Shalwah Evans
Verified Expert in Marketing
Marketing Expert
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since June 14, 2024
Shalwah has 10+ years of experience writing about fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and culture, blending insights with commerce and storytelling. She started her career attending fashion shows from Johannesburg to Tokyo and has become a fragrance connoisseur and beauty product savant. Shalwah's writing is inspired by her curiosity and affinity for service-based journalism. Her SEO strategies and content direction increased readership and brand sales at Vox Media and conversions at Essence.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Commerce Content
- Content Writing
- Google Analytics
- Product Reviews
- Product Testing
- SEO Writing
- Social Media
- Writing & Editing
Work Experience
Content Director
Vox Media
- Teamed up with the insights team to create a successful SEO strategy aligned with clients' sales and marketing teams to support new product launches, drive commerce, and increase social media visibility.
- Oversaw rigorous product testing for reviews and commerce roundups. Designed consumer communications for enhanced engagement.
- Grew blog readership month over month and year over year by elevating existing content and creating new content, increasing brand sales.
Associate Beauty Editor
Essence
- Grew site traffic for essence.com and the circulation for ESSENCE Magazine by creating beauty stories, galleries, reviews and product roundups, expert Q&As, and beauty insider profiles.
- Increased eCommerce conversion by using platform insights to inform story ideation and focusing on SEO for all digital content.
- Secured sponsorships alongside the sales and marketing teams by monetizing beauty franchises such as the Best in Black Beauty Awards and Black Beauty Executives.
Project History
Shalwahevans.com
https://shalwahevans.com/Showcased my editorial and commerce writing work on a personal website, including stories from my time at ESSENCE and Vox Media.
Beauty Stories from Around the World
https://makeup-museum.myshopify.com/products/beauty-stories-from-around-the-world-digital-download?variant=41929295102140Led the copy editing efforts for this project, completing all proofing and copy edits in the book.
Black Hipster
https://blackhipster.podbean.com/Produced, edited, and co-hosted the podcast for its entire run.
Education
Master's Degree in Journalism
University of California, Berkeley - Berkeley, CA, USA
Bachelor's Degree in English Literature and Language Arts
Brandeis University - Waltham, MA, USA
Skills
Core
Writing & Editing, Copywriting, Social Media
Platforms & Tools
Asana, Google Analytics
Other
WordPress, Content Writing, Proofreading, Article Writing, SEO Writing, Editorials, Time Management, Print Media, Product Reviews, Beauty Products, Product Testing, Airtable, Parse.ly, Jira, UX Writing, Video Scripts, Video Editing, Research, Analytics, Copy Editing, Commerce Content, Professional Development Plan (PDP), Hosting, Fitness, Digital Newsletters, Sitecore, Exercise & Fitness, Audio Engineering, Audio Streaming, Podcasting, Podcast Management, Semrush
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