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ABOUT BRASS BEE

re-discover your creativity and generate more income online

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Who do we work for? Scroll along to see some of the brands we've had the pleasure of calling our clients, past and present:
What do people say about us?

Simon Payne, Blue Forest Treehouses

"The number of referrals to our website from social media is up approx. 82% when compared to the same period last year, which is great!"

every business
 has a story

Brass Bee Marketing was founded by marketing expert Catherine Hills in March 2019. We know that everyone loves a good origins story, so here's ours: 

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Est. in 2019
From coffee and commutes in Essex to freelancing by the seaside in Sussex.
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Catherine Hills (BA, CIM)

Brass Bee Owner & Founder.

Virgo, Stepmum, Exasperated Dog Owner. Loves period dramas, holidays, & colourful interiors,

"It was never my intention to start a business at 29! In fact, you could say I started Brass Bee Marketing by accident. It all began while I was working in my dream job as an Executive Content Creator for a high-end interior design company in Essex.

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 My hometown was in Hastings, East Sussex, and while I loved the job, living away from home during the week and travelling home again on a Friday evening was a real struggle. I missed my friends and family and was on the verge of burning out. I drank A LOT of coffee and lived out of my Cath Kidston travel bag. I knew I couldn't keep going, so I had to figure out how I could carry on with the job I was so good at. I decided my best bet was to ask to work from home." 

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"I approached my boss feeling bold as brass - the time had come to put forward my ultimatum - I respectfully told him that he would either have to agree to let me work from home, or he'd lose me. After a week of anxious waiting, he called me into a meeting and told me that regrettably, letting me work from home wasn't going to happen.

'Once I let one person work from home, then I have to let everyone work from home,' he said. (The irony is that this was a year before the pandemic!) For a moment, I was devastated. But then, I heard him say something that would change everything. 'If you wanted to go freelance, we'd be very interested.'​

marketing for instagram
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Blogging about Horatio’s Garden - a charity garden designed by Joe Swift at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital

Testimonials

Now, I'll be honest - I had no idea what 'going freelance' really meant. But I agreed, thinking it was too good an opportunity to turn down, and assumed I'd figure the rest out later. For the first year of freelance life, I worked exclusively with two clients for an entire year, but then, COVID hit. Both clients panicked and ended their working relationship with me within days of each other. I THEN understood what 'going freelance' really meant. With the world falling apart around me, I had to market myself and find other clients, quickly. And that's when I started having to think like a business owner. 'Baptism by fire' is quite a good way to describe it!"

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Enjoying the swing at the RHS Gold-winning Zoflora & Caudwell Children's Wild Garden  during a press visit at RHS Hampton Court.

"I knew that to survive and future-proof the brand I was growing, I needed to work with a multiple clients, rather than rely on one or two big clients. As I started putting myself out there, I quickly discovered that it's a million times harder to promote yourself, than promote a company you work for. I started to understand how difficult and nerve-wracking it was for smaller business owners to put themselves out there and promote their own work. I didn't feel like I was good enough. As lockdown changed the way we spent our time online, there was constantly a new rule to learn or an algorithm change to master. I felt envious of other people who seemed to do their marketing so damn well. There were so many other freelancers out there, and I lacked the confidence to make sense of it all. My passion started to spread a little thin, and I thought about throwing in the towel plenty of times.

 

But there was one thing that helped me shift this mindset - my creativity. I stopped thinking of my brand as a direct reflection of me as a person, and started thinking of it as an entity in its own right. I stoped worrying about what everyone would think, and focused on sharing fun, creative campaigns that I loved, and my followers engaged with. More and more businesses and creatives started asking me for help. I started running free workshops for small local businesses to support others who struggled with their own social media marketing. I listened to what they had to say, I used my creativity to think of new ideas, and I finally started enjoyed doing what I do best." 

As we've continued to grow, Brass Bee Marketing has built a reputation for honest advice, encouraging pep talks, and friendly support. As of April 2024, Brass Bee HQ is based in offices at Freedom Works, in the heart of Hastings Town Centre. We've offered training to over 100 businesses owners, in the form of our 1-2-1 Power Hour sessions, workshops and training sessions. The Brass Bee team consists of a collective network of outstanding and trusted marketing experts whom Catherine has worked with during her Marketing career. Every client is different, so we can bring in the right team for each project. This ensures our clients get the best of the best, without

having to absorb huge agency overheads. 

Explore some of our popular services below:

Branding, Logo Design, Web Design

Copywriting & Blogging

Social Media & Email Marketing

Training & Workshops

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