Marketing Leadership Change: Keep Growth on Track

Next’s group marketing director, Jane Shields, is retiring after 40 years—and the detail that matters most isn’t the farewell headline. It’s what comes next: a new leader (Matt Barnes) is taking over marketing responsibilities while the business stays openly cautious about marketing spend, insisting on a measurable return.

For UK solopreneurs and tiny teams, that’s oddly reassuring. Big brands have bigger budgets, sure, but they still wrestle with the same problem you do: how to maintain marketing momentum when the person steering it changes—without wasting money or losing the plot.

I’ve found leadership transitions are when small businesses either (1) quietly stall or (2) make their smartest improvements of the year. The difference is whether you treat the handover like a proper marketing project—with documented decisions, clear targets, and a plan that survives whoever’s in the chair.

What Next’s shift really signals (and why it matters to you)

A leadership change in marketing doesn’t just affect messaging. It affects priorities, measurement, and pace. At Next, Barnes’ remit spans e-commerce, brand marketing, retail stores and online customer service—a reminder that modern marketing is tied to operations and customer experience, not just ads.

For a one-person business, those “departments” are all… you. Which is exactly why a transition (even a small one, like outsourcing to a freelancer or handing social over to a VA) can get messy fast.

Here’s the stance I’ll take: most small businesses underestimate how much marketing lives in someone’s head.

• Why you price that way
• Which customers you don’t want
• Which offers convert versus just get likes
• Which campaigns are “profitable” versus merely “busy”

When a key person steps away (or your own time shrinks), that knowledge evaporates unless you capture it.

The budget lesson hidden in Next’s results

Next has repeatedly framed marketing as something they increase only when returns stay above a threshold—reportedly targeting at least £1.50 incremental profit per £1 spent. That’s a clean, extractable idea small businesses can copy.

You don’t need perfect attribution to behave like a grown-up business. You need a simple rule:

If you can’t describe how a channel produces profit, treat it as an experiment—time-box it, measure it, and either scale or stop.

This matters in January because many UK businesses are coming off Christmas trading and heading into a tighter quarter. Budgets feel riskier. A leadership change (or role change) is the ideal time to tidy the system.

A “continuity plan” for solopreneur marketing (so nothing drops)

The practical goal is straightforward: if you got hit by the flu for two weeks, would your marketing still run? If the answer is no, you don’t have a strategy—you have a memory.

Here’s a continuity plan I recommend for the UK Solopreneur Business Growth playbook.

Document the decisions that drive revenue

Start with a one-page “Marketing Operating Sheet”. Keep it in Google Docs or Notion. Update monthly.

Include:

• Who you serve (your best-fit customer, not “everyone”)
• Core offer(s) and your 2–3 most common objections
• Primary channels (choose 1–2 acquisition channels max)
• Your metrics (see next section)
• Your weekly cadence (what happens on Mon/Tues/etc.)

If someone else takes over even one piece—Meta ads, email, content—this document stops them from guessing.

Build a minimum viable marketing calendar

Most solopreneurs don’t need complex quarterly campaign plans. They need consistency.

A simple calendar that survives change:

• Weekly: publish 1 useful piece (blog, LinkedIn post, short video—pick one)
• Weekly: send 1 email (even a short one)
• Monthly: run 1 focused promotion or partner push
• Quarterly: refresh one key page (service page, landing page, or case study)

The win isn’t creativity. It’s repeatable output.

Decide what “done” looks like for each channel

Transitions break marketing when tasks are vague. “Do SEO” is vague. “Publish two location-intent pages and update internal links” is not.

For each channel, define deliverables:

• SEO: 2 optimised pages/month + 1 internal linking sweep
• Email: 4 emails/month + 1 list clean per quarter
• Paid: 2 new creatives/month + weekly budget check
• Social: 3 posts/week + 10 meaningful comments/day

When leadership changes, clarity beats motivation.

Keep spend ‘profitable’: a small business measurement model

Next’s language around “profitable marketing” is a helpful antidote to vanity metrics. For solopreneurs, you can run a simple measurement model without fancy tools.

The five numbers to track (weekly)

Track these in a spreadsheet. Every week. Same day.

