Having an open and easy to use process is critical to working with freelancers. I have developed systems that allow us to collaborate easily across all documentation, reporting, presentations, and meetings.
You will not need any specific software other than Google chrome browser (which is free to download). This allows you to work with me on any device.
Regular Communication
I believe in the mantra of; communicate early, communicate often: This helps clear up any confusion, saves your time, and keeps our project running smoothly.
Setting expectations
All too often suppliers over promise (to win a piece of business) then under deliver, leaving you feeling dissatisfied. From our initial discussions through to project updates, we will set realistic expectations together and I will alert you should we encounter a problem immediately.
Deadlines
I limit the number of clients I work with at any one time to ensure we hit our deadlines every time.
My Approach
Typically my approach follows a defined phased approach
1. Discovery
This is the process of understanding your business. What markets you have had success in and where you would like to operate.
It will review many of your business facets including;
- What is the sales cycle length
- What is the current typical order value?
- Can the order value be increased?
- Identifying the business levels required and the components of those to meet the overall business growth target.
A detailed plan of who, how, what, how many, when etc so that all your team understands what is needed and when. This can be something you do as a management team or as a group, meeting with me as a facilitator.
Growth Targets & Target Market Size
When setting your financial target it’s imperative that they are achievable in the market you operate i.e if you have a target of £2M in a total market worth £5M is it realistic to believe you will own a 40% market share ?
Once phase 1 is complete I can provide you with detailed milestones and costs to complete the project.
2. Developing the ‘offer’
This is not developing your own service or products but developing content that can be used to ‘bring your prospects along the customer journey’.
Successful marketing requires you to build trust and authority with your potential customers, which may not be something you have previously had to do.
Ideally, your lead generation should be a constant and consistent activity of your business, stop-start campaigns rarely work, you may have already experienced this.
I recommend developing a ‘lead magnet’ system where prospective customers receive several pieces of information, which adds true value to them personally. Once this trust is built you have a vastly improved chance of converting them into a paying customer.
Many of the techniques used to build trust and authority employ the use of relevant or interesting content for example guides, e-books, training webinars, top 10 lists, etc
3. Targeting
Identifying target audiences/ buyer personas is key to selecting what lead platform to use. Once we have agreed the target audiences, I can then profile the numbers involved, where these people are, what they are interested in, what is the competition doing, and discuss approaches of how to message them.
4. Creating messages and testing
Depending on the advertising platform chosen, I will create optimised adverts with images and sales copy, landing pages with links to call to action content and launch the campaigns.
No one knows which adverts, audiences, messages, and content will be the most effective so I prefer to let the numbers tell us what is working and what isn’t. Some adverts will fail, I take the approach of fail fast, review and improve. The key to not wasting your ‘Ad spend’ is not to keep spending on adverts that are not converting into sales.
5. Campaign Management, Ongoing Analysis, Development & Improvement
Continual measurement is an ongoing process. I will measure activity against targets, fine tune and identify failing campaigns. Some ads will eventually suffer from ‘Ad fatigue’, (where the adverts are no longer converting due to various factors such as saturation of message, drop in relevance score etc) and I will identify new opportunities for you.
Easy reporting
You will receive regular reports on your advertising activities showing you the relevant data. You decide how much, or how little information you require and whether you want weekly or monthly updates via email, telephone, and/or Google hangouts. I can also set up mobile device reporting tools so that you can access your data at anytime
If you are currently looking to grow your business and are looking for some external guidance I can help. With experience in MBOs, growth planning, change management, valuations and successful exit I can get you on the right path.