Eeva Koutaniemi joins Columbia Road

Hi Eeva, How did you get good at what you do?

My rich experience in e-learning and data-driven approaches has led me to where I am today. I graduated from University College London with a Master’s degree in Electronic Communication and Publishing, after which I worked in the e-learning industry for several years. I led a large team, and we created online learning solutions for dozens of organisations. However, I have always been a data-oriented person and for me, the online learning platforms were often missing critical data points about how people actually learned.

After six years in the e-learning industry, I moved to digital marketing and ever since then I have been in love with the sheer volume of data that is available and what we can do with it. That then leads to fantastic business growth which I love to see!

Where have you earned your spurs?

In my past career, I’ve worked for digital marketing companies, such as Tulos Helsinki and Nordic Morning. This has given me a chance to work with many websites, all the way from ecommerce and online media to B2B sites in the heavy industry sector. Many of the top 50 largest websites in Finland are familiar to me through work. I have led the SEO for large website migrations, and have even invented a single landing page that currently brings over a million euros in sales per year to the company just via SEO and SEM. Also, I have designed website hierarchies, trained webmasters and copywriters, and of course built significant growth in online traffic, leads and sales. I have also grown a website from being medium-sized to one of the top ten largest food media in Finland via SEO.

Why Columbia Road?

I really like the lean, practical, and result-oriented approach Columbia Road has. I also love our business focus: we want organisations to improve their digital sales. The approach which the company has around ecommerce platforms and marketing technologies is brilliant – I love the ideology that technologies alone don’t bring value, but instead are tools for better marketing, sales, and customer experience. Working in cross-functional teams and communicating with different experts such as developers, designers, marketers and strategists means every day is different for me!

Eero, what will make our clients love Eeva?

“Eeva is efficient when forming an overview of what is needed to reach growth, but at the same time is always ready to go the extra mile to fully understand the details of the customer’s current situation. She always thinks carefully about what she would do if she owned the customer’s business, and customers appreciate her proactive approach. Eeva is very skilled at driving things forwards and creating cohesion in the team. As she has worked in many growth teams in large organisations, she also knows how to build growth structures that exceed single growth teams and bring benefits to all,” says Eero Martela, General Manager for Columbia Road.

What makes your heart beat a little faster?

I have been part of an a cappella vocal group for many years. We sing a cappella versions of popular rock, soul and pop songs. A couple of years ago, we even won a nationwide a cappella competition! As Chairman of the board for our group, I have also been responsible for selling our gigs to shopping centres, corporate events and private parties throughout the year. Now, I am taking a break from singing to train my new puppy. I also have two wonderful daughters for whom I would drop everything else in a heartbeat.

How would you fancy working alongside Eeva at Columbia Road? We're constantly looking for new skilful and nice people to join our crew! Take a peek at our open positions 👇