A reflection on our first year in business

August 5th marks Clear Thought Consulting’s first full year since incorporation as a Limited company, so it seemed like a good time to reflect.

Most proud of: having secured business through a lead on LinkedIn

Most frustrated by: not having done lots of things sooner

In the past year, we’ve undertaken billing work for six clients, mortgage is being paid – and even afforded a few luxuries. The question most oft asked is how we find new business. This has been secured in the following three ways:

• Leads picked up from online networking
• Work secured with existing contacts
• Leads picked up through marketing students tutored for CIM Diploma

Having now sorted the proposition more clearly and invested in the website, we’re about to kick off a few more traditional lead generation activities… will report back on what’s worked in due course.

It has also been enormously rewarding to start seeing the fruits of local reputation building. For example, Bryony was recently asked to join a monthly B2B marketing forum set-up by a senior marketer, and former colleague, in Lloyds TSB Corporate Banking. On asking her fellow forum members for ideas on who to invite, my name came up through having been spotted answering questions and posting discussions on LinkedIn – as we’d previously worked together, she dropped me a line. Then, on meeting with a local agency yesterday, again it seemed that word of mouth had done its trick before my arrival, both on Twitter and through a mutual contact. This is great to see in action, because generating positive word-of-mouth and online reputations is key advice we give clients. So, as you can see, we practice what we preach.

Although we’ve been up and running a year, the last month has felt like we’re really onto something. The new website went live 12th June, and we’ve stepped up the new business activity by talking to agencies – where we’re able to provide two key services: 1) client incubation (taking small or troublesome clients and getting them in a position where they’re better able to have effective working relationships with marketing suppliers), 2) strategic planning overflow. This adds to the direct business proposition, where we work with small businesses as the marketing director they can’t quite afford – giving them a heavyweight marketing mind on their team without the overhead. We now have Cheryl Crichton on board as Associate Clear Thinker, with a key focus on opening agency doors, and we’re hoping to announce a direct business lead in the not too distant future. These are things I wish I had done sooner.

On the administrative side of business running, here’s a quick rundown on decisions made, etc:

• Using Kashflow cloud accountancy software to keep a close eye on the books
• Had a content management system built for the website from open source code, rather than buy off the shelf
• Have a virtual reception and phone answering service set-up at Bristol eOffice, I’m yet to try their hot-desk and meeting rooms
• Have call-forwarding service from Gradwell (http://www.gradwell.com/phoneservices/callforwarding) which means that we can keep he number we now have however many time we might move or grow, a bit of future proofing
• Have an accountant in place on recommendation from a friend, but have actually found online research more useful in terms of understanding Ltd Co accounting
• Invested in brand visuals from Christian Tait, which we launched on the worked about six weeks ago and we’re really pleased with
• Tried networking breakfasts, didn’t seem to have much going for them

On the list for the year ahead:

• Getting CRM in place for the company, probably Salesforce.com
• Getting round to joining IOD and GWE to get on the local networking drive
• Employ first full timer
• Think about getting an office, as we’re likely to be four people, and we can only fit two at the moment
• Step up the digital marketing with article syndication, SEO, etc.
• Refresh the press photography, it is five years out of date, and I don’t look that fresh anymore!
• Do a load of courses in digital stuff to keep pace
• Think seriously about doing the Doctorate I’ve been thinking about

Mistakes made:

• Given away a bit too much time for free in over-servicing
• Overspent on a few online tools that we could have lived without
• Got distracted by franchises and associate roles initially, wish I’d just kicked off full pelt from the starting pistol
• Have a habit of printing everything out and not re-using paper – which is hideously wasteful and expensive
• Worked too long and not maintained fitness, so have gone down with a few too many sniffles this year…
• Worked almost every weekend, should spend a bit more time with family

What success will look like this time next year:

• Small, but dedicated team, in place all covering their mortgages and earning enough to smile
• Aiming for eight major clients by this time next year
• Have a wee idea in mind for some e-commerce elements, which I’d like to have kicked off this time next year
• To have been shortlisted for a few decent awards for the marketing activities undertaken with clients

Would be fascinated to hear about other people’s first year in business. Do share.

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

So, if you’re not an agency… what are you?

We’ve been getting a few puzzled looks when we say that Clear Thought Consulting isn’t a marketing agency, so we thought we’d clarify the business model a little for those who might be interested.

So, we work with smaller businesses, from about 12 employees to about 200. If the company is still small enough to feasibly remember everyone’s names, then so much the better. So, big corporates are out. Within this, we work with businesses whose products or services are bought through a process of careful consideration – so, impulse buying isn’t our thing. Complicated, expensive or high-risk purchases are.

