Hello! My name is Natalie, and I’m thrilled to have joined POLARIS as Content Manager. I’ll be contributing to the team by utilising my skills honed from a range of areas such as marketing, publishing, psychology, content creation, social media, and brand identity. I’ll be combining that knowledge with expertise from my colleagues to build impactful content and SEO strategies to increase profit and brand growth for clients.
I have been part of the team for just over a month now, and during this settling-in period, I’ve been really heartened by how warm and welcoming everyone is. I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting and collaborating with some of our wonderful clients and have already started to deliver content plans and SEO optimisation reports that have helped boost their organic traffic. This is just the beginning, and I’m excited to be part of such a great team, who together will build our clients’ businesses through our brilliant marketing and content strategies.
How did I get here? Well, I was born and raised in sunny Cardiff, Wales, and am now residing in Caerleon with my husband and dog – who is quite possibly one of the oldest dogs in the world at 18 years old! My career didn’t start in content; I started by studying Psychology at Aberystwyth University in hopes of becoming a Child Psychologist. After undertaking meaningful work in the sector, I realised that I struggled to compartmentalise my patient’s issues and instead allowed them to seep into my own life by treating them as my own. I also found myself itching for something more creative after always finding myself lost in creative writing, painting, or photographing lovely sunsets in the Welsh countryside.
I knew I needed a completely new path, so I spent a few years travelling and immersing myself in different cultures to find out what really made me tick. During that time, I had some life-changing experiences, such as working on a cattle farm in the Australian outback, snorkelling in Fiji, practising yoga in Bali, temple hopping in Thailand, and skydiving over the Great Barrier Reef.
When I returned from my travels, I was bursting with so much new knowledge and life experiences, which helped me realise that I thrived on working with people in the creative industry. I was a go-getter, and I had a skill for thinking outside the box and enjoyed planning, strategy formulation, absorbing, and learning what people loved and engaged with. So, I used that insight and worked as a freelance content creator and strategist, working with start-ups that wanted to build their social media presence and brand awareness through content. After that, I focused on building a career path in the marketing industry, specialising in brand identity, customer journey mapping, and taking complete ownership of campaigns and projects from conception to completion. From there, I knew I was passionate about working with brands that wanted to stand out in a crowded market and cared about making a real impact through inspiring messaging.
It was that passion that led me to my previous position as Head of Creatives in the online publishing sector, working for a NASDAQ-owned company (headquartered in New York). There I built a creative department from the ground up. I scouted and hired a team of copywriters to deliver unique campaigns that boosted overall revenue and increased click-through rate (CTR) whilst pioneering effective processes and strategies. I worked closely with Editors, Media Buyers and Account Managers in large companies across the technology, publishing and social media sectors like Yahoo, Taboola and Twitter.
Over the years, these experiences helped shape my professional values of passion, honesty and uniqueness. I may have struggled to compartmentalise my patients previously, but in this creative sector, I feed my creative passion by treating the businesses that I work with as if they were my own and I thrive on seeing great results.
I still have a passion for psychology and have a certificate in counselling; however, I’ve developed a unique quality of being able to combine the skills that I’ve learned in that field with marketing and step into the customer’s shoes, tap into their emotive logic and online behaviour, not with just the intention to gain clicks but to truly understand their needs and deliver what they’re looking for in a way that’s different to competitors. This ultimately results in a strong relationship and unique trust with that customer that will last a lifetime.
It’s been a great first month here at POLARIS. Thank you so much to the team for such a warm welcome and a fantastic start. We have big plans for 2023, and I’m so excited to embark on this journey with such a passionate team, supporting incredible brands to excel.
If you’re interested in working together or want to learn more about how POLARIS’ content and SEO strategies can help grow your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch today.