Frequently Asked Questions

Yes – every business needs marketing, even if it doesn’t feel like it. If you have a product or service to sell, marketing is simply how people find out it exists. Without it, you’re relying on word of mouth and luck, and both have their limits.
Marketing doesn’t have to mean a big budget or a full agency. For most small businesses, it starts with being consistently visible where your customers are looking — whether that’s on social media, in search results, or in someone’s inbox.
The businesses that grow steadily tend to be the ones doing the basics consistently: showing up regularly, talking about what they do and who they help, and making it easy for people to take the next step.

Getting more customers generally comes down to three things: visibility (can people find you?), credibility (do they trust you?) and conversion (is it easy to say yes?). Most businesses that struggle to grow have a gap in at least one of these areas.

Practical places to start:

• Make sure your Google Business Profile is set up and up to date — it’s free and significantly improves local search visibility
• Post consistently on the social media platform where your customers spend time — quality and consistency matter more than frequency
• Ask happy customers for reviews, and respond to them
• Make sure your website clearly explains what you do, who you help, and what to do next
• Stay in touch with your existing customer base — email newsletters have a strong return on investment for small businesses

The best marketing strategy for getting more customers is the one you actually stick to. Consistent, simple activity beats occasional bursts of effort every time.

A marketing strategy is a plan that answers: who are we talking to, what do we say, where do we say it, and what are we trying to achieve? It gives your marketing direction so you’re not just posting for the sake of it

You don’t need a 40-page document. For most small businesses, a good strategy covers:

• Who your ideal customer is (and what they actually care about)
• What makes you different from your competitors
• Which channels to focus on (not all of them — just the right ones)
• What success looks like so you know if it’s working

Without a strategy, marketing tends to be reactive and inconsistent. With one, even a small amount of activity has more impact because it’s pointed in the right direction.

A common benchmark is 5–10% of turnover reinvested into marketing — but for small businesses in growth mode, it can be higher. The more important question is: what return are you getting?

Marketing spend falls into two categories: time and money. If you’re doing it yourself, you’re spending time. If you’re outsourcing, you’re spending money to get that time back (and usually getting better results too).

A realistic starting point for outsourced marketing support for a small business is £300–£1,000 per month depending on what’s included. This is typically far less than a part-time in-house hire once you factor in salary, NI, holiday pay, and training.

For most businesses, yes — but it depends on where your customers are. Social media is one of the most cost-effective ways to build brand awareness, stay in front of your audience, and generate leads. The key is being on the right platform, not all of them.

A business selling to other businesses (B2B) will usually get the most value from LinkedIn. A business selling directly to consumers (B2C) often does better on Instagram and Facebook. Local businesses should prioritise Facebook and Google.

The biggest mistake businesses make with social media is starting on every platform at once and burning out. Pick one or two, do them well, and build from there.

The most effective social media content for small businesses tends to fall into a few categories:

• Value content — tips, advice, how-tos that are genuinely useful to your audience
• Behind-the-scenes — showing the people and process behind your business builds trust
• Social proof — testimonials, case studies, client results, reviews
• Promotional content — what you offer and how to buy it (this should be a minority of posts, not all of them)
• Personality — opinions, relevant news, relatable content that shows who you are

A rough guide: around 80% of your posts should educate, entertain or inspire, and 20% should directly promote your products or services. If every post is a sales pitch, people switch off.

Consistency matters more than perfection. Showing up regularly with useful, genuine content will outperform sporadic polished posts.

Quality and consistency beat frequency. Posting three times a week every week is better than posting every day for a fortnight and then going quiet for a month. From our experience, we recommend a minimum of twice per week to see results.

Choose a frequency you can genuinely sustain, not the maximum you could theoretically manage. Then stick to it.

Organic social media is content you post to your page or profile that reaches people for free — your existing followers, their connections, and anyone who discovers you through the algorithm.

Paid social media (sometimes called social ads or boosted posts) means paying to get your content or adverts in front of people who don’t already follow you. You can target by location, age, interests, behaviour, and more.

Most businesses need both. Organic builds relationships and credibility with your existing audience. Paid accelerates growth by putting you in front of new people. If you’re not growing organically, paid alone won’t fix that — but if you have great organic content, paid can amplify it significantly.

Meta ads are paid advertising campaigns that run across Facebook and Instagram (both owned by Meta). They let you target very specific audiences — by location, age, interests, job title, buying behaviour, and more — and put your business, product or offer directly in front of them.

For small businesses, Meta ads can be highly effective when:

• You have a clear offer to promote (a product, a service, an event, a lead magnet)
• You know who your ideal customer is
• Your organic social content is working and you want to scale it
• You want to reach new people in a specific location or demographic

The risks are that poorly set-up campaigns waste budget quickly. Many small businesses spend money on Meta ads without clear targeting or a compelling creative, and wonder why it doesn’t work. Managed well, they can deliver a strong return — especially for local or consumer-facing businesses.

Facebook (Meta) ads are interruption-based: you show your advert to people who match your target audience, whether or not they were looking for you. Great for awareness, reaching new audiences, and visual products or services.

Google ads are intent-based: your advert appears when someone actively searches for what you offer. Great for
capturing demand that already exists — ‘plumber in Bristol’, ‘accountant for small businesses’, etc.

