Welcome to our Little Black Book, an inspirational series of business stories and insights from our brilliant members.

Jarid Hixon

Jarid Hixon on data-led marketing for paid and organic campaigns that win.

By Jarid Hixon

Owner of JJ Digital

JJ Digital are in an industry that is often misunderstood. But Jarid Hixon is offering marketing clarity, and helping clients make better decision

Connect on LinkedIn

Marketing is hard to comprehend for many of us. Numbers, jargon, and endlessly changing best practices. For clients, this can leave them feeling in the dark. JJ Digital and founder Jarid Hixon are intent on changing that.

Since 2018, they’ve taken their data-led approach to a growing number of clients and helped them shine a light on marketing and reap the rewards of greater insight.

Do you want more articles like this in your inbox? If so then register below...

Halfway through a Sports and Fitness degree, Jarid knew it wasn’t what he wanted the future to look like. Instead of quitting, he focused on one aspect of his study and put all his efforts into that – marketing.

After finishing university, he found his first junior marketing role at Wiggle, the sports company, before moving on to De’Longhi Group, setting up their e-commerce departments across Europe and managing traffic acquisition, email, paid and organic campaigns.

But the agency world was calling. He made the switch and began managing a small team. But after a while, he knew he wanted to do better, provide a better service and work with people whose values aligned with his own.

JJ Digital was born.

2018 began with ad-hoc work for friends and local small businesses. When COVID hit in 2020, and Jarid was furloughed, he decided to move things up a gear and take JJ Digital full-time.

Starting out with very small local businesses and the intention of growing them into big businesses, Jarid took some time to find the right cocktail of services to build the offer that would help the business grow.

Realising he and his freelance team were able to deliver greater impact for bigger businesses with ambitions and budgets to match, he carved his market position and this year took on his first member of staff.

"I work with a lot of marketing managers and marketing directors who want to be able to go back to their SLT meetings and say, 'we’ve spent this much, and we’ve earned this much’ with confidence. We make sure they can."

Jarid Hixon, Owner of JJ Digital

For companies that aren’t getting the right results from their paid search or SEO, JJ Digital should be the first port of call. As a priority, they offer clarity. And that in turn leads to better results.

Unlike some agencies, they track the marketing process with customers from first interaction to revenue generation, and clients love the granular way this journey can be tracked. It turns marketing cost into something tangible, not just numbers on a page.

They highlight bottlenecks and form bespoke strategies that help their clients achieve more, as a better understanding of the full journey of a customer is a shortcut to making more money.

"For our partners, we’re someone they know they can rely on. They don’t have to bounce around agencies every 12 months looking for a good outcome – instead, we partner up and things are much simpler, and more effective."

Jarid Hixon, Owner of JJ Digital

For Jarid, it’s essential to clear up confusion around marketing. Being genuinely data-led means the team at JJ Digital aren’t just chucking stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks – it’s strategic marketing, with total transparency and understanding of what’s working and what isn’t.

 

The marketing industry is going through a great deal of change, but Jarid and his team are ready for it. They’re gearing up to be able to grow, but doing it the right way. Consistently, sustainably and proofed for whatever the future holds.

Spark a conversation

Once playing as a semi-pro footballer, and now playing golf off single digits, it’s fair to say sport is a keen interest for Jarid.

On yearly golf trips out to the Algarve and the like, he’s chasing the best courses whilst it’s the bluest and coldest back at home.

The best piece of business advice that’s helped Jarid

“One of the first bits of advice I was given. I was nervous about a meeting with the owner of a sizeable business. I was told that ‘he still puts his trousers on one leg at a time.’

Compared to some business advice, it probably sounds silly. But realising that we’re all just people was humbling, and also gave me the confidence I needed to better communicate.”