Hello Birchbox
Welcome to my snazzy (But still utterly professional) cover letter.
My name’s Emily Stoker, and I’m a visual content creator. After managing and growing social media presences of international and small businesses in multiple languages, today I specialise in video content. I’ve grown online communities to 15,000+ monthly video views and contributed to successful business launches using video promotion.
I would like to propose myself for the role of Photographer/Videographer for Birchbox UK on a freelance basis. This could be an advantageous collaboration for you; not only for the obvious benefit of not being a full-time contracted employee and therefore invoicing only for work carried out.
I have worked in various environments to create blogposts, email marketing campaigns, and social media posts. I began freelancing in social media content in 2016. In particular, working in Italy gave me experience of working on content for various brands in an agency environment. My team and I had to meet the strategic goals and the branding guidelines required of a range of clients on a short timeline. I equally have worked on such content formats by myself in my own business, and notably for my own online communities; my beauty blog covering my time at university, and my YouTube channel since graduation.
PAST samples of my digital media work
MY FIRST BLOG (2012-2016)
Screenshot of my social media management portfolio
Although I began my career freelancing in a range of social media content, in 2017 I decided to focus on video content. I had already produced my own video content for ten years, but combining my creative and analytics skills gives me a balanced view on the importance of the measurable success of a piece of content, but that this is impossible if storytelling is not considered and executed to an excellent standard.
While I appreciate the importance of production value in many instances in order to achieve this, I understand how visual communication interacts with social media strategy. When training clients who want to learn to produce their own content, I teach them that on some platforms - such as Instagram Stories - it can be completely appropriate for some brands to use smartphone videography or photography. This creates content that feels true to the content that their target audience are already consuming on the platform.
SAMPLES of my video work
STAGES CONDUCTED BY ME: CONCEPT, VIDEOGRAPHY, EDITING & ANIMATION.
STAGES CONDUCTED BY ME: CONCEPT, EDITING & ANIMATION.
BEHIND THE SCENES EDITING MONTAGE.
While I primarily consider myself a creative, I have strong organisational skills and am almost always involved in production/project management for projects. For example, last year I managed the production of a set of videos shoot for a client in Brussels. The project involved coordinating outsourced freelancers, internal team members and external interviewees who spoke only French.
My freelance work has seen me collaborate with companies in four continents and use my fluency in French and Italian to communicate with clients in their own language. Aside from my organisational and linguistic skills, I have been creating video and photo projects for over ten years. I have an advanced command of Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop and Lightroom and also create motion graphics using After Effects.
SOME OF MY PHOTO WORK. PLEASE CLICK TO BROWSE.
I believe this diverse set of skills and commitment to beautiful, engaging content would make me a great asset to the Birchbox team. Please feel free to explore my video portfolio and view some of my photo work.
Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,