For most small businesses, Facebook/Meta ads are a more accessible starting point — lower cost to test, easier to create, and effective for building brand awareness. Google ads work best when there is clear search demand for your product or service.

The best approach depends on your business type, budget, and goals — ideally you’d use both, but if you’re choosing one, consider where your customers are most likely to find you.

You need to measure the right things — and ignore the wrong ones. Vanity metrics (likes, follower counts) feel good but don’t necessarily mean your marketing is generating revenue.

More useful things to track:

• Website traffic from social and other channels (Google Analytics)
• Enquiries and leads generated — how many, and from where?
• Email open rates and click-through rates
• Conversion rate — of the people who enquire, how many buy?
• Cost per lead or cost per acquisition if you’re running paid ads

Set a baseline now — even if it’s just recording how many enquiries you get this month — so you have something to compare against. Marketing that isn’t measured can’t be improved.

A blog is one of the most effective long-term investments in your online visibility — but only if it’s done with a purpose. Random posts on topics you find interesting rarely perform. A blog that answers the questions your customers are actually searching for is a different story.

Blogs improve your search engine optimisation (SEO) — the more relevant, well-written content on your site, the more likely you are to appear in Google results. A well-optimised blog post can bring in enquiries for years. But blogging takes consistent effort and expertise, and a half-hearted blog is often worse than no blog at all.

If you’re considering a blog, be realistic about whether you’ll keep it up. If not, outsource it.

Email marketing means communicating directly with your customers and prospects via email — newsletters, promotions, updates, and more. Unlike social media, you own your email list. You don’t have to pay to reach them, and you’re not at the mercy of an algorithm.
It works extremely well for small businesses, particularly for:

• Staying top of mind with existing customers
• Re-engaging people who’ve bought before
• Promoting offers, events or new services
• Building trust and demonstrating expertise over time

The average return on investment for email marketing is cited consistently as one of the highest of any marketing channel — around £36 for every £1 spent in some studies. The catch is that you need a list to send to and content worth reading.

Copywriting is the words on your website, social posts, emails, ads, leaflets — any written content that represents your business. Good copy tells the right story to the right person and moves them to take action. Bad copy loses you sales you didn’t know you were losing.

Many business owners are great at what they do but find it hard to write about it compellingly. This is extremely common — it’s hard to see your own business clearly enough to write about it in the way a customer needs to hear. Copywriters solve this.

Your website in particular should be a priority. Most small business websites lose potential customers because the copy doesn’t clearly explain what they do, who it’s for, or what to do next.

The honest answer depends on your situation. Here are the key questions to ask:

• Do you have the time to do marketing consistently? If the answer is no (or only sometimes), in-house marketing tends to be the first thing that slips.
• Do you have the skills? Social media, paid ads, SEO, email marketing, copywriting — each of these is a specialism. Doing all of them to a decent standard takes years of experience.
• Can you afford a full-time in-house hire? A marketing manager will cost £30–45k+ salary, plus NI, holiday, pension and training.

Outsourcing works particularly well for SMEs because you get access to a team of specialists at a fraction of the cost of a single employee, with no recruitment headache and no sick days. The risk is finding someone who truly understands your business — but a good outsourced partner will invest time in doing exactly that.

The market is crowded, so knowing what to look for helps:

• Look for a track record with businesses like yours — SMEs have different needs to large corporates.
• Ask for case studies or testimonials, not just a glossy portfolio
• Beware of anyone who promises specific results (rankings, follower numbers, leads) — good marketers set realistic expectations
• Avoid agencies that lock you into long contracts before demonstrating results
• Check that they take time to understand your business before recommending anything — a good partner asks questions, a bad one sells a package

A free discovery call is a standard starting point. Use it to see if they ask the right questions, not just to hear a sales pitch.

An outsourced marketing consultant (or outsourced marketing team) provides marketing expertise and delivery to your business without being employed by you. They typically work with multiple clients, bringing a breadth of experience alongside the focus of someone who is genuinely invested in your results.

The difference from a traditional agency is often scale and relationship. Smaller outsourced consultancies tend to be more hands-on, more flexible, and more embedded in your business — you’re working with the same people rather than being passed between account managers.

For small and medium-sized businesses, an outsourced marketing partner is often the most cost-effective way to get professional, consistent marketing without the overhead of an in-house hire.

PR (Public Relations) is about managing and building your reputation — particularly in the media, but also across your industry and community. It’s distinct from advertising in that you earn coverage rather than pay for it.

For small businesses, PR can mean:

• Getting featured in local or trade press
• Being quoted as an expert in your sector
• Building relationships with journalists, podcasters or influencers
• Sharing news and stories that position you as a credible, established business

You don’t need a PR crisis to need PR. Proactive reputation-building — even at a small scale — can open doors, build trust with potential customers, and create a business profile that goes beyond your own channels.

Brand is more than a logo and colours. It’s the overall impression people have of your business — what you stand for, how you communicate, and how consistent you are across everything you do.

Building a strong brand as a small business comes down to:

• Clarity — being specific about what you do and who you do it for
• Consistency — using the same tone, look and feel across every touchpoint
• Personality — letting the human side of your business come through
• Credibility — backing up your claims with evidence (testimonials, case studies, results)

Brand is built slowly through repeated positive impressions. Every post, email, meeting and customer interaction is part of it. The businesses that build strong brands are the ones that show up consistently and authentically, not the ones with the biggest budgets.