Marketing Leadership Lessons from Next for Solopreneurs

Next doesn’t mess around with marketing budgets. It treats spend like an investment it expects to pay back, and it’s been public about its benchmark: at least £1.50 of incremental profit for every £1 spent on marketing. That level of discipline is one reason the news about its marketing leadership change matters well beyond retail headlines.

On 9 January 2026, Marketing Week reported that Jane Shields is retiring after 40 years at Next, stepping down from the board in May. She’s being succeeded (in remit, not board seat) by Matt Barnes, previously the group’s online customer service director. This isn’t just a “nice career story”. It’s a reminder that marketing effectiveness is increasingly tied to operations, customer service, and ecommerce—even in a brand as established as Next.

If you’re a UK solopreneur or running a one-person business, you don’t have a board, a directory business, or an international media budget. But you do have the same problem Next has: you need marketing that drives profitable growth, and you need a plan that survives staff changes, busy seasons, and shifting platforms.

What Next’s leadership change signals about modern marketing

The signal is clear: marketing is being pulled closer to the engine room of the business.

In Next’s case, the incoming marketing leader’s operational remit spans e-commerce, brand marketing, retail stores, and online customer services. That’s not a fluffy “brand guardian” job description. It’s a growth-and-execution role.

For small businesses, this matters because your marketing is already integrated with operations—whether you like it or not. When you’re the founder, you are the marketing director, customer service lead, and sometimes the product manager too.

Marketing isn’t a department anymore—it’s a system

Here’s the stance I’ll take: most small businesses struggle with marketing because they treat it as a set of tasks, not a system.

A system means:

• A clear offer and positioning
• A predictable lead source (or two)
• A simple conversion path (website, booking link, enquiry form)
• Follow-up that doesn’t rely on your memory
• A feedback loop from customers into your messaging

Next’s move—placing marketing under someone steeped in online customer service—reinforces a basic truth: the customer experience is the marketing.

The “profitable marketing” mindset you can copy on a micro budget

Next’s CEO has repeatedly described marketing investment as something that should increase only while returns remain above a hurdle rate. The company has said it looks for £1.50 incremental profit per £1 of marketing.

You don’t need complex modelling to borrow this idea. You need one habit: tie every marketing activity to a measurable outcome.

A solopreneur-friendly version of Next’s hurdle rate

Use a simple rule:

1. Pick one paid channel (if any): Google Ads, Meta, or promoted posts.
2. Work out your breakeven cost per lead.
3. Pause anything that can’t plausibly hit it within 30–60 days.

A practical example:

• You sell a £600 service.
• Your gross margin after costs is £400.
• Your close rate from lead to customer is 25%.

That means your breakeven cost per lead is about:

• £400 profit per sale × 25% close rate = £100 profit per lead (expected value)

If you’re paying £140 per lead, the maths is telling you something. Either:

• the offer needs tightening,
• conversion needs work,
• or that channel isn’t your channel.

This matters because small businesses don’t run out of “marketing ideas”. They run out of cash.

Why Next can cut spend and still grow (and what that means for you)

Marketing Week notes that Next credited “profitable” marketing investment with driving a 38.3% increase in international sales, yet it is preparing to halve international marketing spend in 2026.

That sounds contradictory until you consider the likely reasoning: diminishing returns. Once a channel saturates or gets more expensive, “more spend” stops being the best move.

For solopreneurs, the parallel is immediate:

• If your Instagram reach drops, posting more isn’t always the answer.
• If Google Ads gets pricey, raising budgets can just buy worse leads.

The better move is often conversion rate improvement—because it raises returns without raising spend.

Leadership transitions are the best time to fix your marketing fundamentals

Next’s transition is planned and structured: retirement date set, responsibilities reassigned, board changes communicated. A lot of small businesses do the opposite: marketing changes happen in a panic—when sales dip, when a platform changes, or when you’re burned out.

Here’s what works better: treat any transition (even if it’s just you changing your routine) as a chance to document and simplify.

Build a one-page marketing operating plan

If you only do one thing after reading this, do this. A one-page plan forces clarity.

