Green Street Marketing

Helping ambitious SME engineering companies grow with smart marketing

A week in the life

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Monday

The benefit of being a contractor means I was able to easily slip out of the office to go to a neighbour’s funeral – not the cheeriest of starts to the week but the setting was beautiful. What could have been a sombre setting had been designed to make you want to stare out of the window at the greenery, peacefully lost in thought.

Dave was my go-to-guy for all things gardening: he gave me advice on soil types, watered the garden when we were away, and he even potted out a bunch of tomatoes in my greenhouse – “well, you were being too slow Rebecca,” was his reason.

Back in my home office I got stuck in to updating a schedule of activities for one of my clients. This is the basis for their tactical marketing activity which shows everyone what’s going on.

It covers everything vaguely marketing related: networking events, press releases, exhibitions, case study releases, award entry deadlines, hospitality, internal events, editorial coverage, video shoots… you name it, it’s on there. It’s also what helps me to build their marketing budget.

 

Tuesday

Mummy Day! I love Tuesdays. I get to spend the whole day hanging out with my little boy who’s nearly 4. He goes to nursery three days a week, so I make the most of our time together before he goes to school and don’t check work emails or calls.

This week we did some pretty mundane stuff: Rhodri got a hair cut and we went food shopping, then we played at his cousin house in the afternoon. We treated ourselves to a chippy tea on the way home (shhh!)

Rhod’s a nerd just like me (and his dad!), so you’ll normally find us at Chocks Away watching the Beluga, doing some hands-on science at Techniquest, or watching steam trains in Llangollen.

 

Wednesday

I had a show-round at Business Wales’ Enterprise Hub, a new co-working space in Wrexham. It’s the venue for a couple of events I’ve got in the pipeline. One of them is a B2B Marketer’s Networking group. The team there are super passionate about helping start-up businesses grow and the space is versatile. If you’re a small business or freelancer that works from home, head down there for friendly co-working space and meeting room hire.

On the way home I popped into the box office for William Aston Hall to see if there were any Rhod Gilbert tickets left for his sold-out tour next year – bingo! And yes, he has the same first name as my son 🙂

I arrived home to a parcel in the porch, a book I’d been waiting for by Jo Haigh – Tales from the Glass Ceiling – what a read! I sat on the deck in the sunshine and read it in one sitting. Lots to think about and implement.

The research into the UK civil infrastructure market I had planned to do is moved to Friday.

 

Thursday

After a frantic morning trying to get out of the house, I dropped Rhod off at his grandma’s house on the way to my client’s office; a home-grown mechanical and electrical engineering company based in North Wales.

I love going to site and being part of the hubbub. The day flies by! I had a quick catch up with the MD, sat down with the various heads of departments to get the latest project updates, and then wrote a couple of new case studies.

The sales meeting happens on a Thursday too so it’s a good time to grab the account managers to find out what they need from me to support them.

There are three industry awards that have looming deadlines, so I made a start on these, ready for sign off next week.

 

Friday

Fridays are my roll-over days. I don’t plan work in so stuff that’s slipped or last-minute requests have time to get done. I also tend to catch up with any other contractors I’m working with.

I have an update call with the web developer that’s working on the rebuild of my client’s website. We’ve worked together before and have a great relationship. We went over the layout, structure and any niggles he’s come across. I also talk with the designer to see how the rebrand is coming along.

I did the half day of research that slipped from Wednesday, too. I’m helping an oil and gas company expand their services into the civils and construction markets. It involves a lot of research on LinkedIn and sector-specific websites to find and qualify companies that could use their services.

And that’s it, the week’s gone just like that!

B2B Marketer’s Meetup

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Green Street Marketing has launched a B2B marketers-only network meeting in Wrexham. There are plenty of industry and general business networking meetings, but nothing marketing-specific. So we decided to set one up ourselves!

The first B2B Marketer’s Meetup is being held at Business Wales’ Enterprise Hub in Wrexham.

