March was a great month for us at Optmyzr. From our biggest-yet product release to our first annual Digital Marketing Shero awards, there’s a lot we want to share with you.
Recently our product team went through a sprint cycle and launched some powerful new tools while also upgrading the existing product usability, to ensure you have the best workflow to manage your PPC campaigns across all your marketing channels (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon).
We’re always excited to share what’s new and exciting at Optmyzr, but last month’s product releases presented a unique opportunity to celebrate the amazing women in our product team of which 80% of them were women. They deserve a shout-out for their tireless efforts to keep Optmyzr a customer-focused solution.
But for us, it’s not just about celebrating and encouraging our own teams. We also try to support other digital marketers in the industry and give them a platform to shine and showcase their skills.
The winners of the 2023 Optmyzr Digital Marketing Sheroes Campaign
So in March, International Women’s Month, we initiated a campaign to recognize and celebrate the unsung women in digital marketing who deserve to be recognized for their excellence.
We reached out to our online community and asked them to nominate someone they knew who fit the bill, and the nominations blew us away. We got entries for so many women with a range of marketing superpowers and expertise. After reviewing all the nominations, we found our top 10 including the winner.
So without further ado, let us introduce you to the woman of the hour, the winner of our first annual Digital Marketing Sheroes Award — Krystal Taing!
Krystal Taing
With exceptional skills in strategic engagement, SEO best practices, and clear communication, Krystal has set a high bar for excellence in digital marketing. But it’s not just her expertise that sets her apart. She is known for her positive leadership supporting her team and everyone around her.
We’re proud to recognize Krystal as an incredible digital marketing leader and can’t wait to see more of her in the future.
Also worthy of special mention are the 9 finalists of this year’s Digital Marketing Shero Awards. Here they are in no particular order.
Ashley McCarnan
Meet Ashley McCarnan, known for her talent for contextualizing data to provide meaningful solutions for her clients. She’s a natural leader passionate about empowering her team to bring their authentic selves to every project.
Our next shero is Charu Gupta, an expert in creating authentic brand personas that resonate with audiences. She encourages optimistic and problem-solving approaches in her teams and has mentored over 40 professionals in her career, many of whom are now in leadership roles.
We’re thrilled to introduce our next shero, Emma Glover, a specialist in social media strategy and account-based marketing. She focuses on building honest and strategic partnerships with her clients and also runs a female-first agency where her teams have the support and opportunities to thrive and grow.
Meet our next shero, the amazing Natalia Ramirez, an expert in optimizing digital content to improve online user experience. She has a passion for technology and entrepreneurship and thrives in roles that require adaptability, creativity, and strategic thinking.
The next shero on our list is Pavithra Sekar. She specializes in improving brand recognition with positive online conversations. She is known for her superb organization and networking skills and knack for building long-term relationships with the audience.
Meet the incredible Sarah Carling, an expert in SEO, PPC, analytics, email marketing, product development, CRO, and more. As Buoy Health’s Growth team leader, she has driven traffic to new heights in all channels while balancing motherhood and her professional growth with sharp organizational skills.
Next, we have Stephanie Wallace, a data-driven marketer with expertise in SEO, email marketing, social media marketing, influencer, and PR. She’s a strong leader in the industry and an inspiration for volunteering her professional services to support causes like PAWS Atlanta, no-kill animal shelters, etc.
Introducing our next shero, Thuha Wright. She specializes in PPC and consults businesses to help them grow and develop their in-house teams. She has years of experience in the travel industry and has honed her expertise in digital marketing channels as growth drivers.
Finally, we have Veronica Ruiz, a multi-faceted consultant with expertise in various areas of digital marketing. She takes a performance-focused approach, specializing in paid search and social. Veronica also volunteers as a digital strategist for charities and non-profit organizations.
Congratulations to all of them for showcasing exceptional innovation and leadership in this ever-changing digital landscape. Their expertise in various fields of digital marketing is truly impressive, and we’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to recognize their achievements and contributions through this campaign.
