laura’s presentation as marketers all over Brisbane are hit with inspiration! 

Overall, our speakers demonstrated the hard work they do behind the scenes to develop their skills, set goals, test and experiment in new areas and work on relationships to contribute to their journey. What a great event! 

Thank you to all who attended, and we will see you next in Brisbane for Interactive Minds in February. Check out our upcoming events here.