Digital Marketing Resources for SMEs in Northern Ireland
ProfileTree’s digital marketing resources are free guides for business owners in Northern Ireland and across the UK, covering SEO and AI search, social media, email, video, websites and Google tools. They are written by the Belfast team that delivers our digital training, and each guide draws on the work we carry out on client websites.
The guides suit owners and marketing managers who want to do more of their own marketing, or who need to understand the work well enough to brief someone else. Where a team needs hands-on help, our digital marketing training works through the same subjects on the business’s own site, individually or with a whole team.
ProfileTree is a Belfast web design and digital marketing agency, founded in 2011 and based at the McSweeney Centre, and has completed more than 1,000 projects for businesses and public bodies since it opened.
Free Digital Marketing Resources by Topic
Each topic below has its own resource page, which gathers our guides, explainers and videos on that subject in one place. Start with the page closest to the problem you are trying to solve this month because one topic worked through properly does more for a small business than a quick read of all of them.
The search engine optimisation resources explain how Google decides which pages to show, the way to research the words customers type, and how to write service pages that answer their questions. SEO is the work of making a website easier for search engines to understand and rank, and most of it is within reach of an owner who is willing to write clearly about what the business does.
The same page now covers AI search, meaning the answers that Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and similar assistants give when someone asks them to recommend a business.
The social media resources deal with organic social media, which means the posts, profiles and conversations a business runs without paying for reach. They show you how to choose the one or two platforms where your customers already spend time, plan content that does not depend on daily inspiration, and read platform analytics to see which posts are worth repeating.
The email marketing resources sit alongside them. They set out how to build a mailing list through sign-ups on your site and write messages that people open and act on. A mailing list matters to an SME because it is an audience the business owns outright, whatever happens to the platforms.
The video production resources are aimed at businesses that want to film more of their own content and for those deciding what to hand over to a production team. They cover drone videography as a content tool, choosing video editing software for a business team, and the process and styles of animated video production. Our view is that a short, honest video with a real person from the business usually does more for a local firm than a polished advert, and the guides take that approach throughout.
The website development resources explain how a business site is built and kept in good order, from page speed to contact forms. They give an overview of WordPress, Shopify and Wix, so that owners can hold an informed conversation with whoever manages their site.
The digital strategy resources are about deciding where effort and budget should go before any campaign starts. The guides set out how a start-up can market itself on a limited budget, which digital skills a growing business needs, how a written marketing plan supports growth and what to plan for the first 90 days of marketing after a website launch.
The Google tools resources explain how Google works for a business and the way to see where you stand in it. They cover Google Business Profile, along with Google Analytics 4 and Search Console. The digital strategy resources then bring these together into a plan for the year, shaped by the goals the business has set for itself.
For the official account of how Google Search works, the Google Search Central documentation is the primary source and is worth reading alongside these guides.
The AI software and tools resources are written for people new to artificial intelligence. They look at where AI saves time in everyday marketing work and where it still needs a person to check the result.
The page compares ChatGPT, which works with text, with Canva AI, which can create images from a written prompt. It also links to guides on every current AI features and on using the Instories app to produce short-form social content.
Our digital marketing training programmes page sets out five subjects that teams can be trained in, suitable for owners, staff in larger marketing teams, beginners and experienced marketers alike. Social media training covers content, brand voice and metrics across the main platforms. Video marketing training covers filming, editing and live streaming on a phone or other personal device.
Email marketing training deals with subject lines, segmentation and automation. Google Analytics training shows how to read top pages and search queries, track conversions and build custom reports. The fifth programme covers conversion rate optimisation (CRO), which is the work of turning more of the visitors you already have into enquiries through clearer user journeys, calls to action and social proof.
A Practical Order for Working Through the Resources
Most small businesses get further by working through the subjects in a set order because each stage depends on the one before it. This is the sequence our trainers follow with SMEs in Northern Ireland, and it begins with how the business appears in search before any new content is written.
| Stage | What to work on | Resource pages to start with |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Understand how Google ranks your business and check where you stand now | Google tools |
| 2 | Analyse your website and set up link tracking so every campaign can be measured | Search engine optimisation |
| 3 | Get the platform and the pages right, with a plan for the first 90 days | Website development; digital strategy |
| 4 | Build a steady routine of social posts and email | Social media; email marketing |
| 5 | Add video to the pages and posts that already attract visitors | Video production |
| 6 | Use AI tools to speed up content once the routine is working | AI software and tools |
The order matters because content published on a site that nobody measures, or that Google cannot connect to a place, rarely shows what it achieved. A business that completes the first three stages has its foundations in place, so every later stage builds on pages already being found. Give each stage a few weeks before moving on, and look at the figures in Search Console at the end of each one to see whether the change made a difference.
