Marketing is at the heart of every ambitious company and enables customers to find what they are looking for, and helps to nurture a sense of trust and loyalty towards a brand. Most importantly Marketing should be an integral part of your business’ overarching business strategy.
Deborah and Sharon have amassed over 30 years’ experience of marketing techniques during their careers that have seen them working with giants such as the Daily Mail, Adidas, Ellesse and BT. In approaching new projects with clients they draw upon this rich source of experience with the aim; to create effective marketing campaigns that will have lasting returns, rather than just working on disjointed ‘quick promotions’.
Sharon explains: “I come across companies who are quick to point out they ‘tried marketing and it didn’t work’. Digging deeper, more often than not, the villain in the story has been a quick promotion that showed no return, such as taking up a last minute display ad offer because the slot was cheap. Other companies have had their fingers burned when they set off on a campaign that then ran out of control with ever increasing costs and no means of measuring success.
“Without sound planning, budgets can quickly get eaten away with nothing more spurring on marketing activity other than hoping that an advertisement will make the phone ring, or that an all-singing, all-dancing website will grab customers’ attentions that’ll then turn into lots of sales. ‘Hope’ is not a wise way to execute your marketing strategy.”
Deborah adds that clarity of purpose in the initial stages of designing a marketing strategy makes a big difference: “A lot of businesses are anxious to spend wisely, but then work in opposition to this theory by trying to create a quick response through short-term tactics. Perceived wisdoms are cited as reasons for taking up certain initiatives, but we believe that you need to have a ‘sense check’ before embarking on any activity.
Why spend money on creating a beautiful new website if no one is able to say how the old one was performing? Why start Tweeting if you haven’t figured out what you are really trying to say? Why buy a cheap marketing list to email out to when the best customers to tap into are your previous purchasers?”
Sharon adds: “We have specialised for a number of years in serving our Clients with integrated online and offline marketing. You need to make sure you are clear who it is you are talking to, why you are talking to them and what you want them to hear. We understand that the full marketing mix has to include a combination of all the tools now available to us. We also firmly believe in leaving out what is not necessary and getting best value for money.”
Although we may like to think so, Apple, Nike and Google didn’t create overnight global brand recognition, they worked hard to get the right message across and backed it up with a product that lives up to the hype – but let us not forget, they spend a lot on their marketing and advertising with huge teams of marketing soldiers.
Marketing should be at the heart of every ambitious company, no matter what the size. If you tried marketing in the past and it didn’t work, take a step back and review what you did through the eyes of your customer. Do this before you spend any more money on marketing.
