How I set up my new business from a marketing perspective
After 20+ years in marketing, this is how I approached the branding, storytelling, website, email marketing and systems for Eighth Era, and what I'd prioritise if I were starting a business today.
After losing a business I co-founded last year (more on that here), when I started building Eighth Era, I wanted to do something differently. More than anything, I wanted to build a business that actually felt like me.
That sounds incredibly obvious - it's my business, of course it should feel like me. But I think it's surprisingly easy to build a brand around what you think other people will like. You look at your competitors. You look at what's trending on Instagram. You think about what potential clients expect a business in your industry to look and sound like. You worry about what Jenny from high school will think she sees your first Instagram post. Somewhere along the way, you can end up with something perfectly polished and/or diluted that you don't actually feel connected to at all.
This time round, I wanted something that told my story. I wanted it to feel like the externalisation of everything I've learned, experienced and come to believe over the past 20+ years in marketing and five years of running my own businesses. I wanted to have opinions and give the brand a proper personality. I wanted to talk like I actually talk, work with people I genuinely liked and do work I was excited about. And yes, I wanted it to look lovely too.
This is the fourth brand I've built, so I wasn't starting from scratch in terms of knowing what works. If anything, I think experience makes you much more ruthless about what actually matters.
I also knew I didn't want to build something based on what I thought a marketing business should look like. I wanted to take everything I've learned from building brands for other people, and from building my own, and apply it to something that felt completely aligned with where I am now.
And that is probably the biggest difference this time. I've never felt more aligned with a business I've created.
So, this is a look behind the scenes at how I approached building a new business, in the hope that some of it might help you too. Because there are approximately 847 things you could do when you start a new business, and knowing what to do first is often the hardest part.
This is what I chose to focus on, the order I did it in and the thinking behind some of those decisions.
1. Start with what you actually want to build
Before the logo, before the website and definitely before worrying about whether my Instagram bio had the right keywords in it, I started with what I actually wanted to build.
Why am I doing this? What's important to me? What do I value? What do I want this business to give me, as well as the people who work with me?
I thought about the kind of work I wanted to be doing and the people I genuinely wanted to work with. I thought about what I wanted Eighth Era to become known for, what I believed about marketing after doing it for more than 20 years and how I wanted someone to feel when they came into contact with the brand.
And, maybe most importantly, I thought about what I didn't want to recreate.
If you're starting a business, rebranding one or even looking at your existing brand and thinking something feels slightly off, I'd spend some time here before you open Canva. What do you want to be known for? What kind of work do you want more of? Who do you want around you? What matters to you? What are you absolutely not willing to build again?
You don't need a 48-page brand strategy at this point. You need a strong sense of what you're building and why. For me, that became the foundation for almost every decision that followed.
2. Find the brand story that's already there
I didn't want to force or invent a clever brand story for Eighth Era. I wanted it to feel natural, easy and reflect exactly where I’m at right now.
I was 44 and starting again. There had been a pretty painful ending before this beginning, and for a while I wasn't even sure whether I wanted to start another business. It was August, my birthday month, and I kept coming back to the number eight. It's always been my favourite number and I love what it represents in numerology.
Four plus four gave me eight. I was starting a new chapter, a new era, and Eighth Era was born.
That story isn't something I've bolted onto the business because storytelling happens to be good marketing. It's part of why the business exists, and I've decided to lean into it.
The founder is part of the brand. My experiences are part of it too. The mistakes I've made, the things I've learned, what I believe and the way I see marketing are all allowed to show up.
Your story obviously won't be mine, and it doesn't need to involve some enormous life-changing event to be interesting. Think about why you started, why you chose this particular business and why you care about the problem you solve. Think about the experiences that have shaped the way you work or made you see your industry differently.
You probably don't need to create a brand story. You need to notice the one that's already there.
Authenticity isn't a content pillar. It has to underpin everything.
3. Get really clear on your ideal client
One of the most freeing decisions I've made is accepting that it doesn’t have to be for everyone, and that's entirely the point.
I have such a clear picture of my ideal client that she has a name, a whole personality and, without sounding completely unhinged, I think about her all the time.
I know what she's brilliant at, what she's frustrated by and what marketing feels like in her business right now. I know what she's probably tried already, the things she keeps putting off and where she wants her business to go next. Having that level of clarity means that when I'm making decisions about the brand, I'm not trying to appeal to some enormous, faceless group of “small business owners”. I'm thinking about her.
Would she understand this? Would she care about it? Would she save it? Would she pay for it? Would she read something I've written and think, oh God, she's talking to me?
And just to be clear, having an ideal client doesn't mean you can only work with people who fit that exact profile. Of course you can work with people who aren't “her”. I do, and I will.
The point isn't to restrict who can buy from you. It's to give your marketing someone to talk to.
Because when you try to write something that speaks to everyone, you usually end up saying something so broad that nobody really feels like it's meant for them.
