Welcome to the very first Koozai Couch, our new interview series where we sit down with people from across digital marketing to talk about the ideas, tools and shifts shaping the industry.
To kick things off, we spoke with Erin Simmons, Managing Director at Women in Tech SEO. Erin works across the WTS community, which brings together people of marginalised genders working in SEO and marketing.
It felt like the perfect place to start. Community, trust and real human connection are all high on the agenda for marketers, especially as teams face more tools, channels and choices than ever.
In our conversation, Erin shared their thoughts on what the industry needs to remember, why Canva has become a go-to tool, and why scaling back can sometimes be the smarter growth move.
The Interview
For each Koozai Couch, we ask the same five questions to get a quick but useful snapshot of what people across digital marketing are seeing, using and rethinking.
Here’s what Erin had to say.
1. What’s one thing the industry is getting completely wrong right now?
I wouldn’t say there’s something our industry is getting wrong. I would say our industry is under an unprecedented amount of choice: where to invest, what to do, and who to do it with.
When new, shiny things show up, we get excited. That excitement can make it hard to see the forest for the trees. We get too zoomed in, priorities shift quickly, and we can end up leaving some basics and foundations by the wayside.
Things like real connection, delighting our audiences, trust and brand are a few that come to mind as of late.
2. What tool or resource has genuinely changed how you work lately?
Canva. They make it ridiculously easy to create standout creative.
Being able to showcase our members’ knowledge and stories visually really helps expand our reach and our ability to amplify them.
3. What’s a take you’ve changed your mind on in the last 12 months?
Scaling and growth doesn’t always mean doing more of the things that are working. Sometimes it means cutting back and trying something new.
We scaled from three to five conferences from 2024 to 2025. Then in 2026, we went back to three.
Our conferences are 70% of our revenue. It’s a risk to scale back. But we truly believed that investing more of our time in our digital community would pay off on our revenue line eventually, even if we couldn’t directly tie it.
And it did. Giving our time and energy to supporting our members doesn’t directly fund the business. But our members sharing about our business, sharing our partnership opportunities with their network, and their support in general does lead back to that.
4. What are you reading, watching or listening to that others in digital should know about?
Anything I can get my hands on about trust.
Rachel Botsman is an excellent trust expert. Read her books and listen to podcasts she’s been on.
5. Where do you think digital marketing is heading in the next 12 months?
I think we’re tipping back to connecting, in 1:1 and small group formats where people can have genuine, helpful conversations.
Expect to see word of mouth affect your visibility and business outcomes more than ever.
Thank you, Erin!
A huge thank you to Erin for joining us for the first ever Koozai Couch. Their answers are a useful reminder that while tools, formats and channels keep changing, the strongest marketing still comes back to trust, connection and understanding the people you’re trying to reach.
Follow Koozai for more interviews, digital marketing insights and practical ideas from people shaping the industry.
Would you like to feature on the Koozai Couch? Get in touch with us and tell us what your comments would be. We’d love to hear from you.
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