Independent Marketing Review

Your marketing, reviewed with no stake in the answer

In ten working days you will know what is working, what to stop, and what to do next quarter, from someone with no stake in the answer.

Who books a review, and when

You run a £1m to £10m firm and spend £3,000 to £20,000 a month on marketing, through an agency, a marketer, or your own evenings, and you cannot tell whether it is working. Your agency says it is. Your marketer says it needs more budget. The review is a second opinion from someone who is not paid by the current arrangement.

The review suits firms of 10 to 50 people in B2B professional or tech-enabled services, UK or US, with no senior marketing leader. You own or run the business, and one of three moments has usually prompted the call.

The renewal moment
Your agency contract or your marketer’s probation is coming up, and nobody in the business can judge it. The review gives you a basis for that decision other than the supplier’s own report.
The money moment
Funding has closed, a new financial year has started, or you have just arrived as CEO or MD. You have a fresh mandate and no plan. The review turns the mandate into three priorities with the money attached to each.
The exit moment
You are thinking about a sale in one to three years. A buyer discounts marketing that depends on you, so you need to know how much of the pipeline would survive without you. The review answers that with numbers, before a buyer asks.

Ten working days, twenty-four items

Every review covers the same twenty-four items in the same order, so nothing is quoted as an extra and the results can be compared quarter to quarter. Pick a phase to see what happens in it.

Before we start

Everything needed to make the ten working days count, so day one is analysis rather than chasing logins.

  1. Scoping call A 20-minute call, followed by a written scope confirmation.
  2. Intake form Goals, spend by channel, team and suppliers, and what has been tried.
  3. Access checklist Read-only access to GA4, Search Console, ad accounts, CRM, email platform, and LinkedIn pages. Sent within 48 hours of booking.
  4. Records Twelve months of spend and results, existing plans, and the last three agency reports.

Interviews

Three conversations, because the people running the work know things the dashboards do not.

  1. Owner or MD 60 minutes with you on the business, the target, and what a good year looks like.
  2. Sales lead 30 minutes on what a qualified enquiry looks like and what happens to it.
  3. Marketer or agency lead 30 minutes on the current plan and the brief they are working to. Optional, and their call.

Nine analysis modules

The same nine run on every review, so the scorecard can be compared quarter to quarter rather than read as a one-off opinion.

  1. Positioning and message Website, decks, LinkedIn, and two recorded sales calls if you have them.
  2. Ideal client and pipeline maths Lead sources, conversion by stage, cost per client, payback, and pipeline coverage against target.
  3. Channel by channel What each channel costs, what it returns, and what the data can and cannot prove.
  4. Website and conversion Performance, tracking, forms, calls to action, and mobile.
  5. Search and AI visibility Search Console trends, how your firm appears in AI answers, schema, and llms.txt.
  6. Founder and company LinkedIn Profile, cadence, engagement, and whether any of it feeds the pipeline.
  7. Marketing operations and data CRM hygiene, attribution, reporting, and the blind spots.
  8. Team and suppliers Who does what, the quality of the briefs, accountability, and what the money buys.
  9. AI in the marketing function Tools in use, the risks, and the two or three quick wins.

What comes back

Eight deliverables, all yours to keep and to hand to whoever does the work next.

  1. Written review 20 to 30 pages, in plain English, findings first.
  2. One-page scorecard All nine modules, traffic-light rated, for the board.
  3. Stop, keep, start table One table, with the money attached to every line.
  4. 90-day plan Three priorities, one owner per action, and what to measure.
  5. Spend reallocation table Where the same budget should go next quarter.
  6. Readout 60 minutes with the leadership team, in person or on a call.
  7. Recorded walkthrough For anyone who was not in the room.
  8. 30 days of questions Email access after the readout, at no extra cost.

How independence is handled

Highland Edge may later be asked to run some of what it reviews. So the rules are set before the review starts, and they apply to every engagement.

  • Delivered first. The review is complete, and paid for, before any proposal for further work is made.
  • Marked honestly. Every recommendation says whether Highland Edge could deliver it or could not.
  • Yours to take anywhere. The plan belongs to you, and you can hand it to any supplier, including the ones you already have.
  • No self-review. Highland Edge does not review marketing it already runs.

Tom Pearson leads every review personally, and capacity is held at three reviews a month so that stays true.

The fee

£2,500

Paid on booking. Ten working days from the day access is granted.

Book a 20-minute scoping call

The invoice follows the call. The access checklist arrives within 48 hours of booking.

The plan

Everything that comes back is yours. Take it to any supplier, act on it yourself, or hand it to whoever you appoint next.

The term

Nothing in the review commits you to anything further. If the readout leads to a fractional CMO retainer, it runs on a six-month initial term and then month by month, and it is only proposed after the review is done.

Questions before booking

What does the Independent Marketing Review cost?
£2,500, paid on booking. The fee is fixed and so is the scope, so nothing is quoted as an extra.
How long does the review take?
Ten working days from the day read-only access is granted. The scoping call comes first, the invoice follows the call, and the access checklist arrives within 48 hours of booking. Your own time across the ten days is about four hours, most of it in the interviews and the readout.
Will the readout turn into a pitch for a retainer?
No. The review is delivered, and paid for, before any proposal for further work is made. Every recommendation is marked as something Highland Edge could deliver or could not, and the plan is yours to take to any supplier. If you do want Highland Edge to carry on, that conversation happens after the readout, on your initiative.
What do we need to provide?
Read-only access to GA4, Search Console, ad accounts, CRM, email platform, and LinkedIn pages; twelve months of spend and results; any existing plans; the last three agency reports; and about four hours of your team’s time for the interviews and the readout.
We already have an agency and a marketer. Is the review still relevant?
Yes. Most firms that book a review have one or both. The review covers what each supplier costs, what it returns, and the quality of the brief they are working to. Your agency or marketer is offered an interview as part of the scope, and every finding about their work is written so it can be shared with them.
Is the review useful for a firm preparing to sell?
Yes. If you have a sale in view, the review reads your marketing the way a buyer will: how much of the pipeline depends on you, what the numbers can prove, and what would need to be in place for the pipeline to hold after a change of ownership. The 90-day plan is written with that in mind.

Higher Ground. Clearer Edge.

Book a scoping call

Twenty minutes to confirm the scope and the timing. The invoice follows the call, and the access checklist arrives within 48 hours of booking.

Book a 20-minute scoping call