P610// CAPABILITIES // STRATEGY & PLANNINGCOVERAGE // DERBYSHIRE + EAST MIDLANDS
A marketing plan is deciding what to do first, then writing it down so it doesn’t just live in your head. I write them for businesses all over Derbyshire, and the first thing I look at is whether people can find you, on Google and when they ask ChatGPT.
★★★★★ 5.0 from 22 Google reviews
UPDATED //
Norton Hunt at North Bear Media in Belper writes marketing plans for businesses across Derbyshire, starting with how customers find them on Google and in AI search like ChatGPT. A plan is a project, scoped and priced before work starts. The £295 Marketing MOT, which scores where a business stands out of 100, is the place to start.
Most businesses aren’t short of marketing ideas. What’s missing is somebody deciding which ones matter and in what order, then checking afterwards whether they worked. That’s what I do.
Without that, the plan lives in the owner’s head. A post goes out when somebody’s got a minute, or an advert runs because somebody rang up selling the space. Each one can be fine on its own, but together they don’t add up to much.
So the budget follows whatever’s loudest that month, and because nobody can say what’s working, it carries on the same way the next year. I put a stop to that.
There’s a newer side to it now as well. Some people skip Google and just ask ChatGPT who to use. If your website and your reviews don’t make it clear what you do and where, it names one of your competitors instead. A plan fixes that.
“He is approachable, really took the time to listen to what I wanted and quickly grasped my Company’s approach, ethos and target client group.”
Every business is different, but this is how it goes.
I start with how the business makes its money and how your customers choose who to use. I come to yours for that, because you learn far more stood in somebody’s shop or yard than on a call, though a call works too.
Then I go through what’s already out there: your website, your Google listing, your reviews and socials, and what a couple of your competitors are doing.
We agree what matters most now and what waits. Not everything needs doing at once, and there’s often something you can stop doing altogether.
Then it’s all written down, the priorities in order and who’s doing what and when, so it’s out of anybody’s head. I can do the work, your own people can, or we split it. Plenty of clients end up with both.
Here are a few clients where I plan the work with them and then do a good share of it. The plan decides what comes first, and we change it as we go.
“Every month we sit down to review what’s worked, what we can improve, explore new ideas, and keep on top of changes in the industry …”
This one’s backed by the client’s own words. The card says plainly what the work was, nothing more.
Customer database up
In the client’s words, after the new website
Public Google review
If you’re weighing up whether you need a plan at all, start with the MOT.
It’s £295, and you get a score out of 100 and the three things to fix first, which for most businesses is the start of a plan already.
Then there’s Found & Filmed, at £995 a month, rolling monthly with 30 days’ notice either way. That’s being found on Google and in AI search, with a filming day on site each quarter. Writing a full plan is separate.
Once the plan says what matters, these are the things it draws on, and each one has its own page with more detail.
A plan that works in one town can miss completely in the next, even when they’re only a few miles apart. I write for the town you’re in.
In Derby there’s the whole city to compete with, so the plan has to pick its fights: which part of the city market you’re in and who you’re up against there. Round Alfreton and Ripley it’s trades and firms selling to other businesses, out on the estates and the industrial units, and what they need is to look credible when a buyer checks them out before a contract gets signed.
Over on the Erewash side, Ilkeston and Heanor, local customers get pulled towards the bigger names in Nottingham as well as Derby. In Matlock and Wirksworth, and Cromford and Crich, plenty of businesses serve locals and visitors at the same time, some heading out into the Dales and some coming to see the mills or the trams, so timing becomes part of the plan.
Duffield runs on recommendation, so there the plan makes sure what people find when they look you up matches what they were told. In Allestree, right on the northern edge of Derby, it’s deciding how far out to look, because people are comparing you with far more than the shops at Park Farm.
I work from Belper, a mill town on the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, and most of the county is a short drive from here. So the first conversation about a plan happens at yours, not on a screen. I come to you, and I see the business properly.
There’s a page for each of these towns, plus Eastwood, just over the Nottinghamshire border, and the guide I wrote to marketing a small business in Derbyshire.
I sell two things at a fixed price: the Marketing MOT at £295 and Found & Filmed at £995 a month. Found & Filmed doesn’t include writing a full plan.
No. You need a budget that matches what you want the marketing to do, and a good plan stops money going on things that aren’t working. If you want a starting point, the £295 MOT gives you the three things to fix first, and some of those you can sort yourself.
That comes down to where you’re starting from and which parts of marketing the plan leans on, and I’ll tell you straight in the first conversation. Being found on Google builds over months, and AI search is newer, so I won’t put a date on ChatGPT naming you. I’ll give you the best chance of it.
Yes, and that’s where most owners want me, because you’ve got a business to run and the plan only works if somebody does it. Found & Filmed at £995 a month covers the ongoing side, being found on Google and in AI search with a filming day on site each quarter. It costs far less than a full-time hire, with no training, and I bring the kit. A new website is priced after a quick chat, and things like an email campaign are projects I scope first. If you’ve already got somebody doing your marketing, the plan is what they work to.
The person who writes your plan is the person you talk to, which is me, Norton Hunt, so nothing gets lost passing through an account manager. A couple of people help me remotely with some of the marketing, and I’m in Belper, so I come and sit down with you instead of planning it all from a distance.
A North Bear marketing plan sets out your priorities in order, and what waits. It covers who your customers are and how they choose, who else is going after them, what the business should be saying and where, who’s doing what and when, and how we’ll know it’s working, so it changes when it needs to.
I’m based in Belper and write plans for businesses across the county, including Derby, Matlock, Ilkeston, Ripley, Heanor, Alfreton, Duffield, Wirksworth and Allestree, plus Eastwood just over the Nottinghamshire border, and round the East Midlands. The first conversation happens at yours or on a call.
Yes, that’s exactly what the Marketing MOT is for. It’s £295, ordered online with no call, and it’s six checks, starting with whether ChatGPT and Google’s AI answers mention you. You get a plain-English PDF back within 48 hours, with a score out of 100 and the three things to fix first. It isn’t taken off anything later. It’s yours to keep.
That’s where every plan I write starts, and the MOT is the fastest way to find out: six checks, with two of your competitors next to you. If you want to talk it through first, book a call.
