Freelance

—Writing, reporting, and editing breaking news, enterprise stories, and features as needed for media organizations   
—Interviewing sources including politicians, company officials, professors, and experts  
—Taking photographs, video, and developing graphics for online use as requested    
—Podcast production and editing, video production and editing, and photography and photo editing 
—Providing content strategy, content creation, marketing, social media strategy, SEO strategy, brand messaging, paid and organic messaging, and internal and external communications for clients
—Designing, developing, and refining AI prompts and creating and teaching AI best practices
—Extensive work with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives including the content strategy and copywriting for Meta's new Business Equity (DEI) page
—Created the SEO guidelines and best practices at Audible 
—Worked with a team to do SEO keyword research and optimize product pages for 500 books at Audible 
—Created the strategy, content, and then the analysis and analytics reports for paid and organic media at multiple companies and for several clients

Freelance Writer/Editor/Senior Marketing Specialist/Marketing Manager

AANP

Marketing Content Specialist

Avaaz Media

Deputy Editor for Avaaz Media and www.thebrowngeeks.com 

Audible, Inc.

-Create, write, and edit monthly copy for new Audible.com audiobooks. 
-Apply feedback and creative objectives of product managers, marketing managers, producers, talent, and digital designers to create new enhanced Audible.com web pages for desktop and mobile versions.
- Deliverables include product description pages, social media content, search engine optimized web content, audio snippets, and landing pages.

Editorial Associate

The Citizen (newspaper)

-Produced two weekly newspapers which covered eight towns in New Jersey. 
-Wrote an upwards of 10 stories a week.
-Took photos for most stories. 
-Assigned and edited stories for freelancers. 
-Laid both papers out on a weekly basis.

Editor

Nationwide Industrial Supply

-Overseeing all SEO work including keyword research, analysis, and writing for the ecommerce business which sells more than 500,000 products 
-Writing and editing all business communications including letters, catalog inserts, and informative articles to be sent or emailed to customers, businesses and officials or to be displayed on the company's site
-Planning and organizing Nationwide's first trade show, including designing and ordering signs and other decorative aspects of the event; speaking to politicians, business owners and other perspective business contacts during the event; and responding to all contacts made at the show following the event 
-Freelancing for several other companies. Writing education and local news stories and columns for patch.com and editing for companies such as NJ-based copywriting firm, Literatrue

Marketing and Communications Manager

Gannett Company Inc

-Produced between 7 and 15 stories per week including many enterprise stories, a weekly column, and personally developed an entire features back-to-school tab 
-Shot and edited photos, blogged live from events, and produced frequent updates to the Web and other content for online use
-Covered 3 large school districts, including K-12, secondary education, private and public colleges and universities, and national, state and local issues
-Stories and feeds were featured in USA Today

Education Reporter

North Jersey Media Group

-Helped create and develop multiple sections, including teen and young adult pages, two weekly columns, and helped run a teen editorial board 
-Covered up to four municipalities at a time writing between 7 and 10 stories per week 
-Attended city council meetings, school board meetings, community events, taking notes and/or transcribing events and interviews
-Conducted extensive research online and using public documents

Staff Writer

-Input and edited calendars, letters to the editor and rewrote and expanded on press releases  
-Wrote two weekly columns and stories for multiple departments 
-Helped create and develop multiple sections including a teen and young adults page, two weekly columns, a volunteer help wanted page and helped run a teen editorial board 
-Filled in for the office manager in her absence by troubleshooting problems for the editor, scheduling for the editorial assistant department, and various other duties including ordering office supplies, filing human resources paperwork and running payroll

Editorial Assistant

•	20+ years of publishing and marketing experience: research, writing, editing, publishing, content strategy, content creation, marketing, social media messaging, brand messaging, paid  and organic media messaging,  internal and external communications, and SEO.
•	Experience managing freelance writers and copy, assigning articles, designing layouts, and orchestrating marketing campaigns.  
•	Beats have included education, politics, tech, business, youth trends, crime and up to eight municipalities at a time.
•      Extensive experience working on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. I was responsible for the content strategy and the copywriting for Meta's new Business Equity (DEI) page.
•      Experience with podcast production and editing, video production and editing and photography, and photo editing.
•      I was responsible for creating the SEO guidelines and best practices used at Audible. Additionally, I was part of a team that did keyword research and rewrote product descriptions to be SEO optimized for 500 books.
•      I am skilled in prompt engineering. I know how to design, develop, and refine AI text prompts, how to optimize prompt performance, and how to improve the AI prompt generation process for various applications. I can also create, communicate, and teach best practices for using AI.

