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Browser Media’s Ali Cort has a busy morning banging the content/PR drum

My day

6.45am: Wake up (actually, get woken up) by my boys who claim it’s 7.00am but I know it’s not. I check my emails, Facebook, Twitter and various news sites on my phone while wrestling with the boys who think Angry Birds is much more important to life. I watch BBC Breakfast for another news fix and then my brain is ticking over with ideas for clients.

9.00am: Having dropped the children at school, I walk to Browser Media Studios for 9.15am. I love our offices, we’re based in a renovated Victorian stable block on what was the Army Garrison. I find the Browser Media team, and the freelancers who hotdesk in our office, all hard at work.

I turn on my computer and do the regular checks for clients – to see if we’ve had any particular overnight successes with online coverage and link building and how that is effecting rankings and analytics.

9.30am: Company meeting. We always discuss whether we’ve met our objectives for the previous month, projections and new business for the future, with the whole team. It’s important that everyone understands the position the agency is in as it makes everyone feel like part of the team. We also discuss blog responsibilities, training requirements, and the need for a social event soon.

10.30am: Some serious writing follows from opportunities that were lined up during the past week. We look after a range of clients in many sectors, but never one to shy away from getting my hands dirty – I do seem to end up with the really heavy-duty B2B clients and I now have knowledge about certain sectors that I never imagined I would.

1.30pm: Article and a blog post emailed off to the client and it’s time to eat. The whole office is a fan of Lunch’s pulled-pork-and-spicy-coleslaw panini – I figure I’ve earned one of those.

2.00pm: While munching at my desk, I take time to review the entries for this month’s Browser Wowser award and decide on the prize. It’s a monthly competition for all staff to submit a piece of work that they are most proud of and the prize is usually food-related vouchers for local restaurants.

2.30pm: I sit down with the teams on various clients to make sure that the day-to-day work is going well and that every client also has an element of creative sparkle. Browser Media has always been a forward-thinking digital marketing agency and has been banging the content/PR drum for longer than most. However, there’s no point in doing all the exciting work if the basic on-page optimisation isn’t right and reviewed regularly. We discuss opportunities for link building, competitor backlink analysis, link detox work, as well as flesh out an idea that we’ve just pitched to a client. I reflect that inbound marketers require such a broad range of skills – strategic thinking, technical ability, creativity, a head for numbers, writing skills, client/people handling – the list goes on.

4.30pm: Two beers ideas – our brainstorming meeting. We’ve briefed everyone in advance for a particular consumer client who is fairly edgy and open to ideas, so I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone’s come up with. I don’t believe you can be creative on the spot, I think great ideas often happen when we least expect it. We also make time to discuss ideas for Browser Media itself – as often happens in marketing agencies, our own promotion often gets overlooked or squeezed out by more pressing client matters.

5.00pm: Final check of the twitter-sphere before logging off and writing my to-do list for tomorrow. I do love a good list.

6.00pm: I’m home and doing the usual Mummy stuff until 7.30pm when I attempt the 30-Day Shred (20 minutes of no-holds-barred exercise) and then a final check of emails before deciding I can now switch off and watch the Great British Bake Off or similar.

Ali Cort, PR director at digital marketing agency Browser Media

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