Rayleigh Marketing
Finding her footing back into employment after raising two children, Annie Jones, Founder of Rayleigh Marketing, launched her own business in 2015 to help other businesses get the most out of social media. With the support from the Group2Grow Peer Networking Programme, she has been able to build on her confidence, as well as make connections with other business leaders within her cohort.
In July 1999, Annie graduated from Anglia Ruskin University with a 2:1 degree in Business Studies and Marketing Management. She immediately began her career at an internet and web design company, followed by various positions within marketing departments. Then, in 2008, she decided to leave the workforce to focus on raising her children.
Later, in 2015 after her second daughter started school, she decided to immerse herself back into her ‘happy place’ and setup her own business to support other businesses with their marketing and social media.
““During this time, I supported two local charities by looking after their Facebook pages. This involved creating interesting posts and sharing newsworthy stories. This was an invaluable experience as I could see that exciting changes were happening with online marketing and social media in general, and it reaffirmed that this was where I wanted my future to be.””
Never taking on two clients from the same industry, Annie can either create content for the businesses she works with or have them send the content for her to post, schedule it to their social media channels, monitor and engage with followers, and measure and report on how well it’s doing. Understanding the businesses specific needs and being able to identify useful information such as competitors, she has a crucial service known as ‘Power Hours’ to better understand her clients existing social media platforms, how they are being used, and tips for moving forward.
Over the last decade of running her own business, Annie has had many highlights. For her, the best feeling is when clients are happy with the results from her work. Through consistency and quality content creation, some of the clients she has worked with have been retained for over five years, whilst others have only needed minor support for a few months, before being able to take their social channels back over, following the support and guidance from Annie.
Another highlight of hers is being a finalist at the Rochford Business Awards earlier this year in the Innovative Business of the Year category for ‘Annie’s Social Circle’. This is an exclusive members-only Facebook Group she created which was designed to help small business owners with all aspects of social media – providing content ideas and inspiration, the latest social media news, helpful & practical tips, webinars, and Q&As.
Finding the Group2Grow Programme
After feeling stuck and battling with a bit of imposter syndrome, Annie found out about the Group2Grow programme through a local newsletter. She took part in the cohort back in X 2024, led by marketing expert Sarah Brockwell, who helped her to overcome these feelings and build up confidence, as well as supporting others taking part in the programme.
The Group2Grow peer groups bring together cohorts of business professionals to learn, grow, and solve common problems using each other’s knowledge and experience, with the support, guidance, and mentoring of an expert Business Coach.
Over the 4 x 2 hr group sessions and 3 hours of individual 1:1 sessions with an expert business coach, through discussion and discovery, individuals are able to uncover the challenges facing their business and work together to find logical and practical solutions. Typical topics have included increasing sales, marketing, recruitment, leadership, and business resilience.
““I really enjoyed it! I was so lucky to have a great group of people. One of them I got on really well with and have been speaking to outside of the group chat we’re all in. All of us have connected with one another on LinkedIn and like each other’s posts.””
Since taking part in the programme, Annie was asked to guest speak at the Basildon Business Boost programme for Women in Business who are looking to amplify their business acumen. She has also built great relationships with other members within her cohort, providing advice and sharing knowledge with one another, to help each other thrive!
