Staying Visible in the Age of AI
How does a company remain visible online when the logic of reach optimisation is being transformed by AI-powered search engines? Annalena Rauen is responsible for Telekom’s Internet of Things website. Her work focuses not only on content creation, but above all on targeting the right audience.
Company premises: What does one actually do as an online marketing manager at Telekom?
Annalena Rauen: I am responsible for the website for the Internet of Things portfolio – in other words, Telekom’s IoT portfolio in the B2B sector. This involves, on the one hand, content management – i.e. updating the content – and, on the other hand, performance reporting and optimising the website to drive more traffic, which should ultimately lead to more enquiries. Of course, I don’t do this alone, but lead a small team. Together, we coordinate our activities so that our target audience can easily find us on Google and via AI, and convert into a lead on our website by submitting a contact enquiry. Our aim is to provide the sales team with new customer leads.
What experience or skills should you bring to the role?
The online business is fast-paced. So you should be curious, interested in new technologies and keen to learn independently. It’s important to keep an eye on the latest developments from Google and popular AI systems, and to be able to apply what you learn to your day-to-day work. You should also have strong analytical skills to interpret the vast amounts of user data.
What appeals to you about your job?
You can validate every question with user data and make a decision based on that. At the same time, however, despite all the numbers, it isn’t dry and boring. Good campaign ideas are also needed, and that’s where creative brainstorming comes in. So it’s a good mix.
What are the biggest challenges in your job?
Getting all stakeholders on board. Especially in large companies, it’s important to have the relevant people on your side. This is usually the case if you can convince them of the objective and how something contributes to it. Otherwise, you run the risk that sub-projects won’t be prioritised and therefore won’t be completed, or that certain perspectives (in the worst case, those of customer groups) will be overlooked.
h3. What has been your biggest failure at work so far, and what did you learn from it?
If something goes wrong, make sure it doesn’t happen again. In my case, it was a new type of campaign that Google was raving about. I made the decision to invest part of our budget in it, and it backfired spectacularly. At first, I didn’t make a big deal of it, but over time, neighbouring departments started asking me about this type of campaign. I shared my experience with this type of campaign, and other departments were then able to learn from it and avoid falling into the same trap.
Annalena’s tips for young professionals
I often find that young professionals are hesitant because they don’t want to make a mistake. Even if you can’t yet contribute to the technical details, you can still ask questions. Not just within your own department, but to anyone. Communication with stakeholders is very important. This works best when you know and understand their perspectives. So, asking a simple question about a colleague’s day-to-day tasks or what it means to be responsible for topic XY shows interest and fosters collaboration.
Annalena Rauen
… works in Deutsche Telekom’s ‘Internet of Things’ division, where she is responsible for the website.
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