Apr 01 2021 43 mins
Khadijah and Pallavi discuss growth marketing, advice on landing your first marketing role, building confidence and overcoming imposter syndrome, and Clubhouse.
Before going down the path of marketing, Pallavi studied Health Sciences. In her current role at Fonolo, she's responsible for sales enablement, lead generation optimisation, analysis in her day-to-day. Out of those four aspects, she mostly enjoys sales enablement due to creativity and optimisation — this ties in with her overall enjoyment of marketing. Pallavi also appreciates the level of experimentation that a growth marketing role provides.
Before Fonolo, Pallavi worked more on the digital marketing side of things (including events and comms). This included focus on SEO, ABM, and being deep in the weeds of social media.
Pallavi finds crossover between having to understand numbers, the opportunity for sales enablement, and the concept of customer demand and experience being king.
How did she get here?
After gaining business interest in high school, talked to folks in her current network that were already doing the work she was interested in… and learned marketing is central to a company–always.
Given her field of study, she was more than willing to do internships, and pitched herself based off transferable skill. She eventually landed an internship at a Tech/SaaS company and shadowed all departments before transitioning to their marketing team full-time.
Tip 1: Don’t limit yourself to what you’re studying.
The ladies agreed that you never stop pitching yourself/selling yourself as you move down your career path. This is you showing you’re willing to learn while also showing that you’re teachable.
The biggest selling point that you have: You’re hungry to learn.
You don’t need to know everything. Nobody’s actually expecting that. The main expectation (a lot of the time anyways) is a solid thought process and willingness to complete tasks. Don’t undervalue yourself, regardless of “newness” in a field.
As growth marketers, working closely with sales allows for direct connection to the customer, and being able to get the right info that can directly influence marketing strategy.
To improve in her craft: Pallavi keeps hawk eyes on different campaign/launches, listens to podcasts, and plays around with the tech stack available to you and finding resources to improve your use of them.
Overall advice for those in the job search: You don’t need to know what you want to do next. Look at every role holistically. Is most of the job description what you’d like to do? Don’t limit your options by the job description. Be confident, and sometimes you have to fake it ’til you make it. Have confidence that you’re capable. Take note of likes, dislikes, wants — look at it like relationship-mapping.
When you’re in the role you want: Be attentive to managing up and down appropriately. Set expectations. The key to managing up and feeling secure and equipped: Doing as much as you can to make your boss’s life easier. This reflects well on you, and makes you indispensable to the org as you get into the habit.
Pallavi's overall career wants: See value in work; feel challenged; continue learning, better herself; still have things as part of her identity outside of work.
LINKS
Company sites:
Fonolo: fonolo.com
Six & Flow: sixandflow.com
Socials:
Fonolo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Fonolo
Six & Flow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sixandflow
Khadijah on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KPSixandFlow
Newsletters:
Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com/