About
Simon Kingsnorth
I’ve spent 25+ years helping companies grow through marketing, from leading digital marketing globally at Citi to launching start-ups from a standing start. After 20 years in the industry I had developed a series of strategies and processes that worked, and I noticed that there were gaps in knowledge with no real resource to help bring the thinking together. This is what inspired me to write Digital Marketing Strategy. It has since gone on to be one of the best-selling digital marketing books in the world and is used on CIM and university courses around the world in many languages, now in its fourth edition.
Today I work with founders and leadership teams as a Fractional CMO, lead my agency SK, and speak and train on the subjects I care most about: strategy, AI, search and brand.
“This is not the digital age. It’s the human age.”
Technology changes the tools, but marketing still wins by understanding people better than anyone else.
How I work
Most marketing problems aren’t channel problems. They’re strategy problems: unclear priorities, a team pulled in too many directions, budgets spread too thin, and a brand that sounds like everyone else. My job is to find what is really holding growth back and fix that first.
I’ve done that from the inside, leading digital marketing at global financial services firms, and from the outside, as a consultant, agency founder and Fractional CMO for start-ups, scale-ups and established businesses. I specialise in technology and financial services, including fintech and wealthtech, where trust and clarity matter most.
Everything I do is built on the same frameworks as my books, tested with real budgets and real teams, and updated constantly as AI and search change the rules. I care about results that last, which is why every engagement ends with a team that can carry on without me.
Beyond the day job
I’m a board trustee of the National Migraine Centre and the Museum of Oxford, bringing marketing and strategic thinking to two very different charities.
I host the For the Love of Marketing podcast, write a weekly newsletter read by 30,000 marketers, and contribute to other books and publications in the field.
And I wrote a children’s book, The Muffalump, about shy, mysterious creatures who hide in the trees, first told to my own children on long car journeys.
Key facts
- Role
- Fractional CMO, marketing consultant, keynote speaker, trainer
- Company
- Founder and CEO of SK, a strategic marketing agency
- Books
- Digital Marketing Strategy (4th edition), The Digital Marketing Handbook, Marketing in Web 3.0 (Kogan Page)
- Experience
- 25+ years in marketing leadership
- Previously
- Global Head of Digital Marketing, Citi; Digital Marketing Director, Fidelity Worldwide Investment; CMO, City Relay
- Has worked with
- Vodafone, Asda, Lloyds TSB, Direct Line Group, Google
- Specialisms
- Technology and financial services, including fintech and wealthtech
- Board roles
- Trustee, National Migraine Centre; Trustee, Museum of Oxford
- Based in
- Reading, UK
What I’m known for
The subjects I write, speak, train and consult on.
Integrated marketing strategy
Pulling brand, channels, data and team into one plan that a business can actually deliver.
Read more ›AI in marketing
Where AI genuinely moves the numbers, and how to use it without losing a brand’s voice.
Read more ›Search and GEO
How brands get found, and cited, when answers come from Google and AI assistants.
Read more ›Distinctive brands
Why the safest brands are the easiest to ignore, and how to build one people remember.
Read more ›Fintech and financial services
Growth marketing in regulated, trust-driven markets, from global banks to challengers.
Read more ›Building marketing teams
Structures, skills and processes that keep working after the consultant has gone.
Read more ›The books, so far
Three books with Kogan Page and one for younger readers, published in several languages and used on courses worldwide.
-
2016
Digital Marketing Strategy, 1st edition
Written to bring together the strategies and processes that worked after 20 years in the industry. It became a core text on CIM and university courses.
-
2019
Digital Marketing Strategy, 2nd edition
Updated and expanded, with free implementation guides and case studies published alongside it.
-
2021
The Muffalump
A children’s story first told to my own children, illustrated by Maia Batumashvili.
-
2022
Digital Marketing Strategy, 3rd edition, and The Digital Marketing Handbook
The strategy book updated for a post-cookie, post-Covid world, joined by a practical, channel-by-channel companion.
-
2022
For the Love of Marketing podcast
Conversations with marketers on the topics and trends that matter, with practical advice.
-
2024
Marketing in Web 3.0
AI, the metaverse and blockchain, and what they mean for the future of marketing.
-
2025
Digital Marketing Strategy, 4th edition
Launched in November 2025 with extensive new content on AI, marketing automation, GEO and privacy.
What people say
- years leading marketing
- 25+years leading marketing
- edition of Digital Marketing Strategy, used on CIM and university courses
- 4thedition of Digital Marketing Strategy, used on CIM and university courses
- books with Kogan Page
- 3books with Kogan Page
- marketers read the newsletter
- 30,000marketers read the newsletter
Previously: Global Head of Digital Marketing, Citi; Digital Marketing Director, Fidelity Worldwide Investment; CMO, City Relay.
Has worked with: Vodafone, Asda, Lloyds TSB, Direct Line Group, Google.
“Simon and his team bring a rare mix of senior competence, honesty, integrity, and human warmth.”
“Simon is a true leader in his field”
“I’ve known Simon, the founder of SK, for many years and can personally vouch for his integrity”
Rated Excellent (4.3 out of 5) from 8 reviews of Simon’s agency, SK, on Trustpilot.