Marketing has become obsessed with speed. More leads. More traffic. More followers. Faster growth. Immediate ROI. Preferably by Thursday. But businesses aren’t built in quarterly marketing dashboards. The strongest marketing strategies are usually the ones that can keep working month after month and year after year without continually demanding more money, more people and more…
Businesses invest enormous amounts of time and money trying to attract attention. SEO. Advertising. Social media. Content. Email. Events. AI. CRM systems. All of them can be useful. But none of them can compensate for something far more fundamental: People need to trust you. Customers rarely buy simply because they have seen enough marketing. They…
Being noticed is relatively easy. Being remembered is considerably harder. Businesses have never had more ways to reach customers. Websites, LinkedIn, email, advertising, video, podcasts, events, and now AI can put your business in front of thousands of people. But visibility doesn’t automatically create memorability. A potential customer can see your business today and forget…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve become unusually popular. Not with actual people, unfortunately. With AI sales agents. I’ve been receiving more and more emails and messages from automated agents trying to generate leads for their owners. And some of them are, to put it politely, not quite ready to be allowed out unsupervised. Messages…
Before moving into marketing, I began my creative career as a graphic designer. I recently went to a creative group meetup in Edinburgh. It’s usually a lively and inspiring event. I’ve been going to this gathering for twenty years. It’s one of those rare times when graphic designers, web designers, illustrators, photographers, videographers, and other…
There’s a quiet misconception spreading through businesses of every size: that automation, in and of itself, is a strategy. It isn’t. It’s a means, often a powerful one, but still just a means. Treating it as anything more can lead to wasted investment, diluted customer experience, and ultimately, missed opportunity. Automation has earned its reputation.…
Many SMEs collect customer feedback but don’t always use it to make changes. After a project, a survey might be sent out. Some reviews come in. Sales teams hear objections every day. Still, most of this feedback never reaches strategic planning or marketing. This means a valuable opportunity is being missed. When used well, customer…
When markets tighten, confidence dips, and boardroom conversations turn to “cash now, growth later”, marketing budgets often become the first casualty. The instinct is understandable: focus on activity that delivers an immediate return. Shift spend from long-term brand building to short-term lead generation. Protect the bottom line. But history, data and experience tell a different…
In any business, and especially in project-driven ones, the gulf between senior management (or business owners) and the operational teams is a latent risk. From a recent case described in an article by the BBC (concerning a company where the leadership’s grand vision was divorced from front-line reality) the consequences are instructive. When leadership drafts…
You’ve planted your business seed, watered it daily with sweat, grit and perhaps way too many cups of coffee. It’s growing. But at some point, when the leaves are sprouting vigorously, or when you notice weeds starting to creep in, you’ll realise you could use more than just your own two hands to tend to…