Marketing without the right foundations in place is like building a house on sand. Before you can grow and dominate your market, you need to have the right assets in place.
While ongoing marketing and building momentum is important, businesses must lay the groundwork if they want to see good results.
In this blog, we’ll look at why you need the right foundations in place before you begin to reach out to your audience, and what those assets look like to help your business reach its full potential.
What assets do you need for ongoing marketing to be successful?
You’ve heard us talk about the need for having the right foundations in place before you dive into regular marketing touchpoints with your audience. But what exactly do we mean by that?
- A website that works as hard as you do, 24/7
- Content that connects and converts
- SEO that gets you found on Search
- Video that brings your brand to life
These are the essentials. And when done right, they don’t just tick a box – they transform your business.
Why you need a strong functional website
Your website is the core of your business and marketing efforts. It’s more than just your digital shop front, it’s the hub of information your audience needs to understand your brand, what you stand for and in turn, convert into a paying customer.
Your website needs to work hard for you and your business and make your customers feel connected with your brand.
It needs to be responsive, user-friendly and take your customers and prospects on a journey they will remember. It also needs to be optimised to reach your ideal audience, and safe and secure to give your visitors peace of mind.
If you’re a long standing business and haven’t updated your website in the last 3 years, you’re falling behind. With so many changes and new ideas coming to UX (user experience), search engine updates and the sheer volume of competition out there, it’s crucial, now more than ever, that your website be up to date and reflective of your brand and what you offer.
Why you need a strong tone of voice
You don’t get a second chance at making a first impression. You need to make sure your written content hits home and builds instant trust in line with your company values.
A well-crafted tone of voice doesn’t just tell people what you do, it shows them who you are. It’s the personality of your brand translated into words, influencing how your audience feels about you long before they’ve decided to buy.
When your tone of voice is clear and consistent you:
- Build trust more quickly
- Create familiarity and loyalty
- Make your brand instantly recognisable in a noisy market
- Avoid sending mixed signals that could dilute your message
Whether you’re aiming for approachable and friendly, confident and expert, or innovative and bold, your tone should be consistent across every touchpoint.
The importance of original content
Behind every great business, there’s a great story to be told. But how you tell it is where many businesses fall short.
You need to communicate who you are, what you stand for and why you do what you do. You also need to know what makes your business special so your audience can understand why they should buy from you and not a competitor.
Your content is what creates that emotional connection and trust with your audience, it also feeds the algorithms, so it’s vital you get it right.
Think of your content as the core of your marketing activity. It’s what fuels your emails, social media posts and more. When you get the messaging right, everything falls into place more easily.
Why your website needs Search Engine Optimisation
Strong Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) from the very start makes for a smoother journey to increasing keyword rankings when it becomes part of your ongoing marketing strategy.
But it’s not solely about increasing your keywords. It’s about making sure your site is technically sound (including having strong meta data), your content is relevant, and your brand appears in front of the right people at the right time. A strong SEO foundation ensures that when someone goes looking for what you offer, they find you, not your competitors.
Without this groundwork, even the most creative marketing campaigns can fall flat because there’s no long-term visibility.
Done well, SEO works quietly in the background, compounding over time and giving you a competitive edge that’s hard to copy.
How does AI impact traditional SEO?
AI is reshaping how people search and how search engines deliver results. With tools, like AI Overviews and AI Mode, summarising answers directly on the results page, users may not even click through to websites in the same way they used to.
This means visibility is about more than just page rankings. You need to appear in AI-generated summaries and answer boxes.
Content quality and clarity matter more than ever, as AI favours accurate, well-structured information it can easily extract and present.
Authority signals (like backlinks, brand mentions, and consistent messaging) are critical to being chosen as a trusted source.
SEO in the AI era isn’t going away, it’s simply evolving. Your foundational work should now consider both traditional rankings and optimising for AI-driven search experiences, so your brand remains visible no matter how people find information.
How video can take your business to the next level
Video is a great way to connect with your audience through more than just words on a page. While written content is essential for search engines and fuelling other content, video connects with users on a deeper, more personal level.
People watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube every day, while platforms like Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn are prioritising video like never before.
Within seconds, a video can tell a story, evoke emotion, or explain a concept in a way written content simply can’t. It helps you connect with your audience instantly, whether you’re demonstrating a product, explaining your services, or sharing customer testimonials.
Video lets you speak directly to your audience, humanising your business and making it more relatable. This connection is essential for standing out in a crowded market.
What do QBD say about building foundations for successful online growth?
Your website, content, SEO and video are the digital cornerstones that support everything else. You need to ensure that all of these areas are in the best possible position for your ongoing marketing efforts to then pay off.
A battery management company recently had a new website built by QBD and have seen great results already. Their organic traffic has increased by 84.26% in just 3 months, with the overall number of sessions increasing by 92.02%.
These core assets are what help fuel the content you share in your marketing strategy, whether that be social media campaigns, mailshots or paid ads.
Marketing without strong foundations is like trying to fill a leaky bucket. You can keep pouring effort in, but you’ll always lose momentum. The businesses that see long-term growth are the ones that take the time to get their core assets right first: a website that converts, content that connects, SEO that makes you visible, and video that brings your brand to life. When these pieces work together, every campaign becomes more powerful, more cost-effective, and more sustainable. Instead of chasing quick wins, you’re building a system that grows stronger over time - turning your marketing into a predictable engine for growth.
How we can help with QBD Create
At QBD, we’ve been helping businesses launch and thrive online for over 25 years.
With QBD Create, we take everything we know about what works and use it to build powerful digital foundations that set you up for success.
Our friendly, creative and technical experts have vast experience in delivering digital marketing projects with proven results across many sectors and for businesses of all sizes.
We’ll take the time to understand your business and objectives before providing a tailored solution that meets your needs.
It all starts with a conversation. Learn more about QBD Create here.
About the authors
Molly Sneath
Molly is our PPC & Digital Marketing Specialist.
As well as managing QBD’s marketing activities, she supports multiple clients and projects with her skills in SEO, social media management and Pay-per-click, specifically Google Ads. She also has strong copywriting skills and writes blogs for clients who have a monthly subscription with us.