The field of digital marketing is expansive and always changing, and when we need to know what’s next for our industry, we turn to our fearless digital marketing director, Emily Sorenson.

She never backs down from a challenge (especially when it comes to cooking competitions at work), so we presented her with some hard-hitting questions to uncover more about her dynamic role at HS.

Why do you like working in digital marketing?

Oh goodness – that is a hard question to answer. I like to cook – so let’s think of it a little like planning a dinner. My favorite part of cooking is taking all of the different ingredients and making something new. Digital marketing is a lot like that: there are so many different tactics, strategies, tools sequences…every client’s need is unique and requires a special blend to create the perfect digital marketing mix.

How do you stay up to date on the latest trends?

I subscribe to a lot of newsletters and industry trend publications. What I have really enjoyed lately is partnering with vendors to help them beta test new services. We have a social media listening tool that we are working with now as a focus group. We have weekly calls to discuss their tool and how they make it better so that more agencies across the country will see value in their tool. It’s been really fun to test it out and provide feedback as they are developing their software.

What excites you the most about the future of digital marketing?

Constant change is the only thing that is consistent in digital marketing. I guess to one degree or another I am excited to see how personalized content meets the needs of consumers more efficiently. I think we have all been caught in the algorithm muck, right? I planned one baby shower for my sister-in-law six years ago and Pinterest STILL thinks I need to buy baby products. Developing digital marketing tactics that respond better to subtle shifts in interest rather than just hammering audiences with ads over and over is what I find exciting. Crafting a content journey using display, search, social, all on the same sequence is really what I find interesting.

You’re known for being organized at work. What’s your secret to staying on task?

I’m happy that is what I am known for because my brain feels like it has too many Chrome tabs open at a time! Mostly, I am a pretty big note taker — for many clients I have a notebook dedicated to them/their account so that I can go back and see what was discussed at a previous meeting. On Zoom, I record almost every meeting and then save it for future reference if I need to. Then creating tasks as auto reminders of what needs to be done. But I think probably the most important “tool” is having a team of people to work with who can help execute on tasks quickly and efficiently.

I went through a phase where I bought six different planners to figure out what type I liked best. That was fun! If you want to learn more about planners, I am super onboard to tell you all about which ones I like and why! I go with a simple Rocketbook task planner at the moment. It is a reusable notebook with Frixon pens. That has been my task planning method of choice these days.

If you could spend the day with any character from a book, who would it be?

So at HS we talk a lot about Crazy Obsessed and I have a waterfall chart of all of my “recent” obsessions, both in print and on TV. That being said…one character from a book is not an easy thing to answer. I can say this…there was a book series I had a really hard time finishing because I knew the main character was going to die at the end. I haven’t read that since I was in my 20s but the Ender’s Game series is one of my favorites. Children of the Mind was great and it took a while to get through because I knew what was going to happen. That doesn’t really answer the question…I think there are a lot more characters I don’t like than ones I want to spend time with!