How I Can Help
Just some of the ways I can help you grow your businessMarketing Strategy
Need some help with strategic thinking?
Developing a marketing strategy is effectively the clever thinking which needs to happen before you start spending money on the marketing tactics, by that I meant promoting your business through advertising or in digital channels like social media or e-mail campaigns.
The starting point for marketing strategy is generating insights from your customers, learning about your competitors and uncovering what makes your business, your products or services, different from and better than the others.
The end point is a strategy framework, highlighting the key marketing ‘levers’ we need to ‘pull’ to deliver your objectives. This is essentially a roadmap giving you a clear direction for all your marketing activity, so in future rather than just “doing marketing” you are investing time and money in the marketing tactics which are fully aligned to what you want to say and what you want to achieve.
This is objective and insightful work which will challenge and improve your business performance.
You can do it yourself, but business owners often find they are too close to their business or not able to give strategy the focus it requires. Hiring in a different (and marketing qualified) pair of eyes and ears gives them the fresh perspective they need.
Digital
Do you know what return you get on your digital marketing investment?
Do you know where you should focus your future investment in digital?
Digital has the potential to exponentially drive your business, but at the same time drain your resources of time and money.
Nowadays everyone is competing in digital, and so you need to be even sharper in your thinking and execution to stand out from the crowd.
It is super-important to work out where you play across digital channels, where you focus, and how you deliver a positive return on investment.
I audit the digital landscape and review all the digital touchpoints available to you.
I look at what you are doing and what your customers and also competitors are doing.
Then I make recommendations on what you should stop, start and do more of.
My feedback is clear and straightforward, and we avoid technical jargon.
Getting a fresh perspective will help you optimise how you use digital and how it drives growth for your business.
Innovation
Maybe you need some support for new thinking or new ideas, or you are clear you want to develop a new product or service and need some help getting there?
You have come to the right place!
Creativity and innovation are the life-blood of any business.
“Innovate or Die!”
“Stay ahead of the change or you’re toast!”
Both are true, and kind of exciting too because being aware of the need to innovate and change keeps a business on its toes.
Great ideas can come from consumer insights, from store audits and from competitor gaming.
Idea generation workshops are really useful to bring a team together, and generate some good ideas too. These should be well thought through and professionally facilitated.
A fresh external perspective to your category and competitor dynamics is crucial but again getting the team involved at the right stage of an innovation project is a great internal team-building exercise.
For new food and drink products, I cover everything from idea generation to positioning to leading you through product development, packaging and production, through to finding distribution and sales partners and marketing launch plans.
Innovation is a core skill and I am more than capable in creativity and innovation for big, medium-sized and smaller businesses.
Training and Mentoring
This is my experience gained and shared with you, from technical and real-world perspectives.
Training
It is obvious but the quality of the marketing in any business is only as good as the skills and capability of the team you have doing it.
I provide marketing skills training for your team. Our topics cover the breadth of marketing, from insight and strategy to targeting and positioning, through the 4Ps of execution (price, product, place and promotion).
Your team will be up-skilled, they will apply their new knowledge to their roles in your business and they will feel valued (and happier employees stay longer).
I devise a bespoke marketing skills programme to support your team. This could be a one-off session or perhaps a “regular and often” programme.
Mentoring
Considering a mentor for senior people in your business is a big undertaking. Pursuing new thinking & ideas through mentoring isn’t for everyone.
However, if your leaders need an external sounding board, someone to listen, to advise, to challenge and to hold to account, then mentoring is an option.
I work as a mentor across a variety of business sectors, at Managing Director, Business Owner and Marketing Director level.
With a marketing and commercial background and a purpose to grow your business, my mentoring style and approach is useful to businesses who want to boost their top-line.
Sometimes factors like lack of time, fear of the unknown or past assumptions about what mentoring is and isn’t stand in the way of cracking on with a mentoring programme.
To date, I continue to mentor in every programme I have started, so there must be value in it. Don’t let things get in the way, get in touch.
Don't just take my word for it...
