Marketing Consultancy Services
Marketing Strategies & Execution
that drive growth.
Marketing Consultancy Services for Small & Medium businesses.
Whatever stage of your business journey, marketing should be at the heart of your plans for future growth. With my marketing consultancy, I specialise in working with businesses across the UK to deliver marketing consultancy services.
So whether you’re an established player in need of a shake up, or a startup with lofty ambitions, getting your marketing right should form a key pillar of your plans. I have well over a decade's experience of working with businesses ranging from global powerhouses such as Microsoft, right through to startups and regionally-based small and medium businesses up to £15m turnover.
My Marketing Consultancy services are flexible to suit your needs, so regardless of whether you need a fresh pair of eyes on what you are already doing, or you are starting your marketing efforts with a blank canvas, I am ideally placed to support you on your journey to stand out from the crowd.
I most frequently work with businesses in and around Yorkshire including: Leeds, Sheffield, York, Harrogate but do also support businesses on a more remote basis in Manchester, Birmingham and London.
You may also find my Fractional CMO services userful.
How does the Marketing Consultancy Process work?
Discover
The first stage of any marketing consultancy project is to understand about your business, your competitors, what you are currently doing, and what you want to achieve in the short, medium and long-term.
Plan
At this stage the vision really comes to life. Once I understand your business and how it operates, I’ll develop a strategy and plan to set you on the path to achieving your future goals.
Implement
Whether you have a marketing team in-house or you need our support to deliver the plans, I love nothing more than seeing the vision come to life; and will be there every step of the way to support on delivering the plan.
Refine
Test and learn, test and learn! It’s the most important part of marketing. I review what’s working, what could perform better, and will always strive to squeeze every last drop from your marketing investment.
What benefits will you get from marketing consultancy?
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes is exactly what the business needs. I’ll get under the skin of your business to understand what is currently happening, and provide an honest overview of where I think you should focus your energy and resources to have maximum impact.
AFFORDABLE EXPERTISE
As a B2B Marketing Consultant, I pride myself on finding solutions to meet your needs. Whether you’re looking for a one-off workshop with key stakeholders, ongoing marketing consultancy support, or something in between, I’ll work with you to find the right solution.
A CLEAR ROADMAP
One of my most popular services – I’ll work with key stakeholders to understand the business goals and current activity, and will then create a marketing plan and roadmap for how I get you there. If you need help implementing the plan, I can also help!
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Case Studies
A campaign that delivered significant B2B market share uplift in the UK for Microsoft.
The #LumiaBizTrial was a flagship project I led the delivery of targeting IT directors in UK companies with between 100-1000 employees. Based upon it's success, this campaign was then rolled out globally.
The campaign was multi-faceted, and including Direct Mail, digital advertising, email and telemarketing.
The programme delivered a huge pipeline ROI of 44:1 against a target of 5:1.
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Case Studies
Driving Nokia market share growth from 11% to 18% in 12 months.
When people tried Lumia devices for their business, 82% wanted to switch from their current device. The core challenge: not enough people were considering Nokia Lumia phones in the first place.
I managed this fully integrated campaign from start to finish that focused on driving awareness and consideration of Nokia.
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Case Studies
Increasing annual marketing-sourced pipeline by £24m in 3 years.
Built the marketing team from scratch for this family-owned group to establish them as a leading brand in the region and competing with much larger national brands.
Catapulting inbound enquiries to £2m per month on average, from £60k per month, whilst increasing average enquiry value by £110k
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Case Studies
Driving business growth of more than 100% in 3 years.
StowAg is a regional business based in the heart of the Cotswolds who supply
Key to the brand growth was heavily focusing on increasing brand awareness and consideration within the 50-mile delivery radius of their main store through a fully integrated marketing approach.
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Case Studies
Fractional CMO support for this ambitious Cyber Security company
Working closely with the senior team internally to build out a cohesive marketing and sales strategy to underpin significant growth of the business in the next 3 years.
This project has involved everything from marketing planning, budgeting, positioning through to helping structure the company's data strategy, sales approach, brand evolution, website refresh and ongoing marketing approach to deliver excellence in every area.
What it’s like to work with me
Louis Fernandes
Director, Sales & Market GTM, SAS
I started working with Ash in early 2015. From a client perspective, the way I’d describe the relationship is “easy”.
Ash is exactly the sort of person you want as your Account Director. Nothing has been too much trouble for him, he’s been accommodating and flexible, he’s challenged back appropriately when needed, has done a magnificent job of orchestrating the many spinning plates there have been, and has ultimately delivered some absolutely brilliant campaigns on time and on budget that have achieved fantastic results.
Gavin Burt
Managing Director, Growthlabs
Ash is an expert marketeer with extensive and senior agency-side and client-side experience. He is always a pleasure to work with - reliable, insightful, calm-in-a-crisis, and hardworking.
He is comfortable driving strategic discussions but will also get into the trenches (and then go "over the top") when needed. We have worked extensively together and I know I can trust Ash to manage client relationships well, identifying and developing opportunities, keeping commitments and managing expectations. Ash has also successfully undertaken HubSpot implementations for our clients.
