mk38-group-limited

Brand Marketing Explained for the Gun Trade

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 06:40:58 GMT

Part 2 of: Brand VS Growth Marketing

In this article, we explore the role of brand marketing in contrast to growth marketing, highlighting its power, limits, and importance within the gun trade.

Here are the headlines:

Build brand on identity, association, customer experience, and culture
Invest in storytelling to create prestige and emotional connection
Avoid neglect and ego spend; align brand with business strategy
Use brand to enhance growth channels, not replace them
Adapt brand to digital, sustainability, and new generations

Part 1: Comparing Brand and Growth Marketing

Reading Time: 15 minutes

Implementation Time: 10–15 hours

Level: Intermediate

Brand Marketing for the Gun Trade

Summary

Picking Up From Part 1

In Part One, we drew a clear line between growth and brand. Growth is measurable across short, medium and long horizons, with levers you can pull and track. Brand is slower, costlier and harder to measure, yet it builds loyalty, pricing power and prestige (Herrmann‑Scharnberg & Kyriakidi, 2025).

This chapter focuses on brand marketing: what it does for you, what it will not do, and why it matters in the gun trade.

What Brand Really Means

Brand marketing is not just logos or glossy photographs. It is how people see you, remember you and talk about you when you are not in the room. It is your reputation made visible (Keller, 2020).

Done properly, brand creates an emotional connection. Customers do not buy simply because you are closest or cheapest. They buy because your name carries weight. That is why houses such as Purdey, Holland & Holland and Rigby command the prices they do. Their brand is not a typeface or a mark. It is a story reinforced for generations (Tariq et al., 2023).

The limits: brand will not guarantee a flood of sales tomorrow. It will not provide the crisp dashboard you get from growth. It will not show you in black and white whether last week’s sponsorship became an order. If you expect brand to behave like growth, you will be disappointed (Prophet, 2025).

The Building Blocks of Brand

At its heart, brand is storytelling. A film of your engravers at work, a brochure that ties gunsmithing to generations past, or a website that communicates values as clearly as products.

But story is only one part. Durable brands are built on four pillars (Kapferer, 2012):

Identity and consistency: the same tone, professionalism and style across catalogues, showrooms, social media and email
Association: sponsorship of a clay competition, support for a countryside event, backing a conservation project.
Customer experience: how the phone is answered, how a repaired gun is packaged and returned, how a lesson is followed by a personal note.
Culture: how apprentices are trained, how staff talk about the firm when they are out in the world.

These touchpoints make up your brand. They are why customers talk about you differently from competitors. They are the details that make someone proud to say, “I shoot a Gallyon,” or “I buy my cartridges from Hull” (Aaker, 2020).

The Cost and the Payback

Brand costs more and proves less. A film can cost thousands. Sponsorship of a major clay shoot can reach five figures. High‑end photography and design require investment.

After the spend, you may not be able to point to a single sale. That is why brand feels risky. Growth gives you conversion rates, click‑throughs and a clear return. Brand does not (Ataman, 2023).

Yet the intangible is precisely what creates long‑term value. A strong brand buys three things:

Pricing power: when your name carries prestige, you do not have to compete on discounting (Herrmann‑Scharnberg & Kyriakidi, 2025)

Loyalty: harder to price but vital. It is the clay ground that becomes a shooter’s home ground, or the rifle maker that serves three generations of the same family (Tariq et al., 2023)

Referrals: word of mouth happens not only because of service, but because the name itself carries weight and people are proud to recommend it (EMARKETER & Bloomreach, 2025)

Key nuance: brand should be the face of growth, not a replacement. It gives growth something to stand behind. Let brand spend drift from business need and data, and it becomes ego. Glossy films and expensive brochures feel good. Without a growth engine, they are vanity projects (Prophet, 2025).

Brand and Human Psychology

Brand and Human Psychology

Why does brand matter at all? Because people buy meaning as much as products (Keller, 2020).

Status and belonging: carrying a gun from a respected maker signals something to peers, like a Savile Row suit or a Rolex (Kapferer, 2012)

Memory and trust: a name that has been around for centuries signals stability. Customers believe it will still be there tomorrow (Aaker, 2020)

Emotion and pride: shooting is personal. Owning craftsmanship that says something about you creates an emotional bond (Tariq et al., 2023)

Pure growth can generate sales, but without the psychological depth of brand those sales are shallow and fickle (Herrmann‑Scharnberg & Kyriakidi, 2025).

The Risks of Neglect and Ego

Two traps regularly derail brand marketing in our trade: neglect and ego.

Neglect

This happens when brand is treated as an afterthought. The website is left to rot, the brochure is five years out of date, and every social media post looks like it was made by a different company. Inconsistency, shoddy visuals and mixed messages erode trust. A brand without consistency is like a gun with a loose stock: technically functional, but confidence in it vanishes quickly (Keller, 2020).

Ego spend

This is the opposite problem. Here, the danger is not too little investment, but too much — and in the wrong places. We see lavish brochures that cost more than they return, over-engineered event stands that dazzle peers but confuse customers, and sponsorships chosen for the owner’s passion rather than the buyer’s interest. These are expenses dressed up as strategy, when in reality they are vanity projects (Prophet, 2025).

Both paths are expensive. Neglect costs credibility. Ego costs money. The cure is balance: to spend in ways that reinforce reputation, not just flatter the boardroom. A strong brand is not about how it looks pinned on the wall of the gunroom, but how it performs in the marketplace. That means asking a simple question of every brand investment: does this make it easier for a customer to believe in us, choose us, and return to us? If the answer is no, it is ego talking, not strategy.

What Brand Will Never Do

Brand will not replace the mechanics of selling. You still need growth to capture enquiries, follow up with prospects and convert them into customers (Ataman, 2023).

Brand will not fix a poor website, a broken email funnel or dated SEO. What it will do is make your growth activities easier. A trusted name gets higher click‑through rates. A respected brand sees more email opens. A heritage story gives the sales team a stronger hand (EMARKETER & Bloomreach, 2025).

Brand will not drive the car, but it will get you waved through the barriers.

A Necessary Investment?

Brand can feel like a luxury because growth is measurable and reassuring. But without brand, you will not build the kind of business that commands higher prices, weathers downturns and is remembered for more than the last offer you ran (Herrmann‑Scharnberg & Kyriakidi, 2025).

In Part One we defined growth as the disciplined engine that works across all horizons. In this Part Two we have explored brand: slower, costlier and harder to measure, yet the outward face of growth that buys pricing power, loyalty and prestige.

In Part Three, we will return to growth and examine practical strategies at each horizon.

Growth vs Brand Marketing in the Gun Trade

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 19:00:26 GMT

Summary

In this article, I explain the fundamental differences between growth marketing and brand marketing, particularly in the context of shooting businesses.

Here are the headlines:

Run short-term tests to learn and improve conversion
Build medium-term systems like loyalty and referral programmes
Invest in long-term assets such as SEO and content libraries
Dedicate budget to brand marketing every quarter
Accept brand spend as reputation-building, not direct ROI

Reading Time: 10–11 minutes

Implementation Time: Varies, multi-day project

Level: Intermediate

Growth vs Brand Marketing in the Gun Trade and Shooting Sports

Growth vs Brand Marketing (Part One): Know the Difference, Spend Wisely

Brand marketing is something else entirely. It is not about tweaking offers or optimising click‑through rates. It is about how you are seen, remembered, and valued.

Where growth is measurable and efficient, brand is often expensive, slow, and hard to quantify. It is the glossy film of your engravers at work. The brochure that tells your heritage story. The sponsorship of a high‑profile clay competition.

Brand creates associations. Done well, it gives you pricing power, loyalty, and prestige. It is why names like Purdey, Holland & Holland, and Rigby command their prices. Their brand is not a logo; it is a centuries‑old story that sets them apart (Azarian Growth Agency, 2024; Ramotion, 2025).

