Solved: Best Go-To-Market Plan in Leeds (Data Inside)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! It's a common problem, launching a new business and feeling a bit lost on how to get those first customers, especially in a specific area like Leeds. The good news is you dont need to be a local market expert. You just need to be an expert on your customer's problems.

Forget the idea of a magic "go-to-market strategy". Most of them are just corporate nonsense. What you really need is a practical, repeatable system for finding people who need your help and showing them you're the right choice. I'll walk you through my thoughts on how you can build that system from the ground up. This isn't about fancy tricks; it's about getting the fundamentals so right that your advertising has no choice but to work.

Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

The first mistake nearly everyone makes is defining their customer by demographics. They say things like "I'm targeting SMEs in Leeds with 10-50 employees" or "I'm looking for homeowners in North Leeds." This is completely useless information for advertising. It tells you nothing about their needs, their urgency, or their willingness to pay.

You need to stop thinking about who they are and start obsessing over the nightmare they are currently living. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. It's a specific, urgent, expensive, and maybe even career-threatening situation that keeps them awake at night.

Let's pretend you run a B2B IT support company in Leeds. Your demographic-based ICP is "law firms in LS1 with 20-50 staff." Rubbish.

Your nightmare-based ICP is: "The managing partner of a mid-sized law firm who is terrified that a critical client file, needed for a court deadline tomorrow, is inaccessible because their server has just gone down. Every minute of downtime is costing them money, reputation, and potentially exposing them to a malpractice claim."

See the difference? The first one leads to generic, ignorable ads like "IT Support for Leeds Businesses." The second one leads to a powerful, direct message: "Server Down in Central Leeds? We Can Have an Engineer On-Site in Under 60 Minutes." One is a pamphlet; the other is a parachute.

You have to do this work first. You must become an expert in their pain. What are the exact symptoms of their problem? What language do they use to describe it? What are the real-world consequences if it goes unsolved? Doing this properly is 90% of the battle. Once you know the nightmare, finding them becomes ten times easier.

I'd say you need to build your offer to solve their pain

Once you've identified the nightmare, your offer can't be some vague, fluffy service. It has to be the specific, tangible antidote to their pain. This is the second place where most new businesses go wrong. Their offer is weak, unclear, and risky for the buyer.

You need to "productise" your service. Give it a name, a clear process, defined deliverables, and a fixed timeline or price if possible. This transforms it from a complex, scary commitment into a simple, understandable purchase.

Let's go back to our Leeds IT support company. Instead of just selling "IT Support," they could offer:

• -> The "Leeds Business Lifeline" Package: A fixed-fee service that includes a 60-minute on-site response guarantee, a temporary server solution to get them working immediately, and a full diagnostic report within 24 hours.

This is a much stronger offer. It's not just "help"; it's a clear, step-by-step solution to their immediate crisis. It reduces risk for the buyer because they know exactly what they're getting. Your ad copy then writes itself, using a framework like Before-After-Bridge.

Before: Your office is at a standstill. Your team is stressed, your clients are angry, and every passing minute is costing you a fortune because your server is dead.

After: Your team is back online, working from a secure temporary server. You've met your deadline. You have a clear report explaining the problem and a plan to prevent it from ever happening again.

Bridge: Our "Leeds Business Lifeline" service is the bridge that gets you from chaos to control in under an hour.

A strong, productised offer built around a customer's nightmare is the engine of any successful go-to-market strategy. Without it, you're just another company shouting into the void and hoping someone listens. It’s also important to make sure there is a clear demand for your offer, if there isnt, your campaign is likely to fail.

You probably should delete the "Request a Demo" button

This brings us to the most common failure point in B2B advertising: the offer on the landing page. The "Request a Demo" or "Book a Consultation" button is probably the most arrogant Call to Action ever invented. It assumes your prospect, who is likely a busy, stressed-out decision maker, has nothing better to do than schedule a meeting to be sold to. It's a high-friction, low-value proposition that immediately positions you as just another commodity vendor.

Your offer's only job is to deliver an "aha!" moment. A moment of undeniable value that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. You must solve a small, real problem for them for free to earn the right to solve the whole thing.

Instead of "Book a Call," your offer should be something like:

• -> For the IT company: "Get a Free, 15-Minute IT Security Health Check for Your Leeds Office." This is valuable, specific, and low-commitment. You provide real value, demonstrate your expertise, and the sales conversation happens naturally afterwards. We actually do something similar, offering a free initial consultation where we review their strategy and account together which gives potential clients a taste of our expertise.
• -> For a marketing agency: "Get a Free SEO Audit Showing Your Top 3 Keyword Opportunities in Leeds."
• -> For a commercial cleaning company: "Get a Free Deep Clean of Your Highest Traffic Area (No Obligation)."

