I turn service providers into thought leaders | Ghostwriting | Copywriting | Building your personal brand | Finding your ideal clients | Telling your story

You have the expertise, but your online presence doesn’t show it. That’s where I come in.

I work with professional service advisers and consultants who are brilliant at what they do, but invisible to the clients who need them most.

If any of these sound familiar, you're not alone:

❌ Your LinkedIn profile reads like a CV.
❌ Your content attracts peers, not prospects.
❌ You struggle to stand out and be remembered.
❌ Your website is a list of services and sounds like everyone else’s.
❌ You’re relying on referrals while knowing you could be attracting inbound clients every month.

I’m Claire, a Fractional Marketing Director specialising in content, positioning & messaging strategy. 

I've been leading marketing and communications teams for over 20 years, and now I work with business owners, founders, and consultants to find your unique position in the market, build your brand, and turn your expertise into client work.

How I help:

✅ Identify your unique position:
I develop a clear, confident voice for you so you stand out from everyone else.

✅ Storytelling & Content Strategy: 
I turn your expertise into content that builds your brand and connects with potential clients using powerful storytelling.

✅ Go-to-market projects:
When launching a new service or entering a new market, I build and execute plans that generate awareness and enquiries fast.

✅ Marketing Consultant:
I act as your part-time Marketing Director, defining strategy, leading delivery, and managing freelancers or teams so your marketing actually drives business growth.

✅ LinkedIn positioning & profile optimisation:
I turn your profile and content into an inbound lead source, so your next client finds you.

Clients typically see more inbound enquiries, stronger online visibility, and clearer positioning within 6–12 weeks.

My experience spans global corporations, national accountancy practices, law firms, and expert witnesses, leading projects from 2,000-page website rebuilds and brand overhauls to training 100+ Partners and C-suite leaders in LinkedIn strategy that drives visibility and inbound work.

If you’re ready to build your brand and tell your story to attract clients while you focus on the work you love, you can message me here.

This week, I took on my most challenging new client.


Me.

I've been chockablock with client work for months, which I'm so grateful for.

But I'd hit a wall.

I had no systems. No templates. No automations.

Just me, doing the same things again and again, like a one-woman admin department with a caffeine habit!

I had no idea how I'd ever take a proper holiday.
(That's my no.1 priority in life, so that was a problem!)

I have zero interest in building a big team. 
I do not want employees. I like it being just me.

So the solution was not "hire", it was "sort your life out".

There is that advice about putting systems in place from day one. Maybe. But I do not think it would have worked for me. You only know what to systemise once you have lived the mess.

My business now is not what I thought it would be a year ago.

So this week, I gave myself CEO days and did the work I'd been avoiding:

- Templatised my client facing docs
- Sorted out and documented my processes
- Started teaching myself Claude Code to build workflows (slowly!)

And I did something I do for every content client each month, but had never once done for myself: 

I interviewed me. 

Now I have more content ideas than I've had in a long time!

My coach has been telling me to take CEO days for months.
She was right!

Do you have CEO days, or are you also running on chaos and caffeine like I was?

Claire Waters

Fractional Marketing Director for Accountancy Firms | I take ownership of your marketing without you having to hire full time | Strategy, campaigns, website and LinkedIn

I have one rule with every client.

I had broken it with myself for 3 years.

Every month, I sit down with them and ask questions.

It is how I pull out the good stuff:

- What they've done
- What they've learnt
- What they're thinking
- What is worth sharing

Because the best content comes from talking. 

I will not work with clients if it doesn't happen.

This week, I realised I'd never once done it for myself.
And I needed to!

Somewhere in the last few months, I went off piste with my own content.

I got busy, was working on autopilot, and lost a bit of my voice.

I'd noticed it. And as a result, I was overthinking everything and suffering the worst writer's block ever!

So I interviewed myself.

I used Claude to properly question me.
Not the fluffy "how are things going" stuff.

Everything from my beliefs, what I like, dislike, what I think about the industry, and what I will not compromise on.

It was confronting in the best way.

Speaking out loud changed everything. 

