by Birch Marketing | Aug 11, 2023 | News
The Covid years and the subsequent changes to working patterns have challenged Facilities Management and other organisations like never before, with changes in buyers’ requirements, evolving business models and technological advances. Companies need to be at the top of their game to fulfil their customers’ changing requirements and realise their growth ambitions. Marketing has a key role to play and we are sharing our Facilities Management Marketing tips. Decide on your Target Markets and Communicate with themUnderstanding the external landscape in your chosen segments will include the market dynamics, customer needs and behaviours, competitive landscape and evolving technology. Your value proposition should then articulate how you can help your target audience solve their challenges and why they should choose you. Communicating the Why, What, and How, will demonstrate the value that you can bring.Manage and Build your BrandBrand management and generating brand awareness are critical and are a lot more than a set of visual guidelines. It is getting the word out so that your target prospects know what you offer, the value you bring and how this is better than your competitors. All the ways that you communicate should portray consistent, compelling messages, so whether someone telephones, reads a brochure, meets a sales person or looks at your website, they should gain a consistent understanding of the purpose and the values of your company, and the benefits you bring.Define your Communications StrategySocial media has grown massively over the 10 years we have been in business, but it is one part of a facilities management marketing communications plan. An integrated approach, including PR, awards, events and newsletters, targeting where...
by Birch Marketing | Jul 28, 2022 | News
Integrated marketing is the delivery of consistent brand messaging across all communications channels, including sales collateral, website, PR, newsletters and social media. The coherence of the messaging allows the different media to reinforce each other, bringing a number of benefits. 1. Delivering a consistent message across a range of audience channels, increases its impact, and also the number of people who will read it. People have different preferences in the way they source information, so utilising a variety of channels will maximise the readership. 2. As long as your core messaging is clear and understandable, communicating it using different media will reinforce it. This in turn makes your message more powerful, and people begin to associate it with your company, helping to build brand awareness. People will be more likely to contact you about the product or service you offer, which in turn should boost sales and profitability. 3. Integrated marketing increases campaign efficiency. Once you have developed your messaging, it can be tweaked to maximise its effectiveness across the various communication channels that you have selected. The same imagery, graphics and case studies can be used, and an overall campaign plan used to run activities across all media. This reduces costs, maximises the use of the materials and cuts down the time spent on planning, organising and preparing materials. 4. An integrated campaign can also do a lot to increase awareness of the brand, its values and proposition internally. Seeing the campaign come to fruition across the various media can increase the morale of employees across the organisation and make them feel proud of the company they work for....
by Birch Marketing | Apr 10, 2021 | News
The Growth Challenge Growth is one of the greatest challenges for most businesses, and in many service industries the barriers to entry are low, making competition particularly strong. Whether growth is organic or through new business, a value proposition is required. Most business leaders are familiar with this concept, so it is strange that so many facilities management companies sound so similar when you read their website or brochures. Why does this happen? Developing a Clear and Compelling Value Proposition Developing a clear and compelling value proposition is the first phase of an effective market opportunity assessment. After all, how can you sell a product or service, if you can’t articulate its value? The process requires identifying customer benefits, linking these to mechanisms for delivering value and identifying the basis for differentiation. The process isn’t complex, but everything needs to be assessed from the point of view of the external market and customers. Understanding your proposition requires a high degree of honesty and often some uncomfortable soul searching, but when completed effectively you should be able to answer three key questions: Why you do what you do, which must be aligned to the clients and the sector you are targeting and the benefits you bring to them. What you do – which brings to life the standards, the methodology and services you deliver. How you do it – this is the core people, processes and systems you use to deliver what you do. Equally important within the process is identifying gaps in your proposition and this is not necessarily a negative exercise. Once established, you can decide whether to address...
by Birch Marketing | Oct 2, 2020 | News
Marketing is one of the business disciplines where everyone has a view. From which social media platform will work best to which exhibitions or events to attend, colleagues will fight their corner without marketing training or experience to draw on. A random list of marketing tactics is unlikely to bring the best results, so it is worthwhile spending the time to develop a clear B2B marketing strategy upfront, utilising some of the well-known tools and approaches. Market Driven Management Many companies are driven by the views of top management and the organisation’s internal capabilities. A market-driven approach to B2B marketing strategy starts with the external world of customers and competitors and works back into your company, operating across all business functions. It focuses on understanding the needs of customers, the capabilities of competitors and the gaps in the market place, with the overall aim of serving customers profitably. Market SegmentationAn ‘outside-in’ process allows a deep understanding of different market segments, using the 6 Cs: Customers, Competitors, Capabilities, Cost-Profits, Continual Improvement, Cross-functional Teams. The needs of segments, their size and attractiveness, and the match with the company’s capabilities helps prioritisation of targets. Five Forces Analysis, developed in the mid-1970s by Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, provides a rigorous structure for analysing the forces that affect profitability in any industry in which a company competes. Value PropositionYour value proposition is a key part of your B2B marketing strategy and allows you to succinctly communicate to customers and prospects: – Why you exist. – What you do. – How you do it uniquely well. How you bring value needs to be...
by Birch Marketing | Jun 11, 2019 | News
I’m often asked about my experience of running a B2B marketing business and how it compares to my previous corporate career. As a firm believer in reviewing achievements, as a platform for the next phase, here are some of the things that I have learnt as the past five years have flown by. Variety is the spice of life I love working part-time for a number of different clients, with diverse B2B marketing needs and personalities, as it brings huge variety and there is rarely a dull day! I have always relished new challenges, and my best employers realised this and made sure that new opportunities regularly appeared on my plate. In the last 5 years, I have been lucky enough to support businesses ranging from start-ups to multi-million pound companies, from a retirement village and a technology inventor to facilities management companies. Birch Marketing’s flexible services have enabled me to help a number of businesses improve their marketing, communications and sales, which I find hugely rewarding. People are great One of the best things about running Birch Marketing has been that people have been amazing! The support of friends and family was brilliant in my start-up period, when I wasn’t completely sure that I was doing the right thing, nor whether I was going to be able to gain enough business.My clients have been lovely and appreciative, and we have built long term relationships based on mutual respect and trust. Being thanked for work carried out (a rare event in my corporate life!), sent flowers and being invited to join them at events have been the icing on...
by Birch Marketing | Mar 7, 2019 | News
Starting a business is exciting. Unfortunately, the “build it and they will come” theory is unlikely to work and those overnight success stories that you hear about are often the result of years of hard work behind the scenes. Getting your startup marketing right is a challenge, particularly as resources are likely to be limited, whether it’s time, money or talent. You have to be sure every effort, no matter how small, is well-planned and executed. With the buzz around social media, there can be a temptation to rush into action and start communicating. However, as with building a house, you need to start with solid foundations, so before you jump into marketing your startup, make sure you have the following covered: 1. What is your value proposition? This is similar to an elevator pitch and should articulate in a concise and compelling way, why your business exists, what you do and how you do it uniquely well. Developing this may take a bit of time and you should have your target customers and market sectors at the front of your mind. You are aiming to communicate why you are different and make it memorable. 2. Which are your target markets and specific target customers? What job functions will be the decision makers? 3. What benefits do you bring to each of your target markets and what pain points do you help customers in these markets to overcome? Working through this should enable you to create the external messages for your business, which will form the basis of your startup marketing on your website, social media and in the...
