You know the feeling. You’re at your desk, focused on that quarterly plan, when someone pops their head round the door. “Have you thought about TikTok?” they ask. Or Instagram Reels. Or that brilliant campaign they saw at the weekend. Before you know it, you’ve had three different people tell you three completely different things about what your marketing opinions should be, and suddenly the path that seemed clear this morning looks like a maze.
Marketing opinions are a bit like London buses. They’re useful, don’t always come along when you need one, and when they do arrive, they often come in threes. There’s actually science behind why buses bunch together[1][2][3] – it’s called bus bunching, and it happens because small delays compound into bigger ones. The same phenomenon affects marketing advice. One person’s suggestion triggers another’s memory of something they read, which prompts a third person to share what worked for them five years ago in a completely different sector.
The people sharing these opinions genuinely want to help. They have the best intentions, just like whoever schedules the buses and manages the routes. They generally do a great job. But as an SME Marketing Director, you’re left standing at the metaphorical bus stop wondering which one to board, or whether to wait for the next service entirely.
The Everyone’s-an-Expert Problem
Here’s what’s happening in UK SMEs right now. Research shows that 65% of marketing activities in small businesses are managed by business owners themselves[4], and 46% don’t have a formal marketing strategy[4]. Into this vacuum flows advice, opinions, suggestions, and the occasional “you really should be doing…” from colleagues, board members, that bloke from accounts, and your mate’s cousin who once ran a Facebook ad.
Everyone has suddenly become a marketing expert. This is often backed up by one or two experiences or observations in a sector that’s different from yours, possibly in different economic and technological times. Someone had success with email marketing in 2019, so obviously that’s what you should do now. Never mind that their business sold B2C consumer products whilst yours is B2B professional services.
The barrage of marketing advice can leave you paralysed, unsure of where to focus next[5]. You’re reading books, updating the website, learning SEO, crafting social media content in spare moments, trying to understand sales funnels, and fielding suggestions from everyone who’s ever seen an advert.
Why the Last Person Through the Door Probably Hasn’t Got the Answer
Let me be direct about something. The last person to pop their head around your door is unlikely to have the answer to your marketing challenges. That’s not because they’re wrong, uninformed, or unhelpful. It’s because they don’t have the full picture.
They don’t know that you’ve already tried that channel and it didn’t work for your audience. They haven’t seen the budget constraints you’re working within. They’re unaware of the strategic direction the board agreed last quarter. They don’t understand your customer journey, your conversion metrics, or the three failed experiments you ran before they joined the company.
When working with diverse teams and stakeholders, navigating disagreements effectively is crucial for building a cohesive brand identity[6]. But here’s the challenge – you don’t want to cut off dialogue from people who are genuinely trying to help you. There might be a nugget of greatness in there somewhere. Somewhere in that avalanche of opinions, someone might have spotted something you’ve missed.
Building Your Opinion Filter
What’s needed is a system – a filter that lets the good stuff through whilst catching the noise. Think of it as your marketing opinion sieve.
Ground Everything in Your Business Goals
Before you can evaluate any marketing suggestion, you need to know where your business is heading[7]. What are your actual objectives? Not marketing objectives – business objectives. Revenue targets, market share, new product launches, geographic expansion. Your marketing must tie into these, which means any suggestion needs to be tested against this framework first.
When someone suggests you should be on TikTok, the question isn’t “Is TikTok effective?” but rather “Does TikTok help us reach our strategic business goals?” If your target market is 55-year-old finance directors and your goal is to secure three major contracts this quarter, TikTok probably isn’t your bus.
Apply the Context Test
Every piece of marketing advice comes with context, even if the person sharing it doesn’t realise it. What worked for someone else’s business may not work for yours[8] because context matters enormously.
When evaluating marketing opinions, ask these questions:
What was the business size when this worked? A tactic that scales at £10 million revenue might be impossibly resource-intensive at £500,000.
What sector were they operating in? B2C e-commerce is fundamentally different from B2B professional services.
When did this happen? The digital landscape has changed dramatically. What worked brilliantly in 2020 might be saturated now, or the platform might have changed its algorithm entirely.
What were they actually measuring? Someone might claim email marketing “worked brilliantly” because they got good open rates, but if it didn’t generate revenue, did it actually work?
Prioritise Data Over Anecdotes
Data-driven decision-making allows SMEs to make informed choices that increase business value[9]. This approach goes beyond theory or intuition and relies on actual evidence to inform practice.
When someone shares an opinion, ask what data supports it. Not just “we got lots of likes” but actual business metrics. Marketing activity should focus on work that will actually deliver results[10], which means tracking meaningful metrics like customer acquisition cost, conversion rates, and return on investment.
