Marketing advisory services

Grain & Matters provides senior marketing advisory services for businesses that need clearer direction, stronger performance, better agency management, or more effective marketing operations.

I work with Founders, CEOs, CMOs, and marketing leaders on broad strategic questions and more specific commercial, digital, and operational challenges.

I help businesses make better marketing decisions by bringing structure, judgment, and commercial focus to strategy. That can include KPI definition, growth planning, channel strategy, resource prioritisation, forecasting, team structure, or broader marketing strategy development.

Sometimes the need is business-wide. Sometimes it is a specific issue within a channel, function, or team. In both cases, the goal is the same, clear direction on the decisions that improve business performance.

Strategic Advisory

Marketing effectiveness

Marketing is too often treated as a cost centre rather than a growth lever. I help businesses understand how marketing is contributing to acquisition, retention, and profitability, so decisions are based on commercial impact rather than activity or vanity metrics.

My reviews look at performance, channel contribution, lifecycle activity, execution quality, and the link between marketing effort and business outcomes.

The result is clearer thinking, better prioritisation, and more confidence in what to change next.

Marketing Operations

Marketing has become more complex across channels, platforms, reporting, technology, governance, and execution. Even lean teams are often dealing with multiple ad platforms, fragmented measurement, CRM activity, creative production, content demands, and internal coordination challenges all at once.

I help businesses bring more operational rigour to marketing by improving planning, simplifying workflows, clarifying ownership, tightening reporting, and reducing unnecessary friction across tools, teams, and processes.

The aim is not to create more process for its own sake, but to make marketing easier to run and more effective as a result.

Agency selection and oversight

Choosing the right agency is rarely straightforward. Knowing what questions to ask, what good looks like, where the risks sit, and how to compare competing proposals comes from experience.

I help businesses run a more effective selection process, improve briefing, challenge proposals properly, and negotiate stronger commercial terms.

Once an agency is in place, the next challenge is getting the best from the relationship.

I support businesses with agency performance reviews, focus refinement, governance, and course corrections to get the most from their partners.

Engagements are shaped around the problem.

A focused review. A strategic project. Agency support. Ongoing advisory. Hands-on implementation support.

The right scope depends on what the business actually needs.

I don't believe in forcing every problem into a standard consultancy package.

  • Strategic Advisory

  • Independent review

  • Agency selection process

  • Agency Performance Review

  • Audits

  • Planning Projects

  • Operations refinement

  • Tech selection

  • Retained Support

A Practical Approach

Grain & Matters is built around clear thinking, direct advice, and support that adapts to what the business actually needs.

I start with the brief, stay open and honest about scope, and aim to be clear on how I can help before any work begins.

  • To do my best work, I need to understand the business, the numbers, the objectives, and the challenges. That does not mean weeks of onboarding, it means getting clear on what matters, reviewing what you share, and asking the right questions.

  • Whether the work involves one issue or several, progress depends on focusing effort where it will have the greatest business impact. Clear deliverables, sensible timelines, and defined requirements ensure the work is focused and useful.

  • I provide clear advice, practical recommendations and support implementation where needed.

    The work can stay at the level of advice and direction, or extend into documentation, implementation support, and hands-on involvement where needed.

If you need sharper marketing strategy, a clearer view of performance, stronger agency oversight, or more effective marketing operations, Grain & Matters can help you clarify the problem and the right next move.

If you're interested in working with me complete this form or drop me an email and I’ll be in touch shortly.

Let’s Work Together