Finally I am here – welcome!

24 Oct Finally I am here – welcome!

It has been a very busy first 5 months at Next Level. Providing marketing services as well as some interim account directing over the summer period for my clients, I have had great fun.

For one of my clients – an infrastructure managed service provider – I have been working closely with the sales and marketing team to develop a new easy to deliver and measure marketing strategy. As is the norm, activities already committed to couldn’t be ignored so we have had to keep everything running in parallel whilst creating the new direction.  The company markets itself out to numerous sectors so we have needed a vertical marketing plan for each sector.

With so much activity, it is critical that we are highly targeted in the campaigns we run. As a result, we’ve focused on profiling the exact target market in each sector by defining  the current clients in granular detail, by analysing what types of communication they have responded well to in the past, the challenges those clients face as well as why they bought from my client before.  This helps with all our messaging and defining the communication channels to use.  Everyone needs to carry out this analysis – putting this bit of time in first, makes the rest of the activities so much easier.

For another client, I am working with the office team who manage a raft of responsibility from account management to sales and marketing – I am working with them on the marketing and building their understanding and knowledge. As well as planning the marketing, we have monthly reviews to analyse the success of the activities, understand any industry news or events in the last month that may impact activities and prioritise the messaging we want to communicate.  Like many companies, some marketing activities are juggled around people’s core role so it is great to help them with structure for their communications and build content.

They are very focused on customer service and relationship marketing which separates them out from many of their competitors (crazy, but sometimes the things you think are most obvious, like putting the client first, isn’t on everyone’s radar!) and it’s nice to work with a client that holds the same values as you.

Why did I start this?

I felt I was ready, having over 15 years of B2B marketing experience and gaining an understanding across the board as a Director for the last 4 years before starting up Next Level. I also see businesses recognising the need and wanting to invest in marketing, but the question is often where to invest AND it’s not just allocating budget, it’s having the time as well.

When it comes to marketing, businesses frequently find themselves doing a bit of everything, squeezing it in between other tasks and I don’t believe this can achieve the most from their investment. They often need support that can add value without having to invest in a full time role.

Having marketed to numerous sectors such as IT, insurance, supply chain & logistics, social housing and local government, I know ultimately what is key, is identifying the challenges the sector faces and how my clients can help support them. It’s also about building client relationships not just generating new business; and most of all, its about listening.

Without always having a person internally to focus on this, I knew that I could help businesses with the planning so they could see greater structure in their marketing activities and have clarity in the outcomes.

Next Level marketing

So, onto my own marketing! My clients will always be my priority, and as such, it has delayed some of my own marketing a little – but my website is finally here!

If you asked me for three words to describe my business, I would choose creative, engaging and business-driven (yes I am going to count that as one!). I wanted to make sure the website conveyed this and gave the look and feel of a friendly service.

However, I also wanted to emphasis the need for planning and process – you have this in finance, operations and sales, so why not marketing? So, this is the focus of my site. Stemming from this is then all the types of marketing experience the business can provide so that people can see that once we have a plan in place, we don’t head off and say ‘good luck’, but help you and manage the day-to-day activities as well.

I hope you enjoy the website. Your feedback is most welcome.