Marketing usually fails on strategy long before it fails on execution.
Well run campaigns pointed at the wrong audience with an unclear promise will lose money efficiently. Getting positioning right first is unglamorous, costs almost nothing, and changes what every other dollar returns.
The strategy problems that look like execution problems
Trying to appeal to everyone. A business that serves four unrelated audiences with one message reaches none of them convincingly. The narrower position feels like turning away work and reliably earns more.
Competing on price by default. If nothing else distinguishes you, price becomes the only lever, and there is always somebody cheaper. Usually they are cheaper because somebody else is doing the work.
Or spreading a small budget across six channels so none of them get enough to work. Two channels done properly beats six done thinly, every time.
What we produce
- Positioning and audience definitionWho you are for, who you are not for, and what you promise that competitors do not. Written down and specific.
- Offer and pricing reviewHow the thing is packaged and presented, which is frequently the constraint rather than the marketing.
- Channel plan with reasoningWhere the budget goes and why, based on where your buyers actually are rather than on what is fashionable.
- Budget allocationHow much to each channel, what each should return, and when to expect it.
- A one page planThe whole thing on a single sheet you can put in front of your team and hold us to.
- Quarterly resetReviewed every quarter against what actually happened, adjusted where reality disagreed with the plan.
Where strategy sits in the engagement
It comes out of the audit rather than before it. Strategy built on assumptions is guesswork with better formatting. Once we can see what your channels actually do and where your customers actually come from, the strategic choices become considerably more obvious.
For most clients this is a section of the audit rather than a separate engagement. It becomes standalone work when the business is changing direction, launching something, or has grown past the positioning it started with.
Common questions
Is this just a document?
It is a decision, written down. The value is not the artefact, it is having agreed who you are for and what you promise so every channel can stop improvising.
Can you do strategy without the other services?
Yes, and some clients only want this. You keep the plan and can execute it yourself or take it to another agency. We would rather you had a good plan than a dependency.
How long does it take?
Two to three weeks alongside the audit. Longer if customer interviews are involved, which we recommend and which consistently produce the most useful material.
What if we disagree with the positioning?
Then we discuss it properly. This is your business and you know things about it we do not. What we will not do is agree to a position we think is wrong just to avoid the conversation.
What usually runs alongside this.
Analytics and reporting
One monthly document a busy owner can read in ten minutes and act on.
Read more →Content and copywriting
Written to be read by customers and found by search, in that order.
Read more →Paid advertising
Search, social, and retargeting measured on booked work rather than impressions.
Read more →Start with the audit.
Tell us what you sell and where you think the marketing is falling down. A senior member of the pod will come back with an honest read on what the audit would likely find, what it costs, and whether it is worth doing at all. If it is not, we will say so.
800.274.6775Free consultation · Family owned · Never outsourced
- You talk to the people who do the work, not an account handler.
- Fixed scope and fixed price before anything starts.
- You own every file, every login, and every asset. Always.
- Straight answers, including when the answer is that you do not need us.
Tell us about your business
A few details and we will follow up within one business day.