How we built Snugg's marketing function from scratch

From zero marketing infrastructure to a 10-person multi-disciplinary team, two seven-figure funding rounds, and £2m+ in grants built under tight budget constraints.

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Snugg is a consumer platform making home energy efficiency simple and affordable, with a go-to-market built around partnerships with high street banks. When Scale Up Collective came in, there was no marketing function, no strategy, and no team…just a product with genuine social value and a complex B2B distribution model that needed to be built around it.

The goal

Build Snugg's marketing function from the ground up, developing the consumer and B2B insight, integrated strategy, team, and infrastructure needed to establish the brand, support bank partnerships, and underpin the fundraising activity required to grow.

The challenge

Building a marketing function from scratch while simultaneously developing the insight needed to inform its strategy meant every decision had to be grounded in research rather than experience, and executed under significant budget constraint with the right mix of in-house, freelance, and agency resource assembled carefully at each stage.

Results

Full marketing function built

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Built and ran a 10-person multi-disciplinary team from scratch, covering brand, content, performance, and partnership marketing under tight budget constraints.

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Two seven-figure funding rounds supported

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CMO-level credibility and marketing infrastructure underpinned two significant fundraises, giving investors confidence in the commercial capability of the business.

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£2m+ in grants secured

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The marketing and brand work supported successful grant applications, adding meaningful non-dilutive funding to Snugg's growth capital.

The strategy

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Consumer and market insight

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Started with the research needed to build everything else on solid ground:

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• Developed insight into how consumer attitudes to home sustainability had shifted since the start of the cost-of-living crisis
• Mapped consumer motivations and barriers through the lens of the bank partners Snugg needed to convince
• Used the insight to formulate a B2B go-to-market grounded in what banks needed to see to commit to partnership

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Integrated strategy build

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Built the strategy before building the team or the infrastructure to execute it:

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• Developed an integrated marketing strategy covering brand, B2B partnership development, and consumer demand generation
• Defined the channel mix, messaging hierarchy, and content approach needed to serve both audiences
• Committed to strategy before committing budget to team or tools, ensuring resource followed evidence

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Team build and operating model

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Assembled the function to match the strategy and the stage of the business:

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• Built a 10-person multi-disciplinary team using the right combination of in-house, freelance, and agency resource
• Structured the team to be most effective at each stage of growth, evolving the model as Snugg scaled
• Built the tech stack, workflows, and reporting infrastructure the team needed to operate under budget pressure

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Long-term embedded leadership and handover

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Led the marketing function through to the point where the business could develop its own leadership:

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• Led marketing strategy and execution across brand, product, and growth for the duration of the engagement
• Worked across the business with product and strategy teams to keep marketing integrated into the whole operation
• Planned and executed a deliberate handover when Snugg was ready to build its own in-house leadership

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