Russell Welch worked agency-side for a long time, building a digital marketing team from just himself to six people and becoming Digital Marketing Director. In 2025 he left to start The Robin's Egg, a digital marketing consultancy in Shrewsbury that works with businesses and charities doing good. He works on his own, and plans to keep it that way.
We asked Russell how he has won his clients, what has surprised him so far, and why he thinks a lot of the talk about AI is overblown. The Robin's Egg is listed on AgencyIndex.
What made you start The Robin's Egg in 2025, and why focus on businesses and charities doing good?
I'd been working agency-side for a long time at that point. I'd built the digital marketing team up from just me to six people. I'd become Digital Marketing Director. But the direction of the business was increasingly not vibing with me. I wanted to work with clients who were doing good in the world, but there were some who were clearly only in it for the money. I'd also moved further away from the office and wanted to work from home more often.
Overall, The Robin's Egg was a way to work with people who fitted my worldview a little more, as well as giving me more time at home with my family, and more freedom overall! I haven't looked back.
How have you won your first clients?
A variety of ways. Some were people I'd worked with in the past, but cold outreach via email has also worked well for me. My approach is to include well-researched free advice that's based on the business in question, i.e. super personalised. It's also a good way to approach the kinds of businesses I most want to work with.
I've also had some work via referrals, from people who have seen my articles online, and from people who found my website organically.
What's the biggest lesson so far?
The thing that's shocked me the most so far is the willingness of seemingly nice people to ghost you. I've had people drop off the face of the planet a couple of times, for no reason. And two of those were after what I felt was a positive meeting and spending time drawing up a proposal.
If the proposal is more than you expected or you can't go ahead for any reason, that's completely fine. Just let me know!
Maybe it's a generational thing, but ignoring someone who's spent hours getting to know your business and writing a proposal deserves at least a polite "no thanks". Right?
What's gone better than you expected, and what's been harder?
I expected sales to be the most difficult part. And although it isn't easy, I've had work arrive on my doorstep out of nowhere. Sales have been steady and I have some long-term clients who help keep cashflow stable and that I love working with. And I've been referred into some exciting projects.
What I didn't expect was losing a writing project because the client was moving more in the direction of using AI. I guess I should have seen that coming. I think things will swing back the other way with AI in a few years, with some people emphasising it too much right now. Sure, it's growing and I have clients getting traffic from it. But the techniques are pretty much the same as traditional SEO. And there's a lot of push-back from the public on AI slop. I think with more regulation and less novelty effect, it will start to slow down and be a more stable, integrated part of the landscape.
What would success look like for The Robin's Egg in three years?
My goal is to get close to the level of income that would mean I have to register for VAT, but not pass it. I have no intention of adding employees or dealing with complex admin. I just want to save for the future, have a good work-life balance, and work with some cool clients.
I currently have one stable client on a lower hourly rate. That's been a big benefit in ensuring I have a baseline of income every month. But ultimately, increasing those hours to my standard rate will bring more efficiency.
I'd also love to work with some bigger, household names in the charity space.
Which piece of work are you proudest of so far?
Some of my favourite projects are where I teach someone in house how to do something and they run with it. I used to be a history teacher, so I'd like to think I'm pretty good at explaining things clearly. I've done a couple of training projects about Google Tag Manager, which has a high learning curve and can be really daunting at first. It's the kind of tool where a little knowledge goes a long way, and those training sessions added a lot of value.
I've also got great ad results for clients across the board. My solar panel client in particular have had loads of enquiries coming in over the last couple of months. One guy even walked into the office having seen an ad on Facebook within a couple of hours of the ads going live!
How is AI changing things for charities and small businesses on tight budgets, and how are you adapting?
AI has been around for years. A lot of the best features of Google Ads (such as automated bid strategies) are based on AI. It just used to be called "machine learning" instead. So, AI itself isn't new, and it's been gradually changing things over time already.
The new part is generative AI. I use that a little, but only in instances where it would speed up research. I don't use them for writing or anything like that, and prefer to limit my usage because of the environmental impact.
In the world of SEO, it's important to be aware of gen AI and its implications (it's a new source of website traffic, after all), but there are a lot of people out there claiming to be experts and really bigging up its impact. A lot of the discussions about it are overblown, and it's as much a threat as an opportunity. I see a lot of small businesses producing AI-generated posters and copy that's objectively bad.
And people using AI for SEO or Google Ads advice aren't likely to get good results either.
I haven't needed to change much, because AI was already part of Google Ads, and from an SEO standpoint, most of what I was doing for search engines is effective for AI as well.
My prediction is that regulation and public backlash will derail the hype train, and then AI will just be a normal part of things. Human-produced content will still exist, in the same way that cotton fabrics still exist after the introduction of polyester. So, there's no need to panic.
Human-produced content will still exist, in the same way that cotton fabrics still exist after the introduction of polyester.
What's next for The Robin's Egg?
I don't have any big changes planned! I'm just continuing to build my client base and enjoy life as much as possible along the way.
Where do you think agencies are heading over the next five years?
I think a lot of agencies leaning heavily into AI adoption are going to end up having to undo a lot of what they're doing right now. AI can improve efficiency, but it also has a tendency to cause issues in terms of quality. Human oversight is needed, and companies that are either using AI heavily or selling it as a solution will likely end up in a mess at some point.
I've already met freelancers and agency employees who are trying to fill knowledge gaps with AI and it just doesn't work. Those people have been some of the most chaotic and difficult to work with that I've come across.
Going faster isn't necessarily better. Slow down. Think. Evaluate.
Overall, people who are aware of what AI can do but who are using it sparingly and only to address specific problems are likely to succeed. People blindly relying on gen AI to solve their problems are going to find themselves in trouble.
In terms of agency direction more generally though, I think there will perhaps be more need to diversify the channels people are using. Google Ads is the only paid channel for a lot of businesses. Adding Microsoft Ads, ChatGPT Ads, etc over time could be beneficial, as the landscape gets more fragmented.
Going faster isn't necessarily better. Slow down. Think. Evaluate.
What would you tell someone thinking of starting an agency today?
It can be everything you want it to be, but you have to get your positioning right. If you don't have anything that differentiates you from the competition, you'll likely struggle. I found that a lot of the digital agencies locally were basically the same as one another, so putting more of a sustainable spin on things, as well as being a solo consultant, helped set me apart and win business from the very beginning.
The other thing I see often is people on LinkedIn saying they work 50, 60 hour weeks as an entrepreneur. You don't have to do that. Again, if your positioning is right and you're good at what you do, you can start with a full-time equivalent and might even be able to scale down over time. Learning to be efficient is important, and if you're doing 50 or 60 hour weeks, you aren't efficient.
But above all, set up something you'll enjoy doing. That's how you win at life.
Interview from September 2026, lightly edited.