One-to-One Training Built Around Your Own Website
Reading a guide tells you what to do, and a training session gets it done on your own site with an expert beside you. ProfileTree’s one-to-one digital marketing training starts with a review of your website and current marketing, then works through the subjects that matter most to your goals, with changes made during the session wherever that is possible.
Sessions cover SEO and AI search, organic social media, content and copywriting, email marketing, Google Analytics 4 and Search Console, video, and the day-to-day running of a WordPress website. They can be delivered for one person, for a small marketing team or as a workshop for a wider group, at our Belfast office or online. The final price depends on the number of people and sessions involved.
Ciaran Connolly, founder of ProfileTree, puts the principle simply: “Training only works if someone does the thing afterwards. That is why ProfileTree’s digital training is built around each business’s own website and keywords, and why people leave the McSweeney Centre in Belfast with the changes already made on their own site.”
A good outcome from a session is a list of changes that are already live, together with a plan for the following month. Owners who would sooner pass the tasks to someone else afterwards still gain from it because they can then brief an agency or a freelancer, knowing what good work looks like and how to check it.
Council-funded Training Programmes Across Northern Ireland
ProfileTree has delivered funded training on behalf of councils in Northern Ireland, including Belfast City Council, Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council and Mid and East Antrim Borough Council. On these programmes, the council funds the training and local SMEs take part at no cost, which puts structured support within reach of businesses that could not otherwise set aside a training budget.
Each business on these programmes was paired with a ProfileTree mentor who specialised in the area it needed most. Participants worked on digital strategy, social media, SEO, content, website development and video, and applied what they learned directly to their own business, from setting up an online shop to producing a first marketing video. The programmes grew out of the move to online selling after the pandemic, when many owners had to go from a shop counter or an order book to a working website in a matter of weeks.
Funded places depend on what each council is running at the time, so the first step is to check your council’s business support pages or ask its economic development team about current digital programmes. If nothing suitable is open, our team can tell you what we are delivering and suggest a route that fits your budget.
Video Lessons on the ProfileTree YouTube Channel
ProfileTree’s YouTube channel holds over 1,500 digital marketing videos, ranging from brief explanations of a single idea to in-depth technical walkthroughs. They are made by the same team that writes the guides and delivers the training, so the advice on screen matches what you read on the resource pages.
Watching a task done on screen before you try it is often the quickest way to learn it, particularly for software such as Google Analytics 4 or WordPress. Search the channel for the subject you are working on that week, and keep the written guide on the same subject open alongside it for the steps.
Book Digital Training for Your Team
If the guides have shown you what needs doing and you would like help doing it, the next step is a training session planned around your business. Our team runsdigital training in person and online for firms across Northern Ireland, Ireland, and the UK. Once we have talked through your goals, we will suggest where to begin. ProfileTree has more than 500 Google reviews with a 5.0 rating from the businesses it has worked with since 2011.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, every guide, resource page and YouTube video is free to read and watch, with no account needed. Paid digital marketing training is separate, and you only need it when you would like to make the changes with help from one of our trainers.
A council pays the costs, and local businesses join the programme free of charge, usually after a brief application. Eligibility, subjects and dates vary from council to council and from year to year, so ask your council’s business support team what is open now.
Yes, every ProfileTree training session uses the business’s site, analytics and search terms as its working material. Changes made during training are therefore live on your site by the time you leave.
They are written for owners, managers and small marketing teams in SMEs who run their own marketing or oversee someone who does. Technical terms are explained where they first appear, so no previous digital marketing training is needed to follow them.
Digital training with ProfileTree starts from £350 plus VAT. The final cost depends on how many people take part, how many sessions you book and whether we deliver it at our Belfast office, online or at your premises.
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