The challenge is that brand spend feels risky. Run a Facebook campaign and you will see how many leads arrive within a week. Sponsor an event and you cannot point to exactly how many sales came out of it. That does not mean it does not work; it means it works differently (Ramotion, 2025).

The Different Nature of Brand Marketing

Every shooting business faces the same question: where should you put your marketing budget? Do you chase measurable results through growth marketing, or invest in the slower burn of brand? The truth is, both matter. But they are very different beasts. If you do not know the difference, you will end up burning money on the wrong thing.

What Growth Marketing Really Means

Growth marketing is not a bag of short‑term “hacks”. It is a discipline: you run constant experiments, measure the results, and scale what works to grow sales and enquiries (MADX Digital, 2023; Pipe, 2023).

The key is to work across three horizons: short, medium, and long term (McKinsey, 2009; Jurevicius, 2025).

Short‑term growth: fast experiments, fast learnings

A clay ground might test two ads for an introductory lesson package. A gunroom could try two subject lines for a seasonal servicing offer. A rifle stock maker might tweak the wording on a landing page to see which version generates more enquiries.

These are rapid tests that give you feedback within days and improve conversion. The goal is not just a quick sale; it is learning. You discover which headline works, which channel is worth the money, and which offer actually resonates. The real prize is the ability to repeat and scale the improvement again and again (Pipe, 2023; MADX Digital, 2023).

Medium‑term growth: systems that compound

Long‑term growth: assets that work while you sleep

Think email nurture sequences, loyalty schemes, and referral programmes. A gun shop might run a “points for purchases” system to encourage repeat sales. A clay ground could build a six‑email welcome series to keep new members coming back and help them discover the full range of services. A shooting coach might offer a discount when a client brings a friend.

These initiatives take months to show results, but they extend customer lifetime value and reduce churn (Lean Labs, 2023). That is real growth.

This is where SEO, content marketing, and community building live. It is the slowest, but the most powerful lever. A rifle maker who publishes calibre guides and stalking articles can, over time, dominate Google search results. A clay school that builds a YouTube library of tips gradually creates a global audience. A gunroom that nurtures an online community builds loyalty that cannot be copied overnight.

These efforts do not deliver instant ROI, but once established they produce consistent, compounding returns (Lean Labs, 2023).

What unites all three horizons is measurement. Whether you are testing ads, nurturing customers by email, or building an SEO library, the numbers tell you what is working. That makes growth marketing especially attractive in the gun trade, where every pound needs to be justified (Pipe, 2023; MADX Digital, 2023).

Comparing the Two

Growth marketing is about performance and efficiency (Pipe, 2023; Ramotion, 2025)

Brand marketing is about perception and prestige (Azarian Growth Agency, 2024; Ramotion, 2025)

Growth can deliver results today and set up compounding gains for tomorrow. Brand is slower, harder to measure, and usually costs more, but it is the thing that makes people choose you even when you are not the cheapest (Nataliabandach, 2024).

The Gun Trade Context

Imagine two businesses.

Business A is a clay ground that leans into growth. They run ads, test offers, and build their SEO presence. They know exactly how many new members come from each channel. They are efficient, but outside their patch they are invisible.

Business B is a heritage gunmaker that leans into brand. They produce films and brochures and sponsor events. Their name is recognised across the industry, but they cannot easily tie that spend back to specific sales.

Neither approach is wrong. The businesses that endure do both. They build reputation and loyalty through brand, and they keep the sales pipeline flowing through growth.

Why This Matters

If you run a shooting business, be honest about where your spend is going. Growth marketing is attractive because it is measurable. Brand is harder because it is costlier and you cannot easily prove ROI.

But without brand, you risk becoming a commodity. Without growth, you risk being forgotten.

Quick takeaway

Track your growth efforts across short, medium, and long horizons
Ring‑fence a percentage of budget for brand every quarter
Do not expect brand to “pay back” like an ad; expect it to lift everything else you do (Nataliabandach, 2024; Lean Labs, 2023)

Looking Ahead

This first part has been about defining the two disciplines and drawing the line between them. Growth spans short, medium, and long‑term strategies, each measurable and performance‑led. Brand is slower, more expensive, and harder to measure, but it builds the trust and pricing power no competitor can steal quickly.

In Part Two, we will look at how the smartest businesses combine them, and why the balance is the difference between being just another name in the trade and being a business customers would not dream of leaving.

As always, I am happy to help. Drop me a message at coffee@mk38.co.uk or find me on Instagram @MontyShoots .

References

Azarian Growth Agency (2024) Growth Marketing vs. Brand Marketing: Key Differences. [online] Available at: [Accessed 1 September 2025].
Jurevicius, O. (2025) McKinsey’s Three Horizons of Growth Model Explained.
Strategic Management Insight, 16 May 2025. [online] Available at: [Accessed 1 September 2025].
Lean Labs (2023) Brand Marketing vs. Growth Marketing: Which is Best For .... [online] Available at: [Accessed 1 September 2025].
MADX Digital (2023) What is Growth Marketing? Everything You Need To Know. [online] Available at: [Accessed 1 September 2025].
McKinsey (2009) Enduring Ideas: The three horizons of growth. [online] McKinsey Quarterly, 1 December 2009. Available at: [Accessed 1 September 2025].
Nataliabandach (2024) The Battle for Business: Brand Marketing vs Growth Marketing. [online] Available at: [Accessed 1 September 2025].
Pipe (2023) The Definitive Guide to Growth Marketing. [online] Available at: [Accessed 1 September 2025].
Ramotion (2025) Growth Marketing vs Brand Marketing. [online] 18 July 2025. Available at: [Accessed 1 September 2025].

Accessing America

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 18:47:38 GMT

Using Digital Marketing to Connect with American Customers

Selling into the U.S. can feel like heading out on a big stalk without a map. You’ve got the right kit, and you know how to shoot, but if you don’t know the lay of the land, a successful shot is blind luck.

For UK and European shooting businesses, America represents the single biggest market opportunity we’ve got. It’s vast. It’s active. And most importantly, most of your potential customers in the U.S. begin their journey online. That means for the first time in history, you can genuinely find and win customers there without the expense of visiting.

In this guide, I want to help you position your business so that when American shooters go looking, they can find you.

Accessing America for UK Shooting Sports and Gun Trade

Optimising Your Website for U.S. Customers

Your website is your storefront, but if it’s hard to find, slow to load, or full of unfamiliar references, you’ve lost them before they’ve even browsed the shelves.

Use a U.S.-Friendly Domain or URL
That .co.uk might be flying the flag for Britain, but it’s not helping you rank in U.S. search results. Google tends to favour .com addresses for global audiences. If switching domains isn’t practical, think about creating a /us section of your site and pointing American campaigns or visitors there.

Translate, Don’t Just Transcribe
American English isn’t just a spellcheck, it’s a mindset. “Moderator” becomes “suppressor.” “RFD” means nothing. Use their terms, their spelling, and their measurements. Feet, yards, pounds, and ounces. Show pricing in dollars, explain shipping times clearly, and don’t assume they know what a “Section 1” is.

Mobile First, Always
Over 60% of U.S. web traffic comes through mobile, and it’s even higher for e-commerce. If your site’s fiddly, slow, or hard to read on a phone, it’s costing you sales. Test your site on a few phones. Borrow a mate’s if you have to. Look at it through their eyes, and fix what’s clunky.

Build Confidence Quickly
Americans can be cautious about buying from overseas. Reassure them. Use secure payment logos, SSL certificates, and highlight any positive reviews from U.S. customers. If you offer international returns, say so. If you don’t, make that clear too.

SEO: Getting Found by American Searchers

Advertising in this space is hard, but organic search, SEO, is very much in play. It’s your biggest opportunity to reach Americans looking for what you sell.

Find Their Keywords
Use Google’s Keyword Planner (set to U.S. location) and research what Americans actually type. A British “gunslip” might be an “AR case” or a “rifle bag” in the States. You need to align your product titles, page content, and meta descriptions with the language they’re using, or you’ll never be seen.

