Roger Edwards, Principal and Owner, Roger Edwards Marketing Ltd
Roger helps companies nail their offer, set their goals, and plan their marketing activity in a world where business BS and complexity threaten to stifle success. An experienced marketing professional helping businesses with their marketing strategy, content, and social media.
Roger clocked up many years in the 'big corporate' world as marketing director of several UK financial services brands before getting out of all that and starting his own consultancy.
He now uses his expertise to guide his clients in designing engaging marketing, is known as a prolific content creator and podcaster, and is a speaker. He's the host of the popular and award-winning Marketing and Finance Podcast.
As a qualified yoga and exercise teacher, Roger has also been known to ask his clients to take off their ties and put on their trainers, taking their fitness, as well as their marketing, to the next level.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
Twitter is my favourite. It's instantaneous and, despite the amount of selling that goes on, is still closer to the original idea of social media than any other. It's a virtual pub where you can meet and engage with people and have great conversations.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
I'm originally from Blackpool in the UK and have lived in Edinburgh, Scotland, for 28 years. I've worked in marketing all my career, from "Marketing Assistant" to "Marketing Director/CMO". Having worked in both big corporate and small start-ups, I became very interested in how needlessly complex marketing could become in big corporates and how misunderstood it was in start-ups.
Eventually, I became jaded with big corporate bureaucracy and left to start my own consultancy and speaking business. This led to two focuses for me.
First, to help companies keep their marketing simple, avoid bloated communications that enrage customers and work on engaging communications that help them make the right buying decision for them.
Second, to help companies realise that there is more to marketing than just communications and promotions. Marketing doesn't mean the same as advertising. It's also about a deep, almost obsessive, understanding of the customer, research, targeting, creating a standout offer (a product or service), setting strategic goals, pricing it and then promoting it.
Digital marketing has made marketing communications available to more companies for a lower price than ever in history, but it's also made everyone think marketing is only about communications. But without the other stuff I've mentioned above, the communication tactics won't work as well as they could. So, I love helping companies get the "other" parts of marketing nailed as well.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
As a consultant and speaker, I like the variety of my work. Professional speaking is a particular passion of mine, and I love giving presentations to audiences of all sizes. There's nothing better than to see the lightbulb going off above someone's head. That gorgeous moment of realisation.
As a consultant, I love helping people find simplicity. Helping them to realise that simple is okay. The problem is that simple is also very hard to achieve, which is why so many things are complicated. Speaking and consulting dovetail beautifully with each, often leading to offers of the other.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
One of my first bosses told me that if I ever had a difficult decision to make, it's best to avoid emotions and opinions from those around you and to go away and make a simple pros and cons list.
The year I was getting married, the company I was working for got bought by a bigger company, and they wanted me to move to Scotland. Did we want to add moving jobs and moving house to the plans for getting married? There was so much emotion tied up in it, and for a time, we were on the point of saying no.
I remembered my early boss's words. So, my fiance and I went into the county, had a picnic and wrote out the pros and cons list. The pros list was huge. The cons list was short. So, we moved house and job as well as getting married.
I usually apply the same approach to decision making to this day.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
Creativity, not conformity. So many companies are happy to be the same as their competitors. There's a kind of "safety" in it. I love working with people on creative ways to stand out. And then to work with them to get it out there in a simple way.
For the last 20 years, I've also had a "side hustle" as a fitness class instructor, even when I was managing director of a big corporate. I still do it now. The interaction and the enthusiams that comes from that kind of teaching experience always uplifts me and also underlies how I perform on stage at events.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
I feel I've achieved a great deal in my business life, but it's never been at the expense of my family. Another early boss once said to me that he'd resigned from a very well paid job because he suddenly realised he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his children in daylight. I never wanted that to happen to me.
The fitness instructing has helped with this too. When I published my book in 2020, the dedication at the front was to my family, and that was a teary moment when I realised that we'd got the balance absolutely right.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
I've never really been a fan of the 8 am bacon butty, 60-second pitch style networking meetings. I prefer to meet people at conference-style events. Once social media came along, it became easier to create a relationship with people ahead of an event (on LinkedIn, say) and then meet in person for a coffee or beer at the event. The pandemic has made this more difficult.
