Independent CRM and customer strategy consultant

Most marketing is noise. Be the signal

I help businesses build better relationships with their customers, and get more value from them. I work out what those relationships should look like, then turn that into messages people actually want to open.

15 years in CRM, in-house, agency-side and with founders, for Berry Bros. & Rudd, Echo, London Lions and more.

Brands I've worked with

  • London Lions
  • Echo by LloydsPharmacy
  • British Basketball League
  • Nespresso
  • Clash of Clans
  • MoneySuperMarket
  • National Theatre
  • O2
  • National Trust

See the difference

This is your customer's phone.

Every channel, every brand, all at once. Somewhere in the middle, a friend is asking about the pub. Quiet the noise and see what's actually worth opening.

An example of one person's phone, across every channel.

Without a plan, a phone fills up: the same last chance by email, text and push, an advert for a sofa already bought, a 12-minute survey about a 2-minute delivery, and in among it all a friend, Ben, asking about the pub on Friday. Quiet the noise clears it all away and leaves two messages worth opening: Ben's, and one email from a coffee shop that knows your beans run out on Friday and offers to send your usual on Wednesday.

Start here

Start with a CRM review.

Before you spend on a new platform, an agency or another campaign, find out what your CRM is actually doing, and what it's doing to your customers. I'll go through it properly and hand you a plan, in order of what will make the biggest difference.

Who it's for
Founders, CEOs and heads of marketing or CRM, whose programme is running but not pulling its weight.
What I look at
Every journey, segment and channel you run, and the data underneath.
What you get
A prioritised plan: what's working, what to fix and what to do next.
How it works
We agree the scope and fee up front, so you know exactly what you're getting.

Where it can go next

  • BuildI design the programme, then build it with your team, agency or platform partner.
  • EmbedInterim CRM leadership, or a senior pair of hands for a project, a busy season or a gap in the team.

Platforms I work in

  • Braze
  • Klaviyo
  • Mailchimp
  • Salesforce
  • Emarsys
  • Bloomreach

Using something else? Just ask.

The work

Check the inbox for case studies and kind words.

Be careful of the spam, though.

Compose: write to Ash

Inbox

    Case studies

    Lifted Care: Two audiences, two journeys, more qualified leads

    2021–22 · Care, Series A · My role: CRM Manager

    • +25% marketing-qualified leads from automated journeys
    • 50%+ increase in sales-qualified lead conversions
    • +25% website traffic month on month

    A care business at Series A needed clients looking for care and carers looking for work, two audiences who wanted very different things.

    If your business serves two sides, you need two journeys. Read the case study

    Echo by LloydsPharmacy: Medicines by post, just as the country needed them

    2019–22 · Health · My role: Digital and CRM Manager

    • 30k→500k+ customers during the pandemic
    • 5,000+ new patients a month from partners
    • 350k+ patients our social campaigns built a community for

    Support a patient base growing at speed through the pandemic, with communications built on trust, accessibility and a good experience.

    Customer growth was a company-wide result in which I played a key role. The service is now LloydsDirect. Read the case study

    Berry Bros. & Rudd: Through GDPR without losing a subscriber, in a hard year for wine

    2018–19 · Wine and spirits · My role: Digital Marketing and CRM Manager, leading the CRM team

    • +3% channel revenue (£2.3m)
    • +30% repeat shopper segments, year on year
    • +15% customers via email, year on year
    • 0 subscribers lost in the GDPR transition

    Grow CRM revenue for Britain's oldest wine and spirits merchant in a hard year for the industry, while moving platform and getting through GDPR without losing the audience.

    CRM team results. I led the team and the strategy. Read the case study

    What people say

    Ash has a knack for asking ‘why’. Why is the customer seeing this? Why now? That intentionality, combined with his cultural awareness and genuine care for others, makes him both a superb Strategist and a pleasure to work with. We’ve collaborated closely together at two agencies, and I was impressed by how Ash owned a more senior role: establishing Strategy as a function and making its value clear to the wider team and our clients. Colleagues often told me how speaking with Ash helped them think about CRM completely differently.