Your own data matters most. If you’ve tried something and it didn’t work, that’s valuable information – more valuable than someone else’s success story from a different context. Trust your own data and value your experience[8].
Consider the Source’s Expertise
Not all opinions carry equal weight. Someone who’s spent 15 years in B2B marketing strategy has a different perspective from someone who once posted on LinkedIn and got good engagement. Understanding who’s providing the information and whether there’s potential bias matters[11] when assessing credibility.
This doesn’t mean dismissing input from junior team members or people outside marketing. Sometimes fresh eyes spot what experience has become blind to. But it does mean weighing advice appropriately. The intern’s TikTok suggestion might be brilliant if your target market has shifted younger, but perhaps less relevant if you’re selling enterprise software to FTSE 100 companies.
Creating a Decision Framework
You need a systematic way to handle the constant flow of marketing opinions and suggestions. Here’s a practical approach.
The Three-Question Filter
When someone offers marketing advice, run it through these three questions:
Does this align with our documented strategy? If you haven’t got a documented strategy, that’s your first problem to solve. 46% of UK SMEs don’t have a formal marketing strategy[4], which makes it impossible to evaluate whether any given tactic fits.
Do we have evidence this works for businesses like ours? Not just any business, but businesses with your model, your market, your constraints. A clear, measurable plan connects strategy to revenue[12] rather than chasing every trend.
Can we resource this properly? Limited time, resources, cash and expertise often leave small businesses struggling[13]. Half-implementing six tactics delivers worse results than fully implementing two.
Build an Ideas Log
Don’t dismiss suggestions outright, even if they fail your initial filter. Create a shared idea backlog with columns for idea name, description, hypothesis, target metric, and owner[14]. This shows you’re listening and values people’s input, whilst giving you space to evaluate properly.
Some ideas that aren’t right now might be perfect in six months when circumstances change. That TikTok suggestion might become relevant when you launch your new product line aimed at a younger demographic. Having it logged means you won’t forget it when the time is right.
Schedule Regular Reviews
Set quarterly sessions to review your marketing approach and consider new suggestions. Without regular reviews, SMEs often find themselves drifting and chasing trends[15]. This scheduled approach means you’re neither dismissing good ideas nor constantly pivoting based on the latest suggestion.
Between these reviews, you can tell well-meaning colleagues, “That’s interesting – I’ve added it to our quarterly review list.” It acknowledges their input without derailing your current plan.
The Real Challenge – Making Your Own Decisions
Here’s the uncomfortable truth. Answers we must have, but those answers need to come from a structured decision-making process, not from whoever spoke to you most recently or most persuasively.
SME marketing requires strategies that have been tested and shown to deliver results[16], not theoretical approaches. You need to become confident in your own decision-making process, which means:
Accepting that not every decision will be perfect. Marketing involves experimentation. Some tactics won’t deliver the results you hope for, and that’s part of the learning process[10].
Building your knowledge systematically. Rather than absorbing random advice, invest in structured learning about what works for businesses like yours. Only about one-third of SMEs have a documented marketing plan[17], which means most are operating on instinct and opinions rather than strategy.
Creating accountability. When you implement something, measure it properly. Many businesses spend thousands on marketing without knowing the results or return on investment[18]. This makes it impossible to determine whether advice was good or not.
Trusting your judgment. You know your business, your customers, and your market better than anyone popping their head round your door. Your experience and knowledge of your business’s uniqueness should inform decisions[8].
Finding the Nuggets of Gold
Despite everything I’ve said about filtering opinions, some of the best marketing breakthroughs come from unexpected suggestions. The trick is creating a system that lets you identify genuine opportunities without being constantly blown off course.
Encourage open communication and active listening[6] when people share ideas. Ask probing questions: “What makes you think that would work for us?” “Have you seen examples of this in our sector?” “How would we measure success?”
Sometimes the person hasn’t thought it through fully, and your questions help them realise why it’s not quite right. Other times, the questioning process helps refine a rough idea into something genuinely valuable. Vocalising your marketing ideas out loud to another expert marketer provides valuable third-party perspective[14].
Practical Steps for Tomorrow Morning
Let’s make this actionable. Here’s what you can do starting tomorrow:
Document your current strategy. Even if it’s just one page, write down what you’re trying to achieve and why. This becomes your reference point for evaluating suggestions.
Create your ideas log. Set up a simple spreadsheet or document where marketing suggestions get captured. Include columns for who suggested it, why they think it would work, and what success would look like.
Establish decision criteria. Write down the three to five factors that matter most when choosing marketing tactics for your business. Budget, time required, alignment with goals, available expertise, and measurability are good starting points.
