FanFinders blog
Consumer and industry insights, marketing guides, business talk and a lot of tech. And while you’re here, get to know us.
4 things to know when starting a startup
Forbes has dubbed 2021 the ‘year of the entrepreneur’, with hundreds of thousands of small businesses being launched in the wake of the pandemic. Our CCO and co-founder Adam Gillett, a man who has been
The lowdown on lead generation in 2021
Tony Golden covers why those businesses that simply deliver leads and then leave their partners to pray to the conversion gods aren’t going to survive for long. It’s the sophisticated, omnichannel lead generation partners that
UK families willing to pay extra for holidays to offset their carbon footprint
Travel survey reveals that 55% of families would be willing to pay more to make their trip sustainable and over a third would accept a 10% increase on the price of their holiday to make
Majority of UK families think that electric cars are still too expensive
Over half (55%) of UK families believe that cost is the main reason more people don’t own electric or hybrid cars, while 85% think that household income is the biggest barrier to owning an electric
A Day in the Life… with CEO Alec Dobbie
If there is a normal route in life I have rarely taken it. Not entirely by design and with plenty of being in the right place at the right time. I left school at 16,
HOW TO… get started with SEO
Nothing can stop the FanFinders Guide to Marketing now – it’s a runaway train by this point. In this latest article, we explore how brands in baby and parenting can start getting the most out of SEO
Team Spotlight – Meet Jonny
Name: Jonny Livingston Title: SEO Manager Time with the company: 4 months Talk to me about SEO… I’d say it’s one of those disciplines that most people know about, but don’t understand. What I can
FanFinders acquires UK’s leading baby brand review site
SHOREDITCH, LONDON (2 June, 2021) – FanFinders, a leading performance marketing and consumer intelligence company in the parenting industry, today announced its acquisition of The Best for Baby (www.thebestforbaby.co.uk/), the UK’s largest independent review website for
Team Spotlight – Meet Andy
Name: Andrew Hollingworth Title: International Business Development Manager Time with the company: 10 months Your first ever job was… Cleaning in a small restaurant in New York, when I was 16. I have family that
HOW TO… produce great content for parents
The FanFinders Guide to Marketing is back. This time, we’re covering how brands can use content to engage, convert, and retain an audience of parents. Let’s talk about the biggest mistake brands make when marketing
HOW TO… have impact on Instagram
To ‘reel’ or not to ‘reel’? In the latest from the FanFinders’ guide, we share advice on what brands in the baby and parenting sector should be doing to develop their Instagram channel and grow
HOW TO… create value with new and expectant parents
In our last guide entry, we covered why building pre-purchase value with customers can create more efficient and valuable marketing programmes for brands in the baby sector. But, how do you set about doing it?
Creative Data Labs – business problems and bright futures
In his latest blog, FanFinders’ CEO and co-founder Alec Dobbie reflects on his experience as a judge at one of the Data and Marketing Association’s Creative Data Labs. Last month, I was honoured to be
HOW TO… build pre-purchase brand loyalty
The FanFinders Guide to Marketing is back. This time we’re covering how for brands in the baby sector, acquiring customers way before the purchase point and at the right life stage means better cost-efficiency and
Team Spotlight – Meet Alvin
Name: Alvin Campbell Position: Business Development Years with the company: 2 years Your first ever job… Believe it or not, it was as a chef. Well I suppose it really should be called cooking by
HOW TO… solve the inverse relationship between scale and cost
In the first part of The FanFinders Guide to Marketing, we cover how brands in baby and parenting can fight rising acquisition costs when they scale. When it comes to plans for scaling, the default
Team Spotlight – Meet Catrin
Name: Catrin Hughes Position: Customer Acquisition Manager Years with the company: 6 months First things first, was working at a zoo as much fun at it seems from the outside… It was. It’s probably more
Talking entrepreneurship… with Adam Gillett
In this latest edition of our series delving into the realities behind entrepreneurship, we caught up with a man who, after almost 25 years spent in advertising and direct marketing channels, knows how to give