Typing lets you hide because you edit as you go.
Talking does not.

You hear the gaps. 
You hear the waffle and the overexplaining. 
You hear what you really think, not the watered down version.

A couple of hours gave me more ideas than the last few months of staring at a blank doc.

If I do it for every client, I can do the same for myself. 

Do you ever use your client process on yourself?

This is one of the most common marketing mistakes I see in accountancy firms.

Over the last few years, I've spoken with numerous accountancy firm owners looking for help with their marketing, and so many of them have hired someone straight out of school or on minimum wage to "do marketing."

It seems like the obvious solution. 
You’ve got 40 hours of their week, and they’re in the office.

You can see them working, brief them easily, and it feels like progress is happening.

But a few months down the line, there are no new enquiries, and nothing has really changed.

Don't get me wrong, there is always a place for junior marketers (we were all there at one point!).

The problem is hiring them because they’re the cheapest option, then expecting them to run your marketing and bring in new leads without having the experience, direction, or support from someone senior.

It’s a sure fire way to set them up to fail.

They’re unclear on who you’re targeting and why.
There’s no plan, just instructions from you on the fly. 
They do things in isolation and nothing works together.

So while things may be happening, it doesn’t make it easier to win new work.

You might save money on salary, but you end up paying for a lot of activity with nothing to show for it.

Cheapest isn’t always cheapest.

In most cases, a senior marketer a few days a month will go a lot further than 40 hours of well meaning but directionless activity.

That’s why I work with accountancy firms on a fractional basis. You get senior-level input without the full-time salary.

If that sounds like what you’re missing, get in touch. 👋

The most dangerous place to be in professional services isn't struggling. 

It's comfortable.

Because you've never had to prove whether you can get clients without an intro.

When you’re being recommended, and work keeps coming in, the assumption is: 

“We're fine." 

But that confidence relies on someone else’s memory.

They remember you.
They recommend you.
They think of you at the right moment.

That isn't the same as clients finding you and choosing to work with you. 

Being well known in your circle is one thing.
Being discoverable outside it is another.

Most firms only notice the gap when referrals slow down.

By then the reaction is urgent. 

A burst of marketing activity. 
A rush to be visible and “do more online". 

But visibility takes time. 
And, sadly, building a reputation beyond your network doesn't appear on demand!

The protection is being findable before anyone introduces you.

If your growth relies on someone else remembering you, it's more fragile than it feels.

Are you relying on referrals or taking control?

Marketing gets cut because the evidence looks bad.

But it’s the evidence that’s broken.

Revenue drops, someone looks at the outgoings, and marketing is the line nobody can point to a number from.

So it goes.

The website didn't bring in enquiries. 
The newsletter ran for a year and stopped. 
The junior hire produced content for six months and nobody could point to a result.

Of course, the budget got cut. 
Given that evidence, what else would you do?

But that evidence is the problem.

Most directors have only ever seen marketing done without direction. 

No commercial brief. 
Nobody deciding what the firm wants to be known for, or who it's talking to.

That version doesn't produce results. 

So the budget comes back later, usually smaller, with exactly the same expectations attached.

The budget was never the real commitment anyway.
Knowing what you want to be known for is.

A junior hire cannot fix a partner-level pipeline problem.

The brief usually sounds something like this:

Someone senior wants more enquiries. 
An entry-level hire is expected to "do marketing". 
They're given no direction, no priorities, and no view of what they're trying to achieve and why.

So they create "stuff".

Posts. 
Blogs. 
A bit of website copy. 
A few brochures.

Nothing joins up. 
Nothing helps guide a prospect. 
Nothing makes it easier to win work.

Then the partners conclude it doesn't work.

But the problem is always the same.

They’re asking someone without context to solve a commercial problem they can't see.

Enquiries don't increase just because your activity does.

They increase when the firm decides what it wants to be known for, and repeats it long enough for the market to notice.

Marketing is a commercial decision. 
Treat it like one.

While the world and his wife are talking about International Women’s Day today, I’m here to discuss something much less meaningful but far tastier: National Pie Week.

