About Us

We help ambitious business owners and marketers just like you, understand how to use social media and email marketing to increase leads and sales.

The Formal Bit

Chat Marketing was established in 2010 by Alan Martin after extensive experience in the marketing industry.

Alan has over 20 years’ marketing experience and is in demand as a social media speaker and coach, having spoken at events alongside international brands such as Harley Davidson, Volkswagen and Zappos. He has both an industry and an academic background having previously worked for Dundee Science Centre and VisitScotland and lectured in marketing at The University of Abertay, and Dundee & Angus College.

When not busy working Alan enjoys running (St Andrews Adventure Running Team or STAART for short), reading and going for walks with his wife Mandy and their two boys Lewis and Jamie.

Alan Martin (DipM ACIM)
Head Ninja

My Story!

Hi, I’m Alan, and thanks very much for visiting the Chat Marketing website! It’s great to have you here. I thought that it would be a good idea for me to give you a little bit of background information about me and my experience with social media and digital marketing, so you can get to know me a bit better.

I’ve been using social media and online marketing to promote Chat Marketing since Day One, when I left the corporate world and struck-out on my own. Prior to that I used it successfully in my career as a Marketing Manager of a popular visitor attraction in Dundee.

Like you, I was looking for an effective way to increase sales without spending a fortune on advertising. I had come from a traditional marketing background, but over time had noticed that a lot of our marketing campaigns were just not generating a positive return on investment, so I just knew there had to be a better way!

The year before I left my job at the Science Centre, we recorded our busiest year ever in terms of visitor numbers, all of this in spite of a 20% cut in the marketing budget. Whilst it would be incorrect to suggest that this increase was entirely due to our use of digital marketing, it was our social media activity that was tasked to take the place of our reduced spending on traditional advertising.

I set up Chat Marketing in 2010 to teach the techniques that I had learned to other business owners and marketers, who were still pouring their hard-earned money into traditional marketing channels and getting very little or no return for their investment.

The name ‘Chat Marketing’ came from my desire to teach businesses about how they could harness word-of-mouth promotion. In the last 10 years I have assisted clients from many different industry sectors including:

  • Leisure and Tourism
  • Hair and Beauty
  • Finance/Accounting
  • Automotive
  • Public Sector
  • Broadcast Media
  • Graphic Design
  • Brewing
  • Health/Wellness and Sport
  • Human Resources and Recruitment
  • Management Consulting & Coaching
  • Charity/Voluntary
  • Further Education
  • IT

To name just a few business types that we have had the privilege to work with over the last few years.

I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t and adapted our approach to help our clients make the most of the opportunities created by emerging technologies. You can check out our range of services here!

Here’s what I believe when it comes to marketing your business

I have a few semi-controversial beliefs about marketing your business and what it takes to be successful, that you may (or may not) agree with…but that’s okay right? we’re all entitled to our own opinions!

I believe that…

  • The “Hard Sell” doesn’t work any more! Sure you might manage to persuade a few people to buy from you, but it’s not a very efficient process and you could end up putting off life-long customers in the process.
  • Constancy is the key to most things in life, including social media and digital marketing as it turns out!
  • The difference between success and failure is YOU, not the economy, not the competition or any other external factor, it’s YOU! A positive outlook and enthusiasm to learn are two of your best assets.
  • If your business is not where you want it to be at this point, you need to do something differently. Einstein defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

So, if you are ready to take your digital marketing to the next level (or maybe you are just getting started), check out our resources page. I’ve recommended books for you to read, podcasts to listen to and software tools that will enhance your productivity.

I’ve also built a community of aspiring social media Ninja’s, through my private Facebook Group ‘The Social Media Dojo’, which you can join here. It’s free and I’m in there regularly, sharing links to valuable content like great articles, awesome books, webinars, useful software tools etc, as well as answering questions, and posting ninja tips to help you improve your social media marketing.

Thanks very much for reading this and I hope to see you in The Dojo!

Alan Martin

P.S. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me HERE!

Coaching

Coaching

Quickly implement social media and email marketing into your business with one of our coaching programmes.

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Managed Services

Managed Services

Focus on running your business and let us take the hard work out of managing your social media.

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Online Courses

Online Courses

Learn everything you need to know to become a social media ninja at a time and place that suits you.

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