Q&A with Senior Client Strategist, Jon Hinchmore

Marketing in the tech world is never dull, there’s always a new challenge to tackle, a strategy to refine, or a trend shaking things up. Here, we sit down with Jon Hinchmore, our Senior Client Strategist to chat about what his role at Radial Path involves, the biggest marketing challenges tech companies are facing, and how to build a strategy that delivers real results.

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1. What does your role as Senior Client Strategist at Radial Path involve, and what does a typical day look like for you?

The core of my role is working alongside our clients to turn their objectives into an actionable strategy for Radial Path to deliver and then work with our internal teams to deliver it. 

Our clients really see us as an extension of their internal marketing teams, so I spend a lot of time in dialogue with them to ensure we’re all pulling in the same direction.

We’re a small team at Radial Path and we all wear a lot of hats - so a typical day might see me briefing in creative direction for a new paid media campaign, presenting to a client on our quarterly strategy plan for their account, or writing 1500 words on the current trends in digital infrastructure - it varies (I really wanted to avoid the ‘no such thing as a typical day’ cliche, but there we go).

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2. What are the biggest marketing challenges that tech companies face today?

I think at the moment the biggest challenges can all be traced back to money (same as it ever was I suppose) - budgets are being squeezed and everyone is trying to do more, or even the same, with less and less resources. 

Quite a few clients that we work with are in the startup space, so by nature they either don’t have big budgets in the first place or are answering to investors who want to know the ROI for every single penny they’re spending. 

It’s part of my job to help them navigate that, and ensure that we’re delivering value for money - and ultimately results - on behalf of our clients. There’s no question it’s a difficult time, and only likely to become more challenging if the economic forecasts for 2025 are to be believed. 

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3. How do you approach building a successful marketing strategy for a client in such a competitive industry?

The first and most important thing is to understand what the client is looking to achieve with us; without clear objectives that support their wider business strategy, we’re really feeling around in the dark. 

Then we’ll assess the market and the competitive landscape, and then from that starting point we can start to build out what the strategy needs to look like, and the levers we need to pull in order to achieve those objectives. 

Our approach at Radial Path is to focus on three core areas of the marketing ecosystem - brand, product, and performance - and get them working together in sync, so that would always be the foundation that underpins any strategy we present to a client. 

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4. Are there any marketing trends or innovations that excite you right now?

I know some people are quite concerned about AI and where that could be taking us as a society, but looking at it purely from a marketing perspective I think it’s disrupting things in quite an interesting way. 

The move away from traditional search engines to AI and the resulting shift in how we approach SEO, for example. I definitely don’t agree with using it as a substitute for real human creativity and collaboration, but as another tool for marketers to draw on, I think it’s net positive overall.

At a macro level, AI is having a big impact on some of our digital infrastructure clients as well. Data centre operators are looking at how they can meet the demands for capacity, while at the same time meeting their environmental and sustainability commitments, which has thrown up some interesting challenges in brand positioning and messaging for us…

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5. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to tech marketers looking to level up in 2025?

Get out there and meet people, and say yes to any opportunities that come your way. There are loads of events happening - both regionally and nationally - which are a great way to share ideas and learn from other people. It’s amazing how quickly you can grow your network and you never know where that might lead.

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