marketing people

Your Allies in James Caan’s Your Business magazine on “How to choose the right marketing resource”.

12/11/2017 by Linsay Duncan

No one said it would be easy. There are tough decisions that very business owner faces in their first couple of years of building a business. You want to do everything, be seen everywhere, but know that the business doesn’t have the resource (time nor money) to do it all!

So, where should you be focusing your marketing efforts?

This is a topic we discuss often with clients and on our blog. Recently we were invited to contribute to James Caan’s ‘Your Business Magazine‘ which is designed to help entrepreneurs and growing UK businesses make more informed decisions in their early years.

For the Autumn edition, James has brought together experienced contributors to share their practical advice on how to structure a business plan, how to recruit the right people and tips on using social media to your advantage.

Your Allies (formerly Marke2ing) contributed to the feature focusing on how to grow your audience and spread your business concept like wild fire! Founder Linsay Duncan, shared insights into how much businesses should spend on their marketing activities, and on which channels investment should be made. This touches on blogging being both an essential tool for establishing authority in a marketplace and for driving quality traffic to your website. She also shared tips for intelligently using advertising and sponsorship to accelerate brand awareness. Read more of the ten tips here.

In a separate article, we share our experience of how to approach selecting the right marketing resource for your business. Whether choosing an agency, freelancer or full or part-time employee, we outline the key questions to ask. These will help you to establish not only the quality of the candidate in front of you, but also how well they will fit into your company culture. Here’s how to choose the right marketing resource.

Your Allies Co-Founder brings Marketing Mentor Skills to the Business Marketing Club

11/03/2017 by Linsay Duncan

Marketing Club’s prestigious line up of marketing professionals.

The club, which is exclusively for B2B marketers, offers a unique opportunity to grow professionally through networking with other senior marketing professionals – both agency and client-side. The club has also established a marketing mentoring scheme which is proving invaluable to its members. Having worked not only with B2B clients through Your Allies but also in-house in various marketing roles for over 18 years, becoming a mentor with the Business Marketing Club was an obvious choice for Linsay.

“It’s incredibly rewarding working with my mentee, helping them develop their strategic marketing skills and approach to working with senior stakeholders. No mean feat when you’re brand new to a demanding head of marketing role, with no other marketing expertise around to lean on.” Linsay says of her new role, “I would encourage all B2B marketers who feel they’re lacking guidance to consider the benefits of working with a mentor. I have seen first-hand the hugely positive impact it has had on my own career and of those I’ve supported.”

Read more about the Business Marketing Club’s mentoring programme and check out their mentors.

Curious about how business mentoring might help your career? You might also like this post: 5 Signs You Should Invest in a Business Marketing Mentor.

5 Signs You Should Invest in a Business Marketing Mentor

09/23/2017 by Linsay Duncan

As a marketer, being challenged by your job – whether through a step up the career ladder, taking on management responsibilities or tackling a new project – is a good thing. Right? Yes, it’s change and challenge that grow us as professionals. And life would be incredibly dull if the landscape stood still.

How we handle pressure like this can directly impact how we progress professionally.

Coping with challenging situations isn’t always about being the hero. Coping is also about knowing when to ask for help. If you’re a marketer and find yourself stuck in one of these situations, it may be time to call in reinforcements.

The big promotion

You’ve made that step up you’ve been dreaming of. That senior marketing position is now yours. Congrats! But now, how to manage all that added responsibility, extra pressure from above, and new challenges it brings? You’ve also got to manage the transition from your previous job while trying to make an impression in your new role. Gulp.

This can lead to even more hair-pulling if you don’t happen to have an experienced marketer around to lean on. Someone who’s been in your shoes. At crucial times like these where you need to step up, and fast, it might be time to learn from a marketing mentor. They can pass on their experience, and impart valuable knowledge whilst up-skilling you. Quality mentoring can seriously help you fast forward progress.

First time steering the helm

Exciting, motivating, interesting, challenging, worrying, terrifying – all sentiments likely to hit the first time you’re handed the reins in a senior marketing position. When people turn to you for guidance and strategy for the first time, it can be overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you pull a marketing strategy together? What direction should it take? And what sets a good strategy apart from a bad one?

Of course, there’s lots of helpful advice online – ‘how to’ guides, strategy templates etc. Well worth exploring. However, when time is tight or online resources only take you so far, that’s is where calling in an outside professional can be a smart move. A business marketing mentor experienced in shaping and delivering strategies, who’s done this before, can give just the steer and practical advice you need to set you on the right path. Saving you time and taking away that fear of the unknown.

