Emily Holmes CV

The first Head of Marketing appointment for a £9m premium garden building business, reporting to the CEO as part of the Senior Management Team. I was appointed to develop a marketing strategy, strengthen lead generation performance and create greater accountability across a business built around a website and 13 UK showrooms.

• Led a £550k marketing budget, managing a team of four alongside six specialist agency partners across paid media, analytics, web development, design, PR and brand activity.
• Replaced outdated attribution methods and delivered a six-month measurement transformation project across GTM, GA4 and offline conversion tracking.
• Broadened the paid media mix to include Performance Max and Meta, reducing Google Ads CPL by 62%, and contributing to a 5% uplift in quote pipeline.
• Conducted customer insight and audience profiling to strengthen brand positioning, introducing more emotionally-led messaging.
• Worked closely with sales, customer services and operations to create a single view of the customer journey.
• Managed strategic partnerships with John Lewis, RHS and National Trust.
• Introduced greater structure and accountability within marketing through clearer planning and coaching.

Joined during a period of rapid growth to support ecommerce transformation and create stronger foundations for future scaling. Worked across digital performance, operations and customer experience, helping prepare the business for a major Shopify Plus migration and broader changes to systems and processes.

• Led planning for a Shopify Plus migration across two websites, managing agency selection and platform transition to improve scalability and reduce technical complexity.
• Redesigned product detail pages and checkout journeys, contributing to a 5x revenue growth on one website within six months.
• Built and led an ecommerce team, introducing Agile ways of working to improve prioritisation and delivery.
• Conducted SEO audits and reduced redirect volumes from over 16,000 to around 1,600, improving site health and migration readiness.
• Evaluated and introduced new tools and integrations, including Plytix, to improve product information management and operational efficiency.
• Worked with internal stakeholders and external partners to support wider ecommerce and merchandising improvements.

Held a series of increasingly senior optimisation roles within a national home improvement business, helping improve digital performance through better SEO, customer journeys, experimentation and measurement. Worked across multiple brands and alongside senior stakeholders during a period of significant change and acquisition activity.

• Delivered over £8m of measurable revenue impact through SEO, CRO and website optimisation initiatives.
• Increased organic revenue by more than 80% and doubled conversions over a three-year period.
• Developed a two-year digital strategy to improve prioritisation and align activity with commercial objectives.
• Led agency pitch processes and managed external partners across SEO, CRO and local search.
• Introduced a more structured approach to experimentation, delivering a number of high-impact website improvements.
• Supported the integration of Safestyle following acquisition, contributing to wider website and customer experience projects.
• Managed and mentored team members, UX resources and cross-functional stakeholders.

Supported a growing family business across social media, PR, email marketing and printed communications.

• Managed social media activity, contributing to a 20% increase in showroom footfall.
• Broadened experience across social media, PR, email marketing and customer communications.

Supported digital campaign activity across franchise marketing and lead generation, working with stakeholders across a nationwide network.

• Delivered multi-channel campaign activity supporting customer acquisition and brand engagement.

Joined a fast-growing B2B SaaS business supporting content and internal brand communication.

• Worked closely with product, web development and sales teams to support demand generation.

Started my career in digital publishing, progressing from editorial responsibilities into wider marketing activity. 

• Produced editorial content across international business publications and interviewed senior executives.
• Developed an interest in audience understanding and commercial growth that ultimately led me into marketing.

Completed while working full-time, with a strong focus on marketing strategy, customer insight and data-driven decision making.

Studied storytelling, fandom/audience engagement and communication, providing foundations that continue to influence my approach to marketing.