Strategy = your plan
Who you want to reach, what you want to sell, why someone would choose you and which work to prioritise.
Marketing explained · Start here
What does a marketer
actually do for you?
If you’ve never paid for marketing, it can be hard to know what you’re buying. This guide explains the work, what you should receive and the questions worth asking — whether you hire us, choose someone else or start on your own.
Marketing, in everyday language.
Marketing helps the right people understand what you offer, why it could help them and how to take the next step. It starts with understanding your customer. It continues through your message, the places you appear and the experience someone has when they get in touch.
A marketer helps you work out who to reach, what to say, where to say it and how to judge whether the work is helping. Depending on the service you buy, they may plan the activity, create it, manage it or do a combination of those jobs.
A simple example: you run a local decorating business.
You want more enquiries for full-room decorating. A marketer might find out what homeowners worry about, help you explain your service, turn real job photos into useful posts, prepare a page that answers common questions and promote it locally. They then review the enquiries with you and recommend what to improve.
You still price the jobs, speak to potential customers and deliver the decorating. The marketer helps people discover and understand your offer.
The words you’ll hear — without the jargon.
Content = what people see
Your videos, photos, posts, emails and website words. Each piece should have a purpose, such as explaining your service or answering a question.
Advertising = paid attention
You pay a platform to show an advert to an audience. The money paid to that platform is your advertising budget. It may be separate from the marketer’s fee.
A campaign = connected activity
A planned set of messages and actions around one goal, such as promoting a new service or encouraging appointment enquiries.
A lead or enquiry = someone showing interest
A message, call or form submission from a potential customer. It is not automatically a sale. An enquiry that fits your service and buying requirements is more useful than one that does not.
A funnel = the steps towards becoming a customer
For example: someone sees a post, visits your page, asks a question and books. A landing page is a page designed around one offer or next step.
What good marketing support should look like.
They understand your business first
Expect questions about what you sell, your customers, your goals, your capacity and what you have already tried. The recommendation should have a reason behind it.
They explain the work clearly
You should be able to understand what is included, why it is being done and what you need to provide. You should not need marketing knowledge to read the proposal.
They help you make decisions
If ongoing management is included, agree how you will see progress and review the next move. A report should explain the numbers in relation to your goal.
What should you actually receive?
The exact work depends on what you buy. A video editor, a strategist and an advertising manager have different jobs. Being a specialist does not make someone a poor marketer. What matters is that their promised scope is clear and delivered.
| If you buy… | Ask for a clear agreement covering… |
|---|---|
| A marketing strategy | The customer and business research, findings, priorities and written plan you will receive. Check whether implementation is included. |
| Content creation | The number and type of assets, who supplies footage or photos, captions, formats, revisions, delivery dates and usage rights. Check who publishes them. |
| Social media management | The platforms, posting schedule, content scope, approvals and reports. Ask whether replying to comments and messages is included. |
| Advertising management | The platforms, campaign setup, creative responsibility, checks, changes and reporting. Separate the management fee from advertising spend. |
| A landing page or website | The pages, copy, images, functions, enquiry route, revisions and handover. Ask about hosting, domains, ongoing costs and who can make changes. |
| An ongoing campaign | The work each period includes, your responsibilities, review schedule, measures, fees and contract terms. Ask what happens if results are weaker than expected. |
You should know what you are getting before you agree to pay. A small, clearly defined job can be valuable. A large promise with no clear scope is harder to judge.
Before you pay, get these answers in writing.
- What are we trying to achieve? Agree a specific goal, such as enquiries for one service.
- What will you deliver, and when? Ask for quantities, milestones and any revisions included.
- What do you need from me? Clarify business information, photos, access, approvals and who responds to enquiries.
- What is the full cost? Check setup fees, ongoing fees, advertising spend, software, hosting and other separate costs.
- Who has access and what can I keep? Clarify account control, final files, licences, usage rights and handover.
- How will I see progress? Agree which measures matter, when reporting happens and how work will be shown.
- What are the terms? Understand payment dates, any minimum commitment, cancellation and what happens when the work ends.
How do you tell whether it is helping?
Start with your goal and your current position. If you want enquiries, record where they came from, whether they fit your service and how many become customers. Your marketer may need information from you to see what happened after the first message.
Attention
Views, reach and website visits can show whether people are seeing you. They do not prove that someone is ready to buy.
Action
Calls, form submissions, bookings or purchases show what people did next. Check the quality as well as the number.
Business value
Look at the customers won, the costs involved and the value of the work. Revenue on its own does not tell you whether a campaign was profitable.
A useful update answers: what did we do, what happened, what does it mean and what should change next? The level of detail should match the service you have bought.
Warning signs worth questioning.
- Guaranteed sales before they understand your business. Ask what evidence supports the promise and what conditions apply.
- A vague monthly fee. Ask what work will happen during that month and how you can see it.
- Impressive numbers with no explanation. Ask how the measures relate to your goal and where the data comes from.
- No clarity about access or handover. Ask who controls the accounts and what you receive when the work ends.
- Pressure to sign before questions are answered. Take the time to understand the proposal and compare the scope.
A big following, a polished website or confident language is not enough on its own. Ask to see relevant work and have the person explain their part in it. Check whether examples are client work, illustrative concepts or verified performance results.
What a marketer cannot do on their own.
Marketing can help the right people find and understand your business. It cannot guarantee that every person buys, make an unsuitable offer right for everyone, or replace a good customer experience.
Your pricing, availability, reputation, response to enquiries and service delivery affect the outcome. A responsible provider explains those dependencies and gives you realistic expectations. Ask when you can expect the work to be delivered, and separately when there may be enough evidence to judge its effect.
Not ready to hire anyone? Start here.
- Choose one service you want to sell and one type of customer who needs it.
- Write down three questions that customer usually asks before buying. Use real conversations where possible.
- Check that your page explains the service, who it is for and how to enquire.
- Create one useful post answering one of those questions, with a clear next step.
- Record enquiries, how people found you and what happened next. Use that information to decide what to improve.
For the decorating example, a useful post might explain how a room is protected and prepared. The next step could be a request for a quote with the room size and location. That connects a real concern to a practical action.
How this applies to Sykes Unlimited.
Our packages show the specific content, platforms and support included, along with the price and the input needed from you. Visibility supports a consistent social presence. Performance adds managed advertising and content capture. Scale connects more of the campaign and enquiry journey. The 90-Day Growth Sprint is a separately defined campaign.
Those packages cover different amounts of work. Advertising spend is separate. Extra work is scoped and quoted, and the proposal confirms the terms before we begin.
You should understand the work before you buy it.
If there is something you are unsure about, ask. Tell us about your business and what you need help understanding. We’ll discuss the options in plain English.
Ask a marketing question →Your enquiry starts a conversation. We agree the work and price with you before anything begins.
Marketing Guide
This is sample content, you can replace it with your own text and images
This is sample content, you can replace it with your own text and images