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Marketing with heart + soul.

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      • Copywriting + editing · B2B content + messaging strategy · Executive thought leadership + ghostwriting

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        Hi, I'm Jessica.

        I'm a strategist with 16 years of experience helping brands turn complex topics, knowledge, and ideas into marketing that makes people feel something.

        I've been the founding marketing hire at two startups and a senior content leader at mid-size and enterprise companies. Across those roles, I built content programs from scratch, ran demand gen, launched products, and wrote for executives, flagship events, and sales teams.

        Today, I work as a freelancer, offering senior-level judgment without the ramp-up time or the cost of a full-time hire. I deliver everything from big-picture content and messaging strategy to individual campaigns. But if you're looking for someone to help you crank out 'AI-at-scale,' keyword-stuffed, soulless marketing, I'll have to politely decline. I selectively use AI to speed up my process, but not to outsource my thinking.

        I believe with my whole heart that all good content starts with a compelling point of view. That's why I help brands tell stories that matter, share opinions worth considering, and show up authentically and unmistakably human.

        If your marketing needs a sharper point of view (and a teeny bit less jargony BS), let's get to work.

        → Send a message or connect on LinkedIn.

      • Who I help

        I'm your person if you:

        • Sell something complicated, regulated, or both (fintech, healthtech, real estate)
        • Need senior content leadership without committing to a full-time hire
        • Have subject matter experts with great ideas and zero time to write them down
        • Want content with a point of view, not the cookie-cutter stuff anyone could write

        My dream client list:

        • Healthcare and healthtech companies, especially those working in maternal and infant health and special needs parenting
        • Mission-driven companies that are bought in on content as a long-term growth lever
        • Brands operating in cool industries (current topics of interest: lifestyle, real estate, entertainment)
      • What I do

        Core services:

        Copywriting + editing

        You name it, I'll write it. Already have a draft? I'll edit and fact-check it until it's sharp, on-brand, and ready for legal review.

        Fractional content marketing strategy
        I set the narrative pillars, create the calendar, guard the brand voice, and work alongside your team to build content momentum.

        B2B content + messaging strategy
        We work together to figure out what makes you different, who needs to hear it, and what to publish to move prospects forward.

        Executive thought leadership + ghostwriting
        I interview your subject matter experts and turn what's in their heads into content people share.

        Case studies + customer stories
        I interview your customers, surface pain points, solutions, and numbers that matter, and write stories your sales team will actually use.

        Product, campaign + event content

        I help you nail the launch, nurture those cold leads back to life, and build a keynote that'll have the hallways buzzing.

        Brand visibility optimization

        I coach you on how to write content that surfaces on Google and gets cited by AI tools so customers find you wherever they search.

      • Portfolio

        These are a few of my favorite things.

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        Annual trends report

        B2B SaaS | Financial services

        I analyzed the data and wrote Hearsay's 2024 Content Study, pulling out social selling trends and line-of-business benchmarks for financial services. I also surfaced the headlines that turned it into press coverage.

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        Corporate milestone celebration

        B2B SaaS | Film and television production

        I dug into the company's history and pulled out the most human parts of its origin story, because nobody reads an anniversary post for the timeline.

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        Customer case study

        B2B SaaS | Freight shipping and logistics

        I ran a gap analysis, and paper products had the best opportunity-to-penetration ratio, so that's where the case study program started. I interviewed the customer and wrote about how they cut manual tendering by about 85%. Sales now uses it in post-demo follow-ups and nurture flows.

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        Corporate thought leadership

        B2B SaaS | Financial services

        I developed an "Ask the Expert" blog series featuring subject matter experts across the organization. This one focused on five barriers to long-term social selling success. In-house experts are one of the most underused assets a marketing team has, and this series put them to work.

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        Executive spotlight

        B2B SaaS | Film and television production

        I wrote a profile of the company's EVP of Residuals, the go-to expert on one of the most complex pieces of production payroll. The people behind a brand play a major role in building trust, and nobody explains residuals like he does.