Heather Kays

I got news this month that stopped me in my tracks: I’ve been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for one of my poems.

I’m still letting those words settle.

Writing has always been the thing I reach for when nothing else makes sense—since I was a kid scribbling lines in the margins of everything. I never imagined any of it would travel far beyond my own hands. So to have a piece recognized in this way… it’s overwhelming in the best, strangest, most grounding way.

I’m grateful to the publisher who believed in this poem, to the writers who kept me moving without ever knowing they were doing it, and to the people in my life who tell me to keep going, even on the days when the words feel heavy or jagged or late.

Mostly, I’m just honored. Truly.

Thank you for reading my work, for holding space for it, and for holding space for me. It means more than I can express.

#PushcartPrize #PoetryCommunity #AmWriting #Gratitude #WritingLife

Marketing Manager & Literary Manager ✨💖 | Author of Myths in the Feed (sold out 6x) | Crying Heart Press Best-Selling Author | 2x Pushcart Nominee | I make strategy feel like storytelling — and vice versa.

Putting this out there and hoping for the best.

I have half a dozen chapbooks that need homes. I’ve worked really hard on them, painstakingly revised them, and I’m genuinely proud of the work. A few places I thought were solid submission options aren’t happening anymore or fell through for reasons that have nothing to do with the poems themselves. That’s how it goes sometimes.

So—help me out.

If you know small presses, indie publishers, or lit folks who might be a good fit, I’d love recommendations or connections. Or if you’re someone who likes raw, messy, honest work and you’re a small press—hi.

Looking to place:
• 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑀𝑒𝑛
• 𝑇𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦’𝑠 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑘𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔
• 𝑆𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
• 𝐺𝑜𝑑’𝑠 𝐴𝑢𝑡𝑜𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡
• 𝐿𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡
• 𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑒

These deserve readers. I’m ready to get them there.

Feel free to comment, DM, or share. I appreciate you all. ❤️

#poetry #chapbooks #amwriting #smallpress #indiepublishing #literarycommunity #poetlife

A second Pushcart nomination in my first year of even attempting to get my poetry published.

This has been quite a year. 

Your girl is in shock. 

I’m so deeply grateful to John at The Rye Whiskey Review! 

Onward and upward, poetry friends. 🥂 

#Poetry #WritingCommunity #PushcartPrize #Gratitude #WritersLife #PublishedPoet #CreativeJourney #AmWriting #PoetryLovers

MMK Marketing, The Retail Experience Agency

• 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: Multiple clients struggle to distinguish noisy data from meaningful signals, leading to slow or misguided decisions.
• 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Research, conceptualize, and pitch a metrics framework (incorporating metric standardization, metric trees, XmR charts, and Weekly Business Reviews, among other tools) to help teams systematically test growth hypotheses and measure results.
• 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: Strengthened MMK’s data-driven reputation—sparking a series of client conversations and earning internal recognition for initiative—while continuing to develop frameworks that help teams systematically test growth hypotheses.

Senior Data Analyst

• 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: A B2B CRM client was channeling ad spend into leads who rarely converted, suggesting major misalignments between marketing and product usage data.
• 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Led an exploratory analysis using product usage, web analytics, and ad performance data (using SQL + Python) to identify friction points in the onboarding flow. Presented an “activation funnel” concept that spotlighted critical user drop-offs and underperforming channels.
• 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: Drove a cross-functional repositioning involving marketing, product, customer success, sales, and leadership that doubled monthly customer acquisition while cutting ad spend by 50%, achieving 4x improvement in CAC efficiency through rapid experimentation and channel optimization. Provided weekly insights that fueled continuous website, landing-page and email-campaign optimization.
• Additionally, supported 4 other B2B and B2C clients by assessing project opportunities, refining growth strategies, and providing data analysis to inform marketing optimizations.

Marketing Data Analyst / Growth Analyst

Omdena

• 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) reports were largely unstructured, making it hard for stakeholders to measure corporate sustainability performance.
• 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Helped build a custom ETL pipeline (Python, text-extraction libraries) to transform dense text into structured data. Leveraged language analysis to rank companies' ESG factors.
• 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: Accelerated the development of an ESG benchmarking system, enabling project leads to compare corporate reports more efficiently.

