Meet Emilie, our Performance Marketing Director
She talks us through her life in travel, collaborative working, and what she loves about working with the UK’s best small creative businesses…
Tell us a bit more about what you do here at notonthehighstreet…
So I’m the Director of Performance Marketing and my area of expertise involves customer relationship management and performance marketing which include PPC, SEO and Paid Social advertising.
We’re here to make sure we reach new and existing customers at the right time and on the right platform and device. We also manage the relationship once our customers have signed up or made a purchase too. We make sure we stay relevant with our customers but also nurture our relationship with them to create loyalty.
What were you doing and where were you working before?
Before NOTHS I was in travel so very different to retail. I worked in the travel industry for about 7 years and the company I was at most recently was Tripadvisor. I was working in their London office and managing their search engine marketing — so everything to do with Google advertising and display. The job was quite different because it was focused on a specific type of digital marketing but I was working a lot cross functionally too — with people in Data Science, Product and Tech.
It’s very different to the normal set up, but I think it’s very much aligned with how Digital Marketing teams are going to be set up in the future. It gives you a great understanding of how technology can really help people; moving away from the day-to-day tasks and helping you solve issues at scale.
What was it about notonthehighstreet that made you join?
The first thing was definitely that I loved the products; the thoughtful personalisation is something that had always struck a chord with me, having bought my husband a bracelet for our wedding from the site. The second reason was our wonderful CEO, Barrie. I had worked with her at Viator so knew she was a great leader. The final (and most important) reason was really what we represent as a business. I really liked the thoughtful aspect, the fact we are supporting small business and the fact we have so many women in the business too. I found the story of our Founders, Holly & Sophie, really inspirational and I really wanted to work for a company that inspired me, which is why I took the job.
Did you always want to work in Digital Marketing?
Not always, no. At the beginning of my career I was in more traditional offline marketing but then there reached a point where I really wanted to set up my own business as a Wedding Planner. I really liked things to be organised, well structured and loved the idea of starting off with something small and creating something amazing. I never got to do it though — I just got into search engine marketing and now here I am!
What do you like about Digital Marketing?
My background was very traditional marketing — I was doing inserts in magazines, managing the budgets for the yellow pages (a very long time ago!) and then one day I was asked by my manager to take on the digital aspect. That was 12 years ago now, back then it was brand new so I taught myself everything from scratch. I loved the focus on data, the fact it was so results driven, that it’s so fast paced and the fact it’s the same data model for all channels. It’s like a puzzle that you have to piece together.
What exciting projects are you currently working on?
So many! There are a few things that I genuinely think are going to change the face of our marketing forever. One of them is about getting to know our customers even better than we do now; allowing us to become even more thoughtful and being able to deliver the right content to them. We are looking into this really closely by working with our Data team; looking at using machine learning and artificial intelligence to help us develop at scale. This will allow us to create really specific and personal 1:1 experiences for our customers.
My team and I are very passionate about technology and the latest innovations, so this is going to be a huge focus for us for the next year. What you can do with tech and digital marketing now is amazing; allowing us to focus on the cool stuff rather than the day-to-day admin.
What is your favourite thing about working here?
I’ve been here for 6 months now and I have to say the best bit has been Christmas. I’m a big fan of Christmas anyway, but really getting to understand the cross functional planning, efforts and energies that go into this campaign has been so interesting. Knowing how our Creative, Trade, Digital Marketing and Tech teams contribute to our biggest gifting season of the year and seeing it all come together was unbelievable!
What’s the most challenging aspect of your role?
My role is very dependent on other departments so making sure we all work together effectively is really important. The collaboration piece is important to any business/person that wants to be successful, but it takes time to develop these relationships and time is certainly a challenge with what we’ve got going on. Everyone here is really good at maintaining relationships and sharing but it’s definitely the thing I try to focus on.
How is notonthehighstreet different to other places you’ve worked?
The business concept. The fact we’re helping small businesses, a mum [for example] who has just started her own business from her kitchen table, really motivates me. I’ve worked with other businesses that have been really inspirational (working in travel was always a dream and I’m so glad I did it) but I just love the fact the purpose here is all about supporting other people, there are no selfish motivations. It’s an important job and we’re changing lives everyday.
What would you say to someone applying for a job in your team?
As a team, we’ve really turned a corner. Last year was all about putting the foundations in place, but this year the focus is on iterating and being innovative with our ideas and what we do. We’re a really collaborative team, everyone wants to work together and with all the stuff we’re working on it’s just a really exciting time to join.
