Blog
August 2022
Life at a marketing consultancy is just as busy as you would think. And every day is different, no matter what your role. To add some insight into what goes on at a fast-growing marketing and PR agency, our Head of Content, Karolyn Andrews, gives us a day in the life of her working day from home.
I work in the office for 2 days a week and from home 2 days a week, which creates a good balance. On work from home days, I have time to go to the gym before I start work, which is a great way to start the day.
We have a brief meeting every morning involving the whole hybrid team – those in the office and anyone working from home. It’s a good opportunity to check in with each other, ask questions and share anything we need from colleagues that day.
Some days we are more task focused, while on other days we like to talk about social stuff. It depends on what we need. Whether I join TDaily from home or the office, I always come away feeling energised and upbeat.
A lot of the clients I work with are in the HR and talent management sectors, so I subscribe to a number of relevant newsletters. Articles in the business media are also a wealth of useful information and ideas for a wide variety of the businesses we support.
I work closely with team members across Transform Communications and Transform Digital. Including Haris, our Digital Account Manager. Haris produces really clear SEO reports for our website clients and conducts detailed keyword research. Using these resources, Haris and I work together to identify strong titles for SEO blogs that will appeal to human readers as well as search engines.
Based on an interview with a client in the healthcare sector, I’ve drafted an SEO blog. The client feedback is positive but they have a few suggested amends and I adapt the blog accordingly. Then it’s good to go for final client sign off and upload to their website. It’s always satisfying to complete a piece of work that’s taken a few weeks from research stage to completion.
I work on a lot of long form thought leadership content. It’s the thing I enjoy doing the most as I can really get my head down and focus on it for a few hours at a time. It’s the thing I do that most often brings me into a state of flow.
I’ve already worked with a colleague to collate some secondary research on the topic, and I have conducted interviews with Subject Matter Experts within the client’s business. The next stage is to draft an outline that brings the brief, research and interviews together.
I made a good start on this yesterday but I like to come away from a piece of work for a while to let my thoughts percolate. I’ve got some new ideas to build into the outline today before I send it to colleagues for internal review and it goes to the client for feedback. When we have feedback and approval on the outline, we then create a first draft.
After a couple of hours of heavy brain work, I need a break – and a cuddle with Hector, Transform’s Chief Barketing Officer. Being at home gives me the opportunity to make different things for lunch, so today it’s scrambled eggs and avocado.
We have final approval on a blog and now need a couple of social posts to promote it and encourage engagement. I take the key messages from the blog and weave these into posts for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
We have regular meetings with all of our clients to go through work in progress and upcoming activities. Most of these are online but we try to meet in person when we can.
Catching up with clients is a real pleasure and a good way to gain insights into what’s happening in their world. You never know where ideas are going to come from. As Norah Ephron said, everything is copy!
I watched a recording yesterday of an internal demonstration for an upcoming product release for one of our HR tech clients. They have asked us to produce a more polished script for an external product demonstration, so I work on taking the key features and explaining them in clear, succinct language.
Any day of the week might involve a wide range of different types of content. Blogs, social posts, product brochures, video scripts, long form content. And it’s often required in very different styles – from very formal to more light hearted and humorous. It means my job is really varied and never gets boring.
I know that I am going to be online a bit later this evening, as I have a video call with a client case study in the States. So a walk with Hector is a good way to clear my head and make sure I am still fresh towards the end of the day. Especially when the person I will be talking to has only just started work!
The best laid plans. I thought I had plenty of time this afternoon but a media commentary opportunity has just come in that is perfect for one of our clients. The journalist has a series of questions and needs a response by tomorrow at midday.
I draft some suggested responses, based on my previous knowledge, as well as blogs and articles the client has published. I send this over to the client for their feedback with a very clear deadline to get back to me.
With an hour to go until my final meeting of the day there’s enough time to start drafting an advertorial to promote downloads of a guide we recently produced for a client. It’s a similar style to writing a media article, which we also do, but with an advertorial there’s a little bit more opportunity to be promotional. It’s a fine balance though, as being too pushy will put readers off. I enjoy the challenge!
I dial in to a video call with a Subject Matter Expert from a global client. It’s a privilege to talk to some incredibly clever and experienced people on the subjects that are close to their hearts.
At Transform I am always learning something new about a huge array of topics. Whether it’s from my colleagues or our clients. Every day is a school day at Transform and that’s what makes it so good! "
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