Structure Matters
Make sure your pages have clear, relevant titles (H1s), keyword-rich subheadings (H2s), and tidy URLs. Google looks at all of this when deciding who gets shown, and who gets buried. Think of it as dressing for inspection.

Create Content They’ll Search For
If you’re already writing blog posts, tailor some to American interests: hunting seasons, calibre comparisons, deer vs. elk load-outs. Use FAQs to answer real questions, and write articles that solve problems. That’s what shows up in search.

Tailoring Your Message

Speak Their Language, Boldly
U.S. marketing is direct and confident. If your rifle shoots half-MOA groups at 100, say it. If your sling fits any AR platform, lead with that. Don’t bury performance in politeness, put your best assets front and centre.

Use Their Calendar
Run your campaigns around U.S. retail moments, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Independence Day, and opening weekend for key hunts. It’s not just about being timely; it shows you understand their world.

Navigating the Advertising Minefield

You already know that firearms advertising is tricky. Google, Facebook, Instagram, they don’t want your ads. That’s fine. There’s still plenty you can do.

Focus on What You Own
You can’t boost an Instagram post about 6.5 Creedmoor ammo. But you can optimise your website and build an email list. These are your most powerful tools, and no one can take them away.

Grow a U.S. Email List
Offer restock alerts, hunting tips, subscriber-only discounts. Anything useful. Then deliver it consistently. Email performs well, especially in industries like ours where customers want to feel part of something trusted and real.

Be Present Where They Are
Sponsor a U.S. shooting podcast. Send product to a gear reviewer. Join Reddit threads. Follow YouTube creators. It’s not flashy, but it works, and it builds trust in a way ads never could.

Seriously consider www.WeAreTopple.com
There is a dedicated advertising network for promoting niche services, like guns and shooting, to U.S. customers. If you have the right product or service, and you can create compelling ads, this will work well for you.

GDPR versus American Expectations

One Last Thing

Here’s a quick one. Americans aren’t used to GDPR, and you don’t need to force it on them, but you still have to comply. That means cookie consent, clear opt-ins, and respectful data handling. Keep it simple, explain what you’ll do with their data, and don’t overdo the legalese.

The U.S. market isn’t just “big.” It’s open, active, and full of people who are passionate about shooting, hunting, and buying good gear. They will buy from you, if they can find you, understand you, and trust you.

If this has given you a few ideas, or if it’s left you thinking, “Right, where do I even begin?”, get in touch. I’d be happy to help.

Reading Time: 6-10 minutes

Implementation Time: 2-3 days

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Summary

In this article we're going to look at the beginning of marketing your business online to an American audience. An enormous market that is easier to access than you thought.

Preparing your website and language
Search engine optimisation for the U.S.
Tailoring your messaging
Advertising for guns
GDPR for Americans

AI and the Gun Trade

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Mon, 05 May 2025 18:31:04 GMT

How AI Can Help Your Shooting Business

Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t coming, it’s here, and this is great news for the Gun Trade.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) might feel like something that belongs in science fiction, but it's already having a huge impact on how businesses run, and yes, that includes the gun trade and shooting sports.

From the way customers find you, to the way you write product descriptions, respond to messages, or build loyalty, it’s all changing. AI can fulfil the roles which the gun trade is traditionally slow to invest in, without the extra cost.

I want to show you how small businesses in shooting sports can start using AI , without needing a tech background or a big budget. We’ll look at what AI is, where it fits, how to get started, and practical ways you can put it to work this season.

What is AI, Really?

Put simply, AI refers to software that can learn patterns, make decisions, or generate content in a way that used to require a human brain.

The most popular example at the moment is ChatGPT , which can answer questions, write text, summarise long documents, and more. But AI also powers tools like Google Maps , voice assistants , email spam filters , and even your phone camera’s ability to “beautify” a photo.

So while the buzzword might be new, the technology has been in your pocket for years.

Why Should the Gun Trade Care?

You might be thinking: “Nice idea Monty, but I sell guns, run a clay ground, or teach lessons, not software.”

But AI isn’t about building apps or replacing people. It’s about taking small jobs off your plate, so you can focus on the parts of your business that require a human touch.

That means more time with customers. More headspace for planning. Fewer late nights doing admin or marketing.

In a sector where many businesses are stretched for time and staff, AI is like hiring a smart part-timer who never clocks off , and works for free.

An Easy Way to Get Started

If you’ve never used AI before, don’t worry, it’s not complicated, and you don’t need to download anything or speak another language. You’re just having a conversation with a tool that’s good at answering questions and writing things quickly. The key is knowing what to ask.

The most popular starting point is ChatGPT. It’s free to sign up and use for basic tasks, and there’s no learning curve beyond typing into a box and hitting enter.

You simply give it a 'prompt' something like “Write a 100 word description for a used Beretta Silver Pigeon” and it’ll respond in seconds. What you're likely to be surprised by are the ideas you hadn't thought of before.

Your First Five 'Prompts'

Prompt One

I need a friendly email inviting customers to a summer open day at a clay ground, with food, coaching tasters, and discounts on cartridges

Prompt Two

What kinds of memorabilia merchandise would be best to have by the counter at my shooting ground?

Prompt Three

Ian Coley shooting ground is my nearest competitor, can you give me some suggestions on what events to run at my own ground, and on what days, to best compete with them

Prompt Four

Write me a description of a Beretta Silver Pigeon 1 that I can use to sell the gun on gun trader

Prompt Five

Give me suggestions for social media posts this week based on the most commonly asked questions about shooting on the Pigeon Watch forum

Customising Your GPTs

Building your own GPT (a custom version of ChatGPT) is surprisingly simple, and incredibly powerful if you run a specialist business like a shooting ground or gunroom. It allows you to create a bespoke AI assistant that reflects your voice, understands your products, and is tailored to your customers.

The real power comes when you think practically. Imagine uploading a spreadsheet of your gunroom stock. Your GPT could instantly generate guntrader descriptions, ready to copy and paste.

It does require a paid subscription to store them or to upload documents for it to reference, but it's simple enough to create a written prompt and store it in a word or text document for use each time you want to repeat the task. You can even use GPT to create the prompt for you.

Just ask.

Top 7 Ideas For AI

1. Handling “Quiet Time” Marketing

We all know the cycle: busy season hits, and marketing gets forgotten. Then winter comes, things quieten down, and it’s hard to know what to say. GPT can help generate a full content calendar in minutes. Tell it: “Create a 3-month social media schedule for a shooting school in Devon including offers, tips, and customer stories.” You’ll get a week-by-week plan to adapt and schedule—so your marketing never goes cold, even if the weather does.

2. Competitor Intelligence

You can ask GPT to summarise the offerings of competitors—based on their websites, product listings, or customer reviews. Copy and paste the text and prompt: “Summarise the key services and differentiators of this business in bullet points. Then list 3 ways I can differentiate my offering.” It's not spying. It’s doing what we all do, research, just faster.

3. Training and Onboarding New Staff

Bringing someone new into the business? GPT can summarise your range rules, safety policy, cancellation terms, and more into a plain-English training guide. Upload your documents and say: “Make this into a 1-page summary for a new part-time shop assistant.” It saves hours—and helps maintain consistency when training staff.

4. Dealing with Difficult Emails or Reviews

Ever been stuck trying to word a reply to a tough customer email or a bad Google review? GPT can help strike the right tone. Prompt it with something like:
“Write a polite, professional response to a negative review. The customer complained about a cancelled lesson due to bad weather. We gave 24 hours’ notice." It won’t just write the reply, it’ll help take the emotion out of it so you can move on.

5. Generating Event Ideas and Offers

Running out of inspiration for what to do next at your ground or shop? GPT’s great at idea generation. Ask: “Give me 10 ideas for themed clay shooting events that will appeal to beginners and younger shooters. Include names and pricing ideas.” You’ll be surprised how many useful ideas come back—some ready to use straight away, others a spark to build on.