This (hopefully monthly) meet-up has been created to build a community of people that supports local growth by bouncing ideas around, recognising pain points, learning about new trends, and sharing best practices.

We’re hoping to get some heavy-weight B2B influencers to speak each month.

Sign up here for FREE to come to the first meeting.

Be more duck

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Ducks exude smart marketing: composed and graceful to the outside world with all their hard-work and effort kept below the water, behind the scenes. Godzilla typifies bad marketing: heavy-handed, habitual and destructive.

When you hear smart in business, it often refers to the acronym associated with setting goals. But smart marketing starts way before that. Smart marketing is a science not an art. It’s not quite as formulaic as maths or chemistry, but there are clearly defined steps to work through to give your marketing efforts a better chance of success. Smart marketing means truly understanding who you are and what you want to achieve, knowing your customers at a subconscious level, appreciating the range of competitors you face, and being objective enough to use all that insight to speak to your customers in their language.

Here are my four top tips to become more duck.

  1. Smart marketing means being self-aware.

It’s time to do a little self-reflection. You should know your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as that of your colleagues, if you have them. Take a few personality tests to understand what type of person you are and what makes you tick. Myers-Briggs is great for an all-round personality type and Belbin is great for team work.

This may sound obvious, but when you understand your goals, you’re better equipped to meet them. If you aren’t clear on what your goals are, define them now. That way all your marketing activities can be planned to meet those specific goals and their effectiveness can be measured appropriately.

Regarding your products and services, can you clearly and concisely describe in 30 seconds what you do, why you do it, and how the customer benefits? Are there complementary services you can offer, or do you need to reign in an excessively large range? Don’t be afraid to cull your offerings to better meet your ideal customer’s needs.

  1. Smart marketing understands what keeps your customers awake at night.

What are your customers’ age, gender, location, hobbies, buying habits and shopping preferences? Do other people influence their buying decision, and if so, do they need a slightly different message?

Understanding how these traits feed into your customers’ subconscious enables you to figure out what keeps them awake at night. It’s your job to position your product or service so that it solves your customers’ insomnia.

  1. Smart marketing recognizes different categories of competitors.

It’s important to know who you are up against so you can benchmark and see where you fit. Competitors aren’t just people that offer similar things: they are also the different options your customers can choose. For example, Green Street Marketing’s competitors fall into four categories:

  1. Other marketing consultants
  2. Internal marketing functions
  3. Informal marketers (like you, and other small business owners)
  4. Doing nothing

When you think about your categories of competitors, work out what makes you the better alternative so customers will want to buy your services instead of someone or no-one else’s.

  1. Smart marketing matches your USPs to your customers’ needs.

Your single purpose is to convince your customers that your products or services will solve their sleepless nights. You do that with your unique selling points (USPs). Knowing what makes you unique or better (or ideally both) than your competitors, gives you a starting point to create your marketing message(s). Your USP could be experience, a product you make, your people, a world-first…It can be anything, with the right supporting message.

If this feels a little overwhelming, get in touch with Green Street Marketing and we’ll help turn your ambitious growth plans into manageable, meaningful marketing.

 

Why integrated marketing matters

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Marketing is not a presentation, case study, website or advert. Nor is it a company logo, colour palette or font.

Marketing is the effect your company’s actions have on the world at large. It shapes how others perceive your company: from the consistency of messages in your campaigns to the way you engage with local communities; from the diversity of your senior leadership team to your staff attrition rates; and from the way you handle customer complaints to how quickly you pay suppliers.

But, before you start creating new marketing tools or tweaking existing ones, the strategy behind your actions needs careful consideration.

Integrated campaigns are a necessity not a luxury. We live in a multi-channel world where information is competing for attention, so complementary messages ensure that prospects and customers receive consistent assertions each time they see one of the campaign elements.

Disillusion breeds distortion.

Does your company have a set of core values on which everything is built? Do your employees believe them? Leadership and company culture are essential to creating and projecting a consistent and believable shop window. What the outside world sees is what the inside world projects.

