What Source Marketing does

Source Marketing is a privately held B2B marketing agency headquartered in Leeds, United Kingdom, founded in 2001 by Peter Downey and Steve Clark. Operating under the positioning of a "virtual marketing department," the agency delivers outsourced marketing support to businesses primarily in the UK and France, and currently reports 175 retained clients. The firm is led by Madeleine McMullin, who brings prior experience as Marketing Director of British Ceramic Tile and cross-market exposure in the UK, France, Japan, and other Far Eastern markets.

The agency offers six integrated service modules: a virtual marketing department offering (full or partial outsourced marketing function), branding (corporate identity and brand consistency), strategy (audience, pricing, and growth planning), PR & advertising, websites/SEO, and market reports & research (including B2B telephone research). These services are delivered as a unified offering rather than discrete product lines, allowing clients to engage the firm for one or several modules. The firm has no proprietary technology platform, no disclosed AI/ML capabilities, and no API or product integrations; the core "technology" is the team's accumulated marketing expertise and methodology.

Source Marketing monetizes through retainer-based contracts for ongoing marketing services, classifying as subscription-style recurring revenue. The GTM motion is sales-led and relationship-driven: the website invites prospects to a free, no-obligation consultation, and the firm has maintained four clients for over a decade each alongside additional multi-year relationships. Customer mix is skewed toward mid-market and enterprise clients in interiors/design (Wedgwood, Denby, Sebastian Conran, Laura Ashley, Hemingway Design), tiling/construction (British Ceramic Tile, Kerakoll, stoneCIRCLE), furniture (Collaborate Furniture), and renewable energy (YLEM Energy). No pricing is publicly disclosed, no funding rounds are reported, and ownership appears to remain with founders/management, consistent with a bootstrapped independent agency model.

Name

Source Marketing

Legal name

Source Marketing

Website

https://sourcemarketing.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Source Marketing is a privately held Leeds, UK-based B2B marketing agency founded in 2001 that operates as an outsourced virtual marketing department for mid-market and enterprise clients in the UK and France, delivering branding, strategy, PR, SEO, web, and research services on retainer.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Marketing Services

NAICS

Advertising Agencies (541810), Advertising Agencies (54181), Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311), Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Content Studio & Creative Resourcing (In-house/Embedded Teams) (BPAFAIAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Content Production (Video, Design, Copy, Studio) (BPAFAAAF)

Keywords

• Outsourced marketing services
• Marketing agency services
• Brand development services
• Search engine optimization
• Market research services

Headquarters

HQ city

Norwalk

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Marketing Services Retainers: The agency generates revenue through retainer-based contracts for ongoing marketing services. Clients engage Source Marketing as their virtual marketing department for all or part of their marketing needs, including branding, PR, SEO, websites, and strategy.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Source Marketing operates as a virtual marketing department for businesses, providing outsourced marketing services across branding, strategy, PR & advertising, websites/SEO, and market research. The agency delivers comprehensive marketing support as an alternative to hiring in-house marketing staff, serving clients in the UK, France and beyond through retainer-based engagements.

Product overview

Source Marketing offers a single, unified virtual marketing department service that provides outsourced marketing support. The company delivers six integrated service modules: Virtual Marketing Department (full-service marketing outsourcing), Branding (corporate identity development), Strategy (growth planning and market analysis), PR & Advertising (publicity and awareness campaigns), Websites/SEO (web development and search optimization), and Market Reports & Research (market investigation and B2B research). These services function as a cohesive virtual marketing team, allowing clients to access comprehensive marketing expertise without the cost of hiring in-house staff, with the option to engage one or multiple services based on their needs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Virtual Marketing Department An outsourced service providing comprehensive marketing support for all or part of a client's marketing needs, offering an alternative to hiring in-house staff at reduced cost. Designed for businesses too busy to handle marketing internally.
• Branding Corporate identity and brand development services encompassing logo design, color palettes, tone of voice, and font selection to ensure brand consistency across all touchpoints.
• Strategy Marketing strategy development services that help clients identify their target audiences, evaluate products and pricing, and implement growth strategies based on strengths and weaknesses.
• PR & Advertising Public relations and advertising services designed to build brand awareness and communicate messages to target audiences through cost-effective publicity channels.
• Websites/SEO Website development and search engine optimization services covering catalogue sites, e-commerce platforms, ongoing site management, and organic search optimization.
• Market Reports & Research Market research and analysis services including comprehensive market size assessments, market state evaluations, suitability analysis for new markets, and B2B telephone research with existing or potential clients.

Named customers10 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• YLEM EnergycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 November 2025Source Marketing is supporting YLEM Energy, a Salford-based renewable energy company, with a PR partnership. The collaboration aims to enhance YLEM Energy's brand awareness and market reach across multiple audiences, aligning with its growth in the renewable energy sector.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Ketchum: Global PR and communications agency owned by Omnicom. Overlaps with Source Marketing's PR & Advertising service line and serves similar brand-building objectives, but at significantly greater scale and geographic reach.
• Weber Shandwick: Global PR and integrated marketing network within IPG. Comparable to Source Marketing in its PR and brand-awareness services, but operates at a much larger scale across multiple geographies.
• WPP: Largest global advertising holding company with networks spanning advertising, PR, digital and brand strategy. Overlaps with essentially all of Source Marketing's service lines but at a vastly different scale, and competes for many of the same mid-market and enterprise clients.
• Publicis Groupe: Global marketing and communications holding company with full-service capabilities across advertising, PR, digital and media. Competes with Source Marketing in the integrated marketing space, particularly for European enterprise accounts.
• Dentsu: Global advertising and marketing services group with significant UK/EMEA presence. Comparable service breadth to Source Marketing across branding, PR, digital and strategy, but at materially larger scale.

Direct peers

• The&Partnership: Mid-sized UK-headquartered integrated marketing agency offering brand, digital, PR and advertising services to enterprise clients. Highly comparable to Source Marketing's full-service, retainer-based model but at a meaningfully larger scale.
• BJL Group: UK integrated marketing agency providing branding, PR, digital and content services to mid-market and enterprise clients. Closely matches Source Marketing's full-service outsourced marketing positioning and B2B client mix.
• Frank PR: UK-based PR and integrated marketing agency serving consumer, lifestyle and home/interiors brands. Direct overlap with Source Marketing's interiors/design and homeware client base and PR-led service offering.
• Mother London: Independent creative and integrated agency based in London, serving brand-led clients with strategy, creative, digital and PR capabilities. Comparable in service mix to Source Marketing, though weighted more toward creative-led brand work.
• Hotwire: Global communications and marketing agency with strong PR and integrated marketing offerings for B2B and technology clients. Comparable to Source Marketing in the outsourced marketing function and retainer-based engagement model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/sourcecxm
• Facebookfacebook.com/sourcecxm
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/source-marketing

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Source Marketing