6. Local SEO Support

If you’re trying to show up better on Google (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), GPT can help you write localised content for your site. Say:
“Write a paragraph about clay pigeon shooting in Sussex that includes the phrase ‘shooting ground near Brighton’ naturally.”
You can then drop that into your web pages to help Google connect the dots.

7. Translating for European Visitors

Got guests from overseas? GPT can translate key instructions, waivers, or signage into French, German, or Spanish in seconds.
Say: “Translate this safety briefing into French. Keep it polite and clear, suitable for guests on their first shoot.”

Where AI Still Falls Short

Despite the promise and excitement, AI is not a silver bullet. For all its power, it remains a tool, not a replacement, for human intuition, industry experience, or specialist knowledge. In the shooting world, where personal relationships, trust, and decades of accumulated expertise often define success, AI has clear limits. It can automate processes, but it can’t replicate your judgment, or the subtle understanding of a client’s needs that comes from years on the ground.

Context is another stumbling block. AI tools excel at recognising patterns and generating content based on vast datasets, but they can struggle with nuance, particularly when it comes to legal and regulatory interpretation. In a sector as tightly regulated as ours, no AI can (or should) be trusted to make final calls on compliance. Likewise, language models may inadvertently produce content that falls foul of social media policies, even when trying to be helpful.

There’s also the matter of quality control. While AI can dramatically speed up tasks like email writing, image editing, or basic customer segmentation, it still requires human oversight. Errors can creep in. Repetition and “blandness” can surface. Without careful curation, what was intended as efficient can quickly come across as generic or off-brand.

Finally, there’s something intangible that AI can’t yet touch: craft. Whether you're fitting a shotgun, writing a heartfelt newsletter, or planning an event at your ground, there’s a human element, often subtle, always important, that machines can't capture. The goal, then, is not to let AI lead, but to let it serve. The best outcomes come when it works alongside you, quietly taking care of the repetitive work so you can focus on what really matters.

AI and the Gun Trade

30 minutes of marketing for Shooting Sports

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 09:43:20 GMT

Get Started with Google

If you haven’t already, go to business.google.com , claim your business, and fill out every detail. I’ve mentioned this before, so forgive me if you’re a regular reader, but make the effort to check yours, and get it up to date. Double-check your business category. The primary category should be your main offering, such as “Gun Shop” or “Shooting Range,” while secondary categories refine your reach.

A clay ground might also list itself under “Sports Club” or “Outdoor Sports Store.”

Incorrect opening hours frustrate customers. If you close for lunch or have seasonal changes, reflect this. Late opening at a shooting ground for example. When holidays come around, update your hours to avoid wasted trips.

Fix Your Google Maps Pin

If your business isn’t easy to find, you’ll already know as customers will tell you. “Your postcode didn’t bring me to the right place.” If you’ve heard this before, you need to move your Google Maps pin manually. This small fix ensures customers are sent exactly where they need to go, not a random point nearby. If you’re home-based and prefer not to list your exact location, Google allows you to set a service area instead.

Win with Customer Reviews

Google values trust. The more reviews you have, and the better they are, the more likely your business is to appear in search results. But reviews don’t happen by accident. Ask for them. A simple request, such as “If you enjoyed your visit today, a quick Google review helps others find us,” can work wonders. Put up a sign if you’re hesitant to ask.

Responding to reviews is just as important. A polite thank-you reinforces good relationships. A measured response to a bad review can turn a negative into a positive. If you get a malicious or fake review, report it via Google’s “Flag as Inappropriate” tool.

Use Google Posts as Free Advertising

Many businesses overlook Google Posts, but they’re a simple way to keep your profile fresh. Regular updates, new gun arrivals, special promotions, or upcoming events, help keep you visible. A gun shop might post: “Just in! The new Browning 825 has arrived, come and see it in store.” A clay ground could promote a time-specific deal: “20% off shooting lessons this weekend only!”

Posts show up when people search for you and can be updated as often as needed. They take minutes to create but add a professional, active feel to your profile.

Upload Photos and Videos

Your Google Business Profile is often a customer’s first introduction to you, so make it count. A neglected profile with a single blurry image from years ago isn’t inspiring confidence. Businesses with high-quality images get significantly more clicks and engagement.

What should you upload? Start with clear, professional-looking photos of your shopfront or range so customers know what to expect. Add images of your best-selling products, staff in action, and the kind of experience customers can expect when they visit. Videos are even better—a short clip showing a day at your shooting ground or a walkthrough of your shop can make a big impact.

The Power of the FAQ

If you find yourself answering the same questions on the phone every week, add them to your Profile. The “Q&A” section of your Profile allows you to pre-emptively answer common customer queries.

“What do I need to buy a shotgun?” “Do you offer repairs and servicing?” “Can I book a clay shooting lesson as a beginner?”

By answering these upfront, you save time and increase your chances of appearing in voice search results when someone asks their smart speaker the same thing.

Track Your Success with Google Insights

Once your Profile is in top shape, check back to see what’s working. Google Insights, found in the dashboard, tells you how many people are finding your business, what they’re searching for, and how they’re interacting with your business.

Are people clicking for directions but not calling? Maybe they’re unsure about stock availability. Are they finding you through searches like “gun shop near me” or something more specific? This data can guide your next steps and ensure your online presence keeps evolving.

Be Open 24hrs a Day

Unlike your physical store, your Google Business Profile is working for you 24/7. A few small tweaks can make the difference between a customer finding you—or your competitor. Keeping your details accurate, encouraging reviews, posting regular updates, and tracking your performance will ensure that when someone searches for what you offer, it’s your business they choose.

Google Basics for the Gun Trade and Shooting Sports

In this article we're going to look at a handful of ways to very efficiently improve your business profile online, specifically using your Google Business Profile. Here are the headlines:

Claim and complete your Google Business Profile
Upload real photos and respond to reviews
Post weekly updates like events and promos
Use Google Insights to track what works
This takes 30 mins and pays off long term

Summary

Reading Time: 4-5 minutes

Implementation Time: 30 minutes

Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Voice Search for Guns and Shooting Sports

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 12:03:04 GMT

50% of all searches by volume are voice

AI is making voice interaction with your phone or smart speaker a better than ever.

The way people find and use information is changing, and as AI tools improve and become better integrated, this trend will continue. At the heart of this shift is the rise of Voice Assistants that can simplify actions during people's busy lives.

76% of UK residents use voice search monthly

63% have used a smart speaker recently.

All this means that people looking for local experiences, to buy goods and services, and for directions, are increasingly using voice search.

You need to be there when they call.

Voice Assistants

There are three primary kinds of voice assistant. Mobile, smart speakers, and computers. Of these three, mobile is the leader in terms of volume of use. People are instinctively asking for directions and recommendations on their mobile or smart watch. Particularly while they’re driving or walking, and it would be difficult to type. Here are the top five.

Google Assistant

Amazon Alexa

Apple Siri

Samsung Bixby

Microsoft Copilot

Begin by seeing what each of these tools knows about your business, opening hours, location, offering, and products. For example, I can get directions to Eaton Hall Shooting Ground, but the opening hours aren’t available on Apple Maps.

Voice Search in the UK

Local Business Search

In the UK voice search is used most often to find local businesses. Make certain yours can be found using voice search on the five assistants already mentioned.

Shopping Online

Voice assistants will recommend local businesses by product. You can search for wellington boots using Siri and currently it’s recommending a location in London, because that’s the nearest business that has optimised for that product. Make sure your business descriptions contain text about the things your most interested in promoting. Consider changing them occasionally to attract different customers. Based on the time of year perhaps.

Event Bookings

If I ask Siri to book a clay shooting lesson near me I get a generic result from BASC. BUT. If I ask for the cost of a guided deer stalking trip the top result is a business providing that service. Be certain your website is directly answering the kinds of questions people might ask.

Optimising for Voice Search

Be Conversational

The primary difference between voice search and our past understanding of search engine optimisation is that voice search is conversational, as opposed to SEO which has been keyword driven. The increasing integration of AI into voice assistants will mean that this trend will continue. When you’re writing content for you website, or your business listings, try to be a little more conversational.

