At this time of year I usually share some advice about planning for the next twelve months, mapping out your marketing activity to start January the right way. Right now, however, planning ahead seems like a luxury. We have no idea what tomorrow will bring...new variants, further lockdowns, school closures; vaccines and immunity; zombie apocalypse... so all plans need to be flexible. Where does that leave your marketing then?

Like many people in the UK, 2020 was the year I finally bought a motorhome. It's not a new one, (have you seen the price of these things?) so ongoing maintenance is a general theme, which brings me to the subject of this post.

At this time of year we have to renew our HubSpot Marketing software certification, which involves us refreshing our knowledge and sitting an exam. It's done and we are once again certified and continue to be HubSpot partners.

The subject of SEO seems to cause as much confusion today as ever, and many people are still asking the question, what do SEO companies really do?

Most of the work we do uses a retainer model. This means for a fixed monthly recurring fee, we provide a range of digital marketing services designed to help our clients attract more business opportunities online. It works exceptionally well for them and us, and in this post, I examine why.

I had a really good conversation this week with a potential client. He's put a power of work into his website, added lots of great content etc, and as a result he's achieved some great search engine rankings. People are finding his business on Google, result! But there's a problem.

There are some things in life that just don't make sense. Quantum physics, the fact that bumble bees can fly, pineapple on pizza and putting your newsletters on your website.

Back in 2016, I wrote a blog post entitled, What Is the Purpose of a Blog. It's one of the most popular blog posts on our website and 4+ years on; it's still gets lots of traffic. In fact, in most months it receives between 100 and 150 views.

One of the main criticisms that we hear about Google Ads or pay per click advertising is that it was expensive and didn't generate any business. People say for example, "yeah we tried it, and it just didn't work it's not right for us".

A week ago, I had a conversation with a business owner who’s looking for a digital marketing agency to help with lead generation. He’d found us by searching in Google and needed help to make sure his organisation’s potential customers find them the same way.

To understand the context of this post, it would also help to understand what SEO or search engine optimisation is. If you prefer a more visual approach here’s SEO explained in pictures.

Last Friday, I had a great conversation with a business owner in Manchester. He was crystal clear about his businesses strategy and how many new customers a month he needed to grow his business.

The only thing standing between him and success is that the people who want to buy what he’s selling don’t, currently, find his website when they search in Google. In other words, his website doesn’t generate leads; it’s not a lead generation website.

Contrast that with the reason he and I were having a conversation, yup, he found us in Google

During these strange COVID 19 times, one thing has become clear; on the other side of this crisis, we're all going to be more aware of digital business tools. The use of video conferencing has skyrocketed, and e-commerce has increased, and they are just two examples.

This probably seems like a dumb question, especially coming from the owner of a successful digital marketing agency, but bear with me while I share some thoughts and experiences.

I recently attended a Chamber of Commerce networking event. Despite generating most of our business online, naturally, I felt it was essential to making the most of our new membership. I enjoyed it. I met some lovely people and who knows, it may lead to some useful contacts and opportunities. Plus, I met some people whose services we can use.

A couple of years ago, I was seduced into the arms of Specsavers, a big brand optician. Previously, I'd used an optician in a nearby small town, but for whatever reason, I decided to try one of the big boys.