Junior Machine Learning Engineer

SpaceLab

• 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: Difficult to identify planets due to noisy, high-volume NASA and Caltech data.
• 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Leveraged Python (TensorFlow, scikit-learn) to optimize a convolutional neural network’s hyperparameters, improving feature extraction from time-series data. 
• 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: Enhanced the ML pipeline for exoplanet detection by refining the CNN architecture and hyperparameters, resulting in noticeably improved detection accuracy.

Data Scientist | Machine Learning Engineer

General Assembly

• Collected, cleaned, and integrated diverse datasets using Python and SQL, ensuring quality data for analysis.
• Conducted exploratory and statistical analyses to uncover trends and validate hypotheses.
• Engineered predictive models using machine learning and natural language processing techniques.
• Employed systematic frameworks from hypothesis generation to outcome validation to achieve repeatable analytical success.
• Synthesized complex findings into intuitive visualizations and narratives, while managing data workflows with Git to maintain reproducibility and collaboration.

Data Science Fellow

ElephantBlack

• 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: Clients lacked evidence-based approaches to validate ROI for multi-channel marketing campaigns (search, social, email). Many relied on guesswork and saw inconsistent results.
• 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Co-founded agency with a data-first approach—integrated quantitative analyses (e.g., sales trend analysis, segmentation) into brand positioning, creative strategy, and multi-channel CRO efforts. Designed test plans to optimize ad copy and landing pages across paid search, social, and email channels using A/B testing frameworks.
• 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: Achieved up to a 52% uplift in marketing returns across key accounts and secured 12–13x ROAS for select eCommerce clients through multi-channel analysis and optimization recommendations.

Co-Founder

Sean Atkinson

• Provided high-quality copywriting services for digital campaigns, websites, and marketing materials, collaborating closely with diverse clients to capture their brand voice and drive engagement. 
• Managed the complete content lifecycle from concept to delivery while consistently meeting project deadlines.

Copywriter

Terapeak (Acquired by eBay Inc.)

• Drove sales for a specialized SaaS analytics platform by leveraging data-driven strategies and digital selling techniques to secure new customers and expand market share. 
• Delivered compelling product demonstrations and managed the entire sales cycle in a dynamic, competitive tech environment, contributing to Terapeak’s market growth.

Sales Executive

Info-Tech Research Group

• Developed new business opportunities, grew pre-existing accounts, and resurrected dormant accounts across North America, Europe, and Africa using strategic prospecting and consultative selling. 
• Ranked in the top 10% in both prospecting and daily productivity.

Business Development Manager

University of Toronto

• Managed circulation, inter-library loan services, and resource organization at the Gerstein Information Centre, University of Toronto, while providing exceptional support to librarians and addressing patron inquiries. 
• Streamlined processes and maintained accurate records to enhance the library’s operational efficiency.

Assistant Library Technician

• Supported a professor’s research by conducting literature reviews, collecting and analyzing data, and assisting in the preparation of academic reports, papers, and publications. 
• Collaborated on project planning and logistics to ensure timely and high-quality research outcomes.

Research Assistant

BL Clark

• Identified and secured private financing deals for publicly traded micro-cap companies by negotiating and structuring tailored financing packages designed to fuel business growth and broaden market presence. 
• Facilitated cross-functional communication among financiers, lawyers, and bankers to ensure seamless deal execution and expand the customer base.

• Conducted comprehensive market research and financial analysis to track global trends and identify promising investment opportunities, maintaining a detailed watchlist of over 15,000 companies. 
• Produced insightful reports and strategic recommendations that informed key investment decisions for global investors.

Research Analyst

Data Analyst | SQL + Python + Tableau + Excel | 12 Years in Sales & Marketing | Transforming Complex Data into Insights

During my 6th birthday celebration, mom burst into my room. I had some close friends over, and we were playing with my new gift—my very own LinkedIn account. Oh my.

I’m still waiting for people to accept the connection requests I sent out that day.

𝗠𝘆 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱:

1. Data-Driven Growth Strategy
2. Strategic Thinking + Operational Excellence
3. AI + Analytics
4. Personal + Professional Growth
5. Marketing + Product + Experimentation

All served up with a generous side of business-building brilliance.

Some of my posts are 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘭𝘺 unhinged but in a haha funny way, not in a someone please check on this man sort of way.

If you're still reading this, you're either intrigued or accidentally clicked 'see more.' 

Either way, welcome.

taplio

The Battle

Heather Kays

Sean Atkinson

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreHeather Kays's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Heather Kays

Sean Atkinson

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Heather Kays's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreHeather Kays's LinkedIn Performance