Meet OneVoice Digital

What is your main job role and responsibility within the business?

My main responsibility is to drive commercial revenue into the business through affiliate marketing, media sales and brand partnerships.

I head up the Commercial Revenue Team and we’ve very recently grown from 3 to 8 people which is really exciting, and we are continuing to grow. Together we are focused on sourcing great offers and content from brand partners, while deriving maximum value for our members and for OneVoice. We work with household name brands who want to increase their sales to students, apprentices and professional learners.

I also work very closely with the Marketing Team who are focused on acquiring new members to the platform, as well as the product team who are working on improving and building new features for the platform. This opens up lots of opportunity for cross department collaboration which is really fun to be part of.

What advice can you offer to someone who’s looking to start a career in your field?

Expertise is always valued very highly, so I would recommend specialising in a particular field first and build from there. I started out in affiliate marketing back in 2007 when it was considered a very niche part of the digital marketing mix. Demand for affiliate marketing has increased recently so those skills are now considered quite valuable and can be applied in many different contexts across performance marketing.

It can take 2 to 3+ years of hard work to establish expertise and build credentials in a given field, so I strongly recommend doing research on the various industries and chose carefully which you want to be working in.

From then it’s a case of always be willing learn and never passing up opportunities to do something that’s perhaps above and beyond your job description. Not only will you acquire new skills and knowledge, but you will demonstrate ability to adapt to different roles and operate at more senior levels.

Finally – know your value! If you feel the value you bring to a company is not being recognised, then you need to pro-actively address it and not allow it to fester. It can be a very demoralising situation to be in for any length of time and seriously impact your mental health. Always have control of your own future.

What do you believe are the top five stand out characteristics of someone successful in your business/ sector?

In no particular order these were the first 5 things I noted down:

1. Willingness to learn
2. Resourcefulness 
3. Entrepreneurial
4. Commercial thinker
5. Empathetic

The first four are probably obvious, but I am increasingly seeing how important empathy is in business. For example, if you want to create long term and lucrative partnerships it’s imperative you understand what both sides need from the relationship to make it work. Also not everything in this world is completely logical and rational, so understanding the human element can be very important.

Perhaps more importantly, it underpins relationships you have within your own organisation and subsequently your ability to do your job effectively. A strong team player who can positively influence across and upwards through an organisation will always be more productive and successful than those that can not.