How to know if you’re putting too much pressure on your team
Remote working during a pandemic means a host of new pressures. These include but aren’t limited to home-schooling kids, navigating a small space where you and your partner are both working (and they talk really
5 ways to boost team morale
The latest blog from FanFinders’ CEO and co-founder Alec Dobbie. January is often a new start for both people and companies, and with our current lockdown situation in the UK, it’s more important than ever
5 questions – the year ahead in US parenting
This week, we put five questions to Tony Golden, FanFinders’ Senior Vice President of Business Development, North America – who gave us his reflections on the past year in the US parenting market and some
Our email marketing journey and the lessons we’ve learnt along the way (part 3)
In part 2, we covered warming your IP and certification. In this final part, Raphael Marsh rounds things up with how to be prepared for when things go wrong and why ‘intelligent’ emailing is the
Starting from scratch when you have a family
We have a motto and I think it works across the board “be smart, nice and get shi*t done.” How does the average person with a family start a business? And by average person, I’m
Survey reveals UK parents turning to family motors
Demand driven by attitudes to travel during the pandemic and buying habits among new parents suggests a busy year ahead for the motoring market. Among the insights revealed by our survey of over 5000 Your
Talking entrepreneurship… with Neil Stephenson
Not all entrepreneurs are made equal and some don’t even enjoy speaking about themselves as such. As part of our series delving into the realities behind entrepreneurship (we’re cutting out all the fluff), we caught
Our email marketing journey and the lessons we’ve learnt along the way (part 2)
In part 1, we covered choosing a setup, strategy and testing out templates. Raphael Marsh is back to share more essentials to support those small businesses who want to get serious about their email. 4.
Team Spotlight – Meet Rich
Name: Richard Matthews Position: Group Financial Controller Years with the company: Over 3 years Before FanFinders, the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had… After finishing my English studies, I actually worked as a tree
My work life balance, as a working father
I was recently asked how I would define ‘personal success’. My answer was: “I get to walk my kids to school in the morning.” With remote or flexible working firmly on the agenda, it got
Survey reveals Christmas/Black Friday spending habits
Almost 60% of UK and US parents will be spending ‘about the same or more’ this Christmas. Other key trends will see 84% doing at least some of their Christmas shopping in the Black Friday
Catching up with the CTO – AI and the R&D journey
Each month, FanFinders’ CTO Paul Gwynn will be sharing insights into how we’re using technology to transform experiences for our members and clients. If you work in technology (or even if you don’t), you’ll know
Our email marketing journey and the lessons we’ve learnt along the way (part 1)
Email marketing is perhaps not as shiny and new as some social channels and messenger apps out there, but the medium certainly isn’t dead. Quite the contrary, studies show that email consistently out-performs other digital
Team Spotlight – Meet Brian
Name: Brian Peacock Position: Software Development Team Lead Years with the company: 1 year and 3 months Before FanFinders, the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had… Growing up, most summer or Easter holidays I’d go out
In conversation – a Golden opportunity
Following his arrival as FanFinders’ new Senior Vice President of Business Development (North America), we caught up with Tony Golden to discuss filling a vacuum in the US parenting space, lessons from nearly two decades
FanFinders announces Tony Golden as new Senior Vice President of Business Development, North America
MIAMI – FanFinders, a leading performance marketing and consumer insight company in the parenting industry, has announced that Tony Golden will be Senior Vice President of Business Development of its North American operations, effective immediately.
Survey reveals UK mums buying more toys
We recently surveyed over 4,000 mums in the Your Baby Club network to find out more about the impact of the pandemic on attitudes towards early child development, the role of ‘play’ and educational toys.
