Celebrating Our Culture Heroes – November

by | Dec 7, 2020

18 min read

We are constantly driven to come up with new ideas and techniques to ensure that we provide the best services for our clients. However, some things always stay the same: embracing the company’s core values and celebrating our amazing team members for their contributions. Our-Values.png

Because each of our amazing team members has their own style in tackling challenges, managing deadlines and keeping themselves organised, we want to continue sharing their insights, as they might come in handy for anyone who finds themselves working remotely.

In November we celebrated Benoit, Lisa and Ben for going above and beyond and demonstrating outstanding abilities in humility and honesty, dependability and curiosity & creativity, 3 of our key values. Based on our tradition, we asked all of them to offer us a glimpse into the abilities needed and techniques used in their daily work, that help them stay on top of their game. 

Our Values

Our Values

Celebrating Our Culture Heroes

Benoit

Part of the Leadership team, Benoit is the Head of Digital Analytics and has been with IMWT for more than 5 years, in which he succeeded in being a highly skilled and appreciated Analytics Master.

Celebrating Our Culture Heroes - Benoit

What is your best advice for ‘Humility and Honesty’ in the workplace (to the point of being recognised for this superpower)?

Building trust is fundamental to long-standing relationships between us (marketers) and our clients. But trust is never easily earned. This is not something you build overnight. You need to earn it and it takes time and effort.

Trust is a combination of three main ingredients: capability, consistency and intention. It is relatively easy to prove your capabilities through deliverables, previous experiences, case studies, references. Consistency of your work (on time and quality) is also quite a tangible aspect, easy to measure. While the third component, intention, is a bit trickier to demonstrate, it is the one that may tip the balance. Honesty coupled with humility will help you demonstrate your intentions. Here are a few ideas:

  • Only tell the truth. Don’t be afraid of admitting when we don’t know or when you are unsure. You can always come back later with the answers. Do some additional research and take this occasion to upskill yourself.
  • Confess when you are wrong. Hopefully, it does not happen too often but admit when it happens, and take action on it: set a new process, a new way of working, add an extra layer of validation, propose a solution that will prevent the same error from happening again. This also repairs, up to some extent, part of the damage the error brought. Showcase how fast you can adapt and put together a more robust plan. Everybody commits errors, but not everybody learns from them. Be one of the few making the best of his errors!
  • Always commit to what you said. But if you are tied because of budget, time or resources, adjust and set the right expectations. Be honest and realistic about what can be achieved. Not only will it improve trust, but it will also help you deliver on time and quality without adding stress onto you and your team.
  • But the most important thing to me (and the one I like doing the most) is sharing knowledge. I have a tendency to explain how things work, how to do it, share insights. It helps me to validate my knowledge, it gives me confidence and exposure with the opportunity of gaining some recognition in my area of expertise from my peers, colleagues and clients.

How do you manage to juggle so many responsibilities and deadlines?

One of the reasons why I prefer working from home rather than in an office or co-working spaces is how easy I am distracted by noise and movements. In order to be efficient, I need to ‘isolate’ myself and reduce distractions to a minimum. At home, I have my own workspace, a desk dedicated to working. To keep my focus, I also listen to music as it prevents me from being distracted by external noises. It has been years that I am living in Vietnam. Unfortunately, being quiet is not of the various benefits of living in Asia. I am never safe from neighbours singing karaoke in the middle of the afternoon.

Every time I sense that I am losing my focus and attention, I take a small break: go to the beach, walk the dog or simply drink or eat something. This helps me re-concentrate.

To limit distraction especially for tedious tasks, I let the team know in advance my attention, communicate it in slack, and even put a placeholder in my calendar not only to dedicate this time to delivery but also to avoid any potential disruption – especially meetings (internal or client).

But working from home does not mean working alone. We have a strong culture at IMWT and one of the 5 pillars is Independently Together. I regularly catch up with colleagues not only for client’s work but also for advice, feedback and also non-professional discussions. My urge for coffee and lunch breaks type of small talks is still here.

Could you briefly describe your main tasks and responsibilities?

At In Marketing We Trust, I am the Head of Digital Analytics. I oversee and manage Analytics delivery across our accounts. Our ultimate goal is to provide clients with actionable information. Insights that help them to better understand their customers and monitor their performance. and more generally, help them to figure out ways of enhancing their business.

Our services include data collection strategy and governance, audits, data visualisation, analysis, and more technical aspects related to tracking implementation.

A significant proportion of the digital analytics stream work is dedicated to large analytics implementation projects (1-5 months). As a Google Marketing Platform Certified Partner (since 2017), our framework is in line with Google’s best practice and standards. The other main mission of the stream is to maintain Analytics data quality and accuracy. This primordial mission demands constant nurturing. We sensibilise our client to the constant necessity of repairing, maintaining, cleaning, enriching and adapting their data collection to always match with their current needs. Maintenance has a cost but the value of data quality lies in the avoidance of future cost. Data quality inevitably decreases over time and we want to avoid losing trust in the data which ultimately lead to no longer using it. Our mission is to maintain our client’s data quality to high standards. We want our clients to regularly use, challenge, play with and trust their data to the point of turning it into actionable insights.

The last mission is around training. Every occasion is taken to educate our clients (with a different level of granularity based on maturity and need). We aim to secure an understanding of what we do, how we do it and the value it brings while regularly improving their level of maturity. The more they comprehend the power of data, the higher the chances of having them use it to its full potential.

