Freelance Marketing & Growth Manager
Shibumi Style Ltd | Gloucestershire | Freelance, approx. 2 days per week | £20–£25 per hour depending on experience | Initial 3-month contract
About Shibumi
Shibumi is an established independent fashion and lifestyle brand looking for a hands-on, commercially minded and creative Freelance Marketing & Growth Manager to work closely with our small team.
We're looking for someone who can take genuine ownership of Shibumi's day-to-day marketing — bringing together product launches, email, content, social media, SEO and digital activity into one clear marketing plan designed to grow the business and drive sales.
This isn't an entry-level opportunity, nor are we simply looking for someone to post on social media.
You'll work closely with Shibumi's founder, but we're looking for someone who can increasingly take ownership of the marketing function, identify what needs doing and make it happen rather than waiting for a list of individual tasks.
A really important part of this role is what happens AFTER we look at the numbers.
We don't want data and reports for the sake of reporting.
We want someone who can use GA4, Klaviyo, Google Search Console, Meta and other relevant data to make better marketing decisions.
That means understanding what the data is telling us, identifying what needs to change, making those changes and then measuring whether they worked.
In simple terms:
What happened? Why does it matter? What should we change? Did the change work?
That's the approach we're looking for.
What You'll Be Doing
Marketing Strategy & Campaigns
- Create and manage Shibumi's overall marketing calendar and priorities
- Plan and deliver campaigns around new products and collection launches
- Coordinate campaigns across email, website, social, content and other relevant channels
- Ensure marketing activity is planned ahead rather than reactive
- Identify opportunities for growth and recommend where time and budget should be focused
- Keep an eye on competitors, customer behaviour, trends and emerging opportunities
- Review performance and continually adapt the marketing plan according to what is and isn't working
Data, Performance & Growth
This is a key part of the role. You'll be expected to:
- Use GA4, Klaviyo, Google Search Console, Meta and other relevant data to understand what's driving traffic, engagement, conversion and revenue
- Look beyond headline numbers to understand why performance is changing
- Understand how different marketing channels contribute to customer acquisition and sales
- Identify where customers may be dropping out of the journey and where opportunities for growth exist
- Turn insights into specific actions and marketing decisions, rather than simply producing reports
- Make and test changes to campaigns, emails, website content, customer journeys and other marketing activity based on what the data tells us
- Measure the impact of those changes and continue adapting accordingly
- Focus reporting on commercially meaningful measures, rather than data for data's sake
- Clearly communicate what is happening, why it matters and what you recommend doing next
We're looking for someone whose natural reaction to an unexpected change in sales, traffic, conversion or engagement is: "Why has that happened?" followed by "What can we do about it?"
Email & CRM
- Manage Klaviyo email marketing, including campaigns, segmentation and flows
- Plan email activity around launches, products, customer behaviour and the wider marketing calendar
- Use customer and performance data to improve targeting and segmentation
- Review email performance and identify opportunities to improve engagement, conversion and revenue
- Test and refine email activity based on results rather than simply repeating the same approach
Social Media & Content Creation
- Develop and implement Shibumi's social media strategy and content plan
- Move our social channels beyond simply showcasing products, with greater storytelling, personality and customer engagement
- Regularly create and gather original photo and video content for social media, email, website and Pinterest
- Capture products, styling, collections, behind-the-scenes activity, the showroom and the people and story behind Shibumi
- Spot content opportunities as part of the everyday life of the brand
- Plan content requirements around launches and campaigns so that imagery and video are captured in advance
- Create and edit simple short-form content for Reels, Stories, Pinterest and other digital channels
- Help plan and create authentic founder-led content
- Work creatively with Shibumi's existing professional photography and brand assets
- Use performance data to understand which content is actually engaging customers and adapt the content plan accordingly
We're not looking for a professional photographer or videographer, but you should have a strong visual eye and be confident creating good-quality content using a smartphone and everyday content tools. Experience with editing apps such as Adobe, Canva or similar would be helpful, but isn't essential.
