Valuable marketing skills, experience and techniques to improve performance
The marketing-related services I can really help you with
Developing a marketing strategy
‘Marketing strategy is not about adding more and more stuff, it’s about taking stuff away until you’re left with only one thing – a single, powerful thought…’ – David Ogilvy
Developing marketing strategies is my thing. It’s what makes me leap out of bed of a morning. Why? Because if you don’t have a properly thought-out strategy, you don’t have a chance.
But it’s also pretty easy, despite every good intention, to develop a bad strategy.
Bad strategies are the consequence of:
- Lazy assumptions about you, your product/services and the audience
- The failure to face the real challenge and/or side-step the real problem
- Mistaking goals for strategy
- Setting unrealistic/unachievable goals
- A belief that fixing one thing will fix everything
- Surrounding an issue with irrelevant ‘fluff’
So my job is to improve your chances of success
Strategy affirmation
‘You may have thought of an outline plan – but a sense-check could actually be your very best idea…’
A marketing assessment from an independent third-party is a perfectly logical step – especially if you are about to spend serious money.
For years my job used to be to help clients use their marketing budgets effectively. But I learned one valuable lesson – spend it unwisely and the client would soon go elsewhere.
So I recognised that a big part of my job was to say “No!”. That wasn’t for show – it was actually completely selfish. If I wanted a client to trust the agency we needed to defend their interests at all times – and if we delivered meaningful results with honesty and integrity they’d always come back.
I like to call it ‘the commercial imperative’.
I’ve been in the trenches long enough to know what questions to ask, so as to identify what you really need. There’s sometimes a big difference between what looks nice, and what really delivers ROI.
I could ‘interrogate’ and refine your marketing strategy, take on an ad-hoc project, or just make sure your website is a true reflection of your organisation (and a revenue generator too).
Rest assured I can point you in the right direction, and make sure that you get the most out of your marketing budget. And, not unsurprisingly, I can help you get the very best out of your agency too.
The mysteries of briefing
‘Frame the problem correctly and you’ll always get better outcomes…’
“Why should we do all the hard work, that’s what we pay the agency to do?”
Too many marketing people think writing a brief is an unspeakable (not to say boring) chore, when in truth writing a brief is always the most exciting bit of the job.
Briefs should never be a prescribed set of instructions – they should be designed to provoke curiosity and to inspire. Briefs should be the floor, not the ceiling.
There is one great certainty when it comes to marketing – a poor brief will deliver lacklustre work.
Yet, sadly, many clients still don’t really appreciate the value of a brief. To be honest that’s got a lot to do with the fact that they’re not really sure what it is they are supposed to do. Also writing a good one takes time and skill…and not too many people actually teach you how to do it.
So you have two options: you could employ me to help you writing sparkling briefs that will deliver brilliant results, and/or you could ask me to teach you and your colleagues how to write that sort of brief. It’s a win-win.
Copywriter/author
‘You will be at a distinct advantage if you can share information in an inwardly digestible fashion…’
I started my working life as a junior copywriter. Before that I was an avid letter writer. I took my O Level English early and got an A. And I’ve always been fascinated by the etymology of words and expressions – the core components of communication. Good copy should delight, entertain and inform. Moreover good copy looks effortless. To write good copy you’ve got to be able to think clearly, have an organised mind, and understand your audience well.
My early career as a copywriter has informed and illuminated everything I have ever done. Once a copywriter, always a copywriter.
I even did the cliché thing copywriters are supposed to do – I wrote a book. Not a stiff academic tome, but a fictional and frivolous page-turner about letting life unfold. Just the sort of book you’d want to buy at an airport. It’s also a (sort of) history book and a (sort of) quest for treasure. You’ll have to judge for yourself. It’s called Tom The Fatalist. People (many of whom I’ve never met before) have said it is funny. That’s high praise indeed.