Have you ever wondered what it’s like to work in marketing? Some might associate it only with creating social media posts and preparing graphics. However, work in marketing is much more than we might think. It has incredible power and supports the growth of the entire company. It is a job full of challenges, creativity, and passion, but also analyzes, comparisons, and strategies.
At Espeo Software, the marketing department currently consists of 3 amazing experts: Merja Sinkkonen (Head of Marketing Department), Martyna Aleksandra Żegota (Content Marketing Manager), and Michał Węgrzyński (Digital Website Specialist). We asked them what it means from their perspective to work in this department, what goals, challenges, and responsibilities they have. No secrets hidden! Read on and find out all the details.
From this article you will learn:
- What is the marketing department’s main goal and what are the main challenges?
- What distinguishes the Finnish market as the company’s target market?
- What are the duties of each member?
Marketing department overview
The marketing department serves as the link between the company and the external world. Marketers’ job is to communicate the company’s values, ensure brand consistency, and drive demand for Espeo’s services in the Nordic market. In addition to planning demand-generating actions and campaigns, they also support the goals of other departments like HR and Employer Branding, sales, and consulting via content creation and strategic planning.
Finnish market characteristics
From the beginning, Espeo Software provided its services mainly to clients from Finland and other Nordic countries. After so long, what can we say about the characteristics of this market? First of all, when it comes to digitalization, Finland is a very interesting market to work with, since it’s one of the most technologically advanced and innovative countries in the world. At the same time, the country is small, with only 5 million people living, so the challenge is to find variety in marketing approaches. Staying consistent with tactics while maintaining a good reputation and showcasing Espeo’s high expertise, brings the company a long way. The Finnish clients of Espeo Software consist of truly innovative and leading international companies and as Martyna says: “it’s a great honor every time I have a chance to talk with a representative of one of them”. Espeo prides itself on building strong relationships with clients, and it is apparent especially during joint calls – there is an amazing sense of common understanding which keeps both parties engaged. “We simply want our partners to succeed and it is very transparent for both sides”.
Main challenges
According to Merja Sinkkonen the main challenge is to stay on schedule and ahead of the plans as a small team. “Effective planning, continuous learning, and also outsourcing some of the parts of our processes e.g. graphic design, video production, and harnessing Espeo professionals in content creation helps us to stay on our schedules.”, she continued.
Duties of the marketing department
It’s already clear what are the main goals and broad perspectives for the marketing department. What actions support those goals and how are they being accomplished? Largely it comes down to maintaining brand consistency, creating engaging content, managing social media channels, automating marketing efforts, building and running demand-generating campaigns, developing and optimizing Espeo website and landing pages, updating sales materials, planning and coordinating event marketing actions, staying data-oriented and sending a monthly newsletter.
Sounds like a lot of work, right? Because that’s how it is. People working in marketing are incredibly organized personalities. Thanks to this, the effects of their work are visible and impressive. When you bring more leads into the funnel, the goals of your campaigns are being achieved or you gain more contacts for the newsletter – this makes it one of the most rewarding jobs.
As the Head of Marketing Department, Merja creates a sustainable strategy to be followed by marketing actions, guides the work of the whole marketing department, cooperates with Sales and UX teams as well as with our developers daily. In all this, she is accompanied by Martyna in terms of content and Michał in terms of the website. Why are these two areas so important?
The importance of content
As Content Marketing Specialist, Martyna has a hard nut to crack. As Bill Gates once said, “Content is king”. Why? As Martyna says: “High-quality content can increase brand awareness, generate leads, help establish thought leadership, and increase audience retention, among other things. With a carefully chosen tone of voice and good ideas it is possible to share the true essence of the company with others and by doing so, build strong relationships.”