Google Business Profile & Reviews
- Manage and keep our Google Business Profile accurate and up to date
- Monitor and respond to customer reviews across relevant platforms
- Encourage genuine customer reviews as part of the wider customer journey
Website Marketing (Shopify)
Our Customer Experience & Studio Manager owns the day-to-day running of Shopify — stock, pricing, collections and general upkeep. Your focus is the marketing layer on top of that:
- Ensure launches, campaigns and key marketing messages are properly reflected across the website
- Recommend and help implement marketing and merchandising changes (e.g. landing pages, promotional banners, launch copy) in coordination with the Studio Manager
- Use website and ecommerce data to identify marketing opportunities and conversion issues, and feed these back to the wider team
- Review customer journeys and identify opportunities to improve website conversion
SEO & Organic Growth
- Monitor and use Google Search Console
- Carry out keyword research and identify organic search opportunities, including choosing keyword targets for pages
- Manage routine on-page SEO, including titles, meta descriptions, headings, metafields, internal linking and alt text
- Write collection copy, product descriptions, blogs and buying guides
- Use search data to inform content and website decisions
- Help Shibumi develop its visibility within AI search / GEO
- Work directly with our technical SEO specialist on keyword and content decisions, while they own URL architecture, indexation, redirects and other technical implementation
Paid Marketing
- Support and/or manage Meta Ads and paid social, depending on experience
- Review paid activity alongside wider marketing performance
- Use results to help determine where marketing spend is best used
- Test and optimise activity based on performance rather than allowing campaigns to simply run unchanged
About You
We're looking for someone with a minimum of 3 years' hands-on marketing experience, ideally within ecommerce, retail or a consumer-facing brand.
You'll ideally have practical experience across several of the following:
- Ecommerce / consumer brand marketing
- Shopify
- Klaviyo or another email/CRM platform
- GA4 and ecommerce analytics
- Google Search Console
- SEO and keyword research
- Social media strategy
- Photography, content creation and short-form video
- Meta Ads / paid social
- Content marketing
- Pinterest
- Ecommerce conversion
- Campaign and product-launch planning
You don't need to be an expert in absolutely everything. We're open to someone who is particularly strong in some areas and willing and able to develop others.
What matters most is that you're commercially curious, creative, analytical, organised, proactive and comfortable taking ownership.
You'll be naturally curious about performance. If sales, conversion, traffic or engagement changes, your instinct should be to investigate why and do something useful with what you learn.
We're looking for someone who combines creative instinct with commercial thinking — someone who is equally comfortable creating content for a new collection and looking at the data afterwards to establish whether that activity actually worked.
Experience within fashion, lifestyle, interiors or another visually led ecommerce brand would be a real advantage.
A degree in Marketing, Business, Communications or a related subject, or a relevant professional marketing qualification, would be desirable but is not essential. Demonstrable hands-on experience and results are more important to us.
The Person We're Looking For
Shibumi is a small independent business, so this will suit someone who enjoys being hands-on and working closely with a founder.
You'll need to be someone who can bring ideas and execute them.
We're looking for someone comfortable saying: "This isn't working — here's what I think we should do instead." And equally: "This IS working — here's the evidence, and here's how I think we can build on it."
Organisation and follow-through are extremely important. We want someone who can create a plan, manage their own priorities and take responsibility for making sure things actually get completed.
We're looking for someone who wants to become an important part of the Shibumi story rather than simply completing a list of marketing tasks.
Freelance Arrangement, Hours & Rate
This opportunity will initially be offered on a self-employed freelance basis for three months, with approximately two days of support per week anticipated.
Rate: £20–£25 per hour, depending on experience and skill set.
We're open to someone developing in certain areas at the lower end of the range, or paying towards the top of the range for someone who can demonstrate strong hands-on ecommerce marketing experience and independently take ownership of a significant part of the work from the outset.
The successful freelancer will invoice Shibumi Style Ltd for their time and will be responsible for their own tax and National Insurance obligations.
As understanding Shibumi's products, customers and brand — and creating original content — is an important part of the work, you'll need to spend regular agreed time at our Gloucestershire showroom/studio. Other elements of the work can be carried out remotely.
If the initial three-month arrangement works well for both parties, we'd love to explore an ongoing relationship.
To Apply
Please send your CV together with a short covering note telling us:
- Why Shibumi and this particular opportunity appeal to you
- Your experience working with ecommerce or consumer brands
- Which of the areas above you have personally managed hands-on
- Which marketing platforms and tools you're confident using
- An example of a marketing campaign, project or initiative that you personally owned and the measurable result it achieved
- An example of a time when data or performance results caused you to change your marketing approach — what did you discover, what did you change and what happened as a result?
Pay: £20.00-£25.00 per hour
Expected hours: 15.0 per week
Application question(s):
- How many years of hands on marketing experience do you have, ideally within ecommerce, retail or a consumer facing brand? Requirement: 3+ years
- Which of the following have you personally used hands-on (not just briefed someone else on)? Options: Shopify / Klaviyo (or another email/CRM platform) / GA4 / Google Search Console / SEO & keyword research / Meta Ads / Pinterest / Content creation & short-form video?
- This is an initial three-month freelance engagement requiring approximately two days per week, including regular agreed time at our Gloucestershire showroom/studio. Does this arrangement suit you?
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Stroud GL6 0PT