James Croft
RevOps Lead, Better.co.uk
We needed someone with specialist HubSpot knowledge to help us maximise the value we get from the platform. We had a number of complex technical problems which were creating inefficiency for our teams, and had legacy parts of our architecture which we wanted someone to audit against best practices in the market..
You have a brilliant understanding of the technical capabilities of HubSpot, which has allowed us to make better use of the platform across teams. You’ve been very collaborative and engaged well with stakeholders across the business, showing initiative to source problems, rather than just waiting for direction. You’ve been able to both provide high level technical guidance on core business problems and get your hands dirty implementing new functionality, which has been exactly what we needed.
BIG BRAND EXPERIENCE
SME EXPERIENCE
FAQs
How can a marketing consultant help my business?
What areas of marketing do marketing consultants specialise in?
Every marketing consultant will have different experience and expertise. Ultimately it comes down to the type of experience you require for your specific business, industry and objectives.
Typically a marketing consultant will have amassed 10+ years experience in a variety of sectors and roles and be able to apply that experience accordingly for their clients.
You should be looking for someone who has a mix of strategic and hands-on experience and essentially, has a proven track record of successfully helping businesses grow.
How do I know if my business needs a marketing consultant?
If you find yourself struggling to attract customers, unsure of how to differentiate your brand, or feeling overwhelmed by marketing options, it might be time for a consultant. Also, if you lack a clear marketing strategy, have plateaued in growth, or want to explore new avenues, a consultant can provide valuable insight.
Simply put, if you're grappling with the complexities of marketing and seeking ways to accelerate your business growth, hiring a marketing consultant might be the solution you're looking for.
What qualifications and experience should I look for in a marketing consultant?
Most marketing consultants will have some sort of marketing qualification - whether that's a degree, a Masters, CIM qualified or certified in particular marketing specialisms.
Ultimately it's about their experience and track record.
A key thing you should be looking for is experience in working with similar sizes of business to yours. For example if someone has been used to working with corporate brands with multi-million budgets, then you're unlikely to be a good fit if you're a 20-employee business with a modest marketing budget.
How do marketing consultants typically charge for their services?
Marketing Consultants can charge in a range of ways. This can either be project-based, on an interim basis, or on a retained and longer-term basis.
I tend to work with businesses for anywhere from 6 months and upwards which allows the strategy to be formulated and implementation to be fully in flow, either with the support of clients' in-house resource, or with a fully outsourced marketing team that I can organise and manage for you.
Can a marketing consultant work with businesses of any size?
This very much depends on their experience and background, but you should be looking at marketing consultants who have a solid track record of working with and growing similar sizes of businesses as they will be familiar with the growing pains and challenges and know how to tackle these.
I tend to specialise in working with businesses of between 15-100 employees.
Why this range? Well it's where I feel I am able to add the most value and have strong experience of building and growing businesses of this size range and with the kind of budgets typically available within the SME market.
How long does it take to see results from marketing consultancy services?
As with all marketing results can never be guaranteed, but a good marketing consultant will give you the best chance of growth working within your available budget.
I would expect to be seeing positive signs and uplift within 3-6 months of working together - whether that be improving your win rates of opportunities, increasing the lead quality/volume/value, or actioning key projects that will move your business forward.
How involved will I need to be in the consulting process?
This completely depends on whether there are other people in the business who are able to support and make decisions where required.
I typically work with owner-managed businesses and a key reason for the success or failure of any engagement will usually be down to having a level of autonomy once the initial phase of work is agreed and we have a solid strategy and plan in place.
Most clients I work with will be more involved in the first 2-3 months, and then that involvement and input requirement typically reduces over time.
What industries do marketing consultants typically work with?
Every marketing consultant will have different backgrounds and areas of expertise that may lend themselves to certain industries.
For instance, my background is very much B2B Marketing and I have experience across more than 15 sectors with companies of various shapes and sizes.
As such, I solely work with marketing clients in the B2B space with up to 100 employees.
How do I choose the right marketing consultant for my business?
Ultimately it's about whether you feel that you're going to be a good fit to work together and you have trust in the person's capabilities.
It may also depend on whether you feel you need a particular area of expertise for your business (although be mindful that a good consultant should be able to help you with and challenge this)
My marketing expertise is highly varied across almost all areas of the marketing discipline, with a particular focus on demand generation and CRM-led growth.
What is the process for getting started with a marketing consultant?
It's very much a two-way process but usually it will involve an initial conversation to get to know one-another, allowing the consultant to understand a bit more about your business, objectives and challenges.
It will also help you understand more about the Marketing Consultant's experience, personality, and potential fit for your business and it's unique requirements.
This is also a good time to understand the process of how a consultant typically works, previous track record and availability.
Can a marketing consultant help with both traditional and digital marketing strategies?
How do marketing consultants stay updated on industry trends and best practices?
Marketing Consultants are usually working with a range of different companies across a range of sectors and you will find they will naturally keep up-to-date with current trends and best practices because of this.
You will often also see that they will bring fresh ideas from work they are doing and seeing in other sectors that could apply to your business and be innovative within your sector.