About Us

Brighter Messaging helps small businesses manage their online presence and generate leads through content-based marketing, websites, blogging, SEO, social media, email campaigns, and paid advertising.

Who we work with

Our best clients are small, service-based businesses that are well-established in their niche and want to take their online presence to the next level. We create and execute marketing strategies that are closely connected to business goals, cutting through the frenzy of activity to focus on what’s really driving your numbers. We also help clients tap into their data to inform their future direction.

There are lots of ways to spend your money getting the word out about your business. We believe that long-term success in marketing is based on an intentional effort to drive organic traffic to your website, and all other activities should feed into that objective. Our best client success stories are those businesses that are investing in long-term, sustainable growth, which comes from a great website and owning your contact list.

MEET YOUR MARKETING TEAM

Brighter Messaging is a collective of independent marketing experts that provides small business clients with a unified solution for outsourced digital marketing needs. Our years of experience working together give clients all the benefits of collaborating with a team without the need to hire and manage disparate marketing talent.

Principal

Sara Jensen, principal and owner of Brighter Messaging, specializes in helping small businesses understand their marketing, create common-sense solutions, and communicate with the creative professionals who make marketing dreams a reality.

Sara is a writer first who built her career in strategic sales and marketing. She has ghostwritten everything from emails, blogs, and feature articles to business books. Sara started Brighter Messaging out of a desire to help people who were saying things like, “I know I need to show up online, but I have no idea how to do it.” She holds an M.A. from Duke University and a B.A. from Denison University.

Away from work, Sara is a wife and mom. When she’s not driving her kids around, you can find her doing yoga, singing at church, or buried in a book. She’s particularly passionate about collaborating with other women who are harmonizing motherhood with a creative career.

Project Management

Hillary Lee ensures that all client work is completed on time and with excellence. With a background in accounting, as well as health and wellness, she brings a variety of experience in various industries. Hillary has a passion for helping entrepreneurs succeed through social engagement and outreach. She is always up to date on social marketing best practices and updates that affect her clients.

Outside of her business, The Phoenix VA Group, Hillary is a wife, and mother to a son and daughter. She enjoys traveling the world, yoga, and sushi dates.

Copywriting and SEO

Shea Karssing specializes in writing, SEO, and analytics. As a marketing consultant and writer with over a decade of experience, she knows how to weave brand narratives, engage communities, and get results.

Shea has always loved writing, which led her to study a Bachelor of Journalism specializing in writing in her native South Africa. With several years of agency experience, in-house marketing experience—and writing the common thread linking it all—Shea is now living her dream of getting to do what she loves for a living. You can learn more on her website.

When she’s not crafting copy, you’ll probably find Shea out on the trails or paw-deep in a jar of peanut butter, sometimes simultaneously. She is passionate about the environment and loves spending time outside in the South African sunshine.

Visual Design and Branding

Elizabeth Parker specializes in organizational branding, messaging, graphic design, photography and photo editing, digital design, and print materials.

After many years in education, Elizabeth returned to her love of design and began collaborating with organizations to create visual content that best communicates their uniqueness. She is the owner/principal of EP Graphic Design and has more than 15 years of design experience.

Outside of work, Elizabeth can be found behind a camera taking photos of just about anything that catches her eye.

Website Development

Rachel Cardy is a Web consultant specializing in website audits, design, development, and maintenance. With her background in video production and marketing, she helps clients tell a better story with and through their website. Focusing on speed, security, and usability, as well as SEO readiness, the websites she builds and manages become powerful assets for clients in their marketing and conversion toolkit.

Rachel and her husband, video producer and director Andrew Cardy, started their own small business in 2013 building websites and producing video stories for clients. They grew both their business and their stellar reputation over ten years, and were acquired in 2023. Rachel now consults exclusively for marketing agencies, including Brighter Messaging.

Social Media

Jen Mere specializes in all things social media, including managing a portfolio of accounts across multiple platforms. She has a background in many fields including website design, marketing, and event planning.

Outside of work, Jen is a wife and mother of two. You can either find her with a good book or outside in the garden. She is also passionate about volunteering in her church and her children’s school.

Business Management

Amy Willey keeps the business running behind the scenes by managing AP/AR, bookkeeping, contracts, reporting, and administrative tasks. With a background as an elementary teacher, followed by accounting manager, Amy is quick on her feet and great at multitasking. She provides a variety of administrative and accounting support services to female entrepreneurs, who know she doesn’t rest until a project is complete.

Amy is a wife and mom to two boys. She enjoys watching Gilmore Girls and Friends while enjoying a glass of a great Malbec (feel free to send her recommendations).