Q&A with our Digital Marketing Consultant, Carly Shearman
Carly Shearman is a Technical Consultant here at Hunt & Co. She works with businesses and candidates in the digital marketing space and has been with us since September last year. We finally sat down with Carly for a Q&A so you can get to know her a little better.
Before we jump into the Q&A, you can connect with Carly via LinkedIn or follow Hunt & Co. on Facebook and Instagram.
Okay here it is, our Q&A with Carly….
How did you end up working at Hunt & Co.?
I met Holly (the founder and owner of Hunt & Co. and Women in Digital) at a Women in Digital event. I had just been appointed General Manager at a Brisbane-based digital marketing agency and I knew I needed a support network so I took myself off to an event and found Women in Digital to be the perfect community for me. Fast forward a year and I know work for Holly and across both businesses (Women in Digital and Hunt & Co.) – it is funny how life works out.
What are you listening to / watching / reading?
Listening to – I am switching between Dermot Kennedy on Spotify and crime podcasts. I am desperate for Shameless to come back from their well-earned holiday.
Watching – I am switching between Peaky Blinders which is AMAZING and Brooklyn 99, which I had never seen an episode of until very recently.
Reading – I finished Michelle Obama’s book ‘Becoming’ over the holidays (thanks Holly for lending that to me!) And on the weekend I started reading ‘Beyond the Label: Women, Leadership, and Success on Our Own Terms’ by Maureen Chiquet. She was the CEO of Chanel for 13/14 years and a very inspiring women in both her career and as a leader. I am only a chapter in but I am loving it!
What’s on repeat with your work playlist right now?
It depends on the type of work I am doing. If it is fun and doesn’t require a lot of focus, we generally pump a bit of Kanye West or country…. a random combination now that I think of it.
If I really need to focus or want to smash out my to do list, I put on either the ‘Deep Focus’ or ‘Apply Yourself’ playlist on Spotify.
What are the 5 Digital Marketing trends that you are seeing this year?
Personalisation
2020 is the year that personalisation stops being a novelty and starts being an expectation by consumers. This means that businesses are going to rely on incredible mar-tech platforms and highly skilled Marketing Automation specialists with strong personalisation skills to run the platforms, ensuring a smooth and bespoke experience for their consumers.
Instagram Shopping is going to become even bigger
Marketers working in the eCommerce space, this is for you! Early last year Instagram Shopping was finally launched in Australia and has enhanced the customer experience and click-through rates for businesses sending qualified traffic directly to the product page. This year we will see Instagram Shopping stats continue to grow and I don’t think it will be long before the entire transaction can be completed 100% within the app.
Voice search
For SEO specialists, you have spent your entire career focussed on keywords and how your target market will type certain things into Google but voice search adds a new level of complexity to SEO. One key difference is that voice search queries are generally longer through the tail, averaging 6-7 words per voice search vs. 1-3 for text queries.
As someone that has a Google Home and Airpods, I can personally attest to the fact that it is much easier to yell out “Hey Siri” or “Hey Google” instead of digging through my handbag of doom to try to find my phone to then open an app and type something in.
Omni-channel won’t be an option, it will be the ONLY option
No, this isn’t particularly groundbreaking and for many marketers, they have been creating flawlessly integrated omni-channel strategies for years however, there are still businesses trying to replicate the single-channel success of HelloSmile (via Instagram) or Dropbox (via referral). Those days are over and perfectly crafted, consistent and integrated omni-channel marketing strategy is the only way forward.
The rise of the T-shaped marketer
Think of a T-shaped marketer as a “Jack/Jane of all trades and master of one.” A T-shaped marketer has “a wide set of general marketing knowledge and a deep set of expertise within a specific area.”
This isn’t a new concept but towards the end of 2019 I saw a need for strong T-shaped marketers increase and I believe this will continue as a trend in 2020.
It is so hard to stick to five trends but I did it!
What advice do you have for Digital Marketers looking to develop skills in Marketing Automation?
LinkedIn’s report ‘2020 Emerging Jobs Report Australia’ cited Marketing Automation Specialists in the top 3 emerging jobs so now is the time to really Invest in your professional development and make you the most desirable candidate in the job market.
Skills you need include:
- Marketo
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Email Marketing (across different platforms is preferred)
- Digital Marketing (remember the T-Shaped Marketer we spoke about?)
- CRM Marketing
Most recommended Business or Marketing resource? (e.g podcast, book, course)
This is a hard one as things are always changing and it depends on what career in marketing you are pursuing.
As a general rule, I would recommend that all marketers sign up for LinkedIn Learning, Udemy or something similar and dedicate 2hrs each week to upskilling. That way you will stay relevant and have a finger on the pulse.
I also HIGHLY recommend signing up for newsletters from your big guys; Google, Facebook (and Instagram), Twitter etc. – as they want to be the first to tell you about important updates and information before the news/business blogs beat them to it.
Last recommendation would be the Marketing School podcast by Neil Patel and Eric Siu. They release the podcast daily so it is super timely and they are usually small, bite-sized podcast episodes (between 5-9min on average). If a particular topic or tip really grabs my attention then I will go do further research on it.
What do you love about Recruitment?
1,000% the candidates. Every day I get to meet with intelligent, career-focussed and interesting people and then work collaboratively with them to determine their next move and help them shape their dream career. It is cheesy but seeing their faces when they are happy and settled into their dream role makes all the hard work worth it.
What is one thing most people wouldn’t expect to learn about you?
Oh – this is a hard one! I am very much an open book. I think many people are surprised to learn that although I live in the city, I am dying to move out to the country (with my laptop). I am also VERY clumsy. Like regularly fall downstairs clumsy.
Photo credit: Sprint Digital (at the Sprint Digital launch party)