Meet the team
Michelle Cross explains how the marketing team are improving the member experience through digitisation, her focus on ensuring the effectiveness of campaigns to attract the CILEX Lawyers of the future and why no two days are ever the same
What are your role and responsibilities?
I’m head of marketing at CILEX and my team are responsible for a broad range of marketing activity, including the promotion of CILEX qualifications, delivering engaging and informative communications to our members and acting as guardians and promoters of the CILEX brand.
It’s important our marketing budget is spent as effectively and efficiently as possible. That means investing in improvements to our website and measuring the effectiveness of all of our paid-for campaigns to ensure they deliver return on investment. We analyse our website traffic, conversion rates and campaign performance to inform and improve our marketing activity.
Tell us a bit more about your background? How did you come to work at CILEX?
Joining CILEX in 2020 was a natural move for me given my previous role was with the Association of Accounting Technicians, an organisation that provides an accessible route into the accountancy profession. There, I was focused on marketing the association’s qualification to students, employers and training providers. Prior to that, I worked in a variety of consumer marketing roles in the telecoms sector, including at BT and EE.
What is a typical day like for you?
I know it’s a cliché, but no two days are ever the same at CILEX. One day I might be supporting a new product launch by planning and delivering the promotional strategy, the next I’ll be working on a joint initiative with other legal sector organisations – most recently PRIDE, Justice Week and the ULaw LLB.
What are you working on at the moment?
We will be running the member insights survey for the second time this year, so it’s my role to encourage as many members as possible to complete it by communicating across all of our channels about the importance of members sharing their experience of working in the legal profession. It means we can continue to represent their interests and push for changes that will help them in their working lives.
We continue to work on promoting the CILEX Professional Qualification, running campaigns across the year to inform and engage future CILEX Lawyers and encourage them to take the CILEX route. We also promote our CPD programme that provides e-learning, webinars and courses across many different practice areas.
In June, we launched CILEX’s digital credentials so that members can showcase their qualifications and professional status and I am now planning our October graduation event.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
As well as working with a great team, I’m enjoying overseeing a move towards a completely digital approach to marketing that gives us great opportunities to be creative, to test the effectiveness of our campaigns and build a culture of continuous improvement. Automation will improve the experience of members and potential members as we use data to personalise our communications, so they are as relevant as possible to our audiences.
What do you like to do away from your job to relax/have fun?
With three kids and a dog I don’t get much downtime. I enjoy yoga, walking and the occasional run with my dog in tow, as well as cooking and socialising with friends and family. I’m a big fan of camping and I love skiing. I am happiest when skiing down a mountain and my children have also learnt – they are now far better skiers than me.