About Me
Hello, I'm Louise Balmforth
I am a strategic and hands-on senior marketing leader with over 20 years of experience in digital marketing and website development.
My Expertise.
I specialise in helping startups and SMBs lay the right foundations for growth with marketing strategies and execution support across digital channels. I'm passionate about bringing market insights into a business that leads to more effective marketing communication, ensuring a customer-centric approach.
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I bring strong commercial awareness combined with creative and critical thinking to overcome challenges and deliver results. I'm able to quickly adapt and tailor my approach to new business environments and industry sectors. I'm adept at leading multi-disciplined and cross-functional teams and can effectively engage key stakeholders across all levels of the business.
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I have delivered measurable results for startups, SMBs, and large matrix organisations across various industry sectors, and for brands that include the National Trust, Wiltshire Farm Foods, Universal Music, Island Records, Penguin Books, and the BBC, to name a few.
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More recently, I've been Head of Marketing & Growth for a start-up, successfully navigating the business into profitable growth, with limited resources and budget, following a challenging post-pandemic year. I led all marketing initiatives to deliver and then exceed their first £1m in revenue.
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I'm a DMI Certified Digital Marketing Professional and I'm a qualified marketing strategist holding a MiniMBA in Marketing, achieving Grade A on the final exam.​
My Career Highlights
Forth, HealthTech Start-up
Head of Marketing & Growth
Led the marketing for this biomarker testing business that specialised in female hormone health. Providing both strategic and hands-on support across website, SEO, content, email, social and PPC, I helped build the business up to achieve and then exceed it's first £1m in revenue. I led the brand's first multi-channel campaign to launch MyFORM, their innovative female hormone mapping test, which increased sales by 101%, making the product one of their top selling tests.
National Trust, Non-Profit
Head of Digital Channels
Led a multi-disciplined team of twelve people working across social media, digital paid media, digital analytics and ecommerce. Responsible for the successful delivery of all strategies and campaigns across digital channels. Key member of the Brand Strategy Group leading on the digital channels response for the Trust’s ‘Places Matter‘ brand campaigns. Delivered a three year Digital Channels Strategy with an objective of achieving the Trust’s omni-channel ambition.
Wiltshire Farm Foods, D2C
Senior Marketing Manager, Ecommerce
Wiltshire Farm Foods is a frozen food home delivery business with a network of over 75 franchisees. I led the ecommerce replatform onto Kentico CMS working with a cross-functional team and reporting into the CEO and Board. Responsible for merchandising, product range updates, eCRM, email marketing, social media, PPC and SEO managing external agencies and two direct reports. Managed a marketing budget of £1.3m and website redevelopment budget of approximately £1m. Increased revenue by 18%, to reach £17m in ecommerce sales with a 50% increase in mobile conversion rate and a 56% increase in mobile revenue.
Digital Marketing Agencies
Senior Account & Campaign Manager
Spent 10 years working for a variety of agencies in London, Bristol and Bath. Clients included Universal Music, Island Records, BBC, Penguin Books, BAFTA, Bristol Airport, Bibby Financial Services. I project managed website build projects while working for 3Sixty and Complete Control. As well as leading digital PR campaigns for clients in the music industry while at Outside Line (bought by Saatchi & Saatchi in 2012).
My Story.
​I've had a varied career in marketing, working for brands in music, entertainment, food, pet care, non-profit, and, more recently, health. I spent several years leading the marketing for Forth, a biomarker tracking business specialising in female hormone health. And it was here that I developed both a professional and personal interest in women's health.
I was shocked to learn about the gender health gap and how long it takes for women to get diagnosed for conditions such as endometriosis. That many women, including myself at the time, know very little about their hormones and how they impact their health.
I was also going through my own hormone 'struggles' with perimenopause and not getting the support I needed from my GP.
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While my freelance journey didn't immediately start with helping women's health brands, I quickly came to realise that being connected to a brand's purpose is important to me. So, I decided to combine my passion for women's health with my passion for marketing to help businesses innovating in this space reach and connect with their audiences.
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By sharing my years of experience, I want to help more business owners like you, who are building incredible brands, harness the true power of marketing because when it’s done right, it unlocks the full potential of your business.​​