Include:

• Who you serve (one sentence)
• Your core offer (what you sell, starting price)
• Your promise (the outcome, not the process)
• Two acquisition channels (one “demand capture”, one “demand creation”)
• Your weekly marketing rhythm (what happens on which day)
• Your follow-up process (email, SMS, DMs—whatever you use)

Snippet-worthy truth: If you can’t explain your marketing system on one page, you don’t have a system yet—you have a collection of efforts.

Put customer service data back into your marketing

Next elevating an online customer service director into the marketing remit is a strong hint that customer feedback is being treated as strategic input.

As a one-person business, you can do this faster than Next ever could.

Every week, capture:

• The top 5 questions prospects ask before buying
• The top 5 objections (“too expensive”, “not now”, “need to think”)
• The phrases customers use to describe their problem

Then turn those into:

• A pinned post / website FAQ
• A short email sequence
• Three “objection-busting” reels/posts
• A clearer services page

This is UK small business digital marketing at its most effective: say what your market is already saying, but with more clarity.

Digital transformation for solopreneurs: focus on the boring parts

Big retailers talk about digital transformation, partnerships with platforms like Google, Meta and TikTok, and sophisticated measurement. Solopreneurs often interpret that as “I should use more tools.”

I disagree. Most solopreneurs need fewer tools and tighter plumbing.

The three automations that actually reduce workload (and increase leads)

Answer first: automate follow-up and qualification before you automate content creation.

1. Lead capture that doesn’t break

   • A single landing page or service page
   • One clear CTA (book a call / get a quote)
   • A form that sends an instant confirmation

2. A two-step follow-up sequence

   • Email 1: confirmation + what happens next
   • Email 2 (24–48 hours): common questions + proof + “reply with…”

3. A lightweight CRM pipeline

   • Even a simple board with stages: New → Contacted → Call booked → Proposal sent → Won/Lost

These are boring, yes. They’re also where most one-person businesses quietly lose revenue.

January is when “profitable marketing” becomes real

It’s Sunday in early January 2026. This is the week many solopreneurs review Q4 results, set targets, and promise themselves they’ll “post more”.

A better January plan:

• Keep content simple (one useful post per week).
• Spend your energy on conversion: your offer, your page, your follow-up.
• Pick one KPI you can actually manage.

Try one of these:

• Website enquiry conversion rate
• Cost per lead
• Lead-to-sale close rate
• Repeat purchase rate

Next can afford to test budgets internationally. You can’t. Your advantage is focus.

What small businesses should copy from Next (and what to ignore)

Answer first: copy the discipline, not the scale.

Copy this

• A clear profitability bar (your version of the £1.50 return rule)
• Channel accountability (each channel has a purpose and a KPI)
• Customer experience as marketing (service quality drives referrals)
• Cautious iteration (increase spend only when returns justify it)

Ignore this

• The idea that you need to be everywhere (Next can run multi-market campaigns; you shouldn’t)
• Complex attribution tools before you have consistent lead flow
• Chasing platform partnerships and trends instead of building a repeatable funnel

One-liner: Small businesses don’t lose to big budgets—they lose to unclear priorities.

A practical next step: a “Next-style” 30-day marketing reset

If your marketing feels scattered, run this 30-day reset.

1. Week 1: Fix the offer

   • Rewrite your headline: who it’s for + outcome
   • Add one proof point (testimonial, number, case result)

2. Week 2: Fix the conversion path

   • One CTA across your socials and website
   • One booking or enquiry method

3. Week 3: Fix follow-up

   • Two emails minimum
   • A rule for response time (same day if possible)

4. Week 4: Fix measurement

   • Track leads, close rate, and revenue by channel
   • Drop one activity that doesn’t pay back

Do this and you’ll feel the difference fast: less noise, more control.

Where this fits in UK Solopreneur Business Growth

This post sits right in the heart of the UK Solopreneur Business Growth series because growth isn’t about doing more marketing—it’s about building marketing you can run consistently as one person.

Next’s leadership change is a timely reminder that marketing is increasingly inseparable from ecommerce and customer service, and that budget decisions are being made with ruthless attention to return.

If you want leads in 2026, take the Next approach: measure what matters, improve conversion before you increase spend, and treat customer experience as your most reliable channel. What part of your marketing system would break first if you stepped away for a week?