Introduction…
If you’ve read the Business & Marketing Introduction, you’ll already have a sense of what I’m planning with this feature category. This overview takes it a step further — a topic-by-topic guide of what I’ll be covering, with a brief description, and where my own experience fits. Some topics I know well; others I’m navigating in real time. Anyhow, it should give you a clear sense of whether it’s relevant, or of interest, to you…
Business Planning & Strategy
Business Planning covers the process of setting direction for a business — defining goals, understanding the market, planning finances, and creating a roadmap for growth. Business Strategy takes a broader view, looking at competitive positioning, resource allocation, and long-term decision making. Together they form the commercial backbone that determines whether a business grows purposefully or simply reacts to whatever comes next.
This is the area where my professional background carries the most weight. As a CIMA qualified accountant with experience in both business partnership and commercial support, business planning is genuinely familiar ground. I know how to build a plan, supported by a robust set of numbers, and based upon sound and realistic assumptions — and I’ve also reviewed more than enough to know what separates the ones that are likely to succeed from the ones that won’t. The articles here will aim to make that knowledge accessible and practical, without turning into a snoozefest.
Branding & Positioning
Branding covers the visual and verbal identity of a business — its name, logo, colour palette, typography, tone of voice, and the overall impression it creates. Positioning goes a level deeper, addressing how a business differentiates itself in the market: who it’s for, what it stands for, and why someone should choose it over the alternatives. Together, they form the foundation on which everything else — marketing, content, design — is built.
I’ve thought carefully about both for BlueMoonCreative.Services, and the various sites launched through the business so this isn’t unfamiliar territory. That said, branding for a one-person business has its own particular challenges — you are the brand, which makes objectivity difficult and consistency even more so. The articles in this area will draw on both the theory and the practical reality of building and maintaining a recognisable presence, particularly for small businesses and freelancers who are doing it largely on their own.
Tagged: Branding
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the practice of creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — with the longer-term goal of driving profitable action. Rather than interrupting people with advertising, the idea is to give them something genuinely useful that builds trust and keeps them coming back. It covers everything from blog articles and video to email newsletters, social media, and downloadable resources — and the strategy behind deciding what to create, for whom, and where to put it.
This is very much a case of knowing the theory and now putting it into practice. Running BlueMoonCreative.Services is, in many ways, my own live content marketing experiment — and my site portfolio is the proof of concept. I understand the principles well, I have a clear enough sense of my audience(s), and I’m learning in real time which formats and topics get traction. Expect the articles here to be honest about what’s working and what isn’t, rather than presenting a polished version of a strategy I’ve had running for years. A lightly buffed version, you might say, as it is still a little rough round the edges (and sometimes the centre).
Tagged: Content Marketing
Email Marketing
Email marketing involves communicating directly with an audience via email — typically through newsletters, promotional campaigns, automated sequences, or a combination of all three. At its best it’s one of the most cost-effective digital marketing channels available, offering direct access to an audience that has actively chosen to hear from you. The key elements include list building, segmentation, copywriting, design, deliverability, and measuring what actually works.
This is another area where my knowledge is ahead of my current practice. I understand how email marketing works, I’ve used it in various contexts, and I know the tools well enough to be useful. In terms of running my own consistent email programme — that’s something I’m building towards rather than something I can report back on from years of experience. That said, I think there’s value in sharing the setup process and early learnings as they happen, rather than waiting until I have a success story to tell.
Tagged: Email Marketing
Audience Growth
Audience growth covers the strategies and tactics used to build an online following — whether that’s website traffic, social media followers, email subscribers, or some combination of all of them. It includes organic approaches like SEO, content strategy, and community engagement, as well as more targeted activity such as collaborations, guest posting, and paid promotion. Underpinning all of it is a clear understanding of who you’re trying to reach and why they should bother following you.
Audience growth is something I am still actively working on, rather than something I can look back on and admire the numbers, so the articles in this area will be as much a record of the journey as a guide. What I should bring to it is a methodical, commercially grounded approach: setting realistic targets, tracking the right metrics, and making decisions based on data. My brutal reality, and this should not always be overlooked, is relying on a gut feel for my target audience (often based on perceived wants and needs rather than verified ones). It won’t always make for the most dramatic reading, but it should make for a practical and honest approach.
Tagged: Business Growth
Analytics & Reporting
Analytics refers to the collection, measurement, and interpretation of data about how people find and interact with your website and online content. It covers tools like Google Analytics and Search Console, understanding traffic sources, tracking conversions, and — crucially — knowing how to turn numbers into decisions. Reporting takes that analysis and communicates it clearly, whether to yourself, a client, or a wider team.
This is probably the area of the category where I feel most at home. The accountant in me is entirely comfortable with data — reading it, questioning it, and drawing sensible conclusions from it — and I do miss the day job, sometimes. I’ve used analytics tools across my own projects and client sites for years, and I have a reasonable grip on what the numbers actually mean versus what they can be made to look like. The articles here will focus on practical interpretation rather than feature walkthroughs — the goal is always to help you make better decisions, not just to produce prettier dashboards (although that is a service I can also offer!).
Tagged: Analytics
Tools & Platforms
The tools and platforms category covers the software, apps, and services that support business and marketing activity — from CRM systems and email platforms to project management tools, analytics dashboards, and AI-assisted workflow tools. With the market for these constantly expanding, the challenge is less about finding options and more about knowing which ones are worth the investment in time, effort and money to justify the expected return.
I’m a natural researcher when it comes to tools — I like to know what’s out there, how things compare, and whether the reality matches the marketing. I’ve tested a fair number of platforms across my own projects and client work, and I have a reasonable sense of what to look for and what to be sceptical of. The articles here will be practical and honest — covering what I actually use, what I’ve tried and moved on from, and occasionally what I’m currently evaluating. As I currently have a number of associated products in my toolkit, affiliate links will be flagged where relevant, and as always, will be supported by a genuine recommendation. Speaking of which, have I told you about…
Tagged: Toolkit
In Closing…
The feature articles for each of these topics are being published under Business & Marketing. If any of the above has caught your interest, simply bookmark the link and revisit in your own time to check out the latest articles. Alternatively, if you’d prefer regular notification of when new articles are available, you can subscribe and I can send ‘extremely important’ emails to your inbox!