Business Listings

Voice search is, more often than not, location based. This means it is even more important than ever to have all your business listings up to date on Google, Apple, Bing and Duck Duck Go etc. Customer reviews will become more important too as these services try to prioritise their results. Gather reviews online whenever possible.

FAQs

FAQ pages are an excellent way to store answers to potential questions in a conversational way. Add an FAQ to your website with the most common questions you get asked on the phone. That’ll be a good start. Then perhaps add questions you would like to be asked more often. Things like, do you provide lessons for beginners? Or can you accommodate a large group?

Voice Search Conclusion

AI is likely to make many interactions with your mobile and computer obsolete in the near future. The Voice Assistants and AI tools will be selecting the best results for you. It’s in the battle to beat out the competition in this space that technology companies will be seeking to make their next billion. The great news is that on a global scale there isn’t a lot of competition for promoting shotguns and rifles. That means early adopters will clean up while most simply don’t realise what they’re missing out on.

Voice Search for the Gun Trade and Shooting Sports

Philip Montague, FCIM

Director, mk38

Liveryman, Worshipful Company of Gunmakers

"I believe that Shooting sports will grow when we can create exceptional experiences for everyone that comes into contact with our community."

What drives me

My specialism is helping businesses in the gun trade, shooting sports, and British countryside to succeed and thrive, maybe you'd like to work together?

Get Started

Two-Factor Authentication for the Gun Trade

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 08:44:02 GMT

Enable Two-Factor Authentication NOW!

The gun trade operates in a highly sensitive and security conscious way in every regard. We maintain high ethical standards, and implement strict processes, yet again and again I see people and businesses falling foul of basic security lapses online. Using the same password for everything, using simple passwords, clicking on emails without checking the link etc.

The most common kinds of digital security failures are all overcome by two-factor authentication (2FA) and that’s what I am going to speak about today.

What is Two-Factor Authentication?

Let me be explicit, if you do not have two-factor authentication enabled on your email, website, social media, and any systems where there is customer or gun information stored you are taking an enormous risk. Make sure you, and all the people that work in your business, are using it as soon as possible.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is where you have to provide a code, in addition to your password to access a system like email or social media. Normally via an application on your mobile phone. This means that the criminal would need to possess your mobile phone in addition to your password to access anything sensitive.

It is remarkably easy to fall foul of the different attacks that a cyber criminal can undertake, some don’t even involve you making an error, but most are stopped dead when they require an additional step to access your systems.

Understanding the Threats

The cyber threats faced by businesses in the UK gun trade mirror those encountered across other sectors but carry unique implications due to the sensitive nature of the industry. Here are some of the most common attacks:

Phishing: Cybercriminals use deceptive emails or messages to trick employees into revealing passwords or other sensitive information
Brute Force Attacks: Automated tools are used to repeatedly guess login credentials until the correct combination is found
Malware: Malicious software infiltrates systems, often through infected email attachments or compromised websites, to steal, encrypt, or damage data
Insider Threats: Disgruntled employees or contractors with legitimate access to systems misuse their privileges
Credential Stuffing: Attackers use stolen username-password pairs, often obtained from unrelated breaches, to access existing accounts

Each of these threats can have catastrophic consequences, ranging from financial loss and reputational damage to legal penalties and disrupted operations. This is where 2FA comes into play.

How Two-Factor Authentication Helps

Here’s how it helps counter the most common cyber threats:

1. Phishing

Phishing relies on tricking users into divulging their passwords. Even if an attacker successfully obtains a user’s credentials through a phishing email, 2FA renders the stolen password insufficient on its own. For example, if a gun dealer’s employee is tricked into entering their password on a fake login page, the attacker would still need the second factor, such as a time-sensitive code generated by the employee’s smartphone app. This additional requirement drastically reduces the likelihood of unauthorised access.

2. Brute Force Attacks

Brute force attacks are predicated on guessing passwords through sheer computational power. However, even if an attacker manages to guess a password, 2FA ensures that they cannot proceed without the second factor. Furthermore, many 2FA systems are designed to detect and lock accounts after repeated failed attempts, adding another barrier to brute force attacks.

3. Malware

Malware often aims to harvest login credentials or manipulate systems after gaining unauthorised access. While 2FA cannot prevent malware from infiltrating a system, it can limit its impact. For instance, if malware steals a password, the attacker still faces the challenge of bypassing the second factor.

4. Insider Threats

While insider threats involve individuals with legitimate access, 2FA can still play a role in mitigating risks. By requiring multiple factors for access, 2FA ensures that even insiders face additional scrutiny when accessing sensitive systems. For instance, a departing employee with malicious intent would find it harder to access accounts if the second factor is tied to a device or app they no longer possess.

5. Credential Stuffing

Credential stuffing exploits the widespread practice of password reuse. Attackers use credentials obtained from one breach to access accounts in other systems. 2FA mitigates this risk by rendering stolen credentials useless without the second factor. Even if an employee’s password is compromised in an unrelated data breach, the attacker cannot access the business’s systems without the additional verification step.

Enabling Two-Factor Authentication

To enable this feature in all of the systems you use you simply need to google ‘Two-factor authentication for [Insert the name of your system here]’. Then follow this instruction you find. It’ll be slightly different every time. The instructions will almost always be provided by the company that provides the system you’re looking to secure and that’s because they want you to use 2FA too!

This will make it slightly harder and slower for you to login to your own systems, but I assure you it’s worth a little effort to avoid the embarrassing and potentially costly alternative.

Commitments to your marketing in 2025

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 19:47:34 GMT

The Power of Storytelling

Welcome to 2025! There’s likely to be a lot of change and challenges this year for our trade, but there’s enormous opportunities too. Though having the time and focus to do some marketing might seem impossible for you, there are some resolutions that will easily weave into your day to day, and help you bring the best to your customers this year.

If you’ve had the thought over Christmas ‘I feel like we could be doing more’ or ‘we need to do more’ here are four resolutions that will help you to grow your business:

Our industry struggles to use direct advertising online. With the exception of wearetopple.com, and a few others, all the household names curtail our ability to do so. This is where storytelling is a powerful tool. Instead of trying to sell a product, try and share stories from your business and customers. Describe the heritage of your brand, the experiences your customers have, the traditions that you’re supporting. All these things are devoid of guns, and yet they will attract people interested in guns.

Use your website, newsletters, and social media, to share the journey and not the destination. For example, if you wanted to promote the new Browning 825 you might share testimonials from people that have recently changed their approach to training, describe the troubles someone is experiencing that might lead them to want what the 825 has to offer. All this instead of posting a picture of an 825.

Perfecting your Presence

Your website, your business profiles in Google and Apple tools, your online reviews, up to date directory listings, there is no excuse in 2025 for these not to be right. And I’m going to keep banging on about it until I stop seeing examples of great businesses doing it badly.

Make sure your website works well on mobile, that it’s easy to get in touch with you, and that it clearly shares the things you have to offer. Make sure your business listings, location, and operating hours are correct in Google and Apple. I’ve seen one recently where they said different things about the same business. Ask the people that are truly delighted with your service to write you a review online. A lot of the time people would gladly do it, they just haven’t realised that has value to you. It’s just a gentle reminder, not a plea.

Even little things like making sure the images on your directory listings are appropriate and high quality will make a difference to people considering whether or not to buy from you. And these changes last, they’re one and done.

Emerging Email Marketing

Shout out to Marketing at Ian Coley Sporting, I’m presuming from Annwen. Great email marketing coming out of your business this year. For those of you that are interested in what they’re doing you can head to their website and sign up at the bottom of every page. The only way this could be better is with a timed popup to make an offer in exchange for people’s contact information. Maybe even an offer specific to the page they’re on. And then more personalised emails based on their interests. An automated flow.

What you do with your own email doesn’t need to be this sophisticated, it just needs to be of value. Marketing to your own audience instead of via other people’s platforms like Meta is going to become more and more important. Start asking for email addresses if nothing else. When you have an audience sizable enough to make it worth your energy, you have a better justification to start using email. No excuses, it’ll make a huge difference to your business.

