Flexible marketing services with copy and content at their heart.
Sarah Miles is a marketing delivery specialist.
While many marketing consultants focus on creating marketing strategies and telling you what you need to do,
Sarah likes to see it through.
To Sarah, the fun is in the creativity: the setting things up, the writing killer copy, the working with designers and developers, seeing things grow and take shape and, ultimately, achieving your objectives.
Sarah has a love for content writing but her skills span the breadth of marketing communications.
Freelance marketing and copy writing services West Yorkshire
Running a small to medium business in these tumultuous times is tough. Repeat business from loyal clients is fantastic but you can’t rely on that alone: you need proactive channels to access new opportunities to keep the business moving forward and remain ready for all that changing market conditions can throw at it. Gone are the days when you could rely on recommendation and reputation alone to continue to provide a stream of new business, you have to get yourself out there.
I am a freelance marketer, copy writer and blogger, based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. I work with SME businesses to provide all the services that you would expect from a marketing manager in a way that is flexible and affordable.
A freelance service works perfectly for small to medium businesses in a way that employing a marketing manager or using a marketing agency often cannot.
My Background
I come from a creative background; studying graphic design and art history at university before embarking on a career in marketing in 1997 and qualifying with the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
My pre-freelance (pre-lance?!) career was primarily spent working in-house in the marketing departments of various organisations in the public and private sectors. This, and working closely with owner/managers, gave me a great insight into what businesses need and how they work.
My Foray into Freelance
In 2007 I got bored. I longed for more variety, more flexibility and more creativity so I took the plunge and quit my steady-boring-job and entered the uncertain-exciting-world of self-employment! Freelance gave me all these things and more. I love working with a number of different clients and companies, each requiring a different solution and approach. I now work in industries as varied as wine law and elderly care, security and skills development, fitted kitchens and flash mobbing!
I enjoy putting plans and campaigns together, I express myself creatively by working with designers and web developers and I get to fulfil my love of writing through blogging and content management. I don’t think I’ll ever go out and get a ‘proper job’ again!
If you know you need marketing help but are undecided between a freelancer, an agency or an employed marketing manager you can read why a freelancer is the answer (in my humble opinion!).
Employed v Agency v Freelance Marketer
I’m assuming that, having found your way to this page, you know you that your business needs marketing of some form. That’s a good start. I’m also assuming that you have realised that your time is better spent running and leading your business than trying to do the marketing yourself and therefore, you need some help.
The question is, what kind of marketer do you need?…
You have 3 main options:
Each option will work well for different organisations, because every company’s situation is different, but for a small to medium business (and I may be slightly biased here!), using a freelancer often provides the most flexible and affordable solution.
Here’s why:
Employing a Marketer
If you have the budget, employing your own marketing person could be good for you but it’s a big commitment and a pretty rigid arrangement that doesn’t necessarily allow for your changing needs. You also need to determine the level of the role; do you save money by employing someone starting out in their career or face the cost of hiring an experienced marketer? Who will manage that person; do you have the time or the skills?
Using a Marketing Agency
Agencies are great because they offer lots of resources. Agencies are not great because they offer lots of resources. What I mean by that is their very advantage could also be their disadvantage. Lots of people with different skills can create a well thought out, balanced solution but it can also create extra cost, a less than consistent approach and key areas delegated to junior staff. If you are a smaller client for them, your needs may not always be their highest priority.
Engaging a Freelance Marketer
A freelancer offers the best of both worlds. You get the benefit of a highly qualified, experienced marketer without the commitment or the cost. You get a flexible service where you only pay for productive hours (no holiday pay, no sick pay, no chatting-for-half-an-hour-making-a-cup-of-tea pay!). You still get a consistent service and you don’t have to deal with sales people or office juniors – just the person who is directly managing all your marketing activity
Marketing strategy is the lynchpin that holds all your marketing endeavours together. Without a direction, without knowing what you want to achieve and without a genuine understanding of your market or the resources that you have you can never really hope for your marketing to be successful.
Creating a marketing strategy for small to medium businesses
I can work with you to create a well thought out marketing strategy that examines your strengths and weaknesses, your competitors, your resources and your opportunities. It will form the basis of your marketing plan and set the direction for everything that you do.
Your marketing activity (which I would also deliver) then becomes coherent and coordinated and much more than the sum of its parts.
Social media can be a fantastic way to promote your business if you do it well, or an almighty stealer of your time if you don’t. Just because platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Linked In are free to access, doesn’t mean it’s a free marketing tool if you consider your staff’s time costs.
Social media can work in isolation or as part of a wider content strategy and advertising on sites such as Facebook can allow you to target your audiences very accurately but they do benefit from professional management.
Social media management for small to medium businesses
I can set up and manage your social media campaigns and integrate them with other marketing activities. Social media often goes hand in hand with blogging and content management and these are particular areas that I specialise in.
You may be familiar with the phrase ‘content is king’? Content IS king because content is the substance that determines the success of websites, blogs, social media and a host of other online marketing activities. Search engines seek out websites that have good quality content. ‘Good quality’ is defined, among other things, by how informative it is, how original it is, how up to date it is and how popular it is. To fulfill all this, you need a good content manager.
Managing quality website content for small to medium businesses
As an experienced copy writer, I have been managing online content for clients for many years. I can create content that meets all of the above criteria for most industries, even if it’s unfamiliar to me initially: I currently write about security, kitchens, law, wholesale glass, design, health & safety, signage, dementia friendly products and elderly care – quite a mix!
Having a proactive content plan is the best way to rank well in search engines and therefore be found by those looking for your products and services.
Marketing Mentoring
Some businesses want to retain a greater level of control than simply outsourcing all their marketing activities to a freelancer. They may have an internal member of staff that has the potential to step into a marketing role but lacks skills or experience. Mentoring is all about working closely with that individual to involve them in the process and gradually nurture their skills to allow them to take over delivery of marketing activities.
Marketing mentoring for small to medium businesses
I can work with internal staff to give them skills and knowledge to take responsibility for marketing. I’m not a trainer – I work closely with individuals or teams to show them how to become more marketing minded, create a marketing strategy and plan and develop their skills to deliver it. Every business is different so each programme is tailored to the needs of that organisation.
