Japan is an attractive market for many B2B businesses from the UK. Large economy. Sophisticated buyers. High willingness to invest in quality. Strong long-term customer relationships once trust is established. And yet, I repeatedly see companies stall, burn budget, or quietly withdraw after 12-18 months with little to show for it. In most cases, the product wasn’t the problem. The opportunity was real. The issue was how the go-to-market approach was designed. Here are the mos

Sussex is an interesting place to run a business. There’s a strong mix of established professional services firms, growing technology companies, creative and marketing agencies, manufacturing, healthcare, education and ambitious SMEs. Many have national or international reach. Yet they’re rooted in a region where reputation, networks, and local visibility still matter. For years, many Sussex businesses have grown through relationships, word of mouth and founder-led selling. T

Poor marketing decisions rarely announce themselves loudly. They don’t usually arrive as dramatic failures or obvious mistakes. More often, they show up in ways like: a campaign that underperforms, a tool that never quite gets adopted, an agency relationship that drifts, a website that feels dated but never quite gets fixed. Individually, these things feel manageable. Collectively, they become expensive. In growing B2B businesses, the real cost of poor marketing decisions is

One of the most valuable and unexpected lessons in my career came from learning Japanese - not as a linguistic exercise, but as a way of understanding how language, culture, and meaning interact in marketing. It’s one thing to translate words. It’s another to 'translate meaning' in a way that resonates with the audience’s worldview. For example, when I worked on reviewing the Japanese edition of The Ideas Book , written by Kevin Duncan - comparing it to the original English v

Marketing technology promises efficiency, automation and insight. And in many cases, it delivers. But in growing B2B businesses, martech stacks often evolve in a very different way. A CRM gets added to organise contacts. An email tool follows. Then analytics. Then automation. Then a social scheduling tool. Then a reporting dashboard. Before long, your business has a collection of disconnected platforms , overlapping functionality, inconsistent data, and no clear view of what’

Most B2B businesses measure marketing. The problem is they often measure the wrong things. Marketing dashboards fill up with charts. Monthly reports get circulated. Numbers are discussed in leadership meetings. Yet when the inevitable question arises - “ Is marketing actually driving growth? ” - the answer still feels unclear. In many organisations, metrics have grown organically. A CRM report here. A campaign dashboard there. An agency’s preferred KPIs layered on top. Over

Ask most leadership teams what’s holding back growth, and you’ll hear familiar answers: pipeline volume, pricing pressure, longer sales cycles, tougher competition. Ask sales teams, and they’ll mention lead quality. Ask marketing teams, and they’ll mention lack of follow-up. Somewhere between the two sits one of the most persistent, and underestimated, growth blockers in B2B: misalignment between sales and marketing . It’s rarely dramatic. More often, it shows up as small fri

At some point in every growing business, marketing reaches a crossroads. Referrals and reputation have taken you far. A team or agency is producing activity. Campaigns are running. Content is going out. But results feel inconsistent. Pipeline visibility is patchy. Sales and marketing aren’t fully aligned. And leadership starts asking a familiar question: “Do we need proper marketing leadership now?” It’s the right question. But the answer isn’t always “hire a full-time CMO.”

If you’ve ever stared at a marketing dashboard and thought, “Ok… but what does this actually mean?”, you’re not alone. Most businesses drown in data - clicks, impressions, followers, sessions - yet still struggle to answer the simplest questions: Is our marketing working? Are we getting value from our spend? What should we do next? That’s because too many dashboards measure activity, and not impact. They tell you what’s happening, but not why it matters. You need to build das

If you run a small or mid-sized business, you’ve probably felt this frustration. You hire an agency. The work looks good. The reports seem positive. But sales? Pipeline? Revenue? They barely move. And then you wonder: “Are we with the wrong agency?” Sometimes, yes. But most of the time, the problem isn’t the agency - it’s the lack of focus, leadership, or structure around them. This is one of the most common issues I diagnose as a Fractional CMO and marketing consultant for

