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What we’re re-thinking.
Strategy notes from inside the studio on paid media, organic, brand systems and AI automation. It’s the thinking we used to keep private, posted openly so you can read the practice before you hire it.
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Showing 97 to 117 of 117 older posts, newest first
How to market a craft-led brand without making it sound cheap
Worried marketing will make your craft-led brand sound cheap? How to grow the work tastefully, without the guru act, course-bro hype, or selling out.
Which marketing number actually matters for a small business?
Followers and likes can climb while nothing gets paid. Here is how to find the one marketing number that means money is coming, and track it for free.
Why "Set It and Forget It" AI Automation Always Breaks
"Set it and forget it" was never true of AI automation. Here's why it breaks, and the five questions that predict whether a build will still be running in 12 months.
Content and Email, Run as One System, Not Two Vendors
Content and email aren't two vendors' jobs, they're two stages of one loop. Here's where that loop actually breaks, and why the fix is structural.
Brand Identity vs Brand Design: What an Established Brand Actually Needs to Fix First
Brand identity and brand design aren't your problem if the strategy underneath is wrong. Here's how to tell which one actually needs fixing.
Why Your Website Redesign Didn't Move the Number It Was Supposed To
Your new site launched, looked sharper, and the number you cared about didn't move. Here's why, for websites and apps both, and what to check first.
Retention Beats Acquisition: Turning an Existing Customer List Into Compounding Revenue
Acquisition gets harder and pricier every year. Here's how an established brand turns its existing customer list into a retention engine that compounds.
When to hire an agency vs build an in-house marketing team (the honest trade-offs)
Should you hire a marketing agency or build in-house? The real cost comparison, what each model gives you, and how to tell which one fits your stage.
Why your ads stop scaling, and what an established brand does about it
Why your ads stop scaling: rising CAC, audience saturation, and creative fatigue. What an established brand does to scale spend without ROAS collapsing.
Why your business sounds like everyone else (and the one-line fix)
Most businesses don’t have a marketing problem, they have a sameness problem. Run one test on your own sentence this week and fix it.
Why agencies over-promise and under-deliver, and how to spot it before it costs you
Why marketing agencies over-promise and under-deliver, the mechanism behind it, and the early signs you can spot before it costs you a quarter.
How a Brand That Already Sells Builds a Marketing Engine That Compounds
An already-profitable brand doesn't need more random acts of marketing. It needs one accountable engine where paid, organic, email and content compound.
The zero-click survival plan: how a small brand stays visible when 68% of US Google searches end without a click
68% of Google searches now end without a click. The Social Target's five-move plan keeps a small brand visible when the visit disappears.
How to choose a marketing agency you can actually trust (after the last one let you down)
Burned by your last marketing agency? How to choose one you can actually trust: the signals that matter and the questions that expose a bad fit.
The questions to ask a marketing agency before you sign (a founder’s checklist)
The questions to ask a marketing agency before you sign, plus the five contract clauses to read: fee, term, exit, ownership and payment.
What a marketing agency should report on (and the vanity metrics to walk away from)
What a good marketing agency reports on: pipeline, revenue and cost per outcome, not impressions. Plus the vanity metrics to walk away from.
Why your “best month” is a CAC payback problem, not a creative win
A standout campaign month feels like proof. But if your customer acquisition cost is still recovering twelve months later, the spike just borrowed from next year. Here is how to read the difference.
Ad spend isn’t a budget. It’s a duty cycle
Treating paid media as a monthly budget is what makes brands flatline at the same MRR every quarter. Treat it as a duty cycle instead. Pulses on, recovery off. And the curve bends.
The retainer is the reps; the reps are the practice
Project work pays the bills. Retainers build the practice. The difference is whether you walk away after delivery or stay long enough to see the second-order effects of the work compound.
When AI automation actually saves a channel (and when it just hides the symptom)
AI automation is having a moment, and most of the proposals we see don’t pass a basic test: does this remove a job that was producing nothing, or does it remove a job that was producing the signal we need?
The brand system is the retention system
The story that a brand system is just visual identity is the most expensive misread in marketing. The system is what makes the second purchase feel inevitable.
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The Social Target · Limited · Est. 2017 · London