As good as online events are, you cannot replicate the experience of meeting face to face. Hopefully, we're heading back into a world where in-person starts to become the norm again.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
I've always been highly motivated and am good at motivating others - some people are kind enough to describe this as "infectious enthusiasm". People ask whether I ever get down. I do, of course, but I always find I'm able to bounce back quickly with my family's help. If something goes wrong, usually a variation of the pros and cons list I described above helps bring things into balance.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
I think Bill Gates said people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten. If I'd known this at the start, I wouldn't have become involved in a few projects that were over-promised and under-delivered.
I've always been very creative, but at the start of my career, I didn't know enough about the different personality types and how they respond to communications. Big creative ideas might appear to be fluffy and pointless to a more data-driven personality type. I wish I had learned earlier how to adapt my presentation style to compensate.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
I do follow many of the high profile marketing "experts and influencers", but I tend to gravitate towards those who are less well known. For example, Mark Ritson is a Marketing Professor who writes for Marketing Week. He's very strategic and often goes up against the more tactical approaches of the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, and I like that. They are both straight talkers and use a quite explicit language, but as they speak from opposite ends of the academic spectrum it always creates robust debate.
I'm drawn to good storytellers and speakers and was very sad to hear of the death of Sir Ken Robinson, who must be one of the best and funniest speakers of all time.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I've been teaching martial arts and Yoga based fitness classes for 20 years. My wife and I love travelling and cooking at watching great films. I started a VLOG a few years ago, partially as an experiment to learn video editing, and that's turned into another interesting sideline.
The experience of video production and editing meant I was able to produce high-quality presentations and talks for online events during the lockdown.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
I started 2020 with a fairly full diary of face to face events, workshops and consultancy meetings. Within about a week, most of those meetings had been postponed or cancelled. Fitness clubs had to close, too, so things looked pretty bleak for a while. Like everyone, I had to "pivot" to online and started to build things back up again.
The experience with video production and editing helped a great deal here. I initially postponed the launch of my book because I'd intended to tie it into events and speaking engagements. However, when it became apparent the pandemic would go on for longer, I published with a different launch plan.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
I've never hired a mentor specifically, but I do have a network of close ex-work colleagues who are happy to coach and mentor me when necessary. For example, Peter Le Beau MBE, who wrote the introduction to my book, is someone I've known throughout my career and is someone I would always turn to for advice.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
If you want to get into marketing, I'd advise people to look at the whole discipline - not just the shiny toys of digital content and social media. Learn about the importance of customer research, meeting customer needs, building products and setting strategic goals. Even if you eventually only want to work on the shiny toys, the time you spend learning about the wider discipline will make you much more successful at the promotional end of the scale.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
The digital era has created the impression that everything has to happen quickly. Post a few videos, and you should get a million followers. Launch a podcast and get instant business and referrals. As a result, some people feel like they are failing and decide to give up simply because they don't see success immediately.
When I launched my Marketing and Finance Podcast back in 2014 - I'd put out 33 episodes before I got business as a direct result of the podcast. And that was a simple writing contract. It was well into 70 episodes before I won a five-figure consultancy contract directly from a listener of the show. Most podcasts don't get beyond seven episodes because people think they've failed when in fact, they need to play a longer game to win an audience and create engagement.
So, play a longer game and be consistent. By all means, refine and adapt your approach, but stick at it.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
I like the phrase, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." This is often attributed to Albert Einstein, but there is debate as to whether he actually said this or whether it's a more recent (the 1980s) quote. But the principle is sound.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Before the pandemic, I used to travel extensively. Living in Edinburgh, I frequently needed to fly to London. So, I've been fascinated by the rise of EasyJet. I remember when they launched back in 1995 with two planes and cabin crew wearing orange sweatshirts and jog bottoms. Many people scoffed at how cheap and tacky they looked, especially alongside the traditional airlines like British Airways with their expensive fares and big shuttle breakfasts.
Now EasyJet has a slick European short-haul network with consistently great service, and in my opinion, they've become a better brand than British Airways in Europe. I have an unbroken run of nearly 65 flights without a delay with them, their crews are smart, friendly and the service is consistent and decent. Another example of playing a long game and engaging your target market.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
Back when I left University and joined started my first job, success was all about salary and the aim to be promoted high enough to get a company car. Today people still aspire to high earnings or millions of followers or subscribers. Now, I think success is measured by the people you've helped and their satisfaction and happiness with the results you helped them to achieve.