Ongoing stress, and the toll it takes on your wellness, can be a real issue for many entrepreneurs, no matter how successful they are. Overwhelmed business owners should take advantage of available technologies that allow you to streamline your business and relieve some of your work-related stress without sacrificing productivity. With the help of business-friendly […]
Your company’s mission is the reason your company exists. It’s the ‘why?’ that drives you. Many companies turn their mission into a simple statement. A mission statement differs from a vision statement in that a vision is where you want to be at the end of your mission. One of the most famous vision statements […]
Let me be clear – marketing is not an isolated entity in your business. Decisions you make about your company will directly affect your marketing and how successful it can be. This means you need to understand your business and how it works before you spend anything on marketing, and that’s what we’ll delve into […]
As a UK business owner, you need a reliable team like Underpin Marketing by your side if you’re going to achieve your sales and marketing goals. If you aren’t sure how to find and hire the right professionals for your team, here’s some information that can help. Before recruiting professionals to join your team, it’s […]
Public relations is usually associated with the protection or promotion of your company’s image. This can be protection from a crisis, or positive promotion though press releases and interaction with the media. Some PR is proactive, meaning you are promoting something, and some is reactive, i.e. something has happened and you want to contribute or […]
P&O Ferries released a new advert this week which showed people getting more and more excited about being able to travel again. P&O wants to make ferries a choice for the flying generation, who don’t think of ferries when choosing to travel abroad. The director of passenger sales Sarah Rosier has said “as a market […]
Sky recently announced the winners for their Footprint Fund competition. This competition gave five companies the opportunity to win £1 million in advertising fees. The judges included advertising legend Sir John Hegarty, Su-Mei Thompson, CEO of the Media Trust, Juliet Davenport, CEO of Good Energy, Lindsey Clay CEO Thinkbox, Stephen Woodford, chair of the Advertising […]
An NFT is a confusing concept, but it is an asset verified using blockchain technology, which gives buyers proof of authenticity and ownership, basically bragging rights! Simply put, NFTs are just like real world products but they stay online and can be enjoyed time and time again. For example, owning the rights to an online […]
TFL launched a new advert this week welcoming back passengers to London, the advert comes after the announcement of “freedom day” this Monday, which saw an end to covid lockdown measures. The advert showed the famous tube stop signs, a bus destination sign, a bus stop button, and platform signs with different slogans. Reminding viewers […]
Guinness has just released a new advert in which everyday objects look like the white and black stout, including; a pair of socks on a washing line, a white cat on a bin, a black front door and a snowy setting. The company has also pledged £30 million to support pubs around the UK which […]
Subway recently announced that customers can now add Walkers crisps as a filling option to their sandwiches, this was widely talked about on social media. Subway isn’t the first company to change a product by upgrading it with another existing product – McDonalds have done it time and time again most famously with the Double […]
Agencies with large client portfolios often come across the problem of having an amazing idea for a marketing campaign, but knowing that several of their clients work in the same industry, who do they share it with? It’s a tough decision – and one we never would want to make. This is why we will […]
Lockdown season three is coming to an end and the world is slowly getting back to normal. Pubs, hairdressers, hospitality and gyms are beginning to open again, but what does this mean for your business? In a recent Marketing Week article, business leaders have estimated that the economy will bounce back quickly and judge that […]
Getting a bad review for your company can be a huge problem. This blog is being written in November 2020, during the Coronavirus pandemic. Almost every one of your customers is either online, or being forced online. Reputation is always important but especially when it can be reduced to a star rating, or a number. […]
A marketing plan should be dynamic, constantly adapting and evolving with the needs of your business and your customers. But many companies use that as an excuse not to write their plan down. A study by Gail Matthews at Dominican University in California found you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you […]
Strategy is what we start with at Underpin Marketing. We believe that without a good strategy you won’t be able to maximise your budgets and effectively grow your business. So many people think they can ‘do’ marketing, and do you know what? They are probably right. Passion, knowledge and determination can help you achieve almost […]
Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is one of the most important marketing tactics available to many organisations. The term can refer to an approach to content, as well as the technical process of making improvements behind the scenes. Both forms of SEO help search engines, especially Google, understand what a website is about and who […]