We work directly with clients to get them up and running on the marketing front. Typically, a business may have dabbled in marketing or have a reception-come-marketing approach. The point of pain that we’re there to address, is the company that knows they want to grow, but that doesn’t have the skills to get the message out (if indeed they know what the message is). In this situation, going straight to an agency or recruiting can be extremely frustrating. Without the basics in place, it is unlikely that a business will know exactly what to brief, or what to look for in a marketing employee. So, we work with companies in this situation, over six to twelve months to lay the foundations of a marketing operation, and to make sure that the business leaders know the purpose and function of marketing for their business.

A three phase Clear Thought project will position, enable and then act to allow clients to grow their businesses

Our approach is firmly centred on configuring free-flowing sales funnels for our clients – to generate both new business and new-from-existing business. Often, people think that what they need from marketing is to turn the tap on – i.e. get more leads in. This is sometimes true. But, more often than not, the tap is flowing into a leaky bucket. We first fix the bucket (sort out brand, messaging, websites, sales tools, databases, etc) and then help them to work with various marketing suppliers to turn the tap on. But only when their marketing operation is configured to make the most of it. In set-up phases, we spot gaps and problems and hook the client up with the right experts to resolve these issues. Once the funnel is fixed, we set them sail with a decent set of marketing providers, and we might also assist with recruiting a marketing team.

So, you work on commission..

No. Clear Thought is paid by the client for a programme over six months to a year. Introductions to third party suppliers is totally focused on what is best for the client, so we never take kick-backs from suppliers. This ensures that our judgement is never clouded by potential remuneration. Where an agency account director might want to tie a client in to a semi-dependent relationship to ensure an ongoing income, we want to get the client to a point of independence where they can run their marketing without us – hopefully recommending us to others along the way.

So, Clear Thought competes with agency planners…

There’s a little bit of overlap with planners, but not much. The clients we work with probably wouldn’t have the budget to get where they needed to get through using an agency planning team. Because we work over a longer term and from within a client’s business, we can get them to the stage where they can brief an agency properly without wasting time, money and goodwill on mis-briefing. In fact, we can work with agency to help them with problematic clients – by skilling-up the client in how to get the most from marketing suppliers and undertaking infrastructure projects (like CRM set-up) – so that the relationship is more fruitful all round.

Do you just do the thinking?

We believe that action creates clarity. So, although smart thinking is our key differentiator – thought without elbow grease is pretty useless. Our programmes are highly active and involve lots of input and energy from clients in putting plans into action to see if they work, learn from doing them and refine for future improvements. The key thing here is that we never just ‘do’ – we will always find out why something needs doing, and if its being done in the best possible way.

Hope that answers a few questions. If you want to know more, please do drop us a line.

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

A typical thought leadership campaign

One of the key strengths at Clear Thought Consulting is in conceiving and running thought leadership programmes. I’m often asked what these entail, so here’s a quick run-down of the basics.

Thought leadership is about being front of mind in regard of a certain subject or market. A thought leader will always make it onto a ‘long list’ when people are making buying decisions – and often become the benchmark against which others are measured.

Timescales:

• Thought leadership programmes are not a quick fix, you cannot expect immediate results.
• A thought leadership marketing programme is only effective in the medium term, and then only when it forms part of a funneled sales approach. That is, a planned process that uses specific tools and techniques to move people from one stage to the next through the buying decision. The thought leadership programme typically acts as a top and tail to this process.
• In the longer term, thought leadership programmes also serve to create a bank of ‘good will’ in more junior members of the target audience, which translates into awareness and leads when they move into more senior positions later in their careers.

Typical thought leadership tools:

First off you’ll need to think of subject matter that is interesting, engaging and useful. Then, create a campaign that has a mix of tools that can be used to influence people along hierarchical and vertical planes.

Typical thought leadership campaign checklist:

