“It’s been great to join a business with ambition that’s focused on growth and has the talent to deliver. I’m loving building out our content service line and the team to deliver it. I know that we’re going to be building it out more to scale our services into the future and that’s a really exciting prospect. Adding a senior copywriter with a wealth of SEO experience, has really helped support greater collaboration between teams.
On the subject of collaboration, our ‘creative clinics’ are a fortnightly highlight. They enable colleagues from across the business to come together and bounce ideas off one another to come up with concepts and campaigns that can add value for a client or give us a means of outreach. By really focusing this time, we’re ensuring that the team is both inspired and productive and that we’re proactively coming up with ideas that keep things fresh. I’m excited to build on this potential.
I’m really on a mission to make us bigger, braver and bolder in terms of what we offer and how we communicate. We’re getting braver in sharing our creative content ideas for big brands on social media, like our recent cheeky valentines post with reference to Cadbury’s cream eggs (a personal favourite, and no they haven’t yet sent me a complimentary box!). In a nutshell, I’m trying to bring an attitude of ‘lets get shit done and put it out there. If it works great, if it doesn’t, move on!’
I’ve also loved being involved in pitches. In some cases, having prior experience of their businesses has enabled me to bring valuable insight to the table. I love to take people on a journey so that they buy into a destination that we can see and have mapped out how we’ll get there. There’s power in that shared belief and purpose.
With over a decade’s experience in Digital PR and Content I’ve been building internal confidence in these propositions so that colleagues understand the value and can promote them when it’s clear a client has a need. By being able to demonstrate not only an initial strategy, but how that’s realised through content creation and the value it generates in the form of tangible outcomes for clients, we can now present a vision that clients can grasp. By revising all of the existing strategies we’ve been able to identify new opportunities, in one case, providing five times the value.
I’m passionate about adding value, both to clients and the businesses I’ve worked for. Getting results is so satisfying, and I’m really proud of what I’ve been able to achieve in my first six months. We’ve got some great new clients who I’m looking forward to onboarding. We’re engaging with social media influencers for some clients, building out fun April fools campaigns for others. There’s never a dull day and I love my work and the people I’m collaborating with, there’s a genuine buzz.
StrategiQ has great ambition and I really feel like we’re on the brink of a new era which I’m totally here for. With so many agencies making cuts and downsizing, it’s refreshing to be part of a growing business that’s succeeding in spite of market conditions. There’s a really positive vibe here and Andy (Smith, CEO) is a really inspirational and accessible figurehead who leads from the front and is modelling ‘doing the do’. Bring on the next 6 months!
What colleagues say about James:
“Some really lovely feedback coming back from clients regarding the ‘thought leadership’ piece that James R and Cath have been working on. It’s a complicated and jargon heavy industry and yet they were both ‘extremely impressed’ with the brief that Cath had written and the comms they’ve had thus far. Great work, guys.”
“From supporting with clients, to landing new ones and increasing PR spend, James R has had a great start to the year!”
“Working with James R and seeing him in action is amazing to see. He pulled together some amazing Digital PR concepts for a prospect, who was super excited by the concepts that James presented, he also worked tirelessly in putting together content and PR slides for a proposal that was delivered amazingly. Let’s not forget his superior DJ skills in helping to put together the Christmas playlist. Keep on smashing it James”
“Great work on the SEO audit presentation. The client was engaged and very open to our suggestions. Builds us nicely to incorporating an SEO strategy as part of the retainer renewal.”