Outside the Social Media Trap

Follower numbers on your social media channels aren’t half as valuable as having a way to communicate with your most loyal customers outside of hours. You don’t need to put guns and shooting on social media, those customers know what you do and what you have to offer.

Add value to your niche audience, particularly if you’re concerned about Facebook strikes, or Instagram bans. Worth noting that all your historical content is subject to any of their new regulations, which is very frustrating, but don’t let it catch you out if you’re going in a new direction.

Focus on content that showcases the lifestyle and tradition of shooting rather than the products themselves. For example, you could share:

Behind-the-scenes glimpses of your craftsmanship
Photos of customers enjoying themselves (with their consent)
Updates on shooting events or conservation projects

LinkedIn, often overlooked in this sector, can be a goldmine for networking and B2B marketing. Use it to connect with suppliers, industry partners, and shooting enthusiasts, and share industry insights to establish your expertise.

It’s not a mountain to climb, it’s a few things that if you do them right will make a meaningful difference.

Commitments to your marketing in 2025

Digital Marketing Trends for the Gun Trade 2025

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 12:51:12 GMT

Artificial Intelligence Powered Content

I want to give you all an idea of where digital marketing is going over the next 1-2 years by exploring the most probable trends for 2025.

It’s important to understand that by using technology you can dramatically accelerate the growth of your business. It’s my experience that the things I’m outlining here are dramatically under used in the gun trade, even in the largest and most successful firms.

Take the following as where you could be, with a little time and investment, and allow yourself to explore at least one in the coming year.

I write my content here manually, and based on my knowledge and experience, but I use ChatGPT to do my research on the topics, not Google. I can explore an individual area in far greater detail, and far faster this way because ChatGPT will bring the most relevant information to the surface for me.

In 2025 the leading businesses will be layering AI between their expert content production and their customers to create highly personalised experiences. Imagine I write an article but then it’s tailored based on what a CRM and the internet knows about your business. It will automatically take the expertise and make it individually relevant to all my different customers.

Think about how you might use AI services to tailor what you produce for your customers.

Local Influencer Partnerships

You’ll have seen on social media, businesses like Swatcom and Yildiz make use of ‘influencers’ to promote their products to a wider, targeted audience. The volume here allows these businesses to see trends in purchasing based on these influencers’ involvement.

In 2025 businesses will begin developing more local partnerships with smaller, micro influencers. It’s far more budget friendly, and likely to shape your local market to your benefit.

Look at who you know that uses your services that has a small following on social media. What little thing can you do for that individual that might encourage them to openly promote their involvement with you. Perhaps someone that already bought a Browning from you, that you could drip feed with a bit of high margin apparel to. In return for them tagging your business in all their posts that year?

Voice Search Optimisation

I mentioned earlier this year that you should ask Siri, Alexa, and any other voice search devices you can get your hands on, ask them all about your business. Depending on the results you get back you will need to tailor what’s written about you online, where your written about, and what your Apple and Google business listings contain.

Again, make sure you’re looking at what words you use. If you search for shooting ground, clay shooting, gun club etc. You’ll get different results locally. You want people that are looking for those generic things to find your business. Lea Marston for example, on Apple Maps. They appear for all kinds of searches about guns and shooting. But not for the term shooting lessons. That’d be one to add to the description.

In 2025 this is going to become even more prevalent.

Employee Generated Content

You’d assume that you need a marketing person, or at least a delegated head to create content for your business, particularly for social media. As sharing content becomes more important for winning business there’s a greater use of employee generated content expected in 2025.

Allow the people that work for you to photograph and film their work were it’s appropriate. Ask them to send what they produce to you. Reward the things you want to see more of. Share them widely online.

This will foster an environment of sharing that makes it easier for potential customers to find, understand, and fall a little bit in love with what you’re doing before they ever arrive at the store.

First Party Data Collection

As privacy regulations become more stringent, and for the gun trade as social media companies further constrain our ability to grow, it is becoming more important to collect contact information at the point of sale. Then to use these email addresses for example, to stay in touch directly.

Use every sale as an opportunity to ask for an email address. There’s a warranty with that, let me email you the details. I’d like to email you to remind you that your gun is in storage, is that okay? I will email you once a year to let you know this gun needs a service.

There are so many angles to this one, and if it’s a justifiable, sensible reason, then people very rarely object. Just be specific about what you will and won’t do with it. I’ll send you offers once a week, but never more often.

The Gun Trade Falling Behind

The world of buying and selling is continuing to change. The trade has a legislative advantage, in that people have to be present to buy a firearm or shotgun. But there’s a world of opportunity in selling to non-gun owners, and selling goods that can be shipped anywhere and to anyone for example.

Where businesses fail to utilise digital marketing to access a wider audience it minimises their chances to grow, makes them less resilient to changes outside their control, and ultimately means they won’t be able to compete with people that do embrace the change.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Part 2

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 18:46:31 GMT

Your Current SEO Performance

(Or, How to Make Your Website the Next Miss Universe of Google)

Now we’ve learned about some of the things that matter in SEO from last month’s article it’s time to get ready to compete. The thing is, in reality, Google and other search engines don’t care about your looks AT ALL. They care about your website’s structure, the words on it, and the relevance to people searching for things.

If you haven't already please read Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Part 1 .

Google Search Console is a free tool that shows you how well your website is performing in search results. It gives insights into which keywords are bringing people to your site, how often you show up in search results (your impressions), and how many people are clicking through (click-through rate or CTR).

How to Set Up Google Search Console:

Head over to https://search.google.com/search-console
Sign in with your Google account and click “Start Now.”
Add your website by entering your URL.
Verify that you own the website using one of Google’s verification methods (e.g., uploading an HTML file or using your domain registrar).
Once verified, you’ll get access to data like how often your site appears in searches and which pages are getting the most love from Google.

You can’t do any damage here, have a look around regularly to start with and see how things change by day, time of day, or if you do some other marketing like sending out an email.

At the bottom of the ‘Performance’ tab you’ll find the most common terms used to find your website. These are a good indication of what people are searching for when they find you.

Understanding What's Under the Dressing

(This is where you might need to chat to the person that looks after your website)

On-Page Content Optimisation

Imagine this as your beauty contest makeover, getting title tags, meta descriptions, and headings just right so that your website shines under the spotlight.

1. Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
These are like the sash and tiara of your webpage – the first thing people see when they come across your site in search results.

How to Find and Edit Title Tags:
In your website’s backend or content management system (CMS), check the title tags for each page. You can Google how to find these, and the person with the best answer, according to Google, will come up top.
Your title tag should be around 50-60 characters and include your page’s main keyword. For instance, if you’re selling a Perazzi MX12 shotgun, your title tag might be: “Perazzi MX12 Shotgun for Sale | UK Dealers.”

How to Find and Edit Meta Descriptions:
Meta descriptions are the summaries in search results. They don’t directly impact your ranking, but they can make people click on your link.
Write a concise meta description (150-160 characters) with a compelling call to action and the main keyword. For example: “Find the best deals on Perazzi MX12 shotguns. Available to view now at our Gunroom in a variety of barrel lengths and wood qualities with Finance on offer”

2. Headings (H1, H2, H3)
Think of headings like judging categories in a beauty contest – they need to be clear, structured, and highlight what’s important. The H1 should include your primary keyword.

How to Find and Edit Headings:
In your CMS, check that each page’s H1 is relevant and keyword-rich. For example, an H1 could be “Perazzi MX12 Shotguns for Sale.”
For H2 and H3, use related keywords to structure what you’ve written. For example, “Why Choose the Perazzi MX12?” or “Specifications of the MX12 Shotgun.”

By optimising your headings, you’re giving Google a clear outline of what each page is about, making it easier to appear higher up for the right searches.

3. Alt Text for Images
Google can’t “see” images the way we do, so alt text is your chance to describe them. You need to tell Google exactly what’s in the picture.