• Get your best brains in a room, or even better some customers, and think about subjects that are interesting, engaging and useful.
• See if you can find a respected industry partner, if not then use your own research and expertise to prepare a ‘future trends’ report that can be downloaded online in return for data capture.
• Prepare an accompanying 1/2 hour presentation and use the content to host a live web seminar.
• Prepare press and direct mail to generate report downloads and webinar registrations (these can be tailored to sectors, and as customer and non-customer versions).
• Track report downloads and invite anyone who has downloaded, but not registered for webinar an invitation.
• Practice your webinar with the technology, slides, hosts in the room you will be using for the live session.
• Host the webinar and record the session.
• You can often boost attendance with an offer to attendees of something like a free book or other useful offer for people who attend – we’ve previously managed to get signed copies of business books by talking to the publishers.
• Review the people who attended and downloaded and get your best sales people to follow-up the hottest leads, keep the others for future or your junior team.
• Anyone who registered, but didn’t attend can now be invited to watch the recording.
• The recorded version now goes up on your website, where it can be viewed in return for data capture – this can form the next level of the campaign (where perhaps Director level people were invited to the live event and more junior people are now invited to view online).
• Alternatively snippets form your web video can be placed on You-Tube, Twitter, or other document sharing sites to drive people to the original download.
• All data captured builds your database for future relevant, timely, engaging and useful thought leadership material.
• New techniques allow you to publicise your materials at little cost, with simple things like Tweets, LinkedIn updates & news items, contributions to discussions, blogs, etc. For example, we’ve seen great traffic by posting content on Business Exchange.

As said, this needs to form part of a sales funnel, where the aim of the game is to increase hit rate when your sales teams pick up the phone. If people have read something interesting or attended and engaging event, they are much more likely to be warm to the call.

For more on sales funneling, see our 20 minute webcast: http://www.slideshare.net/clearthoughtconsulting/making-marketing-pay-1202609

For an example, you may like to see a recent campaign for Fraudscreen looking at The Life-cycle of a Debtor: www.fraudscreen.co.uk/lifecycle-part-one

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

Kicking off 2009 in style

2009 has kicked off well for Clear Thought Consulting, with two exciting consultancy projects underway for new clients, a new business push planned on the SPAN front, a new batch of CIM students to inspire, partnerships forging with some great local marketing specialists and plans afoot for Bristol networking this year.

Gradwell appoints Clear Thought Consulting: In October last year, I was delighted to be appointed by Gradwell (www.gradwell.com), the small business internet infrastructure providers, as their retained strategic marketing consultant. We’re two months in and we’ve cracked some key foundation work ready for a really exciting 2009. Gradwell closed the year by bagging the ITSPA Best Business VoIP award, and I am looking forward to telling the world about this and their other great products. All in all, this win was a testament to the power of networking – as it is a lead I picked up through LinkedIn.

To deliver the plan I’ve put together, we’ve also engaged some excellent specialists from my little black book, who I’d like to tip my cap to:

• Cheryl Crichton: a freelance marketing / account manager who I originally worked with in 2001, and whose hands-on style is perfect for her ongoing role with Gradwell in delivering the plans I devise.
• Christian Tait: freelance designer who I’ve worked with at his last two agencies and who has somewhat set the bar for other designers to meet.
• Ferdinand Edwards: qualitative researcher extraordinaire, who added valuable depth and colour to my quantitative approach.
• Samantha Castillo: freelance copywriter whose extensive technology experience made her the natural choice for this client.
• 3Sixty Digital Marketing: arguably Bristol’s best web agency, who are currently undertaking a full review of the Gradwell website in readiness for a full refresh.

Fraudscreen appoints Clear Thought Consulting: November saw another client come on-board in the shape of Fraudscreen (www.fraudscreen.co.uk), where I’ll be working with one of my ex-Experian colleagues, John Sharman, and the unanimously impressive team in Gresse Street. Where many will be looking at the year ahead with trepidation, Fraudscreen is one of the lucky ones with products that are perfectly positioned for the current economic environment – helping businesses make fair and commercially sound acquisition, retention, collections and debtor decisions.

For me, this is another very welcome annual support contract with some upfront investments to be made. We’re currently knee deep in website re-building, ready for a web-centred thought leadership programme. For this, I have again to thank some excellent marketing partners:

• 3Sixty Digital Marketing again, using  Sitecore, their recommended content management system.
• Creative Template Solutions: Kathy’s pragmatic approach to digital templates has never failed to be an excellent investment.
• TickBox Marketing for getting a wee campaign microsite up at www.paymentintent.com in a matter of days.
  

Bryony is let loose on CIM Diploma students: After my first term of tutoring, I am anxiously awaiting the results for my CIM module – with fingers crossed for all the students in my group. I’m also looking forward to meeting a new cohort of the Cambridge Marketing College at the end of January and I hope to inspire them to see their CIM qualifications as much more than a piece of paper!

Networking  anyone? I’m also looking forward to getting involved with getting the Bristol arm of the Bristol & Bath Marketing Network up and running. With Bath running successfully, there must be marketers in Bristol up for a monthly meet to keep up to speed with the latest, meet other local marketers and have a drink. Watch this space for more details.

I hope that 2009 brings you many and varied opportunities.