Nine Lessons on Digital Marketing, Professional Development, and Women in the Workplace

For marketers, digital disruption has increased competition and driven fundamental changes within the industry. Brands and employees are now expected to harness fast-changing technologies to provide personalized service to customers in real time.

For women, the challenges can be heightened. Research shows that women are less likely to advocate for themselves than men—and in an industry that is changing so rapidly, they’re more likely to fall behind.

At the Women of Enterprise Event hosted last week at Zipcar Boston, four digital marketers discussed what women can do to succeed in this ever-changing field, and how we can help ourselves—and each other—succeed throughout our professional journeys that can be rocky and frustrating.

Here we highlight nine quotations on women’s personal development, digital marketing, work-life balance, and self-promotion from our panelists:

Carrie Allen—Director of Member Marketing at Zipcar

Kristen Johnson—Senior Specialist, Content Marketing at Vistaprint

Sarah Longstreet—Manager of Digital Brand Marketing at Shark Ninja

Samantha Stone—Founder of Marketing Advisory Network

“Figure out what it is that you do that’s really unique, and see how you can use it to your advantage regardless of your field.” – Kristen Johnson

“We have to be agile. We have to constantly be learning and pushing ourselves into places that are uncomfortable, and doing things with some risk.” – Samantha Stone

“I got a piece of advice early on in my career – when you’re somewhere, be 100% there. I try to take that to heart. When I’m at work, I try to be 100% at work. When I’m at home, I try to be 100% at home. That way, I get the most out of both work and life, and I’m not in too many places at once.” – Carrie Allen

“I always thought that to show my commitment I had to work the hardest and the most hours – that I had to be the one who was there longest. But the truth is, you don’t need to do that. What you need to do is meet and exceed expectations. That means having a “yes attitude” – but having a smart “yes attitude.” You can say, “Yes, I can help you with that, but one of these two things needs to get delayed, which is lower priority?” When I got really good at saying that, I dropped the guilt of not being the one who was working the longest hours.” – Samantha Stone

“The gap between your brand and the consumer is not really there anymore. Everything you do is open to them. It’s important, with social, to be hyper aware of that.” – Sarah Longstreet

“One of the temptations with all of the data that we have available today is to focus all our attention on analytics and data science – but we cannot afford to lose the human component, and the emotional component of what we do.” – Samantha Stone

“We may not be able to help quiet people be loud, and that’s okay, but we have to find ways as leaders to help them be heard.” –Samantha Stone

“We often wait to be thought of for a position, rather than putting the idea in someone’s head. Advocate for yourself, and speak up if you’ve done something that you’re proud of. Ultimately it’s your career and you take it however you want.”  – Kristen Johnson

“Early in my career, I was really good at telling people what my accomplishments were, and getting attention and credit for that. But what I learned  after a little while is that I hadn’t demonstrated my ability to work on a team – so I had to adjust, and talk about what “we” did, because management was looking for a leader, not just a doer.” – Samantha Stone