FanFinders – How it all started
Roughly 11 years ago, I became a dad, to a beautiful bouncing little boy called Jack. Parenthood was one of those life-changing moments for me, it made me reassess what and who I am as
Team Spotlight – Meet Laura
Name: Laura Driver Position: Social Media Manager Years with the company: Over 6 years Before FanFinders, the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had… When working on a retailer’s social media, part of my job
Talking entrepreneurship… with Alec Dobbie
Often, stories about entrepreneurship focus on extreme examples of companies going from nothing to stratospheric overnight. The startup bubble makes it easy to envision the classic Silicon Valley path which sees millions in investment in
Team Spotlight – Meet Jas
Name: Jasmine Gurney Position: Head of Content & Social Years with the company: Over 2 years Before FanFinders, the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had… At one stage, I was creating new e-learning modules
5 ways to improve productivity in the remote workplace
To office or not to office is the question. The discussion in recent weeks has been vocal from both sides. What do we gain from remote working environments and what might we lose? However, the
Three challenges we faced when building our business (and what we did)
Entrepreneurship is exciting. The idea of riding that wave of success and seeing the business you’ve founded come to life. But it’s never a straightforward journey. Any amount of promise and potential can fall by
Team Spotlight – Meet Charlie
Name: Charlie Robson Position: Head of UK Partnerships Years with the company: Just over 5 years Before FanFinders, the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had… Let’s just say at one stage I was with
Tats and Ties – Chatting ‘work dress codes’ with CEO Alec Dobbie
I don’t think wearing a tie has ever made me a better worker. How people dress at work and ‘formal dress codes’ has been a polarising subject for a while. More recently, there have been
Team Spotlight – Meet Raf
Name: Raphael Marsh Position: Creative Director and co-founder Years with the company: 7 years and counting What was the initial motivation behind creating FanFinders… After Al [Alec] became a dad, we were looking at a
Team Spotlight – Meet Paul
Name: Paul Gwynn Position: CTO Years with the company: Coming up for 3 years What attracted you to FanFinders… The role offered a lot of autonomy. The technologies they had in-house were appealing and it
Travel survey reveals UK families will holiday at home
Tourism – both international and domestic – is an ever-evolving picture. To get some real insight into exactly how the pandemic has shifted perspectives on travel, we surveyed over 2,000 mums in the Your Baby
Talking business ingenuity during COVID-19 and remote working… with Ben Margolis, CFO
Ben Margolis has been Chief Financial Officer at FanFinders for almost 3 years. With his consultancy supporting a small number of ambitious growth businesses with their financial and development strategies, we caught up to get
Why your brand purpose and digital marketing strategy should be best friends
Is there still a disconnect between brands and their digital marketing strategies? When it comes to clearly defining brand, its purpose and which digital tactics are being used to meet objectives, the answer for many
Team Spotlight – Meet Adam
Name: Adam Gillett Position: CCO and co-founder Years with the company: 7 years Before FanFinders, the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had… I spent one summer putting up marquees for film sets all across
5 benefits of hiring apprentices
Apprenticeships are big news at the moment. From talk of a new government ‘bounty’ to incentivise companies through to where exactly hiring young people fits into post-pandemic plans, the role of apprentices is in the
Being strategic during the pandemic – The American way
There are vital lessons to be learnt from the proactive approach of U.S. companies during the pandemic. In the baby market, the questions that have been asked of companies during this period are similar to
Team Spotlight – Meet Neil
Name: Neil Stephenson Position: CMO and co-founder Years with the company: 7 years Before FanFinders, the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had… When I was 18, I worked in a casino as a croupier.
Team Spotlight – Meet Alec
Name: Alec Dobbie Position: CEO and co-founder Years with the company: At least as long as the company has existed (7 years and counting) Before FanFinders, the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had… At
The E-Commerce Boom (Part 2) – How to take control of your data?
In part 1, we looked at how history tells us that companies who actively invest in both marketing and progressive strategies emerge from challenging periods in a much stronger position. But there is a world
The E-Commerce Boom (part 1) – How to sustain your growth?
The chances are the COVID-19 e-commerce spike has left your business in one of two positions: either working out how to maintain the current high levels or if you missed out, making sure you’re adequately
Adapting to remote working – 5 expert tips
If you can’t trust your employees to work from home, then you have the wrong employees. The COVID-10 lockdown has been a journey into the unknown for plenty of companies out there, big and small.
Insights emerge from FanFinders pandemic survey
At FanFinders, we’ve been looking for ways to support our industry during these challenging times. Then it hit us. Why don’t we see what our Your Baby Club network has to say? Over the past