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        Data analysis digest

        B2B SaaS | Financial services

        I turned a dense study of 2.3 million AI citations into a digestible blog post for financial services marketers. I built the story around the finding that mattered most to them: firms can directly influence 88% of the sources AI cites.

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        Expert-led guide

        B2B SaaS | Film and television production

        I wrote a how-to guide on end-of-year production payroll cleanup, built from interviews with EP's payroll tax experts. I asked the specific questions that get the details right, then cross-referenced the legislation so every line would hold up.

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        Customer story

        B2B SaaS | Healthcare

        I showed how a major medical provider removed friction from the patient journey. As usual, I led with results: a 36% lift in provider search usage and a 711% surge in online appointments.

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        Sponsored content

        B2B SaaS | Real estate

        I wrote a non-salesy 'show, don't tell' piece to highlight why owners of top independent brokerages love keeping control of the business they built while handing off the operational burdens — and what that means for their agents, buyers, and sellers.

      • Why I'm a good investment

        Competing with robots wasn't on my mid-career bingo card, but here we are! Luckily, I've got the edge. Here's what makes me a worthy investment:

        My marketing works (I got receipts)

        • Early hire at a SaaS startup that reached unicorn status
        • Contributed to $1.6M in ARR through a direct mail campaign
        • Built a program that captured 600 inbound MQLs a month
        • Drove a 30% traffic lift (content audit → narrative refresh)
        • Grew event attendance 40% (revamped comms strategy)
        • Founded Jessica Cates Creative in 2017 (One client's been with me for 8 years + counting)

        Complicated is my comfort zone

        I've written about film and TV residuals management, real estate regulations, freight tendering, data strategy, sales and use tax, and marketing compliance for financial services and healthcare orgs. If your product takes a 45-minute phone call and links to multiple .gov websites to explain, requires compliance and legal review, and you need someone who can write about it and make it make sense, today's your lucky day.

        Repurposing is my love language

        Hit the brakes on net new assets! You're sitting on a goldmine. That webinar no one rewatched is a blog series and a month of LinkedIn posts waiting to happen. I'll dig through what you've got and tell you what to refresh, reformat, and retire.

        I've been there, shipped that (got the tee)

        I've been at this for a while, and I've already made the expensive mistakes. Which means I show up with senior-level judgment on day one, no hand-holding required. Just point me toward the brand guidelines and set me loose.

      • Nice things people said about me

        "I initially hired Jessica as our content manager and editor-in-chief, but quickly saw her strategic capabilities and promoted her. She's highly collaborative, a strong writer, and really cares about the quality of her work."

        — Kris Vann, Founder @ Richuel

        Nice things people said about me

        "Jessica is able to capture any tone and voice while making any subject interesting and easy to understand. She revamped the communications strategy for our annual flagship event, resulting in a 40% increase in attendance."

        — Ragan Pape, Senior Events Manager @ Yext

        Nice things people said about me

        "I am in awe of how Jessica consistently wrote interesting and informative content week after week. She just gets it! She played a major contributing role to our marketing team and helped drive inbound leads to record heights."

        — Carole Smets, CEO @ Princeton TMX

        Nice things people said about me

        "From writing compelling blog posts to sequencing the right messages for targeted ABM campaigns, I could always count on her to deliver high-quality, engaging content."

        — Vivien Wang, Marketing & Comms Exec

      • What happens when you hire me

        1

        Trial project

        We'll tackle a flat-fee project (case study, campaign, discovery) to make sure we're a good fit.

        2

        Discuss goals

        We work together to define your goals, scope the work, and discuss hourly commitments.

        3

        Get started

        A monthly retainer reserves my time; deliverables are scoped and billed on a per-project basis.

      • Get in touch

        Questions? Ready for a quote? Need a good movie recommendation? You know what to do.

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