Every January, the same question comes up in conversations with agency leaders. How do we grow this year? It’s a fair question. And a difficult one. The last couple of years have been challenging for agencies of all shapes and sizes, and there’s little sign that the market is about to suddenly become easier. Client budgets remain tight. Procurement is more involved. Decision-making takes longer. Competition for briefs is intense. Pricing pressure is constant. And pipeline vis

Ever heard your sales and marketing teams say this? “Marketing says the leads are great. Sales says they’re not.” It’s one of the oldest tensions in business. Both teams want growth, but they often speak different languages and are completely misaligned . That’s where a Fractional CMO (or Fractional Marketing Director) can make a dramatic difference - not by choosing sides, but by uniting both around one shared goal: revenue. Why Sales and Marketing Drift Apart Misalignment

Every growing business hits the same wall eventually. You’ve got campaigns running. Your team is active. Your agency is producing work. But results? They’ve flatlined. Leads aren’t converting. The message feels off. And every new idea feels like more noise, not more traction. At that point, most businesses either: Hire a new agency. Redo the website. Launch another campaign. But what they really need isn’t more activity - it’s a marketing reset . What a Marketing Reset Actual

If there’s one question I've heard more than any other in my 20+ years working in marketing, it’s this: “How do we really know our marketing is working?” Most businesses can tell you their sales pipeline, revenue targets, win rates, quarterly forecasts… But ask about their marketing KPIs and you’ll often get something like: “Website traffic is up” or “We’re doing more on LinkedIn” or “Our agency says the campaign performed well.” These statements don’t answer the real questi

If you run a growing business, this story might sound familiar... You’ve built momentum through referrals, networking, and hustle. You’re running campaigns, posting content, maybe even working with an agency. But results? Flat. Leads aren’t converting. Campaigns feel scattered. And the team, even though they’re busy, isn’t sure what’s really working. At this point, most SMEs decide to wait it out. “Let’s give it another quarter.” “Let’s tweak the ads.” “Let’s try a new agency

When you hire a Fractional CMO or Iinterim Marketing Director, the first 90 days are crucial. They’re not just about activity - they’re about alignment. Because most marketing problems don’t come from lack of ideas or effort, they come from a lack of structure, clarity, and focus. That’s what the first three months are designed to fix. Month 1 - Audit, Align, and Assess The first 30 days are about understanding where you are, not rushing to “do more marketing.” A good Fracti

Every growing business eventually faces the same question: “Do we need a senior marketing leader, and if so, should they be full-time?” For many founders, this decision comes at a pivotal stage: the business is growing, marketing is active, but results are inconsistent. There’s a sense that someone needs to “own” marketing, to turn all the moving parts into a clear, repeatable growth engine. But that doesn’t always mean hiring a full-time CMO. Over the past five years, the Fr

When you bring in a Fractional CMO or Interim Marketing Director, the first question that usually follows is: “How will I know it’s working?” It’s a fair question, and one that many marketing leaders don’t answer clearly enough. Because unlike a campaign or ad spend, the ROI of senior marketing leadership isn’t always visible overnight. It shows up in alignment, focus, pipeline, and growth - outcomes that unfold over months, not days. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be measur

The word "fractional" sometimes gives the wrong impression, like you’re getting a “fraction” of a marketing leader. In reality, a Fractional CMO (or Fractional Marketing Director) brings the same senior-level expertise as a full-time CMO - just flexibly, focused on outcomes, not hours. You’re not buying time; you’re buying direction. And that direction is what helps your business move from marketing chaos to clarity - faster, cheaper, and with less risk than hiring full-time

The Leadership Gap in Small Business Marketing If you run a growing business, you’ve probably said it yourself: “ We’re doing lots of marketing, but we’re not sure what’s actually working. ” It’s one of the most common frustrations I hear from B2B small and medium-sized company leaders. The issue isn’t a lack of effort or creativity - it’s a lack of marketing leadership . Without clear direction, teams end up doing marketing, not leading it. There’s activity, but not always p