5 Questions with Tracy Dixon

The Marketing Depot founder Tracy Dixon on ditching cookie-cutter tactics, the businesses she loves to rescue and why the best marketing ideas arrive halfway through a dog walk.

1. What kind of business finds its way to your door?

Usually a growing company that absolutely knows marketing matters but has reached the point where doing it themselves is no longer working. Things are reactive, nothing's joined up, and it keeps slipping to the bottom of the list. That's exactly where I come in.

2. You work across everything from SEO to full rebrands. Is there a thread that connects all of it?

The thread is always the same: figuring out what the business actually needs rather than applying the same formula to everyone. I've worked across sectors as different as fintech, engineering, travel and jewellery, and the starting point is always getting properly under the skin of the business first. The tactics follow from that, not the other way around.

3. What's the biggest mistake you see founders make with their marketing?

Chasing hacks and quick fixes because someone online told them that's what they should be doing. There's so much noise around what you're supposed to be doing, and very little conversation about what actually makes sense for your specific business, your audience and where you're trying to get to.

4. You describe yourself as a 'do-er'. What does that mean in practice for a client?

It means I'm not the consultant who hands over a strategy document and disappears. I build the plan and then I get stuck into making it happen, whether that's managing day-to-day marketing activity, running a rebrand from the initial thinking right through to launch, or taking ownership of SEO and content. Clients get both the thinking and the doing.

5. Where do your best ideas actually come from?

Honestly? Halfway through a dog walk in the New Forest, when I'm supposed to be switching off completely. There's something about stepping away from the screen that lets things click into place. I always have my phone nearby, just in case.