From Customer Success to Marketing — my journey at Street Group
Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you and your role at Street Group?
Hey, of course! I’m Adam and I’m the Marketing and Content Executive here at Street Group. I joined the company back in March 2019, which in all honesty has absolutely flown by. I started off as a Customer Support Associate, which was an interesting experience coming from a hospitality and video production background into the PropTech industry, with no prior knowledge or experience in tech or property.
Coming from hospitality and video, this was a whole new world to me and was definitely nerve-wracking, but the team has always made me feel so welcomed and supported, which is one of the main reasons I’m still here today.
Another main reason I’ve chosen to remain with Street Group is down to the opportunities and progression that is available here. This allowed me to move over to the Marketing team last October, bringing my job roles at Street Group to a grand total of 3 over 18 months, which is mind-blowing!
How did the move into the new job come about?
The move into Marketing wasn’t something that happened overnight, like they say, all good things come to those who wait (and work hard!). After around 6 months into my journey at Street Group, I started to take an interest in our social media channels and began to run our Twitter page.
This was something that had always interested me, but never really considered a career down the digital marketing route (little did I know that this is where I was heading). A few months later we hired our wonderful Head of Marketing, Sian, who took me under her wing and began training me up to move over full time into the marketing team.
From there I started to do a split role of 50% Customer Success and 50% Marketing, which was an interesting mix but definitely a learning opportunity. Then, once I’d completed my training, I moved over full time.
One thing I’ve learnt from this experience, and would suggest to anyone who is looking to move to a different department, is to be vocal about what you want and where you see yourself progressing to. This opportunity would never have come about had I not been vocal with Sian and the co-founders about my career and where I wanted to move to. Unfortunately, people can’t always tell what you’re thinking, so it’s best to let them know rather than leaving them guessing.
Were there any advantages or disadvantages of moving over to the Marketing team from the Customer Success team?
This is a really interesting question because there are a few different ways of looking at this. The main advantage for me was coming from a role that allowed me to know the product inside and out, plus knowing how to talk the language of estate agents. This massively puts me at an advantage when working on things like email campaigns, social campaigns and even things like drafting scripts for tutorial videos for the product.
Another advantage of coming from a Customer Success role (or any other department for that matter) into a Marketing role is that I’ve already worked with everyone on the commercial side of the business. This means that I can easily collaborate across all departments and go to them with ideas, rather than them having to do the thinking to then come to me.
Another plus to this is that I’m still able to work with my old Customer Success team, just in a different dynamic, which is always nice because it’s like going home to visit your family after you’ve moved out.
I’d say one small disadvantage of coming from a role that is so heavily focused on the product, is that there can be moments when it’s hard to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. It’s easy to get engrossed in the smaller details and elements of the product, rather than looking at it as a whole. However, this is normally when Sian comes in to help me take a step back, flip my perspective and put my marketing hat back on.
What do you enjoy most about your new job?
I’m a creative at heart, so being able to be creative on a daily basis is probably the biggest win for me. Funny little side story, I was asked in my initial interview if I’d miss doing video projects as there wasn’t any opportunity at that time to do any video work for the company (obviously I still went ahead with accepting the job offer, otherwise I wouldn’t be here writing this!). Fast forward 18 months from that conversation, I led the biggest video project of my career launching our newest product. I was able to use all of my knowledge and skills to make sure it was a success, which was honestly the most rewarding thing I’ve done whilst working at Street Group.
I get to collaborate with all teams across the business and lead projects that shape where the products are heading. Working on ‘big picture’ projects is something I never thought I’d be doing when I accepted the job as Customer Support Associate back in 2019.
I’m able to bring the knowledge and experience I gained from my time in Customer Support and Customer Success, plus my creative experience in video, writing and design and bring it all together.
In my role I’m able to try a bit of everything. My responsibilities span across so many different moving parts, that I’m able to gain experience in so many aspects of both marketing and content. This is hugely important to me, as I always want to be learning, growing and working towards the next step up for my career.
What advice would you give someone hoping to move into a job they are more passionate about?
Go for it.
Honestly, take the plunge. I was so nervous about having a complete career change and doubted that I was ever good enough or deserving enough of it, that I very nearly backed out on multiple occasions (anyone who suffers with imposter syndrome will understand this feeling). Just remember, everyone has felt like this at least once, whether they care to admit it or not.
Step one is understanding what it is that you want to do, if there’s a job role in the company that you work for that you’re interested in, perfect, speak up and let it be known that your goal is to move into that role. You’ll be met with conversations about whether or not it’s possible, expectations, etc. Don’t be discouraged if these conversations don’t go the way that you were hoping. Also, just because it might not be possible at that moment, doesn’t always mean that there won’t be an opportunity later down the line. However, only you can decide if you’re willing to wait for that opportunity, or if you need to go off and make your own path.
Step two, research into the role you want to do. If you’re sticking with the company you currently work for, look at what other companies’ job specs look like, gain an idea of what your day-to-day looks like and make sure it still meets your expectations. If you’re looking elsewhere, the same applies, look at what is expected of you in terms of skill set, experience, etc. If you’re missing a few skills that they’re looking for, see below.
Step three, learn as much as you possibly can and gain experience where you can. There are so many places online to learn for free and completing these courses can set you aside from your competition. Google is your best friend for finding courses. If it’s marketing you want to move into, Google Digital Garage and Hubspot Academy are two great places to start. If it’s more creative skills like the Adobe Creative Suite, YouTube has hours and hours and hours of tutorials on there. If you would rather be taught by industry professionals, LinkedIn Learning is another great resource and covers most bases. Also, if you can pick up small tasks alongside your current role that help you develop your skills, this will help you massively in the long run.
Step four, believe in yourself and go for it! Even if you have that initial conversation and decide against proceeding, it’s better to look back and say you tried or explored the idea, rather than wonder ‘what if’.
To find out more about life at Street Group, visit streetgroup.co.uk, our Glassdoor page, or visit our careers site.