Schedule your reviews. Put quarterly marketing review sessions in your diary now. These are when you’ll properly evaluate new suggestions and decide what to test.
Prepare your response. When someone next offers unsolicited marketing advice, you can say, “Thanks, that’s interesting. Help me understand – what makes you think that would work for our specific situation?” This shows engagement whilst gently testing whether they’ve thought beyond the surface level.
The Bus You Choose to Board
Back to those London buses. When three arrive together, the simple solution is often to get on the second bus, as it’s likely to be less crowded and arrive at its destination first[19]. But you need to check whether the buses have already changed order and whether your specific destination is served by that route.
The same applies to marketing opinions. Yes, you need to make decisions. Yes, you need to take action. But the right choice depends on your specific circumstances, not just what looks least crowded or most appealing in the moment.
UK SMEs face mounting competitive pressure and numerous challenges[20], which makes strategic marketing decisions more important than ever. You can’t afford to be blown about by every opinion that comes through the door. But equally, you can’t afford to become so rigid that you miss genuine opportunities.
The answer lies in having a robust decision-making framework that respects input whilst maintaining strategic focus. Listen to the marketing opinions that flood your way. Capture them. Evaluate them systematically. But ultimately, make decisions based on your strategy, your data, and your knowledge of your business.
Because at the end of the day, it’s not about which bus looks most promising when three arrive at once. It’s about knowing where you’re trying to get to, choosing the route that gets you there most effectively, and having the confidence to stay on board until you reach your destination.
The person popping their head round your door might not have the answer you need. But you do – once you’ve built the systems to find it.
References and Further Reading
[1] How science can stop buses from bunching. https://www.here.com/learn/blog/how-science-can-stop-buses-from-bunching
[2] Why do buses come in threes? – CityMonitor. https://www.citymonitor.ai/analysis/q-why-do-buses-come-threes-mathematical-inevitability-2248/
[3] Bus bunching – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_bunching
[4] SME Marketing Report 2025: SME Marketing Challenges. https://smemarketingreport.com
[5] Marketing Overload? Identify Your Next Marketing Move for Small Business. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/marketing-overload-identify-your-next-move-small-business-kelly-rice-4dmic
[6] Brand Alignment: Managing Conflicting Opinions – Motel Design. https://www.moteldesign.com/blog/creating-brand-alignment-a-practical-guide-to-managing-conflicting-opinions
[7] Marketing advice for SMEs – 4 questions you should answer to kickstart your campaigns. https://kootoo.co.uk/blog/marketing-advice-for-smes-4-questions-you-should-answer-to-kickstart-your-campaigns/
[8] Don’t Fall Prey to Generic Marketing Advice. https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/dont-fall-prey-to-generic-marketing-advice-heres-how/478422
[9] Importance of Decision-Making information in SMEs. https://www.taxtmi.com/article/detailed?id=12525
[10] How to prioritise marketing activity (and maximise ROI). https://www.thebiggerboat.co.uk/news/how-to-prioritise-marketing-activity/
[11] How to Test the Credibility of Market Research Data. https://www.driveresearch.com/market-research-company-blog/how-to-know-market-research-data-is-credible-market-research-data-cre…
[12] Marketing Strategy for Growth: 7 Proven Steps for UK SMEs. https://mr-marketing.co.uk/marketing-strategy-for-growth/
[14] How 9 Top Growth Marketers Prioritize Marketing Ideas. https://www.growthmentor.com/blog/growth-marketing-experts-prioritise/
[13] Marketing Overload? Here’s 8 Tips to help you to Simplify and Succeed. https://www.marketingskillsacademy.co.uk/blog/marketing-overload-here-s-8-tips-to-help-you-to-simplify-and-succeed
[15] Maximise ROI with a Strategic Marketing Plan for SMEs. https://opportunitymarketing.co.uk/maximise-roi-with-a-strategic-marketing-plan-for-smes/
[16] 5 SME Marketing Tips & Advice for 2025. https://invanity.co.uk/blog/sme-marketing-tips/
[17] Small Business Marketing: A Practical Guide. https://www.ysobelle-edwards.co.uk/articles/small-business-marketing
[18] How to Evaluate Marketing Activity Effectively. https://opportunitymarketing.co.uk/how-to-evaluate-marketing-activity-effectively/
[19] Transport experts explain why buses come in threes. https://blogs.hud.ac.uk/academics/2018/august/transport-experts-explain-why-buses-come-in-threes/
[20] Winning with UK SMEs: Insights for 2026 and beyond. https://rfi.global/winning-with-uk-smes-insights-for-2026-and-beyond/
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