The small business marketing audit: what to check before you spend another pound
Before you spend another pound on marketing, audit it. A step-by-step marketing audit checklist for UK small businesses that starts with the numbers and ends with the follow-up.
Fractional marketing director for small businesses: does it work under £1m?
Most fractional marketing directors are built for £1m+ businesses. Here’s how fractional marketing leadership works for smaller ones, what it costs and what a few hours a month gets you.
Why isn’t my marketing working? The honest diagnostic for small businesses
Putting in the effort and getting nothing back? The eight real reasons small business marketing stalls, a quick self-check to spot yours, and what to fix first.
Why your sales and marketing don’t talk to each other (and what it’s costing you)
In a small business, sales and marketing are often the same person wearing two hats. Here’s why the gap between them quietly costs you leads, and five simple decisions that close it fast.
Fractional CMO vs marketing agency: which one does your business actually need?
Fractional CMO or marketing agency? One sells direction, the other sells delivery. Here’s the honest way to work out which one your business actually needs, and when the answer is both or neither.
How much should a small business spend on marketing? A UK guide for your 2027 budget
There’s no magic percentage for a small business marketing budget. Here’s what the benchmarks really say, why they don’t fit most UK small businesses, and how to set your 2027 number this autumn.
When should a small business hire a marketing consultant? 7 signs it's time (and 3 signs it isn't)
The businesses that bring in help at the right moment tend to share a pattern six months later: they're doing less marketing, not more, and getting more from it. The wasted channels are gone, the message is sharper, sales and marketing have stopped pulling in different directions, and the owner has evenings again. That last one matters more than any dashboard.
Get the timing wrong in either direction and you'll either pay for advice you weren't ready to use, or spend two more years and twenty more grand learning what a strategy day would have told you in October.
How to choose a marketing consultant in Liverpool (and what to avoid)
Decide whether you need direction or delivery. Meet two or three people. Pick the one who asked the best questions, told you something you didn't want to hear, and explained everything in plain English. Agree what success looks like and when you'll review it. That's it… that's the process.
What is a fractional CMO - and does a Liverpool or Wirral business actually need one?
Nearly every fractional CMO provider in the UK pitches at businesses turning over £1m to £15m, with retainers starting at £1,500 and climbing fast. Below the £1m line, the industry's answer is a shrug - you're "not ready", apparently.
We think that's backwards. A business doing £300k with a founder doing all the marketing themselves needs senior direction more than the £5m business with a marketing team - every wasted pound hurts more, and every good decision compounds for longer. What that business doesn't need is a £4,000-a-month retainer built for someone else's balance sheet.
How much does a marketing consultant cost in the UK?
The only cost question that matters is not "how much is this consultant?" but "what does this decision cost if I get it wrong?"
A £1,500 strategy project that stops you spending £20,000 on the wrong agency has paid for itself thirteen times over. Consultancy is expensive compared with doing nothing, and cheap compared with doing the wrong thing at scale, which is what most businesses do instead.
Marketing support when you can't afford an agency
The gap between "doing it all yourself" and "£1,500 a month to an agency" isn't empty. It just isn't advertised, because the cheaper options don't have ad budgets. In rough order of price, your options are: free stuff, courses, communities and memberships, workshops, mentoring, project-based consultancy, then agencies and freelancer retainers.
Most growing businesses climb this ladder over a few years. The trick is knowing which rung you're on - and not paying for three rungs above it.