Hello, I'm Harry
Specialist digital marketing consultant that helps businesses, museums, heritage and cultural organisations with digital marketing.
About
I’m a specialist senior digital marketing consultant that helps organisations successfully run digital projects. With over 2 decades experience helping clients across a broad range of sectors including heritage, museums, arts & culture and third sector organisations as well as for-profit businesses of all sizes. I’m ideally suited to help you and your team through the various challenges of successfully delivering your digital projects. I’m also an entrepreneur and founder of multiple businesses including two outstanding digital agencies.
In short, I help organisations get the very best out of digital projects and can assist with the following:
- Guidance and support before, during and after a digital project acting as an advisory member of your team
- A conduit and translator between clients, agencies and technical specialists
- Preparation of audits and research for your website or digital project
- SEO, User Journey analysis and Conversion Rate Optimisation
- Preparation of digital project briefs
- Advice with marketing, sales, branding and technical matters such as selecting a CMS or development platform, SEO, accessibility etc.
- Assistance with resource selection helping you find the right people for your digital project
If any of that sounds like something you and your organisation would benefit from, send me an email and let’s have a conversation.
“Harry O’Connor provided consultancy services to advise on redesigning our museums and galleries website which needs to showcase our activities and incorporate the collections database. He considered our resources-a small team with limited funds and helped us write a technical brief explaining the technical side very well. He has shown a sensitivity to our needs and suggested some innovative ways of creating engaging interactive content that we will be able to manage ourselves.”
Louise Chennell, Aberystwyth University
“Knowing how demanding I can be as a client I was expecting slow progress and numerous meetings however Harry understood my requirements from the beginning and adopted a team approach with me to get the site launched.
A good job well done and already generating work, many thanks.”
Jon Hancock, The Eclipse Group, Libya
A Little Background
Following a short tenure working in higher education, I started my professional career as a web designer and developer, and formed my first digital agency, Voodoochilli, over 20 years ago. I learnt everything involved in running a digital agency, from design and code, to accounting, finance, HR, leadership, legal, sales and marketing.
Years later I set up my second agency, Heritage Creative which specialises in working with museums, heritage and culture sector organisations. I’m proud to say that both agencies continue to thrive to this day.
Through the businesses I founded I’ve been lucky enough to work with organisations of all types and sizes, from ambitious startups to multi-million, multinational businesses like Engel & Völkers and world-famous heritage brands such as Canterbury Cathedral and The Design Museum as well as national charities such as Headway and Humanists UK. I’ve been part of nearly every kind of digital project, from simple websites and outbound marketing campaigns to advanced SaaS startups.
Now that my businesses have matured and are supported by an excellent team, this allows me some freedom and flexibility in how and when I work.
Whilst I still support my staff and clients on a daily basis, the work I enjoy the most is helping and advising people to get the very most of the digital projects.
If you would like a conversation about working with me, get in touch.
FAQ
Many organisations by their own admission, really don’t know where to start with the daunting task of creating a new website, app or digital project. They do, however, know just how important it is to get right. I help bridge the gap between what the client knows already and what they need to know in order to make the very best of the project. I offer an advisory service that can include research and help preparing documents such as project briefs, audits, marketing plans, contracts and job descriptions, coaching, mentoring and training. I can also act as a point of contact between the client and specialised technical teams.
As is evident across this site, I have a wealth of experience you can tap into to best ensure your projects are successful. As a consultant I’m also an incredibly cost-effective way of reducing risk to a project, costing far less than hiring someone with my experience full or even part time.
It really depends on the level of work you require. Some people may need assistance with a single project or challange, but I’m also open to retainers for ongoing advice and support. In either case we can have a discussion to work something out that works for both of us. Get in touch if you would like to do that.
Day to day I live in the Algarve, Portugal with my family. That said, all of my business activities are done in the UK. I can do meetings online or by phone and also meet a number of clients and staff in UK regularly. If you want to meet in person to discuss working together I’m happy to do so if you cover my travel expenses or we arrange it to fit it in with another UK visit, typically every 4 weeks. Flights from Faro to the UK in particular are incredibly affordable and surprisingly cost less than a train ticket from Manchester to London.
I offset all of the carbon from my travel by funding the planting of trees and other environmental projects as can be seen on our company Ecologi web page.
I love meeting and working with new people and consulting is a great way to do that. Plus, I really enjoy this type of work above all else – helping and advising others.
Case Studies
I was approached by Aberystwyth University to undertake a consultancy job involving providing advice and direction for a new website they were developing. This included researching models of good practice, developing research methods for evaluating the needs of their current audience, as well as ways of engaging non-users and finally writing up the brief.
Engel & Völkers is one of the world’s largest estate agency businesses with around 1000 offices across 34 countries and an annual transaction volume of 30 Billion Euros. I worked with their Head of Marketing on a one to one basis in order to advise and help develop two websites that would give Engel Volkers an effective web presence In the UK and Ireland in order to strengthen their franchise proposition.
I worked with the marketing department at the Design Museum to better understand accessibility and digital waste across their high traffic website. Following a series of discussions and technical analysis of their site and analytics, I produced an audit with recommendations on improvements.
Blog
Mentora: A new community for established and aspiring digital agency founders
For the past couple of years I’ve casually mentored the occasional agency founder or freelancer looking to build an agency. I’ve had some success ...READ MORE
Video: The difficulty with self-promotion
A quick little video I made discussing self-promotion and why people, including myself struggle with it. We are taught to be humble, not to ...READ MORE
Contact
As well as consulting, I’m potentially interested in being a trustee on a board, as well as Non Executive Director roles or roles where I can use my skills to make a difference in a positive way.
I also help mentor and advise individuals that work in digital.
Name: Harry O’Connor
Email: hello@harryoconnor.co.uk
Calendly: https://calendly.com/harryoconnor/