Life at Ometria: Mary, Automation Manager

We sat with Mary, our Marketing Automation Manager, to talk about her transition from events into the marketing automation space earlier this year: 

Tell me about why you chose to join Ometria?

I was introduced to Ometria by a friend who already worked here – she asked if I would be interested in coming in for a chat to talk about events. I had been working in the events space for about seven years on the agency side, and was really interested in seeing what it was like to organise events in-house, focusing on one specific strategy.

The “Authentication” interview, (a core part of the Ometria interview process), was what really made me realise that Ometria was the right place for me. I enjoyed the interview so much that I actually wished it had been longer! The process really shows you what it’s like to be an Ometrian. I loved it!

You initially joined Ometria as the Events Manager – what did you do in this role?

The majority of my role focused on ‘Lifecycle’, Ometria’s annual conference for retailers. I started by researching how we had done the event in the past, and I immediately thought it was an amazing conference but there was loads more we could do to help it grow. I loved the opportunity to work on such an exciting project, and the fact that the whole company worked together on it made it even more exciting.

When I joined the Events team it was a team of two and we owned 100% of the project management of Lifecycle, but we also had other teams across the business contributing. It was quite overwhelming at times in terms of the magnitude of the event, but it was always very exciting. We knew what needed to be done and exactly how we wanted it to look. It was great to have a level of autonomy to bring what we wanted to life – it was all about looking after each component and building things out.

Talk us through your new role as Marketing Automation Manager – what are you responsible for?
Essentially, as Marketing Automation Manager, I work very closely with the marketing team focusing mainly on sales enablement and looking at the different platforms that the marketing and sales teams use at Ometria. I also make sure that Ometria’s communication to customers is consistent.

One of my core responsibilities is to automate existing processes for our marketable database and connect them all together. In my role, I mainly focus on making sure that we provide relevant content to both our customers and our website visitors, helping to deliver an amazing customer journey.

How did the move to marketing automation come about? And how has COVID-19 affected the work that you are doing now?
Our VP of Marketing, Luke, joined Ometria just before lockdown happened (I’ve only actually met him once or twice in person), and at the time my role as Events Manager was about to make the shift from the Revenue to the Marketing team, as it made sense for me to work more closely with the department. 

Luke asked me about my plans for the future, and I explained that events weren’t what I wanted to be doing for the next 10 years. We chatted about my interest in data and the operational part of both marketing and a business as a whole.

When the pandemic began, we realised pretty quickly that there wasn’t going to be many in-person events happening. The Marketing team was very busy and I started to pick up some tasks to help out, whilst also still running a lot of online events (webinars etc). Soon, Luke proposed I consider transitioning into another marketing role. Because we don’t really know how long in-person events are going to be off the table, this gave me an opportunity to train and learn something new.

Over the next couple of months, I worked on different parts of marketing that Ometria needed, and this was a great way to evaluate what I liked the most and what was working for both me and the team. Luke and I collaborated and decided that Marketing Automation was something I really enjoyed and was also an area that Ometria didn’t currently have staffed. At the end of Q2 this year, we made it official!

What is it like working as part of the Marketing team?

It’s been really interesting because the whole structure changed as we went into lockdown. Previously, I had worked as part of the Revenue team and was never directly a part of the Marketing team. Instead, I had always reported to someone working in sales. The change made a lot of sense – the Events team works so closely with marketing in terms of content and the way we present Ometria. It’s great to be fully part of the Marketing team now – and they are all amazing!

How has it been starting a brand-new role, fully remote?

Luckily, I had a bit of time to adjust to working remotely before taking on my new responsibilities. Remote work is different, but I’m so used to it that I don’t even notice! The way we do things at Ometria and within the marketing team just works so well. We have a lot of meetings and 1:1s which means the contact is there. There are so many different channels we use to communicate, it almost seems as though we aren’t away from one another or not sitting next to each other. Because of the way Ometria is organised, things like the weekly company wide meeting still really work.

What has been the most challenging part of the change in your role?

In general, it has been very challenging but in a good way. It is a completely new role that I stepped into and I am expected to deliver. It has been amazing and I feel very proud of what I have achieved. There were a lot of things I’m having to learn really fast, which was the main challenge. 

Luckily, a lot of stuff came pretty easily – there was a lot that I was already doing as Events Manager, like working with different marketing and sales platforms, looking after our data, making sure we utilise it correctly and ensuring we send the right communication to the right people. I have always been interested in all of this – but it has been all about learning and refining best practice.

Since our chat, Mary organised and oversaw a hugely successful, fully virtual, Lifecycle 2020. If you are interested in becoming an Ometrian – we are hiring! Check out our careers page for all of our current vacancies.