When I was first asked to come on board as an intern at RugbyWA, a large part of my role was producing the 'Cut Out Pass' EDM which is sent to over 22 thousand RugbyWA stakeholders. This is one of the most important forms of stakeholder communications at RugbyWA and I was given the opportunity to take it on board and make it my own.
Originally, I started producing Cut Out Pass using Mail Chimp, a service that allows you to mass produce and send EDM's and newsletters to large mailing lists. On my first day as an intern, I took over four hours to complete Cut Out Pass, as I was anxious about completing it with absolute precision and did not have a firm grasp of the Mail Chimp system. After producing around 10 Cut Out Pass editions through Mail Chimp, I managed to start producing the EDM with the same quality in under an hour. It allowed me to complete more tasks throughout the day, which I felt increased my value as an intern and allowed me to learn more, rather than taking over half my day to complete the newsletter.
However, in March of this year RugbyWA changed their EDM platform to 'Exact Target,' which is run through 'Sales Force' and gives much more advanced EDM analytics and allows you to learn much more about your audience. This was difficult for me, as I was beginning to know Mail Chimp back to front and inside out, and was all of a sudden told that the subscription was not being renewed and I would never be using it again.
This meant that I had to start again from square one with Exact Target, and being a more advanced program it was a difficult task. When first using Exact Target, it felt like my first day as an intern all over again. I sat there dumfounded for over four hours attempting to do a job I was used to doing quickly between the hours of 4pm and 5pm. It was a difficult change, but now 12 editions later I know the structure of Exact Target as well as I used to know Mail Chimp.
The lesson from this is that whilst I was at first hesitant and anxious about the change, all it did was challenge me and allow me to learn a new system and the back end of a program that is very beneficial in regards to stakeholder relations.
Luke.
1 comment:
Hey Luke,
You have written an interesting blog, where you voice out the fears and doubts of being a fresh-starter in the industry. Well, I guess that we all go through this kind of experience. While many of us choose to close ourselves on it, being intimidated by the possible mistakes we could get caught doing, you seemed to have mastered control over your emotions, allowing you to be more confident in the workplace. This is a really good thing.
Wishing you all the best!
Cheers,
Karishma Shanto
Post a Comment