You absolutely don't need to give your ideal client a name or invent an entire imaginary life for them, but you should have a clear idea of the person you're trying to reach. If your answer to “who is this for?” is still something like small business owners or female founders, I'd keep going.
Your clients can be broader than your marketing. Your marketing just needs a clear person in mind when you sit down to write it.
4. Decide what you want to be known for
Before I started planning content, I wrote down what I actually believe about my craft — marketing.
Marketing doesn't have to be rocket science.
People buy from people. Your personal brand matters.
AI is incredibly useful, but it shouldn't replace you.
Good messaging will do more for your business than spending a fortune on a logo.
Referrals are lovely, but relying entirely on them isn't a marketing strategy.
There is no silver bullet or quick wins and we’re anti hustle culture.
And likes aren't the same thing as business results.
These beliefs are becoming the backbone of Eighth Era. They give me plenty to talk about, but they're much bigger than content pillars. They influence the services I offer, how I work with clients, what I recommend, who I want to work with and, increasingly, what I say no to.
If you're trying to work out what your own brand should talk about, try writing down five things you really believe about your industry. Not five things you think will perform well on Instagram. Things you've learned through experience. Things you wish more of your clients understood. Things you would happily defend over a glass of wine.
That's probably where some of your best marketing is hiding.
5. Build the visual brand around all of that
Then came the fun stuff: the colours, fonts, photography, messaging and all the little details that make a brand feel like a world rather than a collection of Canva templates.
But notice how far down this list we are before I've mentioned any of it.
By this point, I wasn't staring at Pinterest asking myself what looked nice. I already knew what Eighth Era stood for, who it was for, how I wanted it to feel and the story I wanted it to tell. The visual identity needed to make all of that visible.
I wanted the brand to feel considered and editorial, but still warm and human. I wanted something with personality. Most importantly, I wanted something I genuinely loved rather than something designed to look like every other marketing business on Instagram.
It feels a bit like 1989 meets Lover, underpinned by Folklore (yes, Swiftie here!) And I'll be honest, I'm obsessed with it.
That feeling matters more than you might think. I want to enjoy creating things for Eighth Era. I want to proudly send people to the website. I want to put it out into the world.
Your brand doesn't need to appeal to every person who could conceivably buy from you. It just needs to resonate with the right people and feel like something you feel aligned with and actually want to show up for.
6. Make it really easy to understand what you're selling
Working out my offers took considerably longer than choosing a font. As it should. TBH - they’re actually still in development at time of writing this!
I didn't want a giant menu of marketing services where you could pick a bit of this, add three of those and perhaps have a side of Instagram management and a bit of life coaching thrown in for good measure!
I want a small number of clear ways to work with me that reflect the work I'm best at and the problems I actually want to solve.
I'm certainly not claiming to be an “offer expert”. There are brilliant people who specialise in that, see Ceels Lockley. But I do know that I don’t want somebody landing on the website and having to decipher 14 different services before they could work out which one they needed. I want to package the areas where I can make a real difference and solve problems that my ideal clients are struggling with.
This is something I see a lot with service businesses. We describe what we sell from our own perspective, using all the terminology we understand, rather than simply telling the client what we can help them achieve.
The best way to get this? Talk to people. Find out what they need. It’s that simple.
Don't make people work too hard to buy from you.
They don't need to understand every tiny detail of your methodology before they've even enquired. They need to recognise their problem, understand how you're going to help and know what to do next i.e how to contact you!
And you are absolutely allowed to refine this. Your offers aren't tattooed onto your body the day you launch. You don't need the next five years of your product roadmap mapped out. You need a clear answer to a much simpler question: what can somebody hire me to help them with now?
7. Build your own corner of the internet
You don't need to be everywhere, but you do need a simple marketing ecosystem that makes it easy for someone to find you, learn more about you and take the next step.
For Eighth Era, I'm keeping that pretty simple. Instagram is where people might find me. My website is where they can learn more about me and what I do, and get in touch. Email is where I can stay in touch with them.
Each one has a different job, but they all need to work together.
I'm very pro website and if you want to be taken seriously, don’t overlook this. Social media is incredibly useful for discovery and connection, but your Instagram profile isn't a replacement for having somewhere that properly explains who you are, what you do, who you help and how someone can work with you.
I built a custom Squarespace website for Eighth Era, but I deliberately launched it with just three pages. I didn't wait until I had every service page, blog post, case study and piece of content I might eventually want on there. I built what the business needed to launch, and I'll keep adding to it as Eighth Era grows.
That's something I think is really important, especially if your website is currently the thing holding you back. Your website can grow with your business. It needs to give someone enough information to understand who you are, what you do and what they should do next. It doesn't need to contain everything you've ever thought about your business on day one.
You don't need 15 different platforms. You need a few that have a clear job and make it really easy for someone to move from I've just found you to I'd like to know more.
8. Start building an email list from day one
If there is one thing I will bang on about until everyone gets bored of me, it's this: build an email list.
I've used Flodesk for around five years and was one of its early adopters. I love it, so choosing it again for Eighth Era was an easy decision. But honestly, the particular email marketing platform you choose isn't the important bit. The list is.
