Your
marketing
lifeline
The Design Grove
Plug in marketing team
Our customers recognise the need to do better marketing, but often lack the time or resources to do just that. They may be missing opportunities to promote their business or find themselves in a bit of a pickle. That is where we come in. The Design Grove is your ‘plug in’ marketing department, throwing you a lifeline, getting those marketing tasks done at a price point that isn’t going to send you over the edge!
The Design Grove
We don’t like to think of ourselves as an agency. We’re a merry band of freelancers brought together by marketing legend, Gillian Bardsley. We prefer our customers to think of us as their team, or workmate, someone who invests more in their business and treats it as if it was their own.
Starting in 2019 with just Gillian, she has built the team to include some excellent support from copywriters, designers, search engine optimisation specialists and social media specialists.
Whether we work for you directly, or help you manage YOUR third party agencies, we will always add value, because we just can’t help ourselves!
With gallons of experience in B2B marketing between us, we know what works and what doesn’t so you can reap the benefits of our hindsight and just get stuff done!

Our Latest Work
Take a look at some of the work we’ve done for our clients.





















Marketing
to grow your business
It all starts with a brand workshop
The Design Grove offers a fantastic brand workshop which helps you set the foundations of a really strong brand. We take a good, hard look at your business and identify exactly what value you bring to your customers. What you’re left with is a much clearer focus for your business.
E-Book – A-Z of Marketing
Reap the benefits of 20 years in marketing by downloading The Design Grove Marketing A-Z. With 139 pages, written in a no-nonsense way, the book aims to provide you with an overview of marketing for you business. Take a look and download the e-book right here for just £10.
Marketing service provider
The Design Grove is a marketing services provider based in Rochdale, Lancashire. Collaborating via remote-working software and video conferencing we are able to provide hands-on marketing support in and around the Manchester area, but service clients as far as the US and Europe.
Improve your branding
It all starts with branding, whether you’re a start up or looking to rebrand we can help you create a look that makes you stand out.
Build a web presence
No business should be ashamed of their website, that’s why our focus is on creating the right message, designed beautifully, that you can be proud of.
Produce better content
Whether it’s writing blogs for your website or content for your social media, we can help you articulate your messages clearly and succinctly.
Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy can make or break your marketing campaigns, with the variety of audits & workshops that we offer, we can help you win.
Campaign Management
Have a specific campaign in mind that might encompass all of these different things and more, no problem we can provide flexible day rates to suit your project needs.
Mentoring & Training
Up-skill your in-house marketing and communications team to enable them to add more value and make a bigger impact on your day-to-day marketing activities.
From Our lovely Clients
“Gillian has delivered a complete overhaul of our branding and marketing strategy and I would highly recommend her to any company looking to increase their marketing efforts.”
“Gillian is a naturally gifted communicator, she has a real passion and flair for her work, combined with the high emotional IQ essential for delivering a complex communication strategy.”
“Gillian really helped us unlock the true potential of our brand. She understood our needs and the demands of the market. Through workshops and bringing ideas to fruition, she’s both knowledgable and a pleasure to work with. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her.”
“There is no one better suited to help businesses get their marketing, web and social in order. Gillian facilitated and coordinated a branding workshop for us which gave us the direction we needed to move forward.”
How to do better marketing
Wix or WordPress for Web Design
As a start up business, there are few things more important to master than your website, but where...
Marketing A to Z
Scattered throughout my blog you will find lots of useful articles relating to marketing your...
How to use LinkedIn to build your brand
What is LinkedIn LinkedIn is a powerful online networking tool with about 562 million users. Using...
How to choose a photographer for your marketing project
Stock imagery certainly has a huge place in the world, it serves a purpose, but you can’t beat...
How to use Instagram for your business.
Instagram is a big deal. It’s huge. There is so much to do, where do you start!! Let’s keep this...
A Quick Guide to Facebook
What is Facebook? Think of Facebook as a perfect place to spread word of mouth. For businesses...
Need to know more?
If you’re interested in learning more about how The Design Grove can help you with our range of marketing services, please use the contact form and someone will get back to you right away. Alternatively, follow us on social media and pick up tips and hints about how to optimise your marketing yourself.