Client: Bespoke IT Solutions
Service: B2B marketing strategy, marketing transformation, lead generation strategy, marketing systems design
Providing the marketing foundations that allow scaling to happen – without breaking the people in the business.
Highlights
I worked with the ambitious leadership team at this successful IT business, helping them identify the marketing strategies they needed to implement to scale, and then recruiting the marketing resource to deliver them.
My work with Bespoke IT Solutions resulted in:
- a clear B2B Marketing Strategy, which provided focus for a staged approach to growth
- a 12-month Marketing Plan to deliver the Marketing Strategy
- a comprehensive Brand Strategy shared internally to help the growing team understand, ‘THIS is who we are and what we need to do to come across that way’
- recruiting and inducting their first full-time Marketing Manager, who, just 2 months after arrival, brought in an MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) worth a significant amount.
As Natalie Alden, CEO & Founder of Bespoke IT Solutions, said,
“We brought Kara in to develop our Marketing Strategy so it could power our growth – and she has delivered.”
The key marketing challenges
The Senior Leadership at Bespoke IT Solutions had done a great job of growing the business without any dedicated in-house marketing team members.
However, their ambitions for growth were pushing their entire marketing machine to the limit – a machine made up of people for whom marketing was an ‘add-on’ rather than their actual role.
This strain was beginning to show through challenges such as:
Lead generation performance below target
Existing marketing campaigns weren’t producing the volume and quality of leads needed to hit the growth goals.
Running out of time
The Team was so busy following up the leads they were getting and looking after current clients, they didn’t have the time to consistently focus on marketing, which led to a very bumpy pipeline of leads.
Existing marketing wasn’t credible for larger buyers
Their marketing had helped them successfully find and engage the smaller businesses, but it needed to be ‘upped’ to also find and engage the larger prospects.
Their digital presence needed a step-change
A website rebuild was already in hand, but it needed to be driven and focused on appealing to the full range of businesses they wanted to work with and converting all of these different groups.
Marketing needed to more intrinsically linked with sales
This was happening, but it was based on good people doing a great job, rather than being baked into the marketing processes.
As James Cox, Bespoke IT Solutions’ Chief Business Officer, said,
“Our marketing was a series of activities that may or may not happen depending on people’s available time. This was not a marketing machine that could be scaled to drive growth. We brought Kara in to change that.”
My solutions
I set up, researched and then ran a facilitated half-day workshop with the Leadership Team to shape priorities, messaging, channels, and targets. This gave the Leadership Team the time and space to discuss and agree on which clients they wanted and why those clients would choose them.
Bespoke IT Solutions is a values-led business, so working with clients to whom they can bring genuine value and support is crucial to the Leadership Team.
This meant their marketing had to ensure it found and attracted the right type of businesses to Bespoke IT Solutions. These prospective clients then had to be seamlessly handed over to the nurturing Sales Team.
In addition to the workshop, I spent time with key team members. All of this informed a robust B2B Marketing Strategy that I was confident would deliver.
This was supported by a Brand Strategy document that pulled together a comprehensive pack of ‘This is who we are, how we work, who we work with, and how we need to come across.’
It was a crucial internal document to help team members understand the breadth and depth of marketing – and how they were shaping the business’s impression at every touchpoint.
I then provided a 12-month Marketing Plan, showing what needed to be done to deliver the strategy.
The plan listed daily marketing activities for the first 2 months, so the team knew what they needed to do to keep their marketing relevant, consistent, and effective.
Throughout all of this process, I had fortnightly Marketing Momentum calls with the team to check in on what marketing activities they were doing, the results they were generating, and to troubleshoot any issues. This ensured that they retained their marketing impetus and focus.
The need to recruit
What became apparent very quickly was that this bright team needed a dedicated in-house marketer, as the job was now too big to be ‘added on’ to other roles.
Working with James Cox, their Chief Business Officer, I developed a full recruitment pack aligned with their in-house recruitment process and served on the interview panel.
We successfully recruited the right type of marketer for Bespoke IT Solutions. I steered them around the common pitfalls that trip up many businesses when recruiting their first in-house marketer.
I then developed and ran a 4-week induction programme to set the Marketing Manager up for success.
Being able to share the Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy, and 12-month Marketing Plan with the new Marketing Manager was crucial to this – it gave them a clear sense of what they needed to achieve and how to do so.
Summary and client feedback
Working with a visionary, energetic leadership team that understands that marketing needs strategy, the right resources, and dedicated time to deliver results has been a real pleasure. And the results the Bespoke IT Solutions team are already seeing from my work are very rewarding.
“Thanks for all your help to start my Bespoke IT Solutions journey here – it’s been invaluable.”
James Kislingbury, Marketing Manager
“To say Kara has transformed our marketing is an understatement. She has carefully developed the architecture for our own marketing machine and put key components of it in place, while engaging myself and my team so we thoroughly own it all. She does not ‘do to you’ but works alongside you and your business.”
Natalie Alden, CEO
“Thanks to Kara, I now know we can achieve our growth ambitions – without killing ourselves trying!”
James, Chief Business Officer
I’m Kara Stanford, an award-winning strategic marketing adviser who works with ambitious B2B business owners to help their businesses grow in a clear, sustainable way.
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