The time-poor leader

Why oh why isn’t human cloning a thing yet? Frustrating when work is so manic that you feel you need two of yourself or another 24 hours in each day. During periods when it seems time constantly slips through your fingers, and there’s only more of the same ahead, stop for a moment. If lack of time is noticeably impacting performance the sensible thing may be to ask for help.

Pulling in an extra set of hands to share the workload or hand over a project to, can bring immediate relief. Not to mention help you win back previous time. A marketing mentor worth their weight in gold can help you wade through your workload, boost performance, and help you shine.

People management

Taking on responsibility for a larger group of people, particularly for marketers new to people management, can be incredibly daunting. After all, it’s people’s careers and professional development you’re influencing here! While some people thrive on it, people management skills are not innate in everyone.

Similarly, when leading an inexperienced team or people who need up-skilling in areas you’re not an expert in, how do you know if you’re capable of addressing their needs? Acknowledging gaps in your own leadership expertise is a strength, not a weakness. Now you know exactly where you need help and can seek out help.

There are people gifted in this area who can offer invaluable advice and knowledge, to help you become the people leader you’ve always strived to be. What’s more you’ll find there are marketing trainers with ready-made courses designed to bring the people manager out in you.

The unknown

With successful growing business, one thing you can be sure of is that change lies ahead. From focusing on new markets, entering new territories, expanding product ranges to mergers and acquisitions, marketing will need to adapt and respond. When faced with new demands, where do you turn?

If your CEO is asking new and challenging things of you, and there’s no time to re-train or go on a course to upskill yourself, consider bringing in an expert. A good business marketing mentor will be able to walk you through the steps to get you where you need to be. They’ll give practical advice but can also feed into the actual project or strategy you’re working on. Having someone show you the ropes once, can payback tenfold. Good professional support can leave you with skills and capabilities that stay with you throughout your career.

Accelerate performance

What all of this boils down to is recognising when it makes sense to accelerate performance through outside help. Whether for your performance or that of your team, or of the marketing you deliver. Struggling on whilst things slip and stress mounts is neither sustainable nor good for your sanity. With a quality business marketing mentor at your side before you know it those hurdles will be far behind.

How a marketing mentor can boost your performance (and your career)

08/20/2017 by Linsay Duncan

I count myself one of the lucky ones. Over the 18 years I’ve worked in marketing, I’ve been lead and mentored by some incredible business leaders and one outstanding marketing mentor in particular. Their influence is still evident in how I deal with people, how I strategise and approach problems, and in the work I deliver now. Thank the lucky stars for those people (you know who you are).

Recently, off the back of a surge of pleas for marketing mentoring, I realise there’s a real need out there for good B2B marketing mentors. But there’s a lack of understanding as to:

when they might come in useful,
how they can support you and
the ways in which can benefit both a business and its marketers.

Read on for a few pointers on when a quality mentor could make a big difference to the performance of your marketing function and to the professional growth of senior marketing professionals.

When to consider a marketing mentor

Looking back there’s a few points over my professional career where outside mentoring would’ve helped me through a tough project. Or a time where my capabilities were being stretched by new demands from a business. When I add those scenarios to those of my clients, typically there are five situations where a business marketing mentor’s services can prove valuable:

Lone ranger – where a marketing individual or small team is fighting marketing’s corner in a business full of non-marketers (i.e. there’s limited senior marketing experience to support them and help them grow).
Off the back of a nice meaty promotion – promotions can call for new skills, dealing with more senior stakeholders, greater responsibility and accountability, and more plates to spin.
A growing team to nurture – taking on a new or larger team, particularly for a first-time manager, presents a whole host of new challenges to marketing leaders.
A change in business direction – examples ranging from entering new territories and building new products or services, to merging or acquiring and internal structural changes, bring challenging new demands on marketing.
A whacking great project to take on – new projects can prove taxing for many reasons and is often where outside expertise can ease the pressure.

Act like a soldier – bring in the cavalry to fast forward progress

It can be a smart move to pull in the cavalry. When weighing up your team’s or your own coaching needs it’s quite possible that you can get there yourself. But finding the time to study and read up on the subject matter, set out a training programme and checkpoints (and everything else that’s needed for successful mentoring) takes time. Mentoring also requires a skillset and approach that’s not inherent within every manager or leader.

The right mentor on-board and you can be fast-forwarding progress and saving significant time.

What results should I expect? I want ROI!

First, map out the areas you want to address (e.g. potential skills gaps, tasks/hurdles which seem unmanageable…). Next discuss these with your mentor-to-be. Their role will be to set out suitable milestones and KPIs (key performance indicators such as putting learnings into practice, tests or run-throughs to see what’s been learnt) and regular review points. These reviews are when results will come to the surface and you can assess success.