“Chris has been an amazing influence on the Midlands Board, providing a wealth of experience and energy, whilst also being a voice of reason and creating a reputation for ‘getting things done’. His vision and ideas have led to the Midland’s two Webinar Express seminars, both of which receive…
Rachael Mabe
“Chris has been an amazing influence on the Midlands Board, providing a wealth of experience and energy, whilst also being a voice of reason and creating a reputation for ‘getting things done’. His vision and ideas have led to the Midland’s two Webinar Express seminars, both of which received amazing feedback and helped to contribute to the two themes in the Midlands. In his new role as Vice Chair – Events, Chris is working away behind-the-scenes so that the Midlands can develop and grow. I fully appreciate Chris’s efforts and he is undoubtedly a driving force now on the Midlands Board, and did I mention for all his inputs and expertise he is also the CIM Midlands ‘Volunteer of the Year’.”
Rachael Mabe
“We were introduced to Chris through the ‘Be The Business’ Mentoring Scheme. He was identified as a perfect fit for us and so he has proved. It’s not easy working with a SME, particularly when it’s a family business run by two headstrong sisters! But right from the start Chris …
Becky Valentine & Victoria Green
“We were introduced to Chris through the ‘Be The Business’ Mentoring Scheme. He was identified as a perfect fit for us and so he has proved. It’s not easy working with a SME, particularly when it’s a family business run by two headstrong sisters! But right from the start Chris enabled clarity of thought, focus and direction, having worked hard to understand both our business and our office sector. Through his affable approach and great sense of humour, Chris’ strategic advice and wealth of marketing expertise has proved invaluable as we have sought to redefine our future post-pandemic. Six months in and we are already reaping significant benefits from his business leadership. We can’t recommend him highly enough!”
Becky Valentine & Victoria Green
“A brave and insightful debrief from Chris with some quality market understanding and thinking. He didn’t shy away from the stuff we needed to hear to improve our business, even if some of it was uncomfortable listening.”
Matt Teague
“Marketing is an investment but it is also a business cost, and what was absolutely crucial to us is that we hired the right person, who got to know us and our business, someone we could trust to give us the right advice in all aspects of our marketing. Chris does this in spades. He is strategically s…
Neelofar Khan
“Marketing is an investment but it is also a business cost, and what was absolutely crucial to us is that we hired the right person, who got to know us and our business, someone we could trust to give us the right advice in all aspects of our marketing. Chris does this in spades. He is strategically sound and has enhanced our thinking, business direction and performance, and supports us with all our marketing activity; comms, website, social media, e-CRM and so on. We have called him a marketing guru which does embarrass him, but it is close to the truth. His knowledge and expertise is highly recommended.”
Neelofar Khan
“Chris was able to look at our business from the outside in, with a clearer and fresher perspective. In a short space of time he got a very good handle on our business and range of customers and really made us think about how we were approaching our marketing. It’s great to have someone with his lev…
Laura Turner
“Chris was able to look at our business from the outside in, with a clearer and fresher perspective. In a short space of time he got a very good handle on our business and range of customers and really made us think about how we were approaching our marketing. It’s great to have someone with his level of expertise to help us with a coherent marketing strategy and keeping us on track too with our priorities. Chris says it as it is, is easy to get on with and I’d recommend his services to any business.”
Laura Turner
“As an e-commerce business, we have enjoyed phenomenal growth over the past few years, and wanted to ensure we continued this trajectory. Chris is first class in his digital expertise, working on our longer-term digital strategy alongside making excellent recommendations in what we do on Amazon, in p…
Mary-Anne Beattie
“As an e-commerce business, we have enjoyed phenomenal growth over the past few years, and wanted to ensure we continued this trajectory. Chris is first class in his digital expertise, working on our longer-term digital strategy alongside making excellent recommendations in what we do on Amazon, in paid search, SEO, website development and more. Chris has a fantastic instinct for and knowledge of digital, and his advice and support is invaluable in taking our business to the next level. I would also add he always responds with enthusiasm, is keen to crack on with everything we throw at him, and we also value the fact he is straight talking and if he disagrees with something, he says so. And finally, Chris is great at ensuring we get an element of ongoing support, which ensures our business is continually responsive to our ever-changing marketplace.”