Fiona Brindle is head of SEO at TrunkBBI.
Headquartered in Manchester, the creative and activation marketing agency opened a third office in Leeds last year as part of its growth plans.
Since forming last April following a merger between agencies Big Brand Ideas and Trunk, TrunkBBI was named one of Prolific North’s Top 50 Integrated Agencies for 2023.
Here, Brindle shares a recent week in her life…
Monday
Our operations meeting kickstarts every week. Department heads and senior management regroup to review what’s happening in the agency that week. Since stepping up to department head last year, meetings like these have given me insight into other business areas and how I can support them. Plus, they allow me to speak up about any help my team needs.
Between client WIP calls I compile a couple of SEO content briefs for an automotive brand’s product and category pages to send to our copywriters. Content briefing involves exploring search results for each set of target keywords. It also includes analysing competitor performance and drafting an outline of the headings and FAQs needed in the body copy. Call me an SEO nerd, but I love content briefing.
Tuesday
Tuesday is usually one of my days in our Manchester office. After a short walk to the station and a train journey to Manchester Piccadilly, I’m at my desk, glancing out the window and admiring the ever-growing city skyline. Manchester gets a bad rep for being dull and grey, but not to me.
We start every Tuesday morning with an Activation/Performance ‘Scrum’ call. This gives our organic search, paid media, and client services team a 15-minute window to shout up if they need support. Next up, it’s our regular SEO team meeting. I catch up with the team and talk through client campaigns and projects, as well as any urgent priorities and requests. Individual 1 to 1’s for my team is next in my schedule. I catch up with all my team separately about how they’re feeling and progressing against objectives. I also see if there are any training requests or issues they’d like to discuss.
After lunch, I head into a website workshop for an insurance brand. We’ve been working with this client for a few years, but their website is getting a refreshed design. I’m there to advise on SEO best practices, ensure that new plans align with organic objectives, and recommend on content requirements.
Despite an action-packed day, I always head off on time. On Tuesday evenings, I volunteer with Girlguiding, leading my local unit. So, I need time to decompress from the working day, make dinner and finalise any activities for the Guides. The latter usually involves me scouring the house for random items for the night’s craft activities (pipe cleaners, anyone?).
Wednesday
Wednesday day is a day of two halves. I spent the morning working on an organic forecast for an insurance brand. This helps show organic search’s potential in their market and how a well-executed SEO strategy can bring impressive ROI. It involves reviewing target keywords, current organic rankings, search engine results page (SERP) analysis, and traffic predictions. It’s a mammoth but much-needed task as it allows the team to fully understand a brand’s organic landscape before delving into strategy and tactics.
This afternoon, I’m taking my monthly life balance half day off. Last year TrunkBBI introduced an extra half day off on top of our annual leave allowance to help maintain our work-life balance. I’m spending mine at the hairdresser today to get a fresh cut and colour. It may seem a little trivial, but self-care acts like these help me reset and feel calmer.
Thursday
It’s Thursday and I’m back in the office. We have a couple of interviews for a budding Senior SEO Executive. Someone we interviewed impressed us with their knowledge, and it feels like they’d be a good team and culture fit, so we hire them.
In the afternoon, we have a strategy session with a pharmaceutical brand to generate more app registrations and reduce their reliance on paid media through organic search. It’s a productive meeting; we examine and demonstrate the importance of EEAT (experience, expertise, authority, trust) and YMYL (your money, your life) in the medical sector. My inner SEO nerd is bouncing off the walls about the content ideas and variety of their keyword landscape.
Friday
Friday is usually a work-from-home day, but not this week. I’ve got a super-early start this morning as I’m taking the 6.30am train from Manchester to London. I’m travelling with two colleagues from our SEO and PR teams to attend the Women in Tech SEO Festival. I’m not the biggest fan of early starts (the eye bags are real!), but the coffee is strong, and we’re excited about the day ahead.
We arrive at Euston, then head to the Barbican for the conference. We hear from 10 amazing women working in SEO, PR and digital marketing throughout the day. The talks cover everything from creating content and natural language processing to data storytelling and levelling up your SEO career. After a post-conference drink in the leafy Barbican Conservatory, we head home.
Leaving London, my brain is still brimming with new ideas, but it’s also hit maximum capacity. I had planned to spend the journey home typing notes from the conference, but instead, I decided it’s best to close the laptop and debrief with my teammates.
