The Marketing Optimist

25/09/2026

We are The Marketing Optimist and we are LinkedIn addicts.

Which is why we loved The Marketing Meetup this week in Leeds.

Eve Macdonald lead the discussion on how and, importantly, why you should build a personal brand on LinkedIn

The panel discussion with Jessica Rhodes CMktr, James McMath and Ben Potter talked right around the subject talking about the dreaded thought leader’s disease - basically if you use that term you’re not one at all.

There was lots of discussion around the use of AI to create content, our thoughts are you are on a dive to the bottom of you’re prompting and posting with no editorial thought going in to your post.

We really love the opportunity to meet markets at these events, it’s gets us out of the office

The next Marketing Meetup in Leeds is in October at Genio on Leeds Dock

15/09/2026

Ideas come thick and fast at Get to the Point! That’s because all our speakers have to stick to a few rules:
- 20 slides
- 15 seconds each slide
- NO SALES PITCHES

We’ve got 10 brilliant people lined up to talk on the night
Katie Thompson
Clare Clifford
John Burgess
Mark McWhirter
Oliver Meech
Diane Hall
Jashan Patel
Tom Fowler
Damien Murphy
Jim Ker - Chartered Marketer (CMCIM)
Phil Eaves

It’s all part of Leeds Digital Festival and we’re hosting at Genio on Leeds Dock on September 29th from 6pm.

15/09/2026

News stories are no longer tomorrow’s chip paper. Once the initial coverage has drifted away, good story placements hang around and boost SEO and search rankings.

Getting on TV and in print is very cool and businesses love it. Digital cover is great but doesn’t always feel quite a special. One thing that press coverage does do, no matter where you get it, is help your SEO massively.

Google and the AI searches love a citation, a quote, a third party reference and they comes in bucket loads with good PR.

And that’s why we run these campaigns for clients like Michael Wood at North Bay Group Ltd. They got massive coverage for the TV, print and digital slots we got them that raised awareness around their new care homes in the North of England.

If your business needs a PR boost and an SEO lift my team The Marketing Optimist are ready to help you just drop us a line.

13/09/2026

LinkedIn Business pages don’t work.

Or that’s what most people will have you believe. The truth is that if you’re not posting to your business page it’s a self fulfilling prophecy. No posts, no reach, no engagement, no point posting.

Posting to business pages on LinkedIn is hard and I think that one of the main reasons companies avoid it.

Post to your private account and you can be you, off the cuff, off brand, interesting even, you’re allowed to have an opinion.

But create social media posts for a Business page and suddenly you lose all interest and drive because you are worried about how the business talks, what it looks like and who it’s talking to.

We run successful business pages on LinkedIn for Sharp Consultancy, Andiamo and Delamode International Logistics. And they do really well.

The difference is that we make them interesting by involving the business teams, posting about relevant stories, having an opinion and keeping the messaging consistent, without being dull.

Sure personal pages are important, but business pages on LinkedIn are the shop window for your business, if there’s nothing there, are you still in business?

If you need help bringing your LinkedIn business page back to life and making a difference again, let me know

11/09/2026

It’s been a busy week for us. Fair to say we are networked out. After the in Manchester on Wednesday we were at Digital Clubhouse on on Thursday.

This is a must for serious digital marketing geeks like us as industry experts and plucky startups talk about big swings in their marketing as well as the f*ck ups too.

It’s well worth attending if you get the chance.

09/09/2026

Don’t shout us down, we love Manchester.

We know, we know, but the place is just so inspiring. There’s a real buzz.

We were there for which was held at beautiful head office.

There were some brilliant talks by Penny Langton and Mercy Fulani and it was a chance to meet lots of new faces. A big hello to Lauren Martin, Olga Kapachenia and Adil Ladha who organises the meet-ups.

We loved it and we’ll be back for sure

07/09/2026

12 mystery boxes have been lovingly handmade over the weekend and are going out to very special places this week.

What do they contain?
Who is due to receive one?

If you’re one of the lucky recipients, don’t tell anyone else, just open the box, see what’s inside and get in touch with me and let’s have a chat.

It could be you!

06/09/2026

Wouldn’t all presentations be better if they had a strict five minute deadline?

If you can’t get to the core point of your pitch, presentation or argument in five minutes or less then you’re wasting time.

Get to the Point cuts through all that. Our 10 speakers have to stick to the rules.

1️⃣ 20 slides
2️⃣ 15 seconds each slide
3️⃣ No sales pitches

The next event is on September 29th Genio on Leeds Dock as part of the fabulous Leeds Digital Festival.

Tickets are just £10 with all sales going to support homeless charity Simon On The Streets

There’s not many places left so be sure to book your tickets before they all go.

The booking link is in the bio

06/09/2026

Good luck to the team of fighters from Compass Martial Arts who are competing in York today.

Good luck to our sparring squad, competing in York today, try your hardest, have fun and most importantly make sure Mr Kev Uttley behaves

18/06/2026

The most important question for any client is “how will you know if this has worked?”

It’s a really important question. Clients big and small are spending scarce budgets on projects and you need a clear reference for success or failure.

This is a question I normally ask clients at the end of a meeting. Yesterday in a meeting about a new website the client turned the tables on me which was refreshing.

I know there are loads of considerations for success of a website project but the key ones for me are:

Do you like how it looks? We’re all driven by visuals, so if it leads oks crap it’s not a success.

Does it drive leads or sales? If its a commercial website and it’s not helping your business make sales it’s a failure

On this project we’d be redeveloping an existing site so it’s really key that we successfully move the SEO and improve on it.

What measures of success do you look for in a new website? Let me know.