I once heard someone say, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll definitely get somewhere, but you’ll be miserable.” For me, this really resonates as something reflected in many areas of life. You can’t have a race without a finish line. You can’t bench and celebrate success if you don’t know what that looks like.
Which is why, here at Fruit Marketing, we always start with a goal in mind and a plan to get there. A Marketing Strategy to achieve your vision, that holds true to your mission.
So, let’s start with clearing up some of the jargon for you.
MARKETING STRATEGY – put simply is a plan. It is a plan of action designed to support your business in achieving your long-term or overall goals.
VISION – where you are going, what you aspire to achieve
MISSION – what you do, who you do it for, your motivation and purpose
We are often met with a blank face, panic and frustration, when we start talking to new customers about their strategy, vision, mission and goals.
“When do I have time for that, I’m too busy running my business,” we often hear.
Yet having a clear plan in place and an aligned vision and mission, can save you time. It helps you steer your business in the right direction. It gives a clear image of what success looks like, for you and your team.
If your team have a unified vision and mission, this will empower everyone with the confidence to make the right decisions for your business. Creating greater efficiency, effectiveness and driving cultural alignment within the organisation.
As a business owner, planning, strategising and reviewing is the hardest, yet arguably the most important, thing to find time for. Even for us, here at Fruit Marketing, we have to be strict about ringfencing regular time together as a team to plan and review.
As a new client, we would start our journey together by helping you and your team to develop, review and refresh your business vision, mission and goals.
With our many longstanding clients, we help to keep the vision alive, regularly reviewing and reporting against the strategy in place.
Once we have created clear vision and mission statements, we then get to work creating a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound) marketing strategy to help you achieve your business goals.
If all this sounds a little ‘heavy’ then never fear, as here at Fruit Marketing we like to keep things fresh and fun. So, in partnership with Matthew Porter Coaching, we have developed a relaxed, yet pacey and engaging half day workshop to fast track reaching your teams agreed vision, mission and goals.
Here’s some of our recent feedback:
“It was a great afternoon and all the participants enjoyed it a lot.”
“The feedback from the team has been very positive. They found it a very useful exercise.”
“The wider team liked being invited along and to be able to share their opinions too. They said it was good experience and a really positive meeting.”
Having a clear vision, mission, marketing and business strategy are crucial to business growth. Most importantly they are the glue that holds a team together in a unified purpose and path.
We love hearing about new businesses and thinking of ways to help you achieve your goals. To arrange a cuppa and a catch up, please contact us at:
Email: hello@wearefruit.com
T: 01626 248500E
or read a little more about us at wearefruit.com
Written by, Jo Wood
Most SMEs wouldn’t think twice about seeking an accountancy to manage finances, or external HR support or even IT. But there is greater hesitancy over outsourcing marketing. Why? More than most areas of a business it is fast moving and ever changing.
It needs a professional approach and people who work across marketing and communications day in, day out to deliver best practice for each business. Marketing is critical for any business. It’s the vehicle for sharing your products and goods with your target markets in a strategic, purpose-led way. Marketing is the shop window to any business. It attracts the attention of potential customers and persuades them to purchase your products or services. Marketing is the indispensable voice of your business.
By taking on a Marketing Manager, a business can face an average annual salary of £35,000. And that doesn’t take into recruitment costs, pension or National Insurance contributions, overheads, employee benefits or any other staff-related costs. All taken in, that can cost and SME up to £50,000 per year. That’s quite a commitment. And for one person, when marketing requires a wide skill set.
So why not outsource marketing? Fruit Marketing tailors our offer for each business, after all no business is the same. We offer strategic and operational support. And with four senior professionals, any SME who worked with us, gets the expertise of the whole team.
Business owners who outsource can be freed up to do what they so best – run their business. By choosing to outsource professional services like marketing, they can tap into existing knowledge and expertise from professionals, rather than spend time and money on training staff. Outsourcing is scalable and flexible, SMEs can pay for what they need, rather than having a full-time commitment to an employee. It’s cost efficient, without the overheads of staff. Finally, it can also be a great experience having an external voice as part of the strategic thinking. It allows business owners to have a sounding board to offer honest, professional input from outside the office bubble.