A day in the life of a Regional Marketing Manager
Jo Ford, EMEA Marketing Manager, talks about her job at Redgate, why she enjoys the challenges, and how every day is a different day for her and her team.
How did you get into your current role?
I joined Redgate as an Accounts Based Marketing Manager and spent 18 months working with our Account Executives in the Sales team on their strategic accounts. When I had the opportunity to move into the EMEA Marketing Manager role, I was so excited because it felt like a natural progression for me personally and came at the right time professionally within Redgate.
My time as an ABM Manager helped to lay the foundations in both cementing relationships with people across the business and providing a very thorough understanding in terms of campaigns and our key accounts. The EMEA team encompasses both the ABM Manager role and our wider campaign roles, and as the manager I feel much better equipped to support the team as I understand and have experienced first-hand the challenges and successes within the roles, and can identify what my team needs from me to help them do their best work.
What does a typical day look like for you, and how does it differ from those in your team?
There is no typical day, sorry, and this is what I love about my job. Every day can be so different for both my team and I. It can start with running through emails and Slack messages, then having a check-in with my team on campaign activities for the week, analyzing campaign performance and trends, helping to work through any challenges on the horizon as well as a general catch up from weekend activities.
This can be followed by a meeting with a new event company we’re looking to take a booth with to help drive new contacts within a target vertical, negotiating pricing and what they can offer to help us make the deal. There could then be a fortnightly check-in with our Global AE who is looking for input for a proposal to one of his key accounts.
Once refueled, I might be heading into the weekly reporting where I look at how we’re performing against our monthly and quarterly goals in preparation for a meeting with the sales managers. Then I could be taking the opportunity with some non-meeting time to get my head into planning for the coming quarter, using the reporting as a base of where we should be looking to focus our activity.
What are the other tasks or projects you get involved with outside your core role and day-to-day work?
Sales will often reach out with ad hoc activities, like identifying collateral for a competitor analysis opportunity. Another task outside of my core role has recently been during early phase ideas in new educational content. Having the opportunity to add value to exciting new projects that will have an impact on future DevOps training projects is a real advantage of being in this role. The exposure provides opportunities to adapt content, ideas and activity so we can maximize messaging and campaigns to engage our target audiences.
What did you work on when you were an ABM Manager, and what do you expect from the ABM Managers on your team?
I worked closely with our AEs to understand their key accounts, analyzing key trends to maximize campaigns while also developing targeted 1:1 strategies for larger opportunities. Many of the accounts were finance based, which led to researching trends within the vertical and exploring how to use the knowledge in growth campaigns.
One campaign in particular was looking to engage with a large high street bank who hold multiple entry-level tools but with very limited visibility beyond the user groups. I worked to identify where we could grow the account and identify key contacts to engage with to develop the account beyond transactional sales. I liked it because it was a long term campaign that included multi-channel activity.
I feel very passionately about our ABM program and the main responsibilities of the ABM Manager role is learning, developing and aligning with our AEs. It’s about complimenting and adding value in areas that will make a key difference in the core goals for these accounts. Building that trusted relationship is at the heart of our success in our ABM strategy as well as demonstrating the confidence to introduce new ideas that stretches the team in order to achieve success.
What do you enjoy most about your role? What excites you or what are you most proud of?
I love the team I work with, both internally within marketing as well as the wider sales team. I like the challenge, identifying a problem, seeking a solution and having the autonomy to try new approaches. I also love managing a team, and seeing their personal development and growth is a core success and brings satisfaction for me as a manager. Hearing how members of my team have excelled in a situation or helped to win a key deal, I feel huge pride and satisfaction that we have done a good job.
What do you enjoy most about working at Redgate?
The autonomy to identify, trial and develop new ideas, because change is always encouraged. I also really like the unique focus on us as individuals and the fact that the company genuinely seeks happiness across its workforce. A good example was the giant – and I mean book-case size – advent calendars we all received at home during the pandemic. It was just so thoughtful and generous.
Who are they key stakeholders you work with?
There are lots of touch points, from sales managers to the sales team more generally, the global campaign managers to digital marketing, and the brand team to product marketing. It changes each day and reflects the collaborative culture here.
What skills and experience could you draw on from your ABM role to help you succeed in your management role?
The ability to work with a range of personalities with very different priorities and build trusted relationships. Having the ability to be assertive, remain aligned and focused while being flexible to pivot in order to achieve the commercial goals is equally as important. Having the ability to manage multiple relationships is essential while continuing to ensure alignment towards the commercial goals.
If someone is considering applying for a role at Redgate, is there anything you think they should know?
Be passionate about your role, and believe in what you are doing. The opportunity is down to you, and being happy to step outside your comfort zone will expose more opportunities.
If you’re thinking about your next career move or are looking for an exciting new opportunity, we’re hiring for a number of roles. Take a look at Redgate’s current marketing vacancies. We’re always on the lookout for exceptional marketing talent.
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