1. Leads generated (form fills, calls, DMs that are real enquiries)
2. Lead-to-sale conversion rate (even rough)
3. Average order value / project value
4. Marketing cost (ad spend + freelancers + tools, or a time estimate)
5. Profit per sale (estimate if you must, but be consistent)

From that, you can calculate a basic return:

• Cost per lead (CPL) = marketing cost / leads
• Cost per acquisition (CPA) = marketing cost / sales

Set your own “hurdle rate”

Next reportedly uses £1.50 profit for every £1 spent as a threshold. Your version might be different based on cashflow and risk.

Examples:

• If you sell a £200 service with £120 gross margin, and you want a 2x return on marketing spend, you can afford up to £60 CPA (because £120 margin / 2).
• If you sell higher-ticket B2B work, you can tolerate a higher CPA, but you must watch sales cycle length.

Pick a hurdle rate you’ll defend, or your budget will be set by vibes.

Beware the “post-transition panic”

After a handover, lots of businesses either cut spend too hard (“nothing’s working”) or ramp too fast (“we need to prove ourselves”). Both are expensive.

A steadier approach:

• Hold budgets flat for 2–4 weeks
• Fix tracking and creative first
• Scale only the campaigns that beat your hurdle rate

Role evolution: why customer service is now marketing (even for you)

A striking detail in the Next story is the expanded remit across online customer service and sales/marketing. That’s not corporate reshuffling—it’s reality.

For small businesses, customer service is one of the highest-ROI marketing channels you own, because it drives:

• Repeat purchases
• Referrals
• Reviews
• Word-of-mouth content (screenshots, testimonials, case studies)

Quick wins that turn service into demand

If you’re a solopreneur, you can improve this in a week:

• Add a “What happens next” section to every proposal and invoice email.
• Create 3 canned replies for FAQs (delivery times, pricing, availability).
• Ask for reviews at a specific moment: 24–48 hours after a win (delivery, result, or compliment).
• Turn your best support answers into blog posts (instant SEO content).

This is the kind of “operational marketing” big retailers bake in. Small businesses can do it faster.

Your 30-day plan for marketing stability during a handover

If you’re changing marketers, hiring your first freelancer, or simply reallocating your own time, use this 30-day structure.

Days 1–7: capture and simplify

• Write your one-page Marketing Operating Sheet
• Audit what’s currently running (content, emails, ads, partnerships)
• Stop anything you can’t explain or measure

Days 8–14: secure the foundations

• Fix website basics: tracking, lead forms, key pages
• Create/update one strong landing page for your main offer
• Set up a simple reporting sheet with the five numbers

Days 15–30: build momentum with one channel

Choose one growth lane for the month:

• Local SEO (service pages + Google Business Profile + reviews)
• Email marketing (lead magnet + welcome series + weekly email)
• Paid search/social (one offer, one audience, disciplined testing)

Commit to one. Splitting effort is how transitions quietly fail.

Marketing continuity isn’t doing more. It’s deciding what won’t change, no matter who’s running it.

People also ask: leadership transitions and small business marketing

Should you pause marketing during a leadership change?

No. Pause experimentation, not presence. Keep your “always-on” activity (email, basic ads, consistent content) running while you tidy the system.

What’s the first thing a new marketing lead should do?

They should establish a baseline: current leads, conversion rate, and cost per acquisition. Without that, every decision is guesswork.

How do you avoid losing brand consistency when roles change?

Document your voice and offers. A simple brand sheet with tone, key phrases you use, proof points, and do-not-say list prevents drift.

Where this fits in UK Solopreneur Business Growth

This topic series is about growing a one-person business through online marketing, social media, content, and lightweight automation. Leadership transitions sound “corporate”, but they show up for solopreneurs in different forms: outsourcing, hiring, productising services, or just protecting your time.

Next’s news is a reminder that marketing is a system, not a personality. The moment you treat it that way, you stop fearing change—and you start benefiting from it.

If you’re planning a handover (or you suspect one is coming because you’re stretched thin), build the continuity pieces now. Your future self will thank you when February gets busy again.

What part of your marketing currently lives only in your head—and would hurt most if it disappeared next week?