Most agency relationships go wrong in the first two months, not the twelfth. Here is exactly what happens, who does it, and what we need from you — so you can decide whether this is a way of working you want.
Weeks before we write a plan — we look at the data first
Named lead, who you meet in the first meeting
Days between delivery increments
Days’ notice, rolling, after the initial term
This is the shape of a marketing retainer. A website project follows the same principles on a different schedule — that timeline is on the websites page.
A named specialist reviews the area you have asked about and sends a written, prioritised report, followed by half an hour to talk it through. This is not a sales document with a proposal stapled to it — it is the actual findings, and it is yours to keep whether or not you work with us.
You get: a written report and a call. We need: your website address and read access to Search Console and GA4 if you have them.
Before anything is planned we need the numbers that decide whether marketing is working: margin, average order or contract value, lifetime value, and what a lead is genuinely worth to you. Then the data — Search Console, GA4, ad accounts, CRM if there is one.
This is the stage most agencies skip, and it is why so much agency reporting talks about traffic instead of money.
You get: a findings session. We need: two hours of your time and account access.
A prioritised twelve-month plan with a target attached to each workstream, and an agreed definition of what success looks like — written down, before we start, so it cannot be quietly redefined later.
You sign it off. Nothing begins until you have.
You get: the roadmap and a baseline report. We need: your sign-off and any internal constraints we should plan around.
Work goes live every two weeks rather than accumulating into a quarterly reveal. Technical fixes first, then content, then authority — in that order, because content on a broken site is wasted money.
You will see what shipped, what is next, and what moved. If something is not working we will change it at the next increment rather than waiting for the quarterly review.
You get: fortnightly delivery notes. We need: content approvals inside five working days.
A monthly report against the measure agreed in week three — revenue and qualified enquiries, not impressions — and a call to interpret it. A dashboard link on its own is not reporting; it is homework.
You get: a report and a review call. We need: forty-five minutes.
Every quarter we re-plan rather than continuing on momentum. Markets move, competitors move, and search itself is moving faster than it has in a decade. What was right in January is often not right in April.
You get: a revised roadmap. We need: any change in your commercial priorities.
There is no account management layer relaying your questions to someone you never meet. You get a named lead from the relevant discipline, and direct access to the specialists on your account.
Twelve of us, one office in Kendal, two days a week in together and the rest remote. Nothing is offshored and nothing goes to a freelancer without us telling you first.
Inside Castle Mills — the team, the office, and what a working week actually looks like.
The engagements that work best are the ones where this is understood on day one. None of it is onerous, but all of it matters.
Someone who can approve a direction without taking it away for three weeks.
Margin and lead value, honestly. We cannot optimise toward a target nobody will tell us.
Search Console, GA4, ad accounts, CMS. Delays here delay everything downstream.
The single biggest cause of a slipped timeline is content sitting in an inbox.
Half an hour with a person who actually sells it beats a week of our desk research.
Tell us early. We would much rather change course than find out at month six.
Around two hours in discovery, forty-five minutes a month for the review call, and content approvals as they come. Front-loaded by design — the more you give us in weeks one to three, the less we need afterwards.
That usually works well. We tend to take the specialist work they cannot cover alone and give them the strategic backing, rather than duplicating what they already do. We will be explicit in the roadmap about who owns what, so nobody is stepping on anybody.
You do, from day one. Accounts, content, tracking configuration, design files, documentation and the roadmap are all set up in your ownership. If you leave, you take everything and it keeps working.
We tell you, in the monthly review, with what we are changing. Everyone has months where a channel underperforms. The difference is whether the agency raises it or waits for you to notice.
After the initial term, yes. It is rolling with 30 days’ notice. Some clients pause over a quiet season and come back — we would rather that than have you paying for months where the work cannot land.
No. Most of our meetings run on video and plenty of clients have never visited. But you are very welcome, and if you are within reach we will come to you for the discovery session — being in your building tells us things a call never will.
You will know within a week whether there is a case for working together.