A: Seema, to begin with, can you share a bit about how you found yourself in the digital and technology industry?
S: Of course. My professional career began back in 2002, after having spent 4 years at university studying Information Systems, which included a year’s placement in a Web Development role outside London.
Following university, I unsuccessfully applied for so many roles and - as a young female with Asian heritage - I was about ready to give up on web development as a career path. As a last resort, I decided to attend a job fair in Holborn with some friends. I happened to pick up the Evening Standard newspaper, went through the job section and found a Junior Web Developer role for a small email marketing agency. I applied and got the job. I was over the moon!
Due to my HTML experience, I was asked to support email builds and coding. With the agency being a start-up, it was a very small team and I started to research and read up on email. Within 2 months, I became the self-taught subject matter expert on all things email within the agency and the person who my colleagues and clients came to in order to solve their email marketing challenges. This included the 'dark art' that is deliverability. Through all the troubleshooting, creation of user guides, hours spent on the phone to the US Microsoft support centre – deliverability became my accidental passion. I’m still in touch with some of my deliverability contacts from 20 years ago!
A: How did you find yourself working at DCX?
S: Early in 2010, I felt I’d reached my potential and needed a new challenge professionally. At the time, I was Technical Team Lead, responsible for a team as well as delivering and consulting on my own accounts.
I joined a data agency in 2010, and at that time the email platform of choice was SmartCast - an off-the-shelf platform re-branded for our use. As our client-base got bigger, the team grew from 3 to 10, which necessitated a Team Lead, a role I held for 7 years. Then, through acquisition, we became a part of the Paragon family.
In 2017, we introduced a new technology partner into the business – Acoustic. Similar to my previous roles, I threw myself at learning everything about the platform, built up my knowledge, and progressed into a Technical Leadership & Deliverability Consultant role.
Today, I’ve completed 42 courses on Acoustic, including the Specialist Certification and the Technical Expert Certification, and I’m recognised as one of the top 10% of Acoustic users globally.
Acoustic is a simple (yet powerful!) campaign execution platform that allows tailored experiences across physical and digital touch-points. Designed to offer flexibility with an intuitive user experience, the Acoustic Marketing Cloud integrates with existing tools and systems to help increase efficiency and optimise the marketing process. The Acoustic software provides a number of added benefits for its users including:
Ability to deliver personalised and dynamic journeys and campaigns across digital channels, with an intuitive drag-and-drop campaign design canvas
Optimise marketing campaigns to increase conversion, retention, and loyalty
Features highly visual dashboards that can be created and easily shared with an unlimited number of users
Allows for the implementation of personalisation and A/B testing to optimise your audience content
A: What an amazing achievement! What do you love most about what you do?
S: Over the years, the business has not only allowed me to learn and grow in my role, but they have also encouraged and supported it. The range of clients we have at DCX also means that no day is the same, the work is interesting and brings new opportunities to grow and achieve something on behalf of our clients.
Lastly, the people. Over the years, I've build strong relationships with the team and there is a real sense of collaboration and camaraderie. They say love what you do – and I do, so I must be doing something right!
A: What does a typical day look like for you as a Technical Lead?
S: Where do I start? I would say my typical day is a blend of delivery and consultancy. I’m often assigned to large projects to oversee as a Technical Lead. For example, currently we have a large heavily-dynamic programme automation that I'm overseeing.
My role on a project such as this is to ensure quality throughout delivery, mitigate any potential risks or concerns, identify efficiencies that can be made through the technical delivery, and support the team delivering the work. I also often liaise with our technology partner, investigating support queries and driving resolutions, as well as reviewing new features and functions.
Today, I had a call on our deliverability services, having created an automated report and writing a user guide to aid our own internal teams in identifying deliverability concerns for investigation. I also carry out training, attend webinars to stay up to speed on the latest tech, complete documentation, and carry out hands-on delivery for our clients.
A: What is the best part about your job?
S: One of the best things about working here is having the opportunity to continually learn new things. In our industry, things change a lot and we have a responsibility keep up with the curve. I enjoy learning and sharing the knowledge gained with my colleagues and clients.
A: Looking back, would you do anything differently?
S: No. No regrets. I’m still enjoying every day. Looking back, I know that the experience gained through the Web Development placement role was what gave me an advantage when applying for my first professional role.
A: How do you feel businesses can encourage and support women in business?
S: It’s certainly not spoken about enough. I’d like to see greater encouragement and more conversations about equality. We should all shine a light on strong women in business. I love that DCX have done this through the launch of DCX Inspire - an initiative that celebrates inspirational women in data and technology.
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A: What advice would you give to a young female professional in our industry?
S: I remember being the only girl in the class at college in 1996. Not only was I the only girl, but I was also a girl with Asian heritage. On paper, I had lots of things working against me as I was setting out in my professional career. It has been tough at times, working in an industry that has been known to be male-dominated, but my perseverance and love for what I do has paid off. My advice would be: learn the trade and work hard – with everything you have – the respect will come from your knowledge and knowledge is power.
A: Well thank you so much for your time, Seema. Before you go, can you share what’s next for you?
S: Thank you for chatting, it's been great! I plan on winning the lottery, but if that fails, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing because it makes me happy.
Our expert Acoustic practice is made up of fully-accredited users and trainers – real experts in Acoustic, data gathering, data analysis, campaigns, and reporting. For over twenty years, we’ve been helping brands understand their customers better, transform how they communicate across multiple channels, as well as make and save money.
Whether you need support on optimising your use of Acoustic, or you’d like advice on how to better understand and communicate with your customers, get in touch.
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