Marketing support in Milton Keynes

How do you know when it’s time to outsource your marketing?

We’re all good at something, but marketing might not be the thing that you’re good at. Whatever business you’re running, working for or freelancing with, you might be doing an amazing job operationally, delivering a fantastic service or producing brilliant products, but you are starting to recognise a few things when it comes to your marketing. Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

1. Your marketing isn’t consistent (marketing strategy and planning)
2. You know you need more customers to hear about you (brand awareness)
3. You’d like people who’ve bought from you to buy more (brand loyalty)
4. You’d like to launch new products and services (communications)
5. Your “website isn’t working” is something I hear a lot
6. You’ve got loads of great photos, customer testimonials and stories but you don’t have time to share them
7. You can’t keep up with the changes on social media platforms
8. You have no idea where to start with social media schedulers or email schedulers
9. You’ve outgrown the marketing identity you started with (this happens to everyone)
10. Writing isn’t your strength and you need words for your website and marketing materials

Marketing Freelancer Milton Keynes

If any of these sound like where you might be, have you considered enlisting the support of a marketing freelancer like me? You can work with me on a project basis or on-going to deliver monthly or weekly activities for you and your business. 

Does it sound expensive? That’s why I don’t call myself a marketing consultant (sounds pricey)! I come with marketing baggage from the last 20 years. I’ve seen it all over the years; fax outs, in-house direct mailing systems, websites that only used to fill your screen (no scrolling), pre-smart phones, pre-social media, pre-CRM systems and now here we are with a wealth of social media channels to choose from, podcasts and the magical mystical world of SEO (which is actually very straightforward).

Your marketing “isn’t working”

Marketing is a big job, I don’t find it easy to service clients and keep my own marketing up to date! It’s like anything, you reap what you sow. Thinking long term, will get you results ‘popping up a few social posts’ might get short-term interest, ‘going viral’ and dancing on TikTok will only get you so far, the ‘marketers’ and ‘content’ people with their claims to get you a bazillion followers and such are the snake oil peddlers of the marketing world. Yes, there are quick wins to get you on your way, but like anything, consistency, your messaging and talking to the right people is everything (engagement over likes and followers).

So back to is it expensive? I’d say no. You pay an accountant, you pay the person to come and PAT test plugs, you pay a cleaner to do a great job, this is another necessary business expense. What I’m here to do is make it easier, inject ideas, processes and systems, connect you with experts like me who can make your marketing work.

How much does marketing cost?

Your costs to make your marketing work better might include:

1. A social media scheduling tool – stop posting manually all the time and queue up a series of engaging content to stay connected to your audience and avoid panic posting.
2. An email marketing system (you’ve probably come across Mailchimp, that sort of thing). This will get your emails scheduled, looking great and you’ll be able to see who opened what. Email campaigns can be set up, so for example someone clicks the pop-up on your website or fills in a form – they then get sent one or more emails from you.
3. Canva is a brilliant tool, you might have used the free version, less and less free stuff is becoming available. Canva will allow you to create visuals, resize photos, remove backgrounds from images, make videos, put text over images and more, it is a very cost-effective tool.
4. A website, if you haven’t got one yet, there will be the cost of your domain (your www.whatnot.co.uk) your ongoing hosting (where it lives) and maintenance fee from your web developer, the cost of the actual build and then possibly the cost of a copywriter (like me) and a photographer if you need new pics.
5. A marketing freelancer like me to help you get all this set up, from project management to writing the copy, doing your keyword research and SEO, writing the important meta tags and descriptions which get your website found, getting the templates set up in these systems and keeping your marketing moving.

There are free options for some software, as you scale, scale up your tools to automate and make your life easier and get insight that will help your marketing to be even better.

Freebie essentials include:

1. Checking your social media insights
2. Google Analytics
3. Google alerts – set them up to see if you are mentioned, your services, your competitors etc.

Freelance marketer Milton Keynes

Have I got the skills you are looking for to give your marketing momentum? My heart is in content marketing, copywriting, email marketing and social media. Like any profession there are experts in videography, graphic design, PPC and more, I can connect you with some trusted professionals in these areas.

Have you got a valuable team member off on maternity leave, sabbatical or you’re recruiting for a marketing role but need someone to take on the responsibilities until you get the right person in post? Talk to me, I work on short-term contracts on a flexible, part-time basis. I have a portfolio of ongoing and project-based clients. I also offer training for individuals and teams, so if your in-house marketers need a bit of support to get things off the ground or manage big seasonal projects or events get in touch. I work on a virtual basis, 5 days per week, I’ve worked for a bunch of different sectors over the years. Check out my services and get in touch if you have any questions.