Shero-Special PPC Town Hall: Insights from the All-Women Expert Panel
As part of the Digital Marketing Shero campaign, we also produced a special episode of PPC Town Hall. In line with our initiative to recognize talented women in the industry, we brought on an all-women expert panel with Navah Hopkins as the host and guest speakers Motoko Hunt, Andrea Cruz, and Sarah Stemen.
These industry pros shared profound knowledge, actionable tips and advice, and many moments of light-hearted humor.
We’ve cherry-picked some quotable moments from each speaker so you can get a glimpse of their awesome conversation.
Let’s jump right into it and see what these phenomenal women had to say.
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Know Your Marketing Superpowers
Sarah explained that she turns to online search for everything, even when Yahoo was the popular search engine. This puts her in a great position to understand searchers and their behavior.
Motoko Hunt, on the other hand, shared her global understanding as her marketing superpower. She said that Google is dominant worldwide, but local search engines may have an advantage in understanding customer behavior in specific industries and countries.
For instance, Bing’s growing market share in Asia and the availability of smaller local search engines for advertising provide additional opportunities for reaching audiences beyond Google.
Andrea added by highlighting the importance of efficiency in today’s marketing landscape. She emphasized the need to identify new platforms and channels that can help maximize resources. She advised marketers to look for such opportunities constantly and be mindful of how metrics may differ in different regions.
As actionable advice, here are great ways to stand out as a strong digital marketer:
Networking Helps Staying Inspired and Motivated
Staying motivated can be challenging, especially in the post-pandemic world where remote work has become the norm. So what keeps marketing professionals motivated?
Andrea shared her secret, saying that conferences always make her feel energized. Interacting with people and learning from their experiences allows her to incorporate new learnings into her work.
So, whether attending conferences, taking courses, or seeking inspiration from others, finding what keeps you motivated is essential to success in the marketing world.
Andrea’s actionable advice on this:
Finding a marketing club nearby, taking online courses, or simply taking a moment to step back and look at things from another perspective. So many great people are doing great work out there that can inspire and motivate you.
Prioritize Self-Care for Work-Life Balance
Balancing work and personal life has always been tricky, especially in today’s fast-paced world. Our speakers shared great suggestions to achieve this balance in this exciting Town Hall episode.
Navah especially highlighted the importance of prioritizing self-care by blocking off time on your calendar for yourself. She stressed that we need to give the same level of commitment to ourselves as we do to our work. This means setting boundaries, protecting your time, and not being afraid to say no.
They also discussed the importance of leaning on others for support, both personally and professionally. As Navah mentioned, we need to be easy on ourselves and not expect to do everything all by ourselves.
Here’s the takeaway.
Managing work-life balance requires intentional effort, self-care, and setting boundaries. It’s essential to prioritize personal time, seek support when needed, and be gentle with ourselves in the process.
A Strategy to Increase Your Earning Potential
In a conversation about the infamous wage gap, Motoko raised another critical issue — the confidence gap. She said that women tend to stay silent and don’t even think about asking for more. So it’s crucial to build confidence and take actionable steps to justify your ask, be it more pay, benefits, flexibility, etc.
She offered a key tip to keep track of your performance and achievements. This can be a powerful negotiating tool, as you can clearly show your value to the company.
Andrea also added that documenting positive feedback or accomplishments is important to use as leverage in future negotiations.
Ultimately, the key takeaway is:
Recognize your worth, advocate for yourself, and be confident to ask for what you deserve.
Drawing the Curtain on Digital Marketing Shero Campaign
Our amazing panelists of the Shero Special Town Hall deserve special thanks for collaborating with us on this campaign to support our sheroes.
And as we wrap up our first annual Digital Marketing Shero campaign, we look forward to many more initiatives celebrating digital marketers who deserve a platform to showcase their achievements.
For now, thank you all for your support and nominations.
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