Claire Icel

I am a digital marketing professional with over 15 years experience. I specialise in defining and executing strategies across the digital marketing mix; including paid & organic social media, SEO & content, email marketing, and affiliates & partnerships. If you are looking to outsource some of your marketing then get in touch to discuss how I can help.

Here are some examples of projects I have worked on in a freelance capacity:

> HAND PICKED HOTELS (2023) I worked with this boutique hotel collection to define and execute their new social media strategy following a brand realignment. Within 6 months the new strategy grew the audience by +18% and engagement by +240%.

> TRENDING TRAVEL (2023) I worked with this exciting travel start-up to define their digital marketing strategies while they looked to make their first permanent marketing hire. First I delivered a full marketing analysis on activity to date, which then informed strategies in SEO, Meta advertising, Pinterest, TikTok, and email marketing.

> MONSOON (2022) During my time with Monsoon I executed a new brand direction via social media. This included creating and delivering content strategy in line with other marketing functions, as well as launching the @monsoonchildren channel on Instagram which grew to 3k followers within 3 months through totally organic means.

> ARTISTS AND OBJECTS (2021 and 2022) This ecom start-up needed help with its Meta ads strategy Through analysis of past activity and knowledge of activity goals I restructured the account to achieve a +63% increase in traffic and drive +500% revenue during peak trading months, with a ROI of 637%.

> &BREATHE RETREATS (2019-2020) I worked with this boutique retreat company on their social ad strategy, advising on and running both the ads and the customer journey once an ad has been clicked on.

Managing the global email acquisition strategy and a £3million+ budget for the Cheapflights subscriber base. Using purely digital channels to grow / maintain the active email lists in UK, US, Canada, Australia and South Africa. This was a new role for the company as activity has previously been managed by the email team instead of a digital marketing professional.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

> DATABASE GROWTH: 25% increase in overall global opt-in email subscriber base, consistently overachieving targets.

>QUALITY INCREASE: using in depth analytics to optimise digital activity towards higher performing channels and audiences, increasing email engagement by up to 38%.

> ANALYTICS: complete design of necessary reporting from multiple sources (including Google Analytics) to provide number transparency and forecasting to higher management. Analysis of these numbers and evaluation of next steps.

> INTRODUCTION OF NEW DIGITAL CHANNELS: including social media advertising, email inbox display, PPC, targeted display, affiliates, speculative email, wifi sponsorship and partnerships.

> ON-SITE OPTIMISATION: analysis and recommendations for front and back end improvements, increasing the conversion rate of organic email collection and improving the analytics surrounding this.

> TARGET AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION: analysis of demographic information to allow more targeted content and advertising going forward.

Responsible for managing the digital marketing mix for Sandals, Beaches and Grand Pineapple resorts. This includes Social Media, Email, SEO, PPC, Affiliates, Display and Partners, as well as management of the online marketing team (1 executive and 1 assistant).

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

> ECOMMERCE GROWTH through customer acquisition: Increased online bookings by +30% YoY through introduction and optimisation of new channels / partners, such as performance display and paid social media advertising.

> AFFILIATE CHANNEL GROWTH: Revenue increase of +44% YoY through better relationships and optimising activity, and generation of +£1,000,000 revenue for the first time.

> STRATEGY AND TARGET SETTING: Analysing past performance in order to inform the annual budget and online marketing plan. Setting suitable targets for this activity based on growing all channels.

> SOCIAL MEDIA GROWTH: Running the #sandalslove campaign increased the Sandals facebook fanbase by 13% and twitter base by 5% within 3 weeks.

> RELAUNCH OF EMAIL AND SOCIAL: Change of focus of email and social programmes to be content-lead, to increase engagement with consumers by +27%.