How I help agencies

Agencies bring me in for work that has to be right. The technical subject nobody on the team wants to get wrong, the senior page that carries the pitch, the client who expects to deal with someone who has done this before. Most of the time I work directly with agency clients, but more often than not I have to sign an NDA – and I take non disclosure seriously.

I have been an outside writer for agencies since 2009, working across science, engineering, healthcare, finance, property and more. If you need senior copy you can put your name to, without hiring another permanent role, that is what I offer.

Why agencies bring in an outside writer

Usually for one of four reasons:

• Capacity, when the work is there but the team is full and a hire is too big a commitment for it.
• Seniority, when a page or a pitch needs a writer who has handled complex, high-stakes copy before.
• Subject range, when a brief lands in a field the in-house team doesn’t know well and there isn’t time to learn it.
• Confidence in front of the client, when the work needs someone who can join a discovery call, ask the awkward questions, and turn the answers into copy that meets the brief.

The common thread is that the work is demanding and the margin for error is small.

The kind of work I get asked to do

These are examples of the types of agency I have worked with, and the clients I have helped them service.

• For Garda, a design and marketing agency in Southend, construction and fit-out copy for their clients — the kind where the writing has to make a serious case to serious buyers.
• For a Diamond Hubspot Partner agency in the North East, B2B technology over several years – healthcare software for pharmacies, finance and procurement software for businesses, collaboration software for the public sector, plus a national medical charity.
• Through a Munich-based brand consultancy, deeply technical work for two global electron microscopy brands, including sales-critical microsites. This included brand development, copywriting and editing work for copy that had been translated from German.
• With a UK-wide digital agency, web and campaign copy for a major European pet food brand, blogs for an international English language training provider.
• Through a London based design agency, campaign and app copy for one of England’s water utilities companies and internal training documents for a global hotel chain.

Discretion is part of what you’re buying

The agencies I work with hire me partly because I keep their clients’ work confidential.

It sounds like a small thing. It isn’t. A writer who name-drops other people’s clients is telling you exactly how they’ll treat yours. So the names on this page are only the ones I’m free to share; the rest stay private. If you want to see examples of my work for agencies, I will share anything I am free to – but nothing else.

How I work with agencies

I write to your brief, your plan and your brand. I can stay in the background and deliver copy, or come forward and be client-facing — joining discovery sessions, interviewing the client’s experts, and turning technical material into high performing copy.

That extends across the work I do everywhere: website copy for the pages that carry the most weight, articles and thought leadership that need real subject knowledge.

What I won’t do

I should be straight about the limits, because they matter as much as the offer.

I don’t firefight. If an agency has overpromised and needs a job rescued at short notice, I’m the wrong writer – that work is rarely done well, and it isn’t the kind I take on. I work on one of an agency’s clients at a time, not several at once, so each gets proper attention. And I work the way you work: I respect your process, your brand and the way you deal with your client.

The work I do for agencies is considered and senior, delivered on a sensible timeline. Emergency cover is someone else’s job.

A few things agencies ask

Do you work white-label, under our brand?

Yes. Most of my agency work is delivered under the agency’s name. You brief it, you own it, your client need never know I was involved. Most of the time, though, I’m asked to deal directly with the client.

Will you be client-facing if we need it?

Yes. I’m comfortable in discovery sessions and expert interviews, asking the questions that get the material a good page needs, and representing the work to the client. I can also stay entirely behind the scenes. Your call, per project.

Will you name our clients anywhere?

No. Your clients stay yours. The confidentiality I extend to every agency I work with is the same one that keeps this page free of logos.

Can you jump on something urgent this week?

Probably not, and I’d rather say so than let you down. I take considered work on a sensible timeline and give it proper attention.

Talk to me about agency work

If you need senior copy without a senior hire, a writer who can hold a technical subject, or someone client-facing you can trust in the room, tell me what the work involves.