RACE Framework for UK SMEs: Automate Marketing Fast

Most UK solopreneurs aren’t losing to “better marketing”. They’re losing to inconsistency.

You’ll recognise the pattern: a burst of posts on LinkedIn, a couple of emails when sales dip, a half-finished lead magnet, then back to delivery work. The marketing isn’t bad—it’s just not organised, and it’s rarely measured. Smart Insights’ RACE Planning Framework is useful because it forces structure: Plan > Reach > Act > Convert > Engage. And for one-person businesses, structure is what makes automation possible.

This post is part of the UK Solopreneur Business Growth series, and it’s written for the reality of running marketing between client calls. You’ll see how to use RACE as a practical operating system—then map it to simple marketing automation so your lead generation doesn’t rely on motivation.

Why the RACE Framework works (especially for solopreneurs)

Answer first: RACE works because it organises your marketing around the customer lifecycle, so you can automate repeatable tasks without missing key steps.

The biggest advantage of RACE is that it stops “random acts of marketing”. Instead of asking “what should I post this week?”, you ask “where is the funnel leaking—Reach, Act, Convert, or Engage?” That diagnosis changes everything.

Smart Insights created RACE after seeing a persistent problem: many businesses still don’t have a clear digital marketing strategy or implementation plan. In small UK businesses, it’s often worse—not because owners don’t care, but because they don’t have the time to design a system.

RACE gives you that system, and it’s practical for SMEs because:

• It’s action-oriented (not a theory model)
• It’s customer-centred (awareness → lead → sale → repeat)
• It’s multi-channel (website, email, social, paid, offline)
• It’s measurable (KPIs at every stage)

Here’s my opinion: if you’re a one-person business, you shouldn’t be “doing marketing”. You should be running a marketing system—and automation is how that system survives busy weeks.

PLAN: Build a 90-day automation-first marketing plan

Answer first: Planning in RACE means setting targets and choosing what to automate first, so you can execute consistently for 90 days.

Smart Insights pairs RACE with an improvement process called OSA: Opportunity > Strategy > Action. The trick is to treat OSA as your quarterly routine.

Opportunity: find the bottleneck

You don’t need a complicated audit. You need a useful one. For solopreneurs, start with these numbers:

• Reach: sessions to site / profile views
• Act: lead captures (email sign-ups, enquiry form starts)
• Convert: booked calls, proposals sent, sales
• Engage: repeat purchases, email click rate, referrals

Then write a one-line issue summary, like:

“Traffic is fine, but I’m not capturing leads from it.”

That sentence tells you to prioritise Act automations (lead magnet, forms, emails), not “more posting”.

Strategy: pick 1–2 plays per stage

Solopreneurs fail by choosing ten priorities. Don’t. Choose one core initiative and one supporting initiative for the quarter.

Example 90-day focus:

• Reach: publish 8 SEO posts (or 8 LinkedIn posts pointing to 1 strong landing page)
• Act: launch 1 lead magnet + automated nurture
• Convert: tighten enquiry-to-call workflow
• Engage: add a client onboarding + referral sequence

Action: schedule, templatise, automate

A 90-day plan is only real if it’s in your calendar and tools.

Rule I use: if you do it more than twice, systemise it.

That means checklists, templates, and automation for the boring bits: tagging leads, sending follow-ups, booking reminders, moving deals in a pipeline.

REACH: Automate top-of-funnel visibility without posting daily

Answer first: Reach automation is about consistent distribution—so your best content keeps working even when you’re busy.

For UK SMEs, Reach tends to be a mix of:

• SEO content (blogs, landing pages)
• Social posts (LinkedIn is a common B2B channel)
• Paid boosts (small retargeting budgets can go a long way)
• Partnerships and directories (often overlooked)

What to automate in Reach

You can’t automate trust, but you can automate consistency.

• Social scheduling: batch-write 4–8 posts and schedule them
• Content repurposing workflow: blog → 3 LinkedIn posts → email snippet
• UTM tagging templates: so you know which channel actually drives enquiries
• Lead source tracking: capture “how did you hear about us?” in your form

Reach KPIs worth tracking (keep it simple)

• Weekly sessions to your main service pages
• Top landing pages by traffic
• Cost per click (if running ads)
• Share of traffic from branded search (a proxy for awareness)

A good Reach stage doesn’t mean “viral”. It means you’re creating steady qualified attention.

ACT: Turn attention into leads (where most solopreneurs leak)

Answer first: The Act stage is where you capture intent—email sign-ups, enquiry forms, content downloads—so you can follow up automatically.

