Jonny Bliss on the science of marketing

As a creative company, how do you think outside the box?

What we generally find is that marketeers come from a design or a copy background, but often lack the technical skills to bring the whole thing together. We specialise in systems-driven marketing so we will look at the system first and how clients generate leads and move through a sales funnel. We start with that and then build on top of it.

What technologies do you use to deliver systems-driven marketing?

Currently, we link things together with Zapier and Monday which are good platforms for bringing together lead generation into CRM forms.

For standard marketing practices, what we try to do is think about how we can do things differently, such as how we can deliver copy and content differently. Our big push at the moment is video-driven SEO. We find that a lot of SMEs we come across aren't producing regular video content, especially in the business-to-business space. We’ve found a way of making the entire process a lot shorter in terms of the amount of time it has to take, so we can produce regular video content at a far lower rate than competitors.

If you could work on any project, what would it be?

One thing that we are looking at is what work we can do in the charity sector. It’s driven by my previous work in inner-city schools. That giving back element is important to us. We'd love to work with clients that have an element of social responsibility or improving society.

How do you keep yourself inspired and motivated?

I think owning a business is very different from having a job or being employed. Every bit of work you put in you're getting back; every new client is your new client. It's exciting being in business, and it's exciting looking for the next client and trying to do the best job we can for them. I think that's what motivates me every day, that I just want to constantly push to be better, I want to know what that next level is and to keep trying different things.

What was the last thing that had an impact on you?

I’ve recently had some major health problems, about five months ago I basically went deaf overnight. I suffered something called sudden sensorineural hearing loss. I now have to wear hearing aids; I have severe hearing loss and it has majorly affected what I can and can't do in my life.

I used to love surfing having grown up in North Devon, but it isn’t as accessible to me anymore. What I miss about it is not essentially the surfing but sitting out there in the ocean on your board, it’s almost like meditating, not thinking about anything just waiting for the next wave to come, waiting for the next set.

I'm very much a people person, and one thing that has been hard is that I've had to look at ways of technology allowing me to be in bigger groups and know basically what’s going on.

The main thing which is defining for me in losing my hearing is that it does make you appreciate the little things in life and really realise how lucky you are. I won't let it slow me down. I want more people to know about it because people aren’t always sure how to react to people who have some level of disability so I also want to help educate people.