    Ciaran Macdonald, Worked with Ash at two agencies

    I had the pleasure of managing Ash during his time as CRM Manager at the London Lions, and I can confidently say he was a real asset to the team. Ash approached his role with a great balance of methodical precision and creative thinking, consistently delivering strong results across his core responsibilities while always seeking ways to add value beyond his remit. His proactive mindset, attention to detail, and ability to think strategically made a real difference to our CRM & Growth efforts. Ash would be a fantastic addition to any team, and I’m excited to see what he achieves next.

    Jerome Quartey, Former Marketing Director, London Lions, now at NBA Europe

    I had the pleasure of working alongside Ash. He has a rare combination of sharp strategic insight and genuine kindness. He's endlessly full of ideas, and he brings real depth of knowledge to every problem, but what stood out to me most was how generously he shared it. He was always eager to help more junior people, taking the time to explain his thinking, answer questions and make sure people felt included. He's also clearly motivated by the work. His energy is contagious and his calm, approachable demeanour made him a pleasure to collaborate with. Any team would be lucky to have Ash. I'd happily work with him again.

    Emma Leane, Former colleague

    Ash is an absolute master when it comes to CRM strategy and operations - his commitment to juggling multiple problems with keen execution is second to none. Ash is a firm believer in outcomes, and always looks to understand the details in what makes a campaign tick, highlighting successes and adjusting losses in a proactive manner.

    Ryan Jans, Worked with Ash

    I've been lucky enough to work with Ash on a number of projects over the years and one thing has defined the experience every time. Passion. Ash loves what he does. He's that hands-on person you need in a team and someone you can always turn to for an honest chat both professionally and personally. Knowledgable, insightful and a pleasure to be around, I would recommend Ash wholeheartedly.

    David Oswald, Account Director, agency

    Working with Ash always encouraged me to see the bigger picture. His experience across CRM and strategy, combined with his strong interpersonal skills, makes him a valuable asset to any team. He brings a thoughtful, solutions-focused approach to his work, takes ownership of challenges and consistently gets the best out of those around him.

    Thomas Andrews, Application Specialist

    Working with Ashley was a pleasure, he had a great ability to turn a scrap of paper into something which told a story to our key audience. A real creative thinker, Ashley always had the time to help and consistently delivered work to a very high standard.

    Andrew Marshall, Innovator, Gladstone Sports Software

    About

    A note from Ash.

    I'm independent, so the person you brief is the person who does the work.

    I've spent 15 years in CRM, from three sides: in-house at Berry Bros. & Rudd, Echo by LloydsPharmacy, Lifted Care and London Lions; agency-side for brands like Nespresso, MoneySuperMarket and the National Theatre; and with founders at Lucky Saint, WaterRower, Eleat and Bird.

    I read marketing the way your customers do: quickly, on my phone, mostly deleting. (I'm a quiet leaver. I almost never unsubscribe, I just stop opening.) So most of my job is asking why. Why is the customer getting this? Why now? Why on three channels at once?

    Seeing it from every side is also why I plan and build the same programme. Most of what goes wrong happens in the gap between the two. I've talked about email and digital transformation at Webbdagarna in Stockholm, too.

    If all that has taught me anything, it's this: technology rarely fixes anything on its own. People do.

    Away from work, I'm a dad of three. Most weekends involve basketball, the beach or long walks with Ted, our rescue dog.

    Surrey, an hour from London · Remote or on site · LinkedIn

    Ash Ledran in a white T-shirt, cap and round glasses, against a pink wall

    Get in touch

    Drop me a line

    Tell me what's going on and what good would look like. No need to polish it.

    1. You write. The problem, the platform, the timing.
    2. I reply myself. No nurture sequence. No sales deck.
    3. If it's a fit, we talk and agree where to start: a review, a build or an embed.

    Rather use your own inbox? Email ash@ledran.co

    Prefer LinkedIn? Message me there.

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