It’s very easy for small businesses to ‘drift off course’, especially when they don’t have a full-time experienced marketing leader to keep them on track. 

Most marketing agencies say they offer marketing strategy as a service. However, far too many use it as a way of selling their other tactical delivery services, rather than working with their clients on building a well-considered, robust strategy. 

With me, strategy comes first. Every single time. My job is to help small businesses step back and gain clarity. We'll take a fresh look at what you're currently doing and why—always in the context of your industry and your customers' needs.

Once that strategy is nailed down and everyone internally is fully onboard, that's when we make a start on the long-term marketing activity that will keep your business moving in the right direction and bring more leads to you. 

I first started working in PR back when press releases were sent through the post, so quite a while ago! I worked with technical/industrial business and was surprised at how much I like learning about complex technology and communicating its benefits to other people - even if it is a sewage macerator pump! 

I absolutely hate not knowing how to do something, so I purposely moved to a few different PR/marketing agencies to learn new PR and marketing skills - which is partly how I have such a broad skillset now - and work with different types of businesses. 

Much as I enjoyed working in an agency, I like to know exactly what result my work is having (which is tough on large campaigns) so I went in-house to a small law firm as their first ever marketing manager. That way I could see what the direct effect my work was having, and absolutely loved it. 

I spoke to the senior team and the fee earners doing the BD activity. Then I created a marketing strategy from scratch, communicating it to the whole team so that everyone was on the same page, and then set about communicating it to their potential customers. The feedback from the fee earners was that the difference was clear and immediate. 

I’m also very money-conscious so I also enjoyed looking at the marketing budget and working out how to use it more wisely, and made huge savings so the money could be better used. 

I’ve worked in a few small and medium-sized business since, and always go through the same process, which has repeatedly been proven to work. This is why I set up Herkess Marketing, so I could help more small businesses to be more effective with the marketing activity they do, and keep on getting a high five from salespeople when I make their job easier.