EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Amanda Raines is the Senior Director of Growth Marketing at Maven, the largest virtual clinic for fertility, pregnancy, and parenting. A mission-driven organization, Maven is changing the world of women’s health, offering on-demand telehealth appointments, clinical content, and community forums, powered by employer-provided benefits.
Amanda is a passionate B2B marketer who held prominent roles at Shutterstock and later ClassPass, before unexpectedly losing her Head of B2B Marketing role there at the beginning of the pandemic.
This conversation is filled with gems on the importance of networking, advice for succeeding in a growth marketing role, and how to navigate the transition from a fitness startup to a healthcare company. Listen to Episode 36 of The Career Memos Podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Be scrappy and proactive as you’re building your career.
Having a scrappy, proactive mindset fueled Amanda’s career journey from the very beginning. She moved to New York City without a job lined up and leveraged networking to obtain her first big role in B2B marketing, working at a consulting firm. She continued down that path of joining different communities in the city, which landed her a referral to join the enterprise marketing team at Shutterstock.
Amanda has fond memories of her experiences there, recalling the incredible women she got to work with and the fast friendships that formed. It was a perfect opportunity to join a larger, more sophisticated organization.
Until 2 years in, Amanda received an email from ClassPass with a compelling role in building up their B2B marketing team from the ground up. She owned nearly every facet of marketing, from lifecycle to demand generation, while leading an entire team. This gave her a powerful lens into B2B marketing, which positioned her well to join Maven after she unexpectedly lost her job at ClassPass when the pandemic hit.
It completely shook up her world. While there was a lot of pain and grief she experienced during that time, she knew she had to pick herself up and keep going.
When you experience an unexpected loss in your career, take time to reevaluate.
Getting laid off from ClassPass opened doors for Amanda to take a step back and truly evaluate and reflect on her career journey to date.
If you find yourself in the same position, ask yourself, what do you really want to do for the rest of your career?
She ultimately leveraged LinkedIn and discovered that Maven was fortunately in the midst of a pivot into B2B marketing, having largely been a consumer-focused organization prior. It was a great fit. They were female-founded, mission-driven, and were going to impact the lives of women.
While Amanda believes it was a bit of luck and timing that opened these doors, she credits herself for jumping back into her job search quickly so that she could continue to build momentum in her career.
Inside a role in growth marketing.
Are you curious about forging a career path similar to Amanda’s? Being data-centric is an important quality to hone. Obsessively testing, optimizing, and understanding how your channels are performing together is critical to success in this type of role.
Amanda recommends partnering with your data team to more deeply understand the funnels and metrics they’re measuring.
All decisions in a growth marketing role are based on this one question: “What’s the most impactful thing to the business?”
And what if you’re in a new-to-you industry? Amanda was proactive about educating herself in every corner of the healthcare space, reading publications, listening to their CEO speak and distilling how she thinks about the industry as well.
The most important thing is finding something you love – the right culture fit, the right team, and the right product you’re excited about.
NOTABLE QUOTE
“Surround yourself with people who are much smarter than you. Seek them out, understand who in the room fills your gaps, and figure out how you can partner with that person, learn from that person.”
