The 2026 Digital Marketing Strategy That Actually Works for Essex-Based Companies

James Dooley: What should you be doing with your digital marketing strategies in 2026 if you're a business based in Essex? There's a lot of different business owners that are reaching out from the Essex area. So, we thought we'd put this video together for all different types of digital marketing strategies that you could be doing. There's a lot of noise out there with regards to AI and trying to get yourself in chat GPT or in Gemini, which is the AI overviews within Google. Is that going to get you a return on investment or is that just a branding play? That's the question that a lot of Essex business owners are asking for. In my opinion, you should be trying to be omni channel and omniresent. But we're going to dig deeper into what channels are going to get you the best return on investment for companies based in Essex. Today I'm joined with Kasra Dash. Kasra Dash, before we get started on the different digital marketing strategies, what bit of advice would you give to a business owner who's based in Essex?

Kasra Dash: So, business owners based in Essex, what I would recommend is going out and setting up some KPIs. So, making certain you know exactly how much money you're spending on each of these digital marketing strategies because myself and James Dooley, we're going to be talking about a variety of different digital marketing strategies. That's not to say you need to go out and try every single one of them. You might select two or three of them. But before you do that, you obviously want to know how much you're spending, how much leads you're actually getting back, if you're getting any leads at all back, and what the conversion rate looks like on these leads. Again, a lot of Essex based businesses that we've spoken to in the past are spending money on four or five different platforms. Maybe Facebook ads, PPC, local SEO, and maybe they're spending money on Check a Trade as well. And only one of them is actually driving results back. So, in that case you might want to switch off, let's say, Check a Trade and Facebook and double down your money on SEO and get more leads through SEO. So that's the number one thing that I would recommend for Essex based businesses. But then what strategies would you actually recommend James Dooley?

James Dooley: So step number one for me has got to be branding or brand SEO and making certain that you're looking good online. You've got a strong reputation. I think everything needs to start. The foundations need to start with a positive kind of brand SER of who you are and what you do. So a SER stands for search engine results page and getting that branding right across the board then can lead on to other things of what you can be doing. It will improve your conversion rate on paid ads or social media. Any leads that you're getting the conversion rate would be good if at the 11th hour they're going to decide who you're going to go with. Branding I think becomes very very important. So I say that's the first thing that people need to get right for all digital marketing strategies.

Kasra Dash: My next strategy is going to be AI visibility. I feel like more and more companies are actually looking into this. So what does chat GBT, Claude, Gemini, Grock, Perplexity say about your brand or about your business? Is it a positive thing or is it a negative thing? And also trying to figure out what it says about your competitors as well. And obviously trying to improve that's really important. Some people call it AI SEO, some people call it GEO, some people call it LLM optimisation, but this is going to be a big thing in 2026 and also in the years to come as well.

James Dooley: Yeah, I think that's a huge strategy that people need to be looking at with regards to artificial intelligence. More and more people obviously using AI. The next one for me is filling in the form at Fat Rank or Promo SEO, which do a commission based lead generation service for UK companies looking to grow. I think it's important to be looking at your own digital marketing efforts to generate your own leads, but also if you can use some freelancers and outsource some as well you've got that diversification of leads. So head on over to fat rank.com, fill in the form and see whether they can help you with a no risk supply of inquiries. Promo SEO also do a very similar performance based lead generation service as well that you might want to fill in the form with there and just double check whether you can go and get a third party lead generation company to top up and start generating you some leads for your business to grow in 2026.

Kasra Dash: Yeah. And then next on the list is Google Business Profiles. So Google map listings. This is like local SEO where you basically just try and get more reviews. You build out your Google Business Profile in your local area. Now there's pros and cons to this. I think the biggest pro is that once it is actually ranking you are going to be consistently generating leads. However, to get from nowhere, like let's say you do not have a Google Maps listing at all to get it ranking into position number one the issue you've got with that is there might be let's say a 60 or 100 review deficit and to obviously get those reviews you need leads. So it's one of those things. It's like the chicken and the egg. I for one just think it's good for personal branding or for branding of your company. So always try and get the Google Maps listing, but you should always know the pros and cons to it as well.