All jokes aside, women should be celebrated EVERY day of the year, not just one!

But in other important news… this was a Biscoff cookie pie.

In the interests of research, I had to try it.

And OMG, it was worth every calorie.

How’s your Sunday looking? 🍰

If you don’t want to waste months on marketing, don’t do these 4 things.

Accountancy firms do them because they sound sensible. They rarely bring in work.

If we worked together, I’d actively talk you out of every one of them:

1/
Just start posting.

One of the most useless pieces of advice going.

If you don't know what to say, who you're saying it to, or how any of it connects to getting new business, you'll post twice, get three likes from colleagues, decide it doesn't work, and never do it again.


2/ 
Wait until you have time to start marketing.

You won't find it. There will always be a deadline, a difficult client, a team problem, or some other fire to put out.

Marketing will drop to the bottom of the list because it was never on the list in the first place.


3/
Get your PA to do your LinkedIn.

It is not their job to be your ghostwriter or social media manager.

They might know you well, but they are not the one deciding what you should be known for, who you want to attract, or what angle you want to take.

So they default to safe updates, recycled tips, or whatever they have seen other firms post. You end up sounding generic, and they end up feeling like they are failing at a job they were never hired to do.


4/
Project manage a new website or CRM yourself.

This is the number one reason big projects fail. 

You are busy, the day job will always win, and if you have not run that sort of project before, you don't know what you don't know, and you will miss things until they become expensive.

You can't hold suppliers accountable, you've no idea what's missing, and months later, you're left with an expensive project that still isn't finished.

It's always cheaper and quicker (and better for your sanity!) to bring in someone who's done it before.


If it is meant to bring in work, do not run it like a spare time project. Run it like you expect a return!

If I had 30 mins to review an accountancy firm's marketing, this is what I'd do:

1/
I'd start with your homepage and ask: 

Can I tell in 10 seconds who you help, what you fix, and what to do next? 
Not "trusted advisors", or "comprehensive solutions".
Real problems and outcomes.


2/
I wouldn't count how often you post on LinkedIn or how many followers you have. I'd read your last 10 posts and ask: 

Would any of this make a busy business owner stop and think "that's me"? 

Or is it just accountants liking each other's posts?


3/
I wouldn't care how detailed your services pages are. 
I'd check whether they clearly explain the problems you solve. 

Not "Accounts. Tax. VAT." 

But: 

- “I’ve outgrown my spreadsheet/bookkeeper.”
- “I need accurate numbers to make decisions.”
- “What’s the most tax-efficient way to pay myself?”
- “I want someone to spot problems before HMRC does.”
- “When should I register for VAT, and what scheme should I use?”

If I can't see the problem, I won't see why I need you.


4/
I wouldn't judge your branding. I'd test your positioning. 
If I removed your logo, could this be any other firm in the country?


5/
I wouldn't ask what you offer. I'd ask what you're known for. 
One type of client. One real problem. 
One clear reason to choose you.


6/
I wouldn't "review" your enquiry process. 
I'd try to book a call like a real prospect. 
How many clicks before I give up and Google another firm?


After 30 minutes, I can tell you exactly why good prospects aren't calling.

If you're not sure your marketing passes this audit, message me and we'll find out.

I wish I could tell you showing up online didn’t matter.
But after working with dozens of clients, I understand why people hesitate.

These are the concerns I hear most:

1/
“People will judge me.”

They’ll forget in 5 seconds.
The ones who do remember will respect you for showing up.

2/
“I don’t know what to say.”

Keep it simple:

Share a client challenge you solved (anonymise it).
Answer the questions you get asked the most.
Give a tip you’d give your younger self.

3/
“I’ll look desperate.”

Silence looks worse.
Showing up online shows you’re confident in your work.

4/
“It won’t work.”

Not after one post, it won’t!
But a regular presence builds recognition.
That leads to referrals, conversations, and clients.

5/
“I’ve already said it.”

Good. You should be bored of your own message.
You're the only one who sees everything you post. 

There’s no reward for staying invisible.
Not in your industry. Not in this market.

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