ABOUT THE DAMES

At The Dames, we come alongside SMB marketing teams as experienced partners—bringing integrated expertise that amplifies what you’re already doing well, fills key gaps, and helps you find new pathways to your target audiences.

We established The Dames in 2020, combining decades of agency, in-house, and corporate experience across multiple industries. Throughout our careers, we’ve watched the attention economy transform how businesses compete for recognition and learned that resilient marketing is built on substance, not shortcuts. You’ll find us supporting in-house marketing teams, providing fractional marketing leadership, and collaborating with other seasoned professionals who share our values and commitment to meaningful results.

We work best with SMBs where expertise and reputation drive customer decisions, including professional firms, manufacturers, healthcare organizations, career tech and higher ed institutions, SaaS companies, and other businesses that compete on credibility. Read more about our award-winning team.

What working with us looks like

You work directly with Jen and Annalisa. No rotating account managers. No disconnect between sales and execution. We see your projects through personally and bring in trusted specialists transparently when specialized needs arise. 

Are We a Good Fit?

Every client relationship starts with a conversation. Whether you’re ready to talk or still doing your research, these FAQs are a good place to start.
You're a two-person agency. Can you really handle everything we need?

The short answer is yes, and we'd gently push back on the assumption that team size determines capability. Our combined experience spans strategy, content, SEO, PR, web development, analytics, and paid media. AI tools have made that expertise significantly more efficient and powerful, allowing us to deliver at a level that would have required a much larger team even a few years ago. For specialized work outside our core capabilities—advanced design, full-stack development, video production, CRM implementation, and similar needs—we bring in carefully vetted specialists. You always know who's doing what and why.

Do you use AI in your work?

Yes, deliberately and with clear limits. AI amplifies the expertise we bring, making research, content development, and execution faster. But it doesn't replace strategic thinking, and we're skeptical of AI tools that substitute for it. We're particularly critical of AI-based marketing tools that make big claims but lack access to real user behavior data. Our position is that AI in the wrong hands makes bad marketing worse. In the right hands, it makes experienced marketers more powerful.

Are you flexible about which services we engage?

Yes, with one important qualifier. We work with clients on everything from single projects to fully integrated, ongoing engagements. But no matter the scope, we need a coherent strategy to work from: clear positioning, defined audiences, and goals tied to business outcomes. If that foundation is already in place, we can step into almost any service area. If it's not, we'll let you know and can help you build it. We don't take on work that isn't set up to succeed.

Where is your company based?

A 100-percent woman-owned business, we and all our collaborators are based entirely in the United States. The Dames Marketing & PR is located in Canton, Ohio, and we serve clients in the Midwest and beyond.

What kind of website work do you take on?

We focus on websites that need to do serious work: lead-generation sites, high-authority content hubs, and e-commerce platforms. We also help clients improve existing websites through better architecture, technical updates, and SEO optimization. For complex builds and projects, we collaborate a trusted full-stack developer whose work we trust. Simple brochure websites aren't in our wheelhouse—not because we can't build them, but because they're rarely the right solution for the clients we work best with.

What's the difference between what you do and just hiring an SEO agency?

We think about SEO differently. Yes, technical SEO matters. It's foundational, but technical fixes alone don't build the market authority that makes you competitive against established players. Anyone who guarantees search rankings or AI citations is overpromising. What we can do is build the kind of genuine authority (through content, structure, and credibility signals) that search engines reward and AI systems appear to favor. SEO and GEO are complex and rapidly evolving. Our job is to put you in the best possible position and adjust as the landscape changes.

Do you manage social media accounts?

Not in the traditional sense. We don't post on behalf of clients, respond to comments, or manage DMs. What we do is develop social media strategy — the positioning, content direction, and channel approach that gives your social presence real purpose. We connect that strategy to broader authority-building goals so that whoever is doing the day-to-day posting has a clear plan to work from, rather than just filling a calendar. If you need someone to run the accounts, we can help you find the right resource for that.

Can you help with both digital and traditional marketing?

Yes. We don't believe in choosing between them. Some audiences are best reached through digital channels; others respond to print, direct mail, broadcast, and trade shows and other events. We build integrated strategies customized to what your business actually needs.

Do you use subcontractors, and are there markups?

We don't subcontract work out. Instead, we maintain a network of carefully vetted specialists in areas like advanced development, video production, CRM implementation, etc. Their values and quality standards align with ours. We're completely transparent with clients about who's involved and what they cost. No hidden markups. We do not currently subcontract with other marketing agencies, though we may partner from time to time with boutique firms that offer specialized services we don't. We also won't work under the direction of third-party marketing providers that don't share our values and level of experience.

How long does it take to see results, and how do you measure them?

It depends on the work. Paid advertising and some earned media tactics produce faster results. Organic authority, content marketing, earned authority, and link building are longer plays. We set up tracking designed to reveal meaningful patterns—discovery, lead generation, engagement, and growth indicators. Attribution is rarely a straight line, but the right data makes it possible to see what's working, what isn't, and where to focus.

Still have questions?
Please reach out! We’d love to chat.

MEET THE DAMES

As a communicator, I’m known for big-picture thinking and the determination to actually execute it. What drives me is the craft of making expertise visible, understandable, and emotionally compelling. Finding the ideas that make a brand’s value click for the people who need to hear it most. Helping clients communicate not just what they do, but why it matters. That’s the work I love most, and it’s what I bring to everything I do.

My work spans brand messaging, content strategy, public relations, and earned media—the kind of integrated communications that builds real authority. Before founding The Dames with Annalisa in 2020, I worked across agency, in-house, corporate, and nonprofit environments in industries including healthcare, manufacturing, education, and more. That range taught me something I believe deeply: resilient marketing is built on substance, not shortcuts.

My passion is understanding a client’s business well enough to communicate its value in a way that resonates with the people who need to recognize it—and then seeing that work through.

Founder and member of the same book club since 1997, I love to read and learn every single day. My high-strung chocolate lab, named after C.S. Lewis, often makes me question my sanity, and my 80s playlist on Apple Music is heavily influenced by Billy Joel. My days usually start with freshly ground coffee or black loose-leaf tea of Kenyan origin, and they sometimes end with a bit of bourbon. A fan of hiking and history, I hope to someday visit Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon and trek to the top of Half Dome.

Jen Carroll

Annalisa Hilliard

I’ve always been drawn to understanding how things work—really work, beneath the surface. I love science, technology, poetry, psychology, communication; each one rewards the kind of patient, thorough attention that most people don’t want to give. I do.

That instinct found a natural home in the technical side of marketing. SEO, GEO, web architecture, UX/UI, data analytics, conversion optimization: these are disciplines that punish shortcuts and reward genuine curiosity. I approach every client engagement the way I approach any complex problem, by digging in, examining what’s actually happening, anticipating what could go wrong, and building something that holds up. I’m not afraid of unfamiliar territory. Figuring it out is part of what makes the work worth doing.

Before co-founding The Dames with Jen in 2020, I worked across manufacturing, e-commerce, real estate, education, SaaS, healthcare, and more. That range taught me that the technical problems are rarely just technical—they’re connected to how a business communicates, how customers find it, and whether the infrastructure exists to support growth. That’s where Jen’s work and mine converge, and it’s what makes our partnership work.

When I’m not deep in a client problem, I’m indulging my passion for plants and my appetite for learning. I care deeply about social justice issues (poverty, racism, and gender inequality among them), and I crave time outdoors. Relaxation looks like coffee, craft beer, biking, and rewatching Schitt’s Creek.