On today’s Career Over Coffee, we sit down with the VP of Marketing and CRM at ShoeDazzle, Isamar Batista. With the knowledge she shared with us at our Techfluence: Innovation Series event on managing the customer journey, we wanted to get to know Isamar more, how her work experience and journey has shaped her career today, and her advice for digital marketing candidates.
Briefly describe your background and what you do.
I am the VP of Marketing and CRM at ShoeDazzle and my focus is retention & brand marketing. I’d like to think that my job is to be the voice of the customer. I am an in-house advocate for the end user, constantly pushing for the best experience and deals while still making a profit for the company. I love being able to marry technology and data to “reimagine fashion”, that’s our mission at TechStyle.
Was there anything that surprised you about your career journey?
I am surprised by my career journey almost daily. Growing up I knew I wanted to be in fashion because it came so naturally to me. I’m sure my diapers were bedazzled as a baby because it’s been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. Actually, just recently my mom found designs I sketched when I was in middle school and they’re actually pretty good! I would wear them, I should sell them!At the same time, I was also a tech geek always chasing the latest technology and even taught myself how to code on MySpace because I wanted to have the coolest profile — coding to me always felt like magic! Loving fashion, coding and numbers always made me feel like the “nerd at the cool table” because I was a little bit of both and I was torn about where I was going to go with my career. I knew eventually I would have to pick a lane because the fashion and technology industries are so different. Boy, was I wrong! I could have never imagined that ecommerce & technology were going to revolutionize the way we shop but I’m so glad that they did!In hindsight, I am so happy that I prioritized developing specialized skills like html coding & building segment queries because I later got to apply that to an industry that I always dreamt I'd be a part of. I have been very fortunate and disciplined, and although I am not surprised by my achievements, I am shocked that I was able to reach my career goals at such a young age.
What’s one of your favorite things about working at ShoeDazzle?
My favorite thing about working at ShoeDazzle is the people. They say “you are the product of the people you spend the most time with” and if I’m going to spend 50+ hours a week with anyone, they better be bright, passionate, creative & hilarious! That’s what I get from my team at ShoeDazzle.We trust, respect and inspire one another and truly operate as ONE team which is actually really hard to find and maintain. We genuinely care A LOT about each other and the business which makes it much easier to build and succeed together. At the same time we have fun and try not to take ourselves too seriously because at the end of the day fashion is fun and dynamic. Let’s just say it’s never a dull day at work!
What’s your advice for candidates looking to grow their careers in digital marketing?
Never stop learning and growing. In the digital space, things are changing every single day and you need to commit to relearning everything you know every so often. Don’t ever get too comfortable with what you know and do. The only thing you should get comfortable with is taking new risks!
Interested in learning more about starting your career in digital marketing? Be sure to check out our resource for digital marketers here, and listen to our podcast here for Isamar’s advice from our panel event.