Category: Marketing Strategy
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How Much Should a Small Business Spend on Marketing?
If you’ve searched for a straight answer, a fixed percentage, a magic number, you’ll have noticed nobody quite agrees. That’s not because nobody knows, it’s because there genuinely isn’t one correct answer. The right marketing budget depends on your goals, your margins, what stage your business is at, and which channels actually make sense for…
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How to Choose a Marketing Consultant in Shropshire: What to Ask Before You Commit
Choosing a marketing consultant is a decision most Shropshire business owners only make once every few years, which means there’s rarely a chance to build up much experience of what a good one actually looks like. That gap gets filled by sales pitches, glossy case studies, and promises that are hard to verify until you’re…
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Why Renewable Energy Companies Need Clear Marketing
If your renewable energy marketing relies on complex jargon, prospective buyers will look elsewhere for clear answers and reliable support. Most commercial buyers and homeowners do not abandon clean energy projects because they doubt the environmental benefit. They walk away because the technical explanation feels overwhelming, transparent pricing is hard to find, and the path…
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Marketing an Equestrian or Livery Business in Shropshire
Most livery yards fill through word of mouth and the right Facebook group post, not a Google search. That’s true, and it’s also only part of the picture. Anyone new to the area, or not yet plugged into the local network, still searches online first. Equestrian marketing matters because it catches exactly the people your…
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What I Would Do If I Were Marketing a Plant Nursery in 2027
If you are planning to launch or grow an independent plant nursery in 2027, the biggest hurdle your business faces isn’t a competitor with lower prices. It is invisible marketing. Most independent business owners do not struggle with marketing because they lack passion. They spend time doing the wrong things, like wondering what to post…
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Six Quiet Signs Your Website Is Costing You Enquiries
Most Shropshire business owners can tell you exactly how their sales are doing, how bookings look this month, or whether footfall is up or down. Far fewer can tell you whether their website is actually pulling its weight. That’s not a criticism, it’s just not something most business owners have the time or the tools…
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How to Get More Direct Bookings for Your Glamping or Farm Stay
Airbnb, Booking.com and other booking platforms can be valuable for a glamping or farm stay business. They put your accommodation in front of people actively looking for somewhere to stay and can help a new business reach customers who have never heard of it. The problem comes when they’re your only reliable source of bookings.…
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Is Checkatrade Worth It, or Is There a Better Way To Build Visibility?
If you’re a tradesperson weighing up whether to join Checkatrade, you’ve probably seen plenty about the benefits. What’s harder to work out is what it’s actually likely to cost, and whether that spend makes sense for your business. I work with trade businesses across Shropshire on their marketing, and Checkatrade comes up a lot, usually…
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What Should You Know Before Hiring SEO Support?
If you’re thinking about paying someone to help with SEO, it can be difficult to work out what you’re actually buying. One proposal might focus on content and keywords. Another might include technical work, website changes and ongoing strategy. Two businesses could both be paying for an “SEO retainer” and receiving very different levels of…
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Maize Mazes and Pumpkin Patches: Marketing Short-Season Farm Attractions
Seasonal attractions are one of the most demanding forms of farm diversification to market, not because demand is weak, it’s genuinely strong, but because almost all of it happens inside a handful of weeks. Get the timing wrong and there’s no next month to catch up in. One of the UK’s most searched pumpkin patches,…
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Why Your Wedding Venue Needs a Blog, Not Just a Gallery
Barns made up 21% of UK wedding bookings in 2025, and that share is projected to keep climbing, with some industry forecasts putting it at 28% by 2027. The UK wedding venue market as a whole now sits at around £3.9 billion. If you’ve converted a barn into a wedding venue, you’re in a category…
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What Working With an Independent Marketing Consultant Actually Looks Like
“What’s it actually like working with you?” is one of the first questions most business owners ask once they’ve decided an agency isn’t what they’re after. Here’s an honest answer to what working with an independent marketing consultant actually looks like, based on how I work with clients across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin. Most…
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Why I Work With Businesses Across Shropshire, Not Just Telford
I’m based in Shropshire, and while Telford is an important part of the area I work in, my client base has never been limited to one town. I work with independent businesses across Shropshire, including Newport, Shrewsbury, Market Drayton, Shifnal and Bridgnorth, as well as businesses further afield. That’s partly because geography works a little…
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How to Market a Farm Shop: Practical Ideas to Bring in More Customers
Running a farm shop comes with a slightly different marketing challenge from many other retail businesses. Unless you’re fortunate enough to have a large amount of passing trade, customers often need a reason to make a specific journey to visit you. Then, once they’ve discovered you, you need to give them a reason to come…
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Farm Diversification Grants: Why Your Marketing Plan Matters
A grant can help make a farm diversification project financially possible. It can’t guarantee that customers will turn up once it’s finished. Whether you’re considering holiday accommodation, a farm shop, an event space, a visitor attraction or another diversification project, there is a commercial question that needs answering alongside the funding application: Who is going…
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Wedding Barn Marketing: How Couples Actually Find Rural Venues
If you’ve converted a barn or outbuilding into a wedding venue, you already know the building was the easy part compared to filling the diary. Barn wedding venue marketing works differently to most local businesses because couples aren’t searching on the day they need you. They’re researching months, sometimes well over a year, ahead, comparing…
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Farm Diversification Ideas: What Could Work for Your Farm?
Farm diversification can create a valuable new income stream, but the best idea isn’t necessarily the most unusual one. A wedding venue might work brilliantly for a farm with attractive buildings and good road access. A dog exercise field could make far more sense for land close to a large town. And sometimes the opportunity…
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SEO vs Google Ads for Plumbers: Which Should You Invest In?
If you’re deciding between SEO vs Google Ads for your plumbing business, I wouldn’t automatically tell you that one is better than the other. They can put you in front of people at different stages, produce results at different speeds and require you to think about your marketing budget differently. The right choice also depends…
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The Newport Show 2026: What a Day at Chetwynd Deer Park Taught Me About Rural Marketing
The Newport Show landed on one of the hottest days of the year, and it showed. Families spread out across Chetwynd Deer Park with picnics and paddling pools for the little ones, the sort of proper, sun soaked family day out that makes you remember why this show has run for 115 years. Shire horses,…
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How to Market a Plant Nursery Online
Plant nursery marketing has its own challenges. You’re selling something people often want to see, touch and compare, stock changes constantly, demand can be heavily influenced by the weather, and the plants people are searching for in March might be completely different by September. That means marketing a plant nursery online isn’t simply a case…