Today, we’re speaking to digital account director, Hannah Foord. Our conversation sees Hannah tell us the impact that having a supportive manager can have early in your career development and why she believes that keeping clients engaged and happy is about delivering more than you said you would, while being clear and transparent throughout. 

What led you to a career in media?

As many people do, I fell into this role in the industry. Having graduated from university with a degree in history, I began applying for jobs in editorial content creation. Eventually I found a role at a local SEO & PPC agency which took people on who didn’t have experience and trained them up. Even though I hadn’t heard of SEO or PPC, the job still had that element of editorial that meant it wasn’t too far away from what I thought I wanted to do when I graduated.

I immediately found out that agency life is very fast paced. With that comes a certain level of stress, but also a great level of opportunity. I have always been a high achiever and early on in my career, when I’d see people going into a managers’ meeting, I wanted to be there. I was fortunate to have a great manager for the first seven years of my career who supported me in working my way up through the ranks.

It was a gradual journey that began by taking more of a lead in client meetings before becoming their primary contact. As I was conscientious in picking up client comms and keeping the client happy by being responsive, I was trusted with big accounts early on. Throughout this time, I made sure to continue learning on-the-job skills. Being in the weeds of the implementation work helped me to learn a lot, quickly.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My role is a balance between supporting my team with their development and overseeing the day-to-day running of client campaigns. With my team, it’s about making sure that they’re learning and that we’re all up to date on the latest platform changes. For clients, it’s all about ensuring that we’re delivering what we said we would and more. I believe that keeping clients engaged and happy is about delivering more than you said you would, while being clear and transparent throughout. I’m a hands-on account director; I have no issue with going in-engine to help support and build campaigns or deal with challenges as they crop up. In the future, my role will develop to begin training members of our team that have traditionally been offline bods to become more digitally literate.

What mistake have you learnt the most from?

Letting people bulldoze me because I’m not loud or someone who likes conflict. For years I avoided making my opinion heard, but I wish I had shared it sooner. Problems arose in client work because I didn’t raise my voice at the right time, which started to frustrate both me and the people I worked with. You don’t have to be combative, if you have an opinion, it’s important to say what you think. When you have experience under your belt, your gut feel can kick in, but while you’re still more junior, it’s good to have evidence to back up your opinions as you become trusted.

Who’s your role model?

Firstly, my dad because he’s been at the same company for over 30 years. He’s part of the furniture there and everyone respects his opinion. He’s instilled in me a good work ethic. If you want to achieve something it’s not going to be handed to you, you have to work for it. You must make your choices and live with them.

I would also say that I look up to the women I’ve worked with over the years. I think that media can still tend to be a man’s game, especially when you get higher up. Senior teams and investors continue to be men talking to men. So, I appreciate it when I see women who’ve managed to make it work over the years, whether they’ve had a family or not. I know a lot of female experts in their fields; they’re heads of teams, have big titles and slowly our voices are being heard more in a world still dominated by men. Everyone I know started from the bottom as execs and worked their way up. It’s given me a good framework to know what is possible and the belief that I too can reach those heights.