This one is particularly personal for me because I've experienced what happens when a social audience completely disappears. Thousands of followers can be gone overnight. An email list is different because you own that relationship and you have a way to stay connected with the people who have actively chosen to hear from you.
So I didn't want email marketing to be something I “got around to eventually”. I wanted it built into the marketing foundations of Eighth Era from day one.
And please don't think you need thousands of subscribers before it's worth sending an email. Start with 10 people. Then 50. Then 100.
Just start.
9. Set up the systems that make the marketing work
Now we get to the part of starting a business that doesn't make a particularly sexy Instagram carousel: the technology.
This is also where everything can suddenly feel overwhelming, because many of us are not tech wizards. But it doesn’t need to be complicated — your domain needs to talk to your website, your website needs to talk to your email platform, enquiries need somewhere to go, clients need contracts and invoices, and at some point somebody needs to actually be able to pay you.
I’ve tried to keep this as simple as possible.
First, I bought the domain and connected it to the Squarespace website so the business had a proper home. I then set up Google Workspace for my Eighth Era email, calendar and files, because I wanted a proper business email address from the beginning.
Next came Flodesk. I connected the email forms to the website so someone can join the list and receive what they've asked for without me manually emailing PDFs at 11pm.
For enquiries and clients, I use Dubsado as my CRM. That's where I can manage the journey from somebody getting in touch through to proposals, contracts, invoices and eventually the client project itself. I also connected the payment side so that when somebody is ready to work with Eighth Era, paying me isn't unnecessarily complicated.
Finally, I added Google tracking and analytics so I can start understanding how people find the website and what they actually do when they get there.
There will be more automations — hello, Meta pixel. There will be things I change. There will almost certainly be systems I outgrow. But I don't think you need to build an enormous tech ecosystem before you've even got clients.
If you're setting up the marketing systems for a new business, I'd start with five questions: Can someone find me? Can they contact me? Can I follow up with them? Can they become a client? Can they pay me?
If all five work, you're in pretty good shape.
10. Create a content plan that shows people how good you are
Once the foundations are in place, you need a plan for what you're actually going to say. And no, that doesn't mean filling a calendar with random post everyday just so you can say you've been “consistent”.
Your content has a job to do. It should help the right people understand what you're good at, how you think and why they might want to work with you.
Start with what you want to be known for. Choose a handful of subjects that sit naturally around your expertise, your offer and the things your ideal client actually cares about. Then think beyond simply educating people. Share your opinions. Challenge things in your industry you don't agree with. Talk about what you've learned through experience. Show your work and how you approach it. Answer the questions clients ask you all the time. Tell stories that give people a better sense of who you are.
You don't need every piece of content to be a mini masterclass either. Some should demonstrate your expertise, some should build trust, some should start a conversation and some should simply make the right person think, I like the way they think.
The goal isn't to churn out more content. It's to consistently show the right people what you know, what you believe and why you're bloody good at what you do.
You shouldn't have to keep telling people you're an expert. Your content should make that obvious.
11. Launch in a way that feels like you
If this is new to you, this can be the daunting part. You've spent all this time quietly building something behind the scenes and suddenly you have to actually tell people about it.
The best advice I can give you is to do it in a way that feels true to you. Don't suddenly jump on camera because someone told you that's the only way to launch a business if you're not someone who enjoys being on camera. Don't force yourself into doing dancing Reels, a seven-day countdown or whatever happens to be working for someone else that week. There isn't one correct way to launch.
For me, the story was always going to be the most important part. I didn't want my launch to be another “✨ EXCITING NEWS ✨ I've started a new business!” because the fact that I'd started a business wasn't actually the interesting bit. Why I was starting again was.
It was uncomfortable to tell and far more vulnerable than most things I'd shared online before. I wondered approximately 400 times whether I should post it. But it was true, so I shared what had happened, how I'd felt, why I'd decided to start again and what I was building next.
The response completely blew me away. People messaged me with their own stories. People told me they'd experienced something similar. People who had never interacted with my content before reached out. And I did all of that without suddenly becoming someone I'm not.
That's really the point. Your launch doesn't need to be louder than everyone else's. It needs to give the right people a reason to care. That might be a beautifully written post, a personal email, a series of photographs, a video, an event or you talking directly to camera. Choose the format that lets you show up at your best, not the one you think you're supposed to use.
It reminded me of something I've believed for a very long time: people connect with people, not perfectly polished businesses.
And I think that's probably the biggest lesson from building Eighth Era so far. The branding matters. Your website matters. Your email list matters. Your systems and offers matter. But none of those things will make a business feel authentic if you've created the whole thing by looking sideways at what everybody else is doing.
I didn't want to manufacture authenticity for content. I wanted to build something that actually felt authentic in the first place.
For the first time in a very long time, I feel completely aligned with what I'm building. That’s my goal for you, too.
If you’re right at the beginning, you’ve totally got this.
I’m rooting for you.
