Rosie Heptonstall profile
Marketing consultant, Rosie Heptonstall, is an experienced marketing professional, who first gained her business legs back in 2002 with a graduate training programme at Snowdrop Systems. Rosie’s mentor at Snowdrop was 2nd Head’s C.E.O Michael Richards and he’s taught her a lot about business since then.
Rosie comments: “Despite the length of time that’s passed, I view those first experiences in business as some of my most valuable. That was the time when I grew to understand what business was all about: the role of culture in shaping a business; the challenges of putting ideas into practice and most importantly, why marketing is integral to business success.”
Since joining Snowdrop, Rosie went on to have a pivotal role in the HR & Payroll marketing team at Sage UK, following the acquisition of Snowdrop back in 2007. She was also directly involved in the process by which former competitors, Snowdrop and KCS, were merged and then rebranded to a new division of Sage.
She says: “This was by far the greatest learning curve for me. When you’ve worked in a company for a while the brand becomes like an old pair of trainers: comfy and easy to use. You may be working hard, but you know exactly what the brand is about and how to keep the leads piling in. With a new brand you’re suddenly in dangerous water – not only do you need to transfer the value of the old brands, but also make sure that you don’t compromise your leads in the process. This is most true with websites, where equity builds up over time.”
So how did Rosie go about things? “I was lucky to work in a very supportive team. We worked closely together to develop what we hoped would be an effective strategy and then planned out each stage of the process. Everyone knew what they had to do and we just got on with things. But I think the hardest part was communicating the new division internally. We did a series of 8 presentations across the former company sites to 250 employees, when we were sure we’d be in for a grilling. Fortunately these went well for us and laid down good foundations for promoting the brand externally.”
Rebranding aside, there must have been a lot to learn along the way after 7 years in marketing. Rosie says: “What I’ve enjoyed most in this time is the diversity of challenges that marketing brings, whether finding a compelling way to write copy, devising an enthralling ad campaign or coping with the logistics of an exhibition. But the most important thing I’ve learnt is, no matter how daunting a problem may seem, there’s always a way to solve it. You just need the right kind of thinking.”
So when talking to businesses as part of the consultancy process, does Rosie find it hard to explain how marketing works and all the various whys and wherefores? Rosie says: “Many people view marketing as a dark art and something that only ‘marketing people’ can do. But that simply isn’t the case. It’s as logical and methodical as any other business discipline, it just takes practice. The proof of this is in the way that marketing evolves: it never stands still. Who would have thought just five years ago that we could reach people via the medium of such phenomena as Facebook and Twitter?
That’s why when people ask me how to do marketing, what the tricks of the trade are and what will work, I tell them that there are no hard and fast rules. I can never guarantee that a campaign will be effective and I can’t list the golden rules of marketing (there are hundreds), but I can take calculated risks on the things that I think will work. I try to be both pragmatic and creative, without letting one impinge too much on the other. That means giving myself licence to have weird and wonderful ideas, but knowing how to adapt them to the practicalities of marketing.”
As a marketing strategist for 2nd Head, does Rosie feel that she is in some ways missing out on the experience of implementing new campaigns? Rosie’s response is: “That would be absolutely true if I wasn’t also involved in delivering marketing campaigns myself. Depending on the business, I can be contracted on a part-time basis to execute the marketing plan. This usually works much better than just offering advice and then leaving people to get on with it. It means I’ll only make suggestions that are practical for the business – because I’ll be the one who gets caught out otherwise!”
What would Rosie’s advice be to businesses that are cautious or uncertain about marketing initiatives? “I encourage people to do as I do – give free rein to your ideas, but try to be practical in their application. Always think about your objectives and your audience and never be afraid to take a risk or two. Above all, don’t think you need a marketing or business qualification to make things work. Just use common sense, be prepared for trial and error and you’ll get there.”
