In the category "Inspiring stories" we are featuring amazing marketers. where our next guest is Mara de Haas. Scroll down and discover her story and advice for fresh marketers.
Hi Mara! 👋 Care to share a little bit about yourself?
My name is Mara, and ever since high school, I have been fascinated with the always-surprising world of marketing. For school assignments, I was always analyzing and evaluating popular marketing campaigns, and I was in awe of the amount of thought behind each strategy.
In my eyes, marketers were the truest of storytellers, touching people all over the world with their Hollywood-worthy campaign productions.
That fascination from my youth grew out into a full career in marketing. I started out as the Head of Marketing for AIESEC in the Netherlands and, afterward, for AIESEC in Romania. This youth-run organization gave me the opportunity to act as a CMO while still learning the ropes of marketing.
After two years of gaining a great birds-eye view of the field, I decided to further deepen my knowledge by switching to DEPT®, one of the world’s leading digital marketing agencies. As a Digital Marketing Consultant, I now get to work with various marketing challenges, allowing me to develop my skills even further.
Tell me one fun fact about you.
What many people don’t know is that I’m low-key-loving politics. I am an active member of the green-left party in the Netherlands, which believes in the connection between climate change and social inequality.
If I ever were to switch careers, I would definitely see myself as a politician.
Marketing is all about values. What inspires you? ✨
I love working for social enterprises. The drive of these organizations to make the world a better place inspires me every day, and I really believe they hold the future.
This is also why it makes me so happy that DEPT® is now B Corp Certified, which allows us to allocate part of our time, knowledge and skills to do pro bono work.
What are some lessons learned that have made you successful in your position today?
Working in marketing has really challenged me to pick my battles. There are often countless opportunities to invest time and money in. Whether it is website improvements, more or better content, different forms of advertising, or various tools that help improve, automate or optimize your way of working.
I have really learned to always have the business goal clear in mind, and to identify the best marketing solution to fit that goal.
We simply cannot implement all our ideas (unless we had a whole army of copies of ourselves) and sometimes we even have to say goodbye to our favorite ideas. Many times I have had to “kill my babies” like this, but always in favor of the final goal.
Any tips for fresh marketers?
My main advice would be: Take your time to know your strengths!
Within marketing there is a whole scale of different fields of expertise, which each require a different set of strengths and characteristics. When I first got into digital marketing, I was still trying to understand and be good at everything that I came across: from graphic design to data analysis, from advertising to influencer marketing.
The truth is that there are so many different fields of marketing, that it really pays off to explore which field fits you best. Digital marketing traineeships like the one DEPT® offers really help to find where your strengths fit in.
Allow yourself to take that time to explore before diving into this wonderful world.
Thank you Mara for sharing your career story and interesting insights with us. 🤗
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Thank you for reading!
Do you want to explore more about different fields of marketing as Mara suggested? Connecting and talking with one of our mentors can inspire, motivate, and help you on your journey as a marketer. Schedule a session with a mentor of your choice now.