Fatrank Podcast

James Dooley: If you are a Stoke-on-Trent business looking to grow in 2026 but are unsure which digital marketing strategies you should be using, this is for you. Today, James Dooley and Kazra Dash are breaking down the different types of digital marketing you could use for your Stoke-on-Trent business. Should you hire a local SEO agency in Stoke-on-Trent or a PPC agency in Stoke-on-Trent? These are questions businesses ask all the time when they want more customers and more enquiries. Before spending any money, Kazra, what advice would you give to business owners and entrepreneurs based in Stoke-on-Trent?

Kazra Dash: For business owners in Stoke-on-Trent, the number one thing to do is set up KPIs. You need to know how much money you are spending per campaign, whether that is £3,000, £2,000 on Facebook ads, or something else. You also need to know how many leads have been generated per campaign and what the contact rates of those leads have been. Have you contacted 10 out of 10 leads, or only five out of the last 10? Last, and most important, you need to know how many contacted leads have turned into paying customers or clients. Once you have that in place, digital marketing becomes much more predictable. So James, for businesses in Stoke-on-Trent, what would be the first thing you would recommend?

James Dooley: It has to be branding or brand SEO and making sure you look good online. You need a strong reputation. Everything starts with a positive brand SERP that shows who you are and what you do. SERP stands for search engine results page. Getting your branding right across the board can improve conversion rates from paid ads and social media. When leads are deciding who to choose at the last minute, branding becomes very important. That is the first thing people need to get right for all digital marketing strategies.

James Dooley: My next strategy is AI visibility. More and more companies are looking into this. What do ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity say about your brand or your business? Is it positive or negative? You also need to understand what they say about your competitors and work on improving your own visibility. Some people call it AI SEO. Some call it GEO. Others call it LLM optimisation. Whatever the name, it is going to be a major factor in 2026 and beyond.

Kazra Dash: That is a huge strategy people need to look at because more people are using artificial intelligence every day. The next option is filling in the form at Fat Rank or Promo SEO, which offer commission-based lead generation for UK companies that want to grow. It is important to generate your own leads, but if you can also use freelancers and outsource some of the work, you create diversification. Go to fatrank.com, fill in the form and see whether they can help with a no-risk supply of enquiries. Promo SEO also offers a similar performance-based lead generation service, so it is worth checking whether a third-party lead generation company can help top up your leads and grow your business in 2026.

James Dooley: Next on the list is Google Business Profiles, so Google Maps listings. This is a form of local SEO where you focus on getting more reviews and building out your Google Business Profile in your local area. There are pros and cons. The biggest advantage is that once it ranks, it can generate leads consistently. The challenge is getting from nowhere to position one when there may be a 60 or 100 review deficit. To get those reviews, you need leads in the first place. It is a chicken and egg situation. Even so, it is still good for personal branding and company branding, so always try to get your Google Maps listing in place.

Kazra Dash: Definitely. If you are in a local area, you want those local map listings. For me, you need to be omni-channel and omnipresent. The next part is SEO in general, so organic SEO. Can you build your website up and improve rankings? If you are in a local area, you might create pages around the areas you cover, such as plumbing in Manchester. Then you can share those pages through your Google Business Profile. There is plenty of search volume for services like these, and you can also support it with blog content. The goal is good quality content, topical authority and third-party backlinks to strengthen the site and improve organic rankings. That is another major part of digital marketing in 2026.

James Dooley: The next one ties in with what you said earlier, and that is organic social media. Organic social media is a numbers game. You need to create content your audience actually wants to see. I see brands that published four or five Instagram posts and then disappeared for three years. That will not drive sales. If you create how-to posts, guides, before and after content and useful updates, people will see you on social media and click through to learn more or fill in your contact form. Organic social media is free, but it only works if you stay consistent. Maybe not every day, but at least three or four times a week.

Kazra Dash: On that same subject, paid social ads are massive. I am a big believer in the dollar-a-day strategy people talk about. If you are taking the time to post regularly for organic social, it makes sense to spend a few pounds boosting those posts. Promote case studies, awards and social proof. You can also run retargeting ads so that anyone who visits your website can be shown your ads again. That is paid social too. Platforms like Meta, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and even Reddit can all be used. Paid social media is still an underused area in digital marketing.

James Dooley: The next one is PPC, and it is definitely a love-hate relationship. Google Ads or Bing Ads are the sponsored results you see above local SEO. We have both spoken to business owners who spent £10,000, £15,000 or £20,000 and got nothing back, or got low-quality leads. Then you have others who have spent hundreds of thousands and say it transformed their business. The difference usually comes down to setup. PPC has a lot of nuance. You need a good negative keyword list, banned IPs to reduce click fraud, a high-converting landing page, and a sales team that treats PPC leads as a priority. If you are not on top of PPC, it probably will not work. If you have all the right systems in place, it can perform very well. You just need to understand the pros and cons.

Kazra Dash: Exactly. PPC can generate instant leads, but a lot of businesses burn through budget and get poor enquiries. Since we are on paid channels, I want to mention paid ads on AI platforms. It is not fully rolled out yet, but ChatGPT appears to be moving towards ads, and Claude, Perplexity and other LLMs may do the same in 2026. If you are one of the early adopters, you could end up getting cheap leads or cheap contact form submissions. It is something to keep an eye on.

James Dooley: Another option is forums, though this is less under your control. You can get your brand mentioned on sites like Reddit and Quora. That comes down to whether past customers are talking about you and recommending you. If they are, that is valuable because peer recommendations can generate a lot of leads and enquiries. Ask for reviews and ask people to recommend you to others.

Kazra Dash: Yes, and the added benefit of sites like Reddit is that they are getting cited a lot in AI overviews. When we talked earlier about AI visibility, positive conversations and reviews about your products or services on forums can directly improve your visibility in AI search results.

James Dooley: The last one for me is tradesman websites. That includes Checkatrade, Bark, Rated People, MyBuilder, or teaming up with a third-party lead generation company. Like Kazra said earlier, you need to understand your KPIs and your return on ad spend. Business owners doing any form of digital marketing should track how much time and money is being invested. The same applies to tradesman websites. These platforms can be great for leads and can deliver a positive return on investment. If they do, keep using them. Some lead generation companies use organic SEO, PPC or social media ads to generate leads for you. If they are producing a positive return on investment, then they are worth using as part of your digital marketing mix.

James Dooley: I want to repeat one more time that Fat Rank and Promo SEO offer lead generation and guarantee a return on investment. It is a commission-based or performance-based lead generation service. Go over there and fill in the form. That can be one part of your lead generation strategy, but never rely on one source. You should be generating your own leads as well. You should never have a single point of failure. Diversification matters. Make sure you check out Promo SEO or Fat Rank as part of your digital marketing efforts in 2026.

Kazra Dash: Thank you very much.