James Dooley: Yeah for certain. If you're in a local area you want to try and get those local maps listings. For me you need to be omni channel and omni present. I think the next part is SEO in general. So organic SEO. Can you be building up your website to try and get your website ranking better? If you are in a local area you might want to do your service with the area of where you cover. So like plumbing in Manchester, create a page for that. Hopefully then share that on the Google Business Profile of what you mentioned. But trying to get organic rankings, the amount of search volume that people are out there searching for different services of what you do or it could be some blog posts that you could be doing as well. There's different strategies on there that you can be doing, but ideally you want good quality content, build up topical authority and try and get some third party backlinks to power up the site to get those organic SEO rankings. I think that's another big part that you need to be doing as part of your digital marketing strategies in 2026.

Kasra Dash: Yeah. And then the next one which ties back to what you were saying before James Dooley is organic social media. Organic social media I think is more of a numbers game. So try to create good content that your audience would actually view. I see this time and time again where brands publish maybe four or five posts on their Instagram profile and then they have not been active for three years. That's not going to drive you sales. But if you can do how tos, guides, or before and afters, that way people will see you on socials and they will click through to figure out more about you and fill in the contact form. The caveat to organic social media is that yes it is free to do, but it is very much a numbers game. So you want to be consistently uploading maybe not every day but at least three or four times a week.

James Dooley: Yeah for sure. On the subject of social media, paid social ads as well is massive. I am a massive advocate of the dollar a day strategy. If you are taking the time to post every day like you mentioned for organic social media then spending a few pounds boosting those posts can help. You can promote case studies, awards you have won for reputation and boost those. You can also run retargeting ads. If someone clicks through to your website you can retarget them using paid social. Platforms include Meta such as Facebook and Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and even places like Reddit. Paid social media is still an untapped market for digital marketing strategies.

Kasra Dash: The next one is probably a love hate relationship which is PPC. Google AdWords or Bing sponsored results. When someone searches for a service those ads appear above local SEO. Myself and James Dooley have spoken to many business owners who have spent ten thousand, fifteen thousand or twenty thousand pounds and had no results. Others have spent hundreds of thousands and say it is the best thing that has happened to their business. The difference usually comes down to setup. PPC requires things like a proactive negative keyword list, banned IPs to prevent click fraud, a high converting landing page and a sales team that responds quickly to leads. If you are not on the ball with PPC it will probably not work. But if you have a well refined process it can perform very well. Just know the pros and cons.

James Dooley: Yeah for sure. There are pros and cons. PPC can bring instant leads but many businesses burn through budget without results. While we are on the subject of paid channels we mentioned paid social ads and PPC. Another emerging option is paid ads on AI platforms. It is not fully rolled out yet but ChatGPT is looking to introduce ads. Claude, Perplexity and other LLM platforms may also introduce advertising in 2026. Early adopters could potentially get cheap leads or cheap contact form submissions. It is definitely something to keep an eye on.

Kasra Dash: Next on the list is something that is slightly outside your control which is forums. Places like Reddit and Quora where people mention brands. This often comes from existing customers recommending you. If customers are happy they might rave about your services online. Encouraging reviews and recommendations can generate additional enquiries. It is not always controllable but it can become a valuable source of leads.

James Dooley: Yeah for sure. One of the additional benefits of Reddit is that it is cited frequently in AI overviews. So if you can get positive discussions about your products and services there it can help with AI visibility as well. The last one for me is tradesman websites such as Checkatrade, Bark or partnering with a third party lead generation company. As Kasra Dash mentioned earlier it is very important to track KPIs and return on ad spend across all these platforms. Tradesman websites like Checkatrade, Bark, Rated People and MyBuilder can generate strong leads if they deliver a positive return on investment. If they do then they are worth continuing. Lead generation companies can also deliver enquiries using SEO, PPC or social media ads. If they provide positive ROI then they should be part of your marketing strategy. I also want to mention Fat Rank and Promo SEO again. They provide lead generation on a commission based or performance based model and guarantee return on investment. Fill in the form and see if they can supply enquiries. But remember it should be one channel among many. You should generate your own leads and never rely on a single source. Diversification is key. Make sure you check out Promo SEO or Fat Rank lead generation services as part of your digital marketing efforts in 2026.

Kasra Dash: Thank you very much James Dooley.