How do you manage to juggle so many responsibilities and deadlines?

Processes, frameworks and people are three of the main keystones that help me and the team to juggle responsibilities and deadlines. Everyone regularly creates new processes and framework or adapts the existing ones with the objective to remove inefficiencies. By doing this, it becomes easier to define outcomes, set the clients expectations, and speed the delivery by describing the methodology to follow. And this applies to everyone across every team. We get something to learn from everyone. In my opinion, the most important over written processes is the team and how we all work independently together. Operations, Delivery (SEO, Paid Media, Data Analytics and Data Engineering) and Client services – every one of us plays a role in making the projects run smoothly and successfully.

 

Lisa

Being part of the IMWT family for more than 2 years, Lisa is constantly delivering results and adding value for our clients on the Paid Media front, while being a dedicated and connected team member always ready to help.

Celebrating Our Culture Heroes - November - LisaWhat is your best advice for being dependable in the workplace (to the point of being recognised for this superpower)?

Being dependable in a remote workplace (like ours!) requires:

  1. Clear and prompt communication with workmates and external clients 
  2. Being open and honest on whether deadlines will be hit 
  3. Simply being available during AU working hours for meetings and
  4. Utilising the Gmail calendar to block out time for projects/tasks – it’s important to make it clear when I am available and therefore dependable
  5. Flexibility, to move between urgent tasks, if required

Any tips for keeping yourself focussed and delivering great results while working from home?

Three words: lists, priorities & time-management! 

If there’s a client meeting occurring within the next 24 hours, obviously this is a big priority and any reports, summaries or actions that need to be taken, should be actioned promptly to ensure I’m prepared for the meeting.

I’ll use music to really focus, so I’ll often pop the headphones on. Regular snacks and meal breaks are essential too! Chocolate is crucial. Exercise too of course – I like running, HIIT classes, tennis and netball.

I have 3 primary-school-aged children (3 girls, including twins!) so it’s important that I work on bigger projects or intricate tasks during those hours when they’re at school. If they’re at home, they’re aware when I’m in a meeting, as I slide a note under the office door “Mummy in a meeting!” … and that seems to do the trick.

Could you briefly describe your main tasks and responsibilities?

I work within the Paid Search area of Digital Marketing. My main work revolves around the Google Ads platform – ensuring that our clients are appearing for relevant keywords, to relevant audiences with appealing ads. Matching the advertiser/client to the consumer/purchaser is the main aim.

This involves:

  • Structuring Google Ads accounts via relevant Campaigns/Ad Groups/Ads/Keywords
  • Writing Ad headlines, descriptions and Ad Extensions
  • Researching keywords that consumers use to search for products/services
  • Uploading Display Ad/Gmail campaigns
  • Uploading YouTube video ads 
  • Ensuring we’re using appropriate Conversion Actions, Bidding Strategies, Audiences, Demographics, Landing Pages, Location Targets and Negative Keywords
  • Working to daily or monthly media budgets
  • Optimising campaigns
  • Continually refreshing ad copy for new promotions or new products/services

More recently, I’ve been involved in setting up Google Shopping campaigns (via the Google Merchant Center and product feeds via a partner site) – this has been very interesting and, with the recent explosion of online shopping, a necessary part of the Digital Marketing knowledge base.

My portfolio of clients spans a variety of industries including:

  • Retail
  • Travel
  • Medical supplies
  • Restaurants
  • Cosmetic medicine
  • Waste management
  • Property data

How do you manage to juggle so many responsibilities and deadlines?

Again, it comes back to priorities, lists, deadlines and pure focus! Block out time, block out the calendar, put the music on and really work on getting the work done. I must also say, our Account Managers are amazingly organised people who guide us along the way! We’re all a part of a wider, supportive team and despite the fact we work remotely, there’s plenty of communication and assistance along the way.

 

Ben

Part of the Growth team and specialised in Digital Strategy and Paid Social, Ben has been with the IMWT family only since September – but this didn’t stop him to go above and beyond and prove that creativity comes hand in hand with hard work when achieving great results for our clients. 

Celebrating Our Culture Heroes - November - BenWhat is your best advice for ‘being creative’ in the workplace (to the point of being recognised for this superpower)?

My ultimate creativity hack is to make sure I spend time away from my computer/desk, anyone who works from home knows how easy it is to get sucked into a habit of being chained to their desk. While it sounds counter-intuitive, allowing the mind a little time to relax and disconnecting from work can make a big difference in problem-solving – some of my biggest and most important ‘Aha’ moments have come when I’m doing something other than work such as surfing or cycling. 

I like to think of creativity as connecting the dots, problem-solving in a way that is effective and efficient by viewing things from a different perspective.

Any tips for keeping yourself focussed and delivering great results while working from home?

Plan ahead and create a space that separates work from home. I also like to switch up my location once or twice a week, working from a coworking space or cafe, to prevent cabin fever and stoke the imagination.

Instrumental music paired with a solid pair of noise-cancelling headphones also goes a long way to cutting out distractions.

Could you briefly describe your main tasks and responsibilities?

As a growth marketing consultant, I’m responsible for building paid social campaigns for my clients. I work across a number of channels including Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest to build strategies and campaigns that help my clients generate a positive ROI.

How do you manage to juggle so many responsibilities and deadlines?

Time management and forward planning are crucial skills in this line of work. By keeping the end objective in mind and working backwards I’m able to set milestones and deadlines by breaking down big projects into groups of smaller tasks. 

El Phan
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