Moving from Junior Copywriter to Content Executive

July 1, 2021

In November 2020, the Venture Stream team welcomed its newest member. A fresh graduate, Helen Scott joined us in the position of Junior Copywriter and, after 6 months with the team, has now moved into her new role of Content Executive.

In this post, Helen shares with us an insight into just some of the things she has learned in her junior copywriting role, what her biggest achievement has been so far and what she’s most excited about in her new position.

What were your responsibilities as a Junior Copywriter?

As a Junior Copywriter, my primary responsibilities have been to aid in the creation of keyword-focused content for our clients. This content ranged from blogs to landing pages and product descriptions to metadata, all of which required plenty of time researching, especially for our clients from specialist industries like property and law. 

Aside from writing new content, I was also responsible for uploading my blogs once they’d been approved by the client, proofreading copy other members of my team had written and even getting involved in some PR. 

Venture Stream is also a very collaborative company and I’ve had the unique opportunity of helping out other teams with their workloads. So far, I’ve contributed to ad copy for the PPC team, lent a hand to the dev team with a small part of a Shopify build and helped out the ecommerce team by tagging an online catalogue. Learning more about the other areas of Venture Stream is always a pleasure, and working in such an open, helpful team is wonderful.

What was your background before joining Venture Stream?

When I joined Venture Stream I had just finished my master’s degree in English literary studies. Before that, I had studied an English and creative writing degree, and knew practically nothing about SEO and digital marketing. While I was searching for a job, I completed a few online courses on the subject, trying to get a feel for what roles in this sector might entail, and everything I read and researched sparked my interest.

The idea of writing content specifically for the purpose of helping a website be seen by the right people, of pushing certain pages and blogs to appear on the first and second pages of a search engine, wasn’t something I had ever considered. Like many others in my generation, I took technology for granted and never questioned why I was being shown certain sites from a search. Learning what goes on behind the scenes, or behind the screens I suppose, has been incredibly interesting. Writing towards the joint goals of serving the reader’s interest and ranking for relevant keywords is always a fun challenge – and one that is definitely made easier by the research and writing skills I developed in my degrees.

What have you learned since first joining the Venture Stream team?

The amount I’ve learned since first joining the SEO and content team back in November is monumental – I’m not sure how my brain has taken so much in! Having come directly from university, and not from a marketing-focused degree, I fully expected to land in way over my head with this role. Fortunately, and thanks to the incredible patience and careful guidance of the people I work with, I’ve never felt out of my depth.

I was introduced to my role slowly, with plenty of training scheduled early so I could learn my way around the software and processes vital to being a copywriter. I was taught how to conduct detailed keyword research which allowed me to write blogs tailored to SEO as well as meta data and landing pages. I was also given training regarding the PR side of my role, which included being shown how to construct pitches to introduce the brands we represent to journalists and bloggers. 

What has been your biggest achievement so far?

There have been many moments since joining Venture Stream that I’d consider to be personal milestones. Seeing work pay off, whether that be in the form of a blog or landing page I’ve written ranking first or seeing a piece of PR I’ve organised go live, is always something I appreciate. In a similar way, my biggest achievement in my role as Junior Copywriter has been the optimisation of every location and sector page for our law firm client, Womble Bond Dickinson. 

A lot of work that was spread out over many months, these pages required optimisation in order to appear in relevant searches such as ‘Newcastle law firm’ or ‘wealth management law firm’. In a relatively short period of time, pages I had rewritten began ranking for such keywords, increasing the firm’s visibility to potential clients and drawing more visitors to the site. Seeing continuous improvement in the rankings really put into perspective for me the importance of what I do for our clients and seeing their success as a result of our work at Venture Stream is incredible.

What are your new responsibilities as a Content Executive?

In my new role as Content Executive, I’ll retain plenty of my old copywriter responsibilities including pitching for PR opportunities, writing a wide range of content for clients, liaising with clients and proofreading content produced by the wider team. Outside of these tasks, I’ll also be picking up the following responsibilities:

• Creating content strategies and plans backed by keyword research for clients
• Reviewing the progress of new and optimised content 
• Monitoring the success of PR features and campaigns
• Contributing to monthly reviews for clients from a content perspective, providing updates on how completed work is performing
• Aiding in the production of blog and website audits in order to produce tailored strategies for improvement

Outside of these regular tasks, I will also be helping in the creation of new proposals for potential clients. This is something I helped with as a Junior Copywriter and always enjoyed but look forward to taking a larger role in. It’s always exciting to take a look around a new site, identify which areas could be improved upon and lay out exactly how we would do that – it’s a hyper-organised person’s dream come true!

Careers at Venture Stream

As a company that continues to grow, we are always on the lookout for talented people to join the Venture Stream team. Whether you think you belong in the SEO and content team, taking on responsibilities such as those listed above, or have a flair for development, PPC or ecommerce, there could be a place for you here. To get in touch, send over your CV or take a look at our current vacancies on our Careers page.