How to Find and Add Alt Text:
Go into the settings for each image on your website.
Write a short, descriptive phrase that includes relevant keywords. For example: “Perazzi MX12 shotgun in stock.”

Remember, alt text not only helps with SEO but also makes your site more accessible, for the blind if they use an online reading tool for example.

Keep At It

Looking at these things, on each page of your site, and as you add new pages or products, will help you begin to make headway online. Over time, and with a little regular effort, you’ll see the results on your Google Search Console improve. Then you’ll know it’s making a difference to the number of people visiting you, and the number of opportunities you have to sell more.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Part 1

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 17:50:08 GMT

Imagine your website is in a beauty contest, and Google is the judge!

In this contest, every website on the internet is competing, especially those similar to yours. How well you rank determines how high your website appears in Google’s search results. This is crucial because, in 2024, Google handles over 95% of search traffic in the UK. At the same time, people are asking Google for recommendations. They use various queries, and Google shows them websites that best answer their questions.

In this scenario, search engine optimization (SEO) is about making your website stand out in the contest. The goal is to convince Google that your site is the best choice when someone searches for what you offer. The better you perform, the more visitors you'll attract, which means more potential customers for you.

Competition Time!

Does It Matter?

If you think SEO isn’t worth your full attention, consider how much you’re spending to advertise your products and services through platforms like GunTrader. You’re paying them because they excel at getting noticed in search results. But the only reason they’re ahead is that you haven’t been competing in the same way.

Here’s an example: search for "Perazzi MX12" online. You’ll notice that the top results aren’t the places where you’re currently advertising. Instead, competitors like Ian Coley and Chris Potter are ranking higher than Perazzi itself. These businesses are investing in improving their search rankings for specific products, which means they attract more visitors.

You have the same opportunity to compete. By focusing your efforts on SEO, you can outperform larger competitors and draw more customers to your site.

Keywords and Search Queries

In the example I mentioned, both the keyword and search query are "Perazzi MX12." Here’s a quick rundown:

Search Query: The exact phrase or sentence someone types into a search engine when looking for something.
Keywords: The words in the search query that match terms on your site, helping Google understand what you’re about.

For example, if someone searches for "Perazzi MX12 in Kent," you’ll see that Chris Potter now ranks higher than Ian Coley. If the search is "MX12 shotgun for sale," GunTrader shows up on top. When searching for "Perazzi MX12 SC2," Perazzi itself appears first.

In these cases, different keywords are being used:

In the first example, "Kent" is added.
In the second, "shotgun" and "for sale" are included.

Google uses combinations of these keywords and search queries to figure out what your business offers and who might be interested. Popular keywords come with high competition. For instance, competing for "Nike Trainers" is tough, but more specific queries are easier to target, as shown in the examples.

Organic Search

Organic search results, sometimes called natural search results, appear just below the ‘Sponsored’ listings on Google. If no one is paying for ads with those keywords, organic results will be at the very top.

Google and Meta don’t offer paid advertising services for selling guns, ammunition, or gun accessories. For that, you would need to use a specialized service like wearetopple.com. Since gun sales can't appear in the 'Sponsored' section, your best option is to focus on SEO. By optimizing your site, you can improve your organic search ranking and appear closer to the top of search results, attracting more visitors.

Being at the top for a search query is important because Search Position 1, or the top of the organic results, gets 39.8% of the traffic for that query. Search Position 2 receives 18.7% of the traffic. Search Position 6 gets 4.4%.

Local Search

When you search for "gunroom in Kent," the results are tailored to that location. Despite Chris Potter’s strong performance for the term "Perazzi MX12," they appear sixth in this search, while Ashford Gunroom ranks at the top, having improved their SEO presence markedly since June 2023.

This ranking means Ashford Gunroom is getting nearly 40% of the search traffic for "gunroom in Kent," while Chris Potter attracts only about 4%—ten times less. This demonstrates how much your position in search results affects the number of visitors to your website.

Getting started with email in Shooting Sports

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 17:30:27 GMT

Email with Intent

If you’re going to invest some of your time each week into digital marketing for your business, then email is a great place to start.

99% of all consumers, the people buying your products and services, check their email every day. 59% of consumers prefer to get a promotional email weekly. 47% of consumers have made a purchase because of email marketing. According to the Digital Marketing Association the average return on investment for email in 2023 was 1:42. Every £1 spend created £42.

Despite all these encouraging statistics few people in the shooting industry use email to regularly promote their business, and very few do it well.

An email can result in an action taken. You need to figure out what actions might result from your emails that would make it worth your time.

As an example I’ve seen some incredible offers coming out of the Purdey at the Royal Berkshire Shooting School recently. 100 birds and a burger or hotdog for £54 in the evening. An hour-long lesson during the day is a lot more. This is a clear message; we’d like you here on a Thursday between 4-7PM. And it worked, I went.

Consider what value you have to share with your audience. Here are some ideas that I’ve seen, and that I believe are useful:

· If you’re open late let people know

· When a popular item comes back into stock

· When certain kinds of ammunition arrive

· When an unusual or popular gun comes into stock

· If you’re closed unexpectedly

· When there are traffic problems or diversions

· An offer that’s time specific for a period when you’re quiet normally

· An offer on something you’ve been holding in stock too long

· Dates for a new competition

· Sharing your expertise in something your customers care about

Now ask this: If I invested the time and energy to do this right, and some people acted on the email I send, how many people would I need to take the action, and would that make it worthwhile?

Finally, send an email with this purpose, measure the results, and decide for yourself if it was a valuable use of time. Remember that doing it will get faster and easier with time.

Collecting Email Addresses

Now that know what value you have to share it’s a lot easier to collect email addresses. All you need to do is ask the people you do business with. Please can I have your email address so we can let you know when [insert value for your customer] ?

Record their Permission

There are laws around processing Personal Information that absolutely apply to your business. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU regulation that was retained in domestic law as the UK GDPR. It includes a threshold that you must meet to use someone’s email address for promotion, and requirements that you must meet to help that person manage the data you hold about them.

You can find the guide here:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/

The Best Free Simple Tools

MailerLite

One user, 12,000 emails a month, drag and drop editor, ten landing pages and sign up forms for up to 1,000 subscribers is FREE. Best if you’re starting out and want to build a good looking email to send to your customers.

MailChimp

One user, 1,000 email sends per month, basic email templates, landing pages and sign up forms for up to 500 subscribers is FREE. Best if you’re looking for something familiar for your customers as MailChimp is quite widely recognised. All these platforms include their logo in your emails unless you’re paying for a subscription.

Brevo

One user, 300 email sends per day, drag and drop editor, no landing pages for up to 100,000 subscribers is FREE. Best if you just need to email a large contact database.

HubSpot

Easily the best of these tools, even for FREE, but also the most complicated to navigate. HubSpot has a complete CRM, Email, Automation, Content, and Customer Service modules. It includes forms, integrations, landing pages, lists and more, but all with limits for the entry level plan.

One Thing To Check

About the Information Commissioners Office. If you’re only processing Personal Information like names and email addresses for staff administration, advertising or marketing your own business to customers, and record keeping for accounts you won’t need to register with the ICO. There is a self-assessment tool on their website to be sure. It’s not well written so read it carefully.

It’ll take about ten minutes:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-fee/data-protection-fee-self-assessment/

Understand what your shooting business looks like online

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 21:01:06 GMT

To begin, stop thinking like a business owner and start thinking like a buyer.

Imagine you are considering a new gun, optic, or lesson package. There is a small adventure you go on before you spend the money:

You realise you want something.
You search for information about it.
You compare alternatives to decide what is right.
You buy.
You decide whether you are happy and if you would buy again or recommend it.

On that journey you will:

Read reviews
Watch videos
Look at photos
Ask friends or instructors
Visit websites and social media pages
Check opening times and directions

Your customers are doing exactly the same thing with you.

A very useful exercise is to “act out” this journey as if you were a customer for your own business. Search for the things you actually sell, in the place you actually trade, then see where (or if) you appear.

That is the heart of an online presence check.