Smart Insights makes a strong point: Act is a distinct stage because interaction and lead generation are hard. I agree. This is where many one-person businesses waste their traffic.

The simplest Act system that works

If you do nothing else, build this:

1. One high-intent lead magnet (not generic)
2. One landing page with a single CTA
3. One automated email sequence that moves people to a call

A high-intent lead magnet for a UK solopreneur could be:

• “Pricing checklist for [service] in the UK (2026 update)”
• “15-minute audit template (Google Sheet) for [industry]”
• “Email scripts to follow up after a quote”

What to automate in Act

• Form → CRM entry with source, service interest, and urgency
• Instant delivery email for the lead magnet
• Nurture sequence (5–7 emails): education + proof + next step
• Lead scoring (lightweight): clicks, replies, booking page visits

Here’s a stance: if you’re still manually emailing every new lead in 2026, you’re choosing admin over growth.

Act KPIs that tell the truth

• Landing page conversion rate (visits → sign-ups)
• Enquiry form completion rate
• Email open and click rates on the nurture sequence
• Replies / booked calls from the sequence

CONVERT: Automate follow-up so you don’t lose warm leads

Answer first: Convert automation removes delays—fast follow-up, clear next steps, and fewer “lead went cold” moments.

Conversion often happens offline for SMEs: a call, a quote, a site visit. That’s normal. The mistake is treating offline steps as untrackable.

A conversion workflow for a one-person business

Build a single path from enquiry to decision:

1. Enquiry received → auto-confirmation email with expectations
2. Book a call → automated reminders (24h + 1h)
3. Call completed → proposal sent within 24h (template)
4. Proposal sent → automated follow-up (Day 2, Day 5, Day 10)

You can still personalise. Automation handles the timing and structure.

What to automate in Convert

• Booking page + calendar sync
• Pipeline stages (New lead → Qualified → Proposal → Won/Lost)
• Proposal follow-up emails triggered by stage changes
• Post-call summary email (template + personal notes)

Convert KPIs that improve revenue

• Speed to first response (minutes, not days)
• Lead-to-call rate
• Call-to-proposal rate
• Proposal-to-win rate

If you track only one thing here, track speed to first response. It’s the simplest competitive advantage that doesn’t require more hours.

ENGAGE: Keep clients, increase lifetime value, generate referrals

Answer first: Engage is where solopreneurs stabilise income—repeat work, upsells, referrals, and advocacy built through planned communications.

Engage isn’t “nice to have”. If you’re trying to grow without it, you’re forcing yourself to constantly find new leads. That’s exhausting.

What to automate in Engage

• Client onboarding sequence: what happens next, how to contact you, timelines
• Delivery check-ins: weekly status updates (even if short)
• Review request: timed after a win (not months later)
• Referral prompt: a specific ask with an easy introduction template
• Reactivation campaign: reach out to past clients quarterly

January is a strong time for Engage campaigns in the UK because many businesses reset budgets and priorities. A “New Year check-in” email to past clients can bring in surprisingly warm conversations.

Engage KPIs to monitor

• Repeat purchase rate / repeat projects
• Email engagement among existing customers
• NPS or simple satisfaction score
• Referral volume per quarter

A practical RACE automation map (steal this)

Answer first: You’ll get faster results by automating one workflow per RACE stage rather than trying to automate everything.

Here’s a simple mapping you can implement over 30–90 days:

• Plan: monthly dashboard + weekly metrics check (30 minutes)
• Reach: scheduled social + content repurposing checklist
• Act: lead magnet + automated nurture + tagging
• Convert: booking + reminders + proposal follow-ups
• Engage: onboarding + reviews + referral ask

If you’re starting from scratch, prioritise in this order:

1. Act (because leads are the fuel)
2. Convert (because speed and follow-up create sales)
3. Reach (because you can scale what converts)
4. Engage (because it reduces churn and stabilises revenue)
5. Plan (because measurement keeps you honest)

Next steps: your 90-day RACE sprint

RACE Planning Framework is a practical digital marketing strategy framework because it doesn’t ask you to do more. It asks you to do the right activities in the right order, then measure them.

If you’re a UK solopreneur trying to grow without burning out, treat the next 90 days as a RACE sprint: pick one bottleneck, build one automation workflow that fixes it, and keep it running long enough to learn what the numbers are telling you.

What would happen to your revenue this quarter if your follow-up and nurture ran reliably—even during your busiest client weeks?