Services

With expert working knowledge of all marketing channels, and no vested interest in recommending one over another, I am well positioned to advise small and medium enterprises of the communications methods that will work best for them. I can manage marketing communications campaigns from clean-sheet to delivery, starting by shaping key messages and strategy, or you can simply call upon my help with parts of your project.

I support small and medium enterprises, as well as PR and marketing agencies, with these marketing communications services:

• Strategic and creative planning
• Advertising strategy
• Advertising creative (concepts and copywriting)
• E-newsletters and print newsletters
• Sales literature including brochures
• Social media campaigns
• Website content (with SEO)
• Copywriting
• PR

My marketing communications skills have helped sell a wide variety of products and services: art gallery events, the British Motorcycle Grand Prix,  book publishers, building engineering services, car dealers, climate control, composite components design and manufacturing, corporate events, domestic and commercial boilers, domestic energy saving measures, driver risk management, electronics manufacturing, fire protection, HVAC systems, infection control, local government grants and services, motor racing circuits and events, motor sport engineering and preparation companies, professional competence and accreditation schemes,  skills training, smoke control systems, solar panels, solar shading, telematics, trade association membership services, and vehicle tracking devices.

Beware the low-quality pretenders who describe themselves as copywriters but whose inferior work can cost you sales. Powerfully effective writers – magicians with words who can truly make a difference to readers’ perceptions and purchasing decisions – are few and far between.

A great copywriter offers more, even, than craftsmanship with words that inform and entertain, engage and persuade.  A great copywriter possesses, too, a deep understanding of brand values, key messages, product positioning, product differentiation, and buyer psychology.

A great copywriter probably also writes for high-quality editorial outlets – material that appears in print or online not merely because a client has paid for it to be there, but because it’s good enough to get published on its own merits. As an award-winning journalist, internationally published author, hugely experienced commercial copywriter, and multi-disciplined marketing professional, I can craft copy for you that truly makes a difference.

I support small and medium enterprises, larger companies and organisations, PR agencies, marketing agencies, copywriting agencies, content marketing agencies, and contract publishers with these copywriting services:

• Advertisements
• Advertorials
• Award entries
• Blogs (with SEO)
• Brochures
• Case studies
• Magazine articles
• Direct mail
• E-marketing shots
• E-newsletters
• Press releases
• Press kits
• Presentations
• Printed newsletters
• Social media posts and tweets
• Speeches
• Website content (with SEO)
• Video scripts

As a freelance journalist my work has been published internationally by a wide variety of high-quality consumer magazines and websites, daily and weekly newspapers, and specialised trade journals.

My writing has been published on subjects as diverse as the automotive industry, cars, defensive driving, gliding, motor racing, sports psychology, and travel.

My work has been published in all of these places (and many others besides): AAA Going Places (USA), American Airlines’ in-flight magazine, Auto (Spain), Autosport, British Airways’ in-flight magazine, Car (South Africa), Condé Nast Traveller (USA), Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, European Car (USA), Flyer, Hollywood Reporter (USA), Indianapolis Star, Johannesburg Star, L’Automobile (France), Los Angeles Times, Mercedes-Benz’s customer magazine, Motor Trend (USA), Motor Sport, Motorsport News, Performance Car, Pilot, Popular Mechanics (USA), Sailplane & Gliding, Sports Illustrated (USA), Quattroruote (Italy), Rolls-Royce’s customer magazine, and Wheels (Australia). I have also authored books published by Haynes Publishing and Salamander-Anova Books Group.

I have also written specialised articles for PR clients about accident investigation, boilers, building services, competence registration schemes, composites manufacturing, corporate events, driver risk management, electronics manufacturing, energy efficiency, fire protection, heating and ventilating, holiday pay schemes, pensions, solar panels, skills training, and sustainability.

I write (and ghost-write on behalf of others):

• Feature stories
• Interviews
• News stories
• Opinion columns
• Technical articles
• Blogs

One journalistic assignment that people like hearing about, especially if they’ve seen the movie Rush, is my writing of a regularly-published national newspaper column on behalf of world champion racing driver and outspoken TV commentator James Hunt. Commissioned by tobacco brand Marlboro, this colourful assignment ended suddenly when James died, at the age of 46, of a heart attack.

Famous names can often make for great stories, and one of the most famous of all that I’ve interviewed is movie star Paul Newman – who gave me a world exclusive insight into his passion for motor racing just minutes after bluntly warning “I don’t give interviews.”

Another journalistic highlight was winning a national award in the USA for Best Magazine Feature Story, the result of my writing in Motor Trend magazine how a trip to a French vineyard to collect 12 crates of Beaujolais Nouveau went so badly wrong that I ended up in jail.

With skills finely honed by years of dedication to the craft of writing, I provide these editorial services:

• Book-writing
• Book-editing
• Proofreading

I edited The Encyclopedia of the Car (publisher: Book Sales), making a mountain of material from other writers more concise and more readable. I was also editor, commissioning editor, proofreader, part-writer, and production manager of the inaugural FIA World Touring Car Championship Yearbook (publisher: KSO), establishing a style and tone for the book for succeeding years.

I authored Drive It! Formula Ford (publisher: Haynes Publishing), a how-to book about starting out in motor racing. I also authored Supercars: Chevrolet Corvette (publisher: Salamander-Anova), which was published in four languages and sold well in the UK, the USA, France, Germany and Japan.

My first novel, The World is Watching, is a thriller which takes the reader behind the scenes into the glamorous but ruthless world of Formula 1 motor racing. A work-in-progress, you can read the book’s prologue here and opening chapter here (please note all parts of this novel are copyright and cannot be reproduced without my written permission).