These offers work because they shift the focus from "what I want from you" (a sales meeting) to "what I can give you" (immediate value). This completely changes the dynamic. You're no longer a salesperson; you're a helpful expert. It's a subtle but powerful shift that will dramatically improve your lead quality and conversion rates. Many businesses are afraid to give away value, but its the fastest way to build trust and prove you can actually deliver.

You'll need to know your numbers... starting with LTV

Before you even think about which ad platform to use, you need to answer a critical question: "How much can I afford to spend to acquire a customer?" Answering this frees you from the tyranny of chasing cheap, low-quality leads. The key is understanding your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

LTV tells you the total profit you can expect to make from an average customer over the entire duration of your relationship. Once you know this, you can work backwards to figure out a profitable Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).

Here’s the basic formula:

LTV = (Average Monthly Revenue Per Customer * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Customer Churn Rate

Let's use our Leeds IT support company as an example:

• -> Average Monthly Revenue Per Customer (ARPA): They have clients on retainers ranging from £300 to £1,500. Let's say the average is £750/month.
• -> Gross Margin %: After paying for software licenses and engineer time directly related to servicing that client, they have an 80% gross margin.
• -> Monthly Churn Rate: They tend to keep clients for a long time, losing about 2% of their clients each month.

So, the LTV calculation is: (£750 * 0.80) / 0.02 = £600 / 0.02 = £30,000.

This is a transformative piece of information. Each customer is worth £30,000 in gross profit to the business. A healthy business model often aims for an LTV to CAC ratio of at least 3:1. This means they can afford to spend up to £10,000 to acquire a single new customer.

If their sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a paying customer, they can now afford to pay up to £1,000 per qualified lead. Suddenly, a £100 cost per lead from a highly targeted Google Ad doesn't seem expensive anymore. It looks like an incredible bargain.

This maths is the foundation of scalable advertising. Without it, you're just guessing. I've built a simple calculator for you below to play around with your own numbers.

We'll need to look at choosing the right channels for Leeds

Now, and only now, can we talk about which channels to use. Your choice of channel should be dictated entirely by customer intent.

1. High-Intent Channels (Start Here): Google Search Ads

This is where you start. No question. You want to capture people who are already problem-aware and actively searching for a solution in your area. This is the lowest-hanging fruit. For our IT company, these are people typing queries like:

• -> "emergency IT support Leeds"
• -> "business IT services West Yorkshire"
• -> "office 365 migration Leeds"
• -> "cyber security consultant near me"

You bid on these keywords, and your ad appears at the exact moment they need you. The targeting is laser-focused on intent and location. You can set your campaigns to only show to people within a 10-mile radius of Leeds city centre. It's the most efficient way to spend your first advertising pounds. I would always start with Search ads for a local service business. It will likely get you the best results. I remember one campaign for a home cleaning company which got a cost of £5 per lead this way.

2. Lower-Intent Channels (Scale Later): Social Media (LinkedIn/Meta)

Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook/Instagram are for generating demand, not capturing it. People aren't scrolling through their feed looking for IT support. You have to interrupt them with a compelling message that makes them aware of a problem they might not have been thinking about.

This is much harder and generally more expensive, especialy in the beginning. It's something you explore *after* you've proven your offer and funnel with high-intent traffic from Google.

A big mistake people make here is running "Brand Awareness" or "Reach" campaigns. You are literally telling the algorithm "find me the cheapest people to show this ad to". And it will do exactly that, finding people who never click, engage, or buy anything. You're paying to reach the worst possible audience. If you do use these platforms, you MUST use a conversion objective, like "Leads" or "Sales," so the algorithm is forced to find people who actually take action.

For a B2B service in Leeds, you could test LinkedIn ads targeting "Job Titles" (e.g., Managing Partner, Office Manager) at "Companies" within the "Leeds, England, United Kingdom" area. But be prepared for a higher cost per lead. For instance, in one of our campaigns for a B2B software client, we used LinkedIn Ads to target decision makers and achieved a cost per lead of just $22, which was a fantastic result given their customer lifetime value.

This is the main advice I have for you:

To bring this all together, here is a simple, actionable plan. This isn't a complex "strategy"; it's a logical sequence of steps to get your first customers in Leeds using paid ads, without wasting a load of money.

This process might seem slow, but it's systematic. Each step builds on the last. By the time you get to Phase 4, you're not just 'trying ads'; you're launching a targeted campaign with a compelling offer, backed by solid maths, aimed at people who are already looking for you. The chances of success are infinitely higher.

Of course, there's a lot of nuance in executing this well - from keyword research and bidding strategies to writing persuasive landing page copy. It can be a steep learning curve, and mistakes can be expensive. Getting it right from the start can save you thousands and months of frustration.

This is where expert help can make a huge difference. We specialise in this exact process: building and scaling profitable ad campaigns for businesses. If you'd like to have a chat, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial strategy session where we can go through your specific business and plan out what these steps would look like for you in detail.

Either way, I hope this detailed breakdown gives you a much clearer path forward for your launch in Leeds.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh