Marketing tools that tell you the truth about your marketing
Four free diagnostics built from the same questions I ask in a paid review. No trial, no paywall, no drip sequence — just a score, a reason and a prioritised next step.
One question → cited answers
- Question01
- Retrieval02
- Citation03
Start with whichever question you actually have
Each tool answers a different question. If you are not sure which applies, start with the maturity grader — it points at the right one.
Marketing Maturity Grader
Twenty questions across strategy, demand generation, conversion, data and leadership. You get a 0–100 maturity score, your weakest pillar, and a prioritised list of what to fix first — sent as a branded PDF.
Best if you suspect the problem is structural rather than a channel not working.
Open marketing maturity graderFractional CMO ROI Calculator
Compare the fully-loaded cost of a full-time Marketing Director against fractional leadership at the days you actually need, and see the pipeline uplift required for each to pay for itself.
Best if you are weighing a senior hire against a fractional arrangement.
Open fractional cmo roi calculatorWebsite & funnel health check
A structured review of the things that decide whether traffic becomes enquiries: proposition clarity, page structure, proof, forms, follow-up speed and measurement.
Best if traffic looks reasonable but enquiry volume does not.
Open website & funnel health checkUK SME marketing benchmarks
The reference ranges I use when reviewing an SME's marketing: budget as a share of revenue, cost per qualified enquiry by channel, conversion rates by stage, and how long each channel realistically takes.
Best if you need to know whether your numbers are normal before you change anything.
Open uk sme marketing benchmarksMost SME marketing problems are diagnosis problems
Owners rarely need another tactic. They need to know which part of the machine is broken.
When marketing underperforms in a £1m–£25m business, the instinct is to change the channel: new agency, more ad budget, a website refresh. Occasionally that is right. Far more often the channel is fine and the failure sits upstream — an undifferentiated proposition, no clear definition of a qualified lead, or a follow-up process that lets enquiries cool for three days.
These tools exist to separate those cases before money moves. A maturity score tells you which pillar is weakest. Benchmark ranges tell you whether your cost per enquiry is genuinely poor or simply normal for your sector. An ROI comparison tells you whether senior leadership is affordable at the level you need it. All four give you something specific to argue about with your team, which is more useful than another generic best-practice list.
Nothing here is gated behind a sales process. Use the outputs with your own team, your existing agency, or as the agenda for a board discussion. If you want a second opinion on what the results mean, that is what a discovery call is for.
Questions about these tools
Where to go next
A few things worth reading — and the pages most people move to from here.
Related insights
- Marketing StrategyWhy Your Marketing Isn't Working (And It Probably Isn't the Tactics)The positioning and priority problems that make good execution look like bad marketing.
- SME GrowthWhen an SME Should Hire a Fractional CMO Instead of a Marketing DirectorThe revenue, team and complexity signals that decide between part-time and full-time leadership.
Related services
- UK SME marketing benchmarksBudget ratios, cost per enquiry and conversion ranges for £1m–£25m businesses.
- Marketing consultancyAn independent review of what is working, what is not and what to do next.
- Fractional CMOSenior marketing leadership on a retained, part-time basis.
- Book a discovery callA 30-minute call to size up the opportunity.
Want someone senior to read your results with you?
A score is a starting point. Thirty minutes with someone who has run these programmes turns it into a plan.