Welcome to a new Weekly Interviews edition where we interview brilliant women in our industry and share their stories with the world! Anyone is welcome to share their story by simply filling this form, we encourage women from all walks of life in our industry to do so.
Introducing Helen Hargreave! Based in Leeds, Helen is Head of Content Strategy at CreativeRace. She has 10 years experience in crafting creative content marketing strategies that drive commercial results across a range of industries including FMCG, Retail, Travel, B2B, Finance, and Legal.
We asked her everything from how she first got into SEO to what empowers her to be the brilliant woman she is 💪🏽
I started in SEO straight after graduating from Edinburgh University, interested in travel I worked for a TEFL course provider and worked in the marketing team. Since then I’ve worked in digital marketing agencies with content marketing as my main arena but I’ve worked across digital PR and social media too, but content keeps calling me back.
Tough one as it’s changed over the years! I’ve always been a big thinker so I used to love building big digital PR campaigns, securing links and coverage. Whilst I still love that I have naturally switched to building out onsite content strategies over the years. I like being able to see results that content has on SEO performance for my clients so digging into the data is my go-to activity nowadays.
I’ve probably used every SEO tool there is, but I love Ahrefs. I’m still discovering new features all the time!
Pitch prep and winning clients is always a great feeling, it’s not something I learned as such but being able to demonstrate the value of SEO and its importance in the marketing channel mix is a great feeling.
Hmm tricky one, becoming Head of Content when I was still in my mid-twenties was a really proud moment. I’d grafted and was managing a team of 7 people, I felt young but passionate. Helping others to see the value in content marketing (when it was still difficult to show ROI) was a great feeling. Going on to help clients get nominated for awards felt like our hard work was paying off.
SEO is a broad part of digital marketing – educate yourself on all elements and find what you enjoy. Don’t be scared to ask questions and shout out when you find new ways of doing things! The exciting thing about SEO is that it changes all the time!
SEO is still really heavily dominated by men but I’ve worked with some amazing women over the years. In terms of inspiration, I’d say Whitney Wolfe Herd – the founder of Bumble has an amazing story. Worth reading up on if you don’t know it!
I think sometimes there’s a perception that you have to be cut-throat to carve out a career but realistically I think just being a good person goes a long way. Not being afraid to be vulnerable is a huge skill, it makes you relatable and open too!
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Thanks to Helen for a truly insightful interview. You can learn more about her and connect with her through LinkedIn.
To view more interviews with brilliant women, check out our Interviews page. If you've enjoyed reading this interview, then we'd love for YOU to share your story with the world! Simply fill this form here, we welcome brilliant SEOs from all walks of life! 🙌🏽