The halfway point of the year offers more than just a milestone on the calendar. It’s an opportunity to evaluate and refine your marketing efforts before the final push towards year-end. While annual marketing plans provide valuable direction, the reality is that markets, behaviour and priorities change. A mid-year review helps ensure your strategy is …
The Mid-Year Marketing Reset: What, Why and How To Complete Yours Read More »
Many small businesses are working hard on their marketing. Social media posts are going out, emails are being sent, and new ideas are constantly being tried. On the surface, it can look like everything is moving in the right direction. You may be busy but is your marketing effective? One of the most common challenges …
7 Signs Your Marketing Is Busy But Not Effective Read More »
Working with a variety of clients and industries, we get asked a wide range of questions on different aspects of marketing. But there were certain topics that shaped many of our conversations last year. 2025 was a year of transformation in marketing, with powered by AI breakthroughs, evolving social media algorithms, and a shift to …
The Top 5 Marketing Questions We Answered in 2025 Read More »
As the year begins to draw to a close, and what a fast year it has been, many small and medium-sized businesses are focused on year end and finishing the year strong. But November and December are actually the best time to look ahead. Carrying out your Marketing Planning now for both the year ahead …
Marketing Planning: Plan Now To Promote and Grow in 2026 Read More »
We’ve all heard the phrase “content is king,” and in a previous blog we talked about how we believe that consistency is queen. And in marketing, a queen is every bit as powerful as a king. That’s why we always say half the battle is about consistency and content schedules. Creating a single brilliant blog …
What you need to know about Consistency and Content Schedules Read More »
Let’s be honest, it’s a question we all ask ourselves – is my social media working? Organic posting on social media can often seem like a one way conversation. No comments, no likes, no reposts. Why and how do I improve engagement on social media? We all know that people are on social media so …
Gratitude is a powerful yet often overlooked tool in marketing. In a world where customers are bombarded with endless choices and advertising messages, a simple “thank you” can make a business stand out. Expressing gratitude to customers and receiving gratitude from them reaps many benefits. These include strengthening relationships, fostering brand loyalty, and ultimately driving …
A Simple Thank You: The Importance of Gratitude in Marketing Read More »
As the year winds down, it’s the perfect time for a business to reflect on their social media performance. Conducting an end-of-year social media audit helps you evaluate your efforts over the past 12 months, pinpoint what’s working, what’s not and identify areas for improvement. Here’s a step-by-step guide to conducting an effective social media …
You are running a business and you are good at it. But that doesn’t mean you need to do everything. You may outsource your accounts, your IT, your HR requirements so why would you not outsource your marketing? By leveraging external expertise, businesses can achieve greater efficiency, access specialised skills, and ultimately drive better results. …
Why your small business can benefit from outsourced marketing Read More »
In marketing every detail matters. While I talk a lot about content in all its various forms, the visual aspect of marketing is a key element. In fact, it is what may engage many potential customers at the start of their journey with your business
A marketing strategy can have several different objectives. The dominant one tends to be lead generation. This is usually to the detriment of brand building. Brand building and brand awareness are often left to one side as they are not considered ways of generating business. But nothing could be further from the truth. I am …
Like any industry, there are lots of misconceptions and misunderstandings associated with marketing. While some of these marketing myths may hold a little substance, there is none for most of them. Many of the clients I deal with have heard a few of these floating around and are quick to ask about the truth behind …
In the very simplest of terms, digital marketing allows you to reach your target audience at low cost. You can effectively be in front of your audience every time they reach for their smartphone, tablet, or PC. Bear in mind the average adult (age 16 – 64) spends over 30% of their time (that’s over …
Whether you sell on or offline, are a product or service provider and across all industries, it’s vital to ensure your business is visible online. For many small businesses, this also means that the owner needs to be visible too. A strong online presence will significantly boost your chances of getting new customers and growing …
Top ways to make your business more visible online Read More »
You’re putting together your content calendar and have looked at your content pillars. Now you need to populate the content. A question I am often asked is around what topics to write on. Should the topic be broad based or specific to a particular point in time? In other words, should you use evergreen content …
What is a content pillar? A content pillar is simply a topic that your company/brand will consistently feature on their social media. This means it will be discussed and highlighted with content created around it. Decide on 3 to 5 pillars i.e. topics. These topics will form the basis of the content calendar. The pillars …
How to use content pillars to plan your social media Read More »
I’ve found that there can be some confusion about what exactly social media marketing(SMM) is. This in turn leads to confusion around the role it can play in the overall marketing mix and the benefits that it can offer. The first thing to remember is that social media marketing is only one element of digital …
As with every industry at the start of a new year, there are numerous reviews and reports. These look back at last year and forward too. Predictions on what marketing trends are going to emerge are everywhere. How can a business easily identify which trends are right for them to include in their strategy and …
Email marketing was one of the first digital forms of marketing that many companies tried. It was a natural extension of the traditional direct mailing format. The beauty was that it was so measurable. You could see the delivery rates, the clicks, the open rates. But at the end of the day many did not …
I don’t often write very personal pieces but the whole subject of goal-setting is top of mind with me currently. Our eldest two children have both entered exam years. For them, during their first week back, there has been a huge focus on setting their own personal academic goals for the year. Looking back at …
Make time to review and refine for a sharper focus Read More »
It is often thought that Linkedin was launched as a recruitment tool. In fact, its origins lie firmly in the networking world. The mission statement itself states “connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful”. However, given the talent on show, it did become synonymous with job hunting and recruitment. Over the …
As a marketeer I am dealing with a wide variety of people and businesses on a daily basis. But so often, despite the differences, the questions about how to market are often very similar. Here are the top 3 marketing questions that I was asked in 2020. You’ll see not only are they easy to …
Top 3 Most Asked Marketing Questions From 2020 & The Easy Answers Read More »
INTRODUCTION How do you put a marketing plan behind the strategy? It may be a surprise that actually creating a marketing plan is what proves most challenging for a business. My recent poll showed this was the aspect of marketing that almost 70% of respondents felt was most difficult. And to be honest, I can …
If a picture paints a thousand words is a well used and known phrase. Personally, I firmly believe that an image can portray far more than a few words. I now extend that thinking to video. How many words does a video paint? And more importantly how do I make a video that paints them? …
The origins of content marketing Content marketing is all about creating, publishing and distributing content for a targeted market. This can be on or offline. Content should be relevant and timely to attract and retain the defined audience and ultimately to drive profitable customer action. The purpose of the content generally falls into 1 of …
Everyone has heard about the 4 P’s of marketing (or up to 8 now depending on where your thinking lies) but I think a good place to begin building your marketing plan is with the 4 E’s of marketing. For many businesses, trying to put together a marketing plan of activity, there are 4 very …
Begin building your marketing plan with the 4 E’s Read More »
We are all familiar with the phrase “Content is king”, first coined by Bill Gates in the ‘90s. However, this simple statement has never been more relevant than now. In 1996, when he originally used it only about 1% of the world was online. By the start of 2020 that had risen to over 50% …
During a crisis, communicating with your customers and letting them know that you are there for them is critical. Combined with this, however, is the need to let them know how you can help them. Otherwise you risk just becoming unwanted spam. For many retailers this has meant a switch to online shops and delivery. …
