You might have heard the exciting news recently that our Senior PR & Outreach Manager, Ruth Walker, has been named on the shortlist of the Women in Marketing awards 2018! The awards celebrate the best in female marketing talent across the world, with competition coming from marketeers from the likes of Unilever, Slack and Lonely Planet, to name a few.
Our Ruth is up for ‘The One to Watch’ award, which highlights the females making waves in the industry through fast progression and an increase in responsibilities in a Marketing career spanning under 7 years.
But who is the woman behind the award nomination? What’s it like to work in PR & Outreach here at Evolved Search? We grabbed a cuppa and sat down with Ruth to find out…
What does a typical day look like for you?
I get in early to work on emails and plan my day, then catch up with my team to see how their campaigns are doing and if there’s any support I can provide. From here, I talk to the Directors and management team about everything from new business pitches to internal training, ensuring all teams are on the same page and poised for the busy-ness and exciting week we’re used to here at Evolved Search.
Then it’s back to my desk to review my current campaigns and promote them accordingly. Press opportunities can come in at any time so I deal with these and ensure journalists have everything they need to cover the story. I also help journalists out with their own stories and have recently been featured in BBC, Huffington Post, Business Insider and Woman Magazine.
My day is varied and can also sometimes include helping in ideation sessions for content pieces, with myself and my team giving input on what we know will work from a PR & Outreach perspective, to ensure campaigns go as far as they possibly can.
What are your favourite parts of working in PR & Outreach?
I love the ideation process and seeing the content and design all come to life. I also really enjoy the promotion process itself; talking to and building relationships with journalists from a range of publications, which ultimately pays dividends for months and years to come and helps to ensure the best coverage for our clients.
The most rewarding thing is seeing the whole team’s hard work paying off when the coverage comes in. Everything we achieve is as a team; Content, SEO, Design, PR & Outreach, PPC and Sales; so a win is a win for all of us.
Any tips for those looking to get into your field?
Simply: get out there! Go to networking events, follow journalists/influencers from the industry on Twitter to get a feel for the kind of content they write, share and comment on – you might just pick up a conversation piece and spot an opportunity. Ultimately, it’s all about the relationships you form.
If possible for you, I also think it’s worth running a site, blog or social media account in your own time to show prospective employers what you can do and what you’re all about.
I’ve run a film blog for a few years now and I fully endorse bringing your interests to life through a blog – you never know where it could lead! It also allows you to constantly refine your writing approach and find what works for you, plus you can learn additional skills such as brand production and liaising with PRs and journalists from the other side.
Unbelievably, 2019 is almost upon us… What do you hope to achieve in your career next year?
So many things! I would love to see continued success for the team, more award wins for the agency and the chance to work with even bigger brands and campaigns, continuing and improving on our current trajectory.
On a personal level I’m looking forward to developing myself further and progressing within the agency, as well as welcoming new faces to the ever-growing PR & Outreach team, and across the whole agency. We’ve grown phenomenally over the past year in particular, since I joined in November 2017, and it’s showing no sign of slowing!
It’s great to work with new, emerging talent and I think Evolved Search is a great place to build a career in PR & Outreach.
What’s been your proudest moment so far in your career?
First place would have to be seeing how far the team have come since starting my time at Evolved Search.
I’m also really proud of a campaign we ran recently, highlighting the ongoing issues connected with the gender pay gap, that gained national and internal press coverage. It was great to be part of something that made a real difference.
In a similar vein, we recently conducted an investigation for a client on the cost of personal information sold on the dark web. This went above and beyond what we normally do and again, it made a real difference to the general public – and to Money Guru‘s backlink profile!
The research was picked up here in the UK and overseas across publications including The New York Post, Fox News, Daily Mail, Independent, i news, Metro, Mirror and The Sun to name a few.
Evolved Search has picked up 14 award shortlistings in the past 3 months. I’m so proud to work for a company that not only has the best clients, people and campaigns, but also smashes it on the daily.
I’m thrilled and honoured to be shortlisted for The One To Watch award alongside some incredible women in marketing for this year’s Women In Marketing Awards. I couldn’t have got to where I am today without the help of everyone at Evolved Search and other strong women like Ali Lanning and Sam Noble.
And that’s it! If you fancy joining Ruth in the PR & Outreach team, check out our latest vacancy here. Time is running out, so be quick!
We wish the best of luck to Ruth Walker on awards night next week and applaud everyone shortlisted – it’s great to be a Woman in Marketing!