In the UK, around half of all mobile phones are iPhones. Many people never open Google Maps. They ask Siri instead. Visit businessconnect.apple.com and set up your profile:

Confirm your business name and category
Set your location
Add opening hours and contact details
Write a clear, accurate descriptions of your services

Then test it:

On an iPhone, open Apple Maps and search for your business by name
Search instead for “shooting near [your town]” or similar
See whether you appear and how you are described

If you do not exist here, you are invisible to a very large group of customers who never touch Google Maps at all.

You cannot trust what you see on your own phone or laptop. Google and other platforms are trying to be helpful, so if you search for your business frequently, they will show you your own site more often and higher up than a stranger would ever see it.

Two ways to get around this:

Use a friend’s phone or laptop that has never searched for you
Use a private or incognito window and clear cookies, then search again

Search for:

Your business name
“Clay shooting [your area]”
“Gun shop [your area]”
“Rifle range [your area]”
The brands you stock plus your town

Do this on:

Google
YouTube
Bing
DuckDuckGo

Ask yourself:

If they look for me this way, do I show up?
If I do show up, do I look trustworthy and current?
If I do not, whose business are they going to find instead?

What your shooting business looks like online

Summary

In this checklist, we explain how to audit your digital presence from a customer’s point of view. Walks you through checking maps, search, website, reviews, and social media so you can see what a stranger actually experiences when they look you up. The goal is to fix basic visibility gaps and inconsistencies before investing in more advanced marketing.

Here are the headlines:

Act out your customer’s search journey
Set up and verify your Google and Apple listings
Test voice and map searches on clean devices
Audit your website on mobile for clarity and speed
Review and respond to reviews; create a plan to gain more
Standardise details across websites and social media

Reading Time: 7–8 minutes
Implementation Time: 2–5 hours
Level: Intermediate

Start with a customer's point of view

Go on the buying journey

Perhaps the most important step in successfully marketing your business is to look at it from your customer’s point of view.

What are they searching for?
Why are they searching for it?

The clearer you are on those two questions, the better your marketing decisions will be.

Most of that journey now happens online, on a mobile phone, and often outside your opening hours. Your customer is researching you and your competitors long before they step onto your ground or into your gunroom.

This article is about one simple task: checking what your online presence actually looks like to a prospective customer, and fixing the obvious gaps.

Can a customer find you at all?

The Google Business Profile

Go to business.google.com and make sure you have a Google Business Profile set up and verified. Check:

Business name (exactly as you use it elsewhere)
Address (see note below if you are home based)
Phone number and email
Opening hours
Website address
Categories (for example “Shooting ground”, “Gun shop”)

This is what powers your panel on Google Search and your listing on Google Maps.

If you are home based and do not want your address visible, you can set up a service area business rather than showing your front door to the world, which is especially important if firearms are involved.

Move the Google Maps pin

If you regularly hear “Your postcode did not bring me to the right place”, your pin is probably wrong. Within your Google Business Profile:

Open your map location.
Drag the pin to the exact entrance your customers should use.
Save it and check directions from a nearby main road.

Then, on your phone, ask Google Maps for directions as if you were a customer. Make sure it takes you to the correct gate, car park, or clubhouse, not to a random track or a neighbour’s driveway.

Don't ignore Apple

Test voice search like a real customer

Voice search is no longer a novelty. Smart speakers and phones are now a normal way people ask for places, activities, and directions. On your phone or smart speaker, try things like:

“Siri, get me directions to [your business name].”
“Siri, clay pigeon shooting near [nearest town].”
“Alexa, are there shooting schools near [nearest city]?”
“Hey Google, gun shops near me.”

Notice:

Do you appear?
If you do, what information is read back?
If you do not, who does appear?

This will show you which competitors have done the basics better, and where you need to tighten up your own listings and descriptions.

See what a stranger sees

Guns shot down on Facebook and Instagram?

monty@mk38.co.uk (Philip Montague) — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 19:05:15 GMT

Social Media and the Gun Trade

If you want to succeed on social media, it’s important to understand the lens through which Meta, who own and run Facebook and Instagram, view activity on their platforms that involves firearms. It’s their definitions and ideology that are used to filter what you do there.

Meta implements a policy called their Community Guidelines. This is a public document that defines how they manage different kinds of content. It’s one definition for all countries, rolled out globally. That means the UK is subject to restrictions around firearms that are primarily written based on gun control arguments in the United States. These policies have taken shape over several years, often immediately following awful events.

Meta uses ‘AI’ and ‘Machine Learning’ and thousands of employees worldwide in ‘Content Review Teams’ to make decisions about what you’re posting all the time, not just when somebody reports it. The challenge here is that these digital tools and real teams are ‘trained’ by people that have no knowledge of what is acceptable under UK law. Sometimes the technology gets it wrong, sometimes the person gets it wrong. Either way it leaves you feeling as though you’d rather not even bother.

Here’s the rub! If you’re thinking at this point that you’d rather avoid social media altogether then you’re missing a significant opportunity for your business. In the UK 100% of people aged 16-35 use the internet every day. That figure is still 85.7% for ages 55-64. People in the UK now spend an average of 3hrs 40minutes online each day! Instagram has 35million users in the UK, Facebook has 44million, and is used at least once a day by 44% of the UK population.

That’s a storefront not to be missed.

Do I already have a problem?

Meta’s measures can begin with a ‘shadow ban’ where what your sharing isn’t shown to anyone unless they’re already following you. Next restricting your content so it’s only shown to people that have relaxed their own ‘sensitive content’ settings. Then your posts can be removed, and with continual violations your account can be restricted for a time or closed entirely.

As a starting point there is now an easy way to find out if you’ve already done anything that is restricting your account.

On your personal Facebook profile press the three dots menu button, select ‘profile status’ near the top. On a business page this is called ‘page status’. Here, Meta will share if you have any violations already. They will tell you barely anything about why, but they will give you the opportunity to remove the post, edit it, or appeal their decision. The same can be found on Instagram using the three-line menu button on your profile and scrolling to the bottom to find the ‘account status’ button.

If you can see something obvious from the list that follows you can edit the post and appeal the decision to have it reinstated. Sometimes there isn’t anything wrong with the post, it’s just that the policies have been improperly implemented and you can simply appeal to have it reinstated. If you can’t see an obvious way forward you can delete it entirely to remove the restriction.

Explore this part of your account and check it regularly to see if any restrictions are being applied.

What can I do?

Posting of firearms content by ‘legitimate brick-and-mortar entities, including retail businesses, websites’ is allowed on Meta’s platforms, but they are considered restricted goods under their Community Guidelines. This means that you’re more likely to trigger the things we’ve already discussed. It’s also important to note that Meta completely prohibits the paid advertising of weapons, ammunition or explosives via their Advertising Standards. Don’t even try to buy an Ad for anything related to firearms, it’ll just end in disappointment.

Here are some ways to reduce the risks when simply posting about firearms:

Don’t use Hashtags that are different to the content you’re posting. It’s an indication to Meta that what you’re posting could be misleading and needs to be reviewed.
Don’t use banned or restricted Hashtags. You can search for hashtags before you use them on Instagram and see if they’re flagged as sensitive or restricted.
Try using five Hashtags, certainly no more than thirty. Too many can be considered spammy even if it has nothing to do with guns.
Avoid anything that looks like the Private Sale of Guns. Trade sales are accepted by Meta but often it struggles to tell the difference. Terms as simple as ‘where do you get yours?’ can be misconstrued sadly. Adding a price is equally ill advised.
What you write matters as much as the photograph or video. Be careful about what you’re saying as much as what you’re posting. Both are reviewed by Meta’s technology. Get online and review the policies yourself to be sure. Just search for Meta Transparency Firearms.
Avoid using third party tools to access or run your accounts.

"I believe that Shooting sports will grow when we can create exceptional experiences for everyone that comes into contact with our community."

What drives me

Philip Montague, FCIM

Director, mk38

Liveryman, Worshipful Company of Gunmakers