Remember GDPR? Over the last few weeks we have all received marketing emails from organisations we either never remember signing up for – or haven’t spoken to for years. And we all know why. During the age of Corona, companies need to let people know what is going, how they are approaching things, what it […]
So, it’s personal information time. I met my wife when I was 19 – in 2006. That means I have never experienced speed dating or online dating. No Tinder for me. Because of the way that Underpin Marketing operates, I have found the best way to get new customers is through meeting people in person […]
When someone comes to me for consultation my first question is always: What is your company’s mission? If they don’t know the answer, we start there. Even in my book The Five Step Marketing Plan, the first thing I talk about is mission. Without a mission you cannot decide whether anything you are doing is […]
There are so many words for avoiding failure – prudent, risk-averse, cautious. In business, especially small ones, there is always a little voice in your head that doubts your plans. When consulting with a client on a new marketing strategy, I inevitably come up against risk aversion. Now, don’t get me wrong, risk aversion can […]
“So, you’re a marketing agency, right?” We’re asked this all the time and the answer is usually longer than the questioner expected. Underpin Marketing sees itself as a marketing consultancy, not an agency. But what is the difference between a marketing consultancy and a marketing agency? And why do we believe that consultancy is better […]
Blogging is an essential part of the content marketing plan for many businesses. It helps demonstrate your expertise and answers the questions people might have about working with you. It’s also a great way to provide the regular, quality content that is so important to getting the attention of Google and other search engines, and […]
Since moving from the safe harbour of paid employment into the fantastic world of running my own business, I am talking to roughly 50 people a month who seem to have issues with their marketing. One of the common threads in most conversations is some of the shady practices marketing companies are employing to keep […]
Hello there, They say a builder’s house always gets worked on last. Here at Underpin Marketing, we know the feeling. We love working with our clients and we love marketing, but we rarely get time to work on our own projects. Part of our code of conduct is to ‘be good.’ That’s why we have […]
There are many ways to build marketing strategy. When thinking about what you want from your marketing strategy, a key aspect is time. To me, there are two types of marketing strategies.
Public relations is usually seen as a way for big companies to protect a good reputation. But for small businesses, it can be a great way to build your brand and awareness. What is Public Relations? Public relations is the management and improvement of your reputation and brand. It differs from advertising because it’s not […]
Marketing strategy is a fundamental part of what Underpin Marketing does. By understanding who you are, what your customers want from you, and why you do what you do, we can build a strategy that is focused, cost-effective and realistic. But it’s crazy how many people we deal with don’t put this one thing at […]
When initially setting up Underpin Marketing there were a few things I wanted to achieve. One of the main things was to provide marketing that is collaborative, transparent and worthwhile to our clients. It seems like an obvious goal but I have found, by being on both the agency and client side, that this isn’t […]
A healthy work/life balance is a central part of our code of conduct. By having a thoughtful approach to our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing we can be more productive in the long term, and be able to provide a better service to our clients. It’s easy to be on social media or working 24/7 but sometimes we all need to “go fishing” and that’s what we do regularly here at Underpin Marketing.
Next time, on your website… Binge watching works for Netflix, why can’t it work for your business? Customer Engagement A great way to engage your customers in your content marketing is to create a series of articles and release them weekly. This type of episodic content can be based on an ongoing project, a theme, […]
You are an authority in what you do, it’s why you run your business. Turning this authority into marketing, and showing your expertise, can lead to better business opportunities. It’s time to talk about authority marketing. What is authority marketing? Every time someone walks into your shop or business, or you visit someone in their […]
I think the biggest threat to any company’s marketing is the use of jargon. Jargon is a word, term or phrase that experts of a subject will understand but people unfamiliar with that subject will not understand. Almost all of the companies I have worked with want their marketing to show them as being experts. […]
Game of Thrones is the biggest thing on the planet right now. The marketing department at HBO are doing some stellar work. But we can also learn some things from the show itself. Today, I am going to talk about bending the knee before you know who you really are. SPOILERS ARE COMING! If you […]
Don’t fear the leap. After 16 years working for somebody else I have decided to start my own business: Underpin Marketing. Its mission is to prove that small business marketing matters. I have always found that start-ups, micro businesses and small enterprises are the ones that need good websites, good marketing strategy and good social […]