Website as the brand’s business card
The overriding goal of Michał’s work is supervision and optimization of the website for Espeo Software and Espeo Blockchain brands. This is a huge responsibility and it’s crucial to understand the website’s importance since it’s the key thing in generating inbound leads and building brand awareness. Through the website, we can share the testimonials of clients cooperating with our company which increases our credibility and certifies the reliability of our services. This contributes to the new leads acquisition. Additionally, it’s a place where we present our mission and values as well as our daily work in the company which is crucial for our potential candidates too. We also pay attention to including free educational materials with technical knowledge and our expertise using blog articles that are well-positioned in Google Search.
“If you have a great team – the work is mostly seamless and even after a long day you know that you did a great job, and that’s what I like here the most – turning my skills into motion, being noticed, and working with a wonderful team.”
Michał Węgrzyński, Digital Website Specialist
Daily routine
Is there such a thing as a daily work routine in marketing? Not completely. While asking this question, everyone agreed that the everyday’s diversity is one of the characteristics of working in the marketing department which makes it interesting and guarantees no boredom. There are surely recurrent tasks but everyone can adjust their schedule to the current focus. The only permanent fixture of everyone’s day includes a daily meeting at noon and weekly meetings with other departments. Ad hoc tasks occur often as well so an important trait of every marketer is the task prioritization skill, which both Merja, Martyna, and Michał have mastered to perfection.
Successes so far
We asked our specialists what successes they are most proud of so far. It was hard to choose a few of the most important ones out of the many successes they’ve achieved. Like Martyna said, “Seeing the results of our brand awareness initiatives after almost a year at Espeo makes me extremely proud”. Thanks to their brand awareness activities, they’ve managed to increase the website visitors by more than 140% from the target market, and by creating a consistent social media strategy they’ve managed to grow Espeo’s LinkedIn channel by 75 % in a year. That’s a really impressive result!
What’s Merja’s perspective on development opportunities within her department? Here’s what she said: “Marketing department at Espeo is just a great place to work and a wonderful team to develop your skills with while having a real impact and influence on our daily tactics. Since we are a small team, you get a great view into all areas of marketing.”
Sounds like a dream job tailored for you? Join our marketing team and bring the most creative plans to live together with us!
The future of the marketing department at Espeo Software
As a Head of the team, what is Merja’s perspective on the future of the Marketing department at Espeo? “I see that in the future our department will naturally keep growing and it’s tied together with the growth of Espeo. We have a growing need for more content and different content types as well as setting up even more funnels and improving our automation strategies. When analyzing existing data it shows that there are many areas where we can still develop and thrive”.
What makes working in Espeo’s marketing team stand out?
We asked all of our marketers what are the main things they like the team for. For Merja, it’s the positive can-do-attitude and extremely high motivation on developing in a field of marketing in addition to having a strong commitment to our brand are among the few things to mention. She also said: “Another important feature in our team is how we give and manage feedback. It’s very open, supportive and we usually even go as far as thinking about how to do better in the future. So we just constantly want to develop and usually seek solutions together as a team, so that no one needs to feel left alone with any kind of task.”
Martyna continued: “Beyond the fact that I am a part of amazing projects on which I have a direct impact, I simply love the atmosphere we have here at Espeo. Our marketing team, in particular, thrives on being able to discuss anything, share valuable feedback, and rely on one another. Having worked in the industry for many years, I can say that the tools and the working ethics we use are of a very high standard. There is a high level of professionalism here. I think that adds to the advantages of working for Espeo Software, too.”
Michał highlighted the importance of the shared values: “I love my team for the values that we share like openness, constructive feedback, helping each other, and at the same time being fully professional. It’s not only about a good atmosphere, but we are all humans and sometimes we have a bad day. We understand that, but at the same time we know our deadlines and we celebrate every small success. Working together for the last year has taught me that we are doing a great job and I would like to shout out here to Merja and Martyna for being such a wonderful team. One of the best that I have had in my life.”
Sounds like a dream team to work with! Combined with their achievements so far and ambitious plans to be realized, we couldn’t be more proud of our marketing department’s contribution to Espeo’s success story.
