When we first dreamed up Unicorn Marketing back in November 2018 over a G&T and a workplace moan session, we knew we could build something really special.
I was freelancing, Laura was unhappy at work – neither of us had the time/agency/control/budget to make things happen in our respective workplaces, and that’s a common challenge among marketers and marketing teams.
So we sat and planned out what we could offer to local businesses – if we dared take the plunge and set up our own business.
Below is copy-pasted from our very first x-matrix:
3-5 Year Goals
- An organisation with an amazing work-life balance
- Our small client-base are trusted partners and we’re not looking for new business
- Our turnover is stable
- We have seen clients through ‘Startup package’ to success
- Unicorn Marketing is well respected in Cambridge and Manchester
- We present / join panels at marketing seminars and conferences
- Unicorn happy rating 8+ out of 10
do you really want to call a business ‘Unicorn’?
You know what, yes – yes we do!
Calling our business Unicorn actually subtly achieves a few different key goals of ours:
- It describes us. We are ‘marketing unicorns’, the term you use when you want a marketer who can do a bit of everything and do it well. Businesses and agencies are always desperate for a marketing unicorn. So to us, at least, it is pretty Ronseal.
- Sadly, we’ve worked in places where being a female was… diffiduclt. And most women will know the type of toxicity we’re talking about, which is truly unfortunate. We can’t change the fact that we’re women, nor would we want to! We want to be unapologetically feminist, and we figured that naming ourselves ‘Unicon’ would weed out the types who don’t appreciate or respect women.
- We could be Unicorn without actual unicorns, glitter, and folklore. We can take Unicorn and have our ethos, design, and culture stand out – Unicorn but elevated.
- Taking all of this into account, we think the business name would attract new team members who appreciate that Unicorn is not just a business name, there’s more to it than that! And in fact we’re often complemented for our ‘clever’ name.
the business should work as hard for you…
…as you work for the business.
If we were going to set up a business together, we needed it to work for us. We wanted to work flexibly from home/cafes/anywhere, we wanted to work at the times that worked best for us, we didn’t want to be restricted in any way. We just wanted to deliver great marketing.
We also knew that life changes, Laura wanted to do some freelancing on the side with another friend’s business, and maybe we’d want to start families and reduce our hours in the future.
So we arranged the business around our lifestyles.
And after 7+ years in full operation, we can say with confidence that it works! To this day, we uphold those initial principals:
- Work when you work best* (night owl or early bird, all are welcome here)
- *but make it to client meetings whenever possible
- Work the hours that work for you
- Holidays are unlimited because life matters too
offering what they need most…
…exactly when they need it.
The business became a sort of extension of the way I used to freelance. Hybrid between being external and internal. For many of the companies I was working with there was no internal marketing team who just needed a hand with this and that. It was just me.
I found that if I could offer businesses what they need the most, work to their budget and timeframes, that was of the most benefit to them. So that’s the model we continued with in the business.
We don’t have an SLA for our clients – we could do – but we’re aiming to be more flexible than that. I’ve seen it before – box ticking so it’s all done, but if it’s not working then it’s just wasted effort. So if our clients requirements evolve with the seasons, years, if their goals change or the landscape changes, then we need to bend and change along with them.
So instead of an SLA we offer our clients a number of monthly hours to do whatever they really need us to do for them. And if we need more time in a month we’ll clear it with them so they can decide to have the extra work done or wait for the following month.
And it works really well!
and then there was a pandemic!
Unicorn Marketing was celebrating its first birthday in January 2020, with a backdrop of rising fear over an unknown illness popping up all over the world. Our kids will never believe us (uhhh it was just Covid, mum!?) but it really was an unsettling time.
It was a really uncertain time for businesses too, but lucky for us we worked with a few businesses that really played a vital role within the UK to keep us all safe. So if anything, it was a busier time at Unicorn Marketing. We were very lucky that our clients could support us through the world turning upside-down when we’d barely gotten on our feet ourselves.
growing our team.
Over the last few years we’ve invited 3 more excellent marketers onto our team, and we have plans to grow further too!
We’ve recently taken a perfectly small office in Ely, and we’ve had a great time dressing it up into a wonderful place to be. We’re not quite done yet, but when we are we think a little launch party is in order, don’t you?
And with plans to grow our team, we must also plan to bring on new business. So early in 2026 we set about having our own mini rebrand, a fresh new website, and… doing our own marketing!?
we never did our OWN marketing before.
As crazy as that is, yes we admit it, we never really did any of our own marketing before. In a way, it’s a positive thing, we’ve always been too busy to take on additional work.
But now we’ve run our own strategy sessions, we’ve put in the hard work on our rebrand (trust me, it’s hard with 5 perfectionists!), we’ve agonised over taglines, templates and tactics… and do you want to know what we’ve discovered?
Doing your own marketing is HARD, but really fun too!
Being external seems so much clearer to us, which I suppose it should do, I mean that’s what we do – we help other businesses to make their marketing work.
we didn’t set out to be a mothers-first business…
…but it suits us so well!
Over the years the team have welcomed 6 tiny people. And the biggest surprise to us is how well our new demanding home-lives can work alongside our careers here at Unicorn Marketing.
Being fully flexible has meant that our team are supported with work on their terms, and that we know we always have backup should the dreaded call from the daycare pop up on our phones.
We all now hav such a clear understanding that mum skills are also marketing skills:
- Time management
- Communication
- Empathy
- Knowing your audience
- Psychology
- And having fun
so what’s next?
What do we want to achieve with Unicorn Markeitng in the next couple of years. Here are our goals:
- Start working with 2 or 3 more local SMEs
- Bring 1 or 2 more team members onboard
- Elevate our service offering
- Keep striving to produce better work
- Keep smashing goals for our clients
interested in working with us?
We’d love to hear about your business and see if we can offer you the marketing support you need to really make a difference.
Pop your details into the form below, and we’ll have a no-obligation chat about it!
By Rosie