Your message, however well considered, can distort when stakeholders engage with disillusioned, ill-informed staff. If your employees do not understand or believe in your message, how can you expect your stakeholders to buy in to your products or services?

In practice, building a deep-rooted, reinforced message takes time and means getting the basics right. It also requires all employees to be motivated to work towards a common goal. The best way to achieve this is to be consistent.

Centralise marketing for consistency.

Developing and retelling a clearly defined message forms the foundation of integrated communications. Using the same strapline or set of core messages or evocative imagery supported by a consistent tone of voice are some ways to achieve this. Repeating one concept may appear lazy, but this is far from true; integrated is elegant and reinforces your company’s brand values.

Inconsistency and inaccuracy are amplified in an environment where people focus on their own region, segment or product group instead of the big picture. Companies with multiple offices or business units, or those that have grown through acquisitions can be especially guilty of working in silos.

A good way to combat this is centralising marketing: strategic decisions can be based on company objectives set by the leadership team and translated into day-to-day marketing activities implemented by the various business units.

Knowledge is power.

Shared knowledge often leads to increased sales opportunities and is where an integrated approach can add real value to the bottom line.

How? Knowing the aspirations and daily activities of each business unit enables a smart marketer to identify hidden opportunities for collaboration between business units. Importantly, it can also facilitate joined-up messaging to cross- and up-sell services to mutual clients or prospects. A strategically developed integrated campaign is more powerful and professional than individual mixed messages.

It sounds simple, but, when employees understand their company’s goals, they are better equipped to meet them.

Knowledge really is power and comes in many forms: it could be market analysis or competitor intelligence, changes in legislation that affect the business, updates to brand guidelines, sales pipeline sticking points or recently awarded contracts.

Stakeholder perception.

Customer perceptions are important, but whatever your company’s activities and objectives, there are other stakeholder groups whose opinions matter. Each stakeholder group should receive its own subset of carefully tailored content supported by the larger company message. They should be delivered at the correct time and using the appropriate channel.

For example, a company wishing to refinance may want to highlight positive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the financial trade press; a national company may wish to start exporting, so courting local agents may be necessary; and an industry leader may want to garner political support to help drive change at an industry level. Always ask, “What does my stakeholder care about?”

Examples of stakeholders

  • Customers and prospects
  • Competitors
  • News outlets and trade magazines
  • Financial institutions such as private equity houses
  • Government and industry bodies
  • Local communities
  • Suppliers
  • Employees

 

Green Street Marketing has been helping B2B companies turn their ambitious plans into real results for more than a decade. We specialise in high-tech and engineering companies, and believe that marketing is more science than art.

If that’s how you feel marketing should be approached, then get in touch to discuss how we can help you.

www.greenstreetmarketing.co.uk

YOU are a marketer

Every employee is a marketer and, as such, should have all the relevant knowledge to be a confident company advocate. Do you know your company’s five-year plan? Do you believe in its core values?­­

The marketing function is responsible for giving employees access to the information they need to feel empowered. Who in your company does this?

But why, mummy?

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I have a toddler who’s going through the “why?” stage. I’ve learnt to answer him in short, one fact at a time responses because I know it won’t end until he’s either bored or you give a good, show-stopping answer that he’s completely satisfied with.

Having a constant stream of whys makes you really think about your response and that got me thinking, this simple three letter word is really quite powerful. It’s how toddlers learn about the world around them but also how marketers (and all employees) should approach everything they do.

Why do we exhibit at this event each year? Why do we answer the phone that way? Why don’t we provide our customers with personalised options? Why don’t we meet our customer more often? Why can’t we support more local charities? Why must we present using PowerPoint? Why do we always pay our suppliers late?

Asking why means you question the norm and that’s a really good thing. The responses you receive may surprise you: because I said so (run a mile!); because no-one’s ever questioned it before (you’re clearly showing initiative); good question, how can we do it better? (bingo!)

So I’ve decided that even though I may sound like a petulant toddler, why is my all-time favourite question. What’s yours?