Consider whether it’s feasible to factor in measurements or goals which relate to the mentoring subject matter. For example, add them into Personal Development Programmes, for added incentivisation and visibility. Gathering feedback from relevant stakeholders can also be a valuable checkpoint to see whether progress is evident.

Learning from an experienced professional is good for your career

A marketing mentor’s job is to make you look good – to arm you with new skills, approaches, mindsets, tools… helping you towards your next professional milestone is what motivates them. Your growth is their success. This should be a serious consideration if you’re keen to climb the career ladder and reach new heights.

For more tips on getting in professional support check out The Guardian’s article, “How to find a professional mentor“. And here’s what not to do from Fast Company, “8 Successful People Share How Not To Find A Mentor“. You can find out more about Your Allies’s mentoring and coaching services here.

How to choose the right marketing resource: 10 questions to ask

06/29/2017 by Linsay Duncan

Finding transformational B2B marketing resource

It’s time to decide. If you’re gearing-up to boost your B2B marketing investment through an agency, freelancer or in-house team, you need to get the screening process bang-on so you can be confident in your hiring decisions. But with a raft of potential options (and suppliers) at your disposal, not to mention a market awash with freelancers, how can you assess what’s best for your business?

Our outsourcing vs inhouse marketing guide may help, however no matter the type of B2B marketing services you choose, you need to truly believe in the people you entrust with your marketing. It’s too important to risk to amateurs. So you need to be satisfied that they’re experienced in helping businesses like yours, in your sector, at your growth stage, with your budget.

You’ll also need reassurance that they’re right for you on a cultural level. Bring in a big hitter used to chunky budgets and teams of specialist agencies and you might end up with great strategy but little hands-on support. Go too far the other way and your marketing could lack leadership, direction and effectiveness. Hmmm…

Questions, questions…

So what are the questions to ask before hiring a marketing consultant or staffer? The ten cracking interview conundrums we’ve come up with will help you bottom-out the calibre of the marketing professional in front of you. It’s not a full agency brief or marketing job description. And we won’t cover all the detailed checks you need to ensure your chosen marketer has the right paperwork – that’s one for you.

Read on and you’ll arm yourself with the killer questions that’ll separate the shiny but fluffy marketer from the down-and-dirty ROI-deliverer… and enable truly stellar B2B talents to shine through. Here we go…

Question 1: Tell me where you’ve done this before…

Start by looking to put your brand, business and precious marketing budget in safe hands. This question is your chance to dive headlong into your candidate’s background, creds and experience. Focus on whether they know what’s important for a B2B business at your stage of development. Ask them to quote examples of previous B2B successes and outline the real cost of B2B marketing. Can they offer a strategic steer as well as rolling their sleeves up and mucking in?

Question 2: What’s your core area of expertise – and where will you need external support?

Let’s be honest. It’s rare to encounter the full marketing deck of cards in one person. However, to pick up the marketing reins and build high performing B2B marketing from the get go, you’re going to need someone with a broad skillset, able to manage multiple marketing disciplines, either on their own or through trusted suppliers. Look beyond your current position and imagine what’s coming next. Don’t just focus on skills that address your current pressure points – you’ll need to hire the talent to catapult you beyond your current travails and into your next phase of development.

Question 3: How will you get to know my brand and my business?

Here’s your chance to see how your candidates or agencies propose to get under the bonnet – and their willingness to get to grips with the details. This is where agencies and in-house contractors might differ. Marketers with in-house experience should seize the opportunity to show how they’ll walk the walk, seeing key stakeholders, taking road trips with Sales, talking to customer services and product development and getting stuck into competitor and client research. This is not a job for someone who loves their desk…

Question 4: What does ‘accountability’ mean to you?

In B2B, there’s no room to hide. And with every pound of budget to be cherished, accountability matters. So you’ll you need to feel confident they know how to track, measure and report success. Have they done this before? If so, how? Ask for details. After all, it’s their chance to stand up and be counted… and demonstrate they’re a rain-maker, not a big spender.

Question 5: How will you support and work in partnership with Sales?

This should be one of the most important relationships in your business – a partnership, not a rivalry, designed to generate revenue growth. So quiz your candidates on how closely they’ve worked with Sales in the past. Ask about the closeness of Sales and Marketing teams in their previous roles. Listen out for use of sales language and familiarity with the sales process. And if it sounds like Sales are the enemy, they’re probably not for you…

Question 6: What’s the biggest marketing challenge in a growing business?

Listen up for an issue that will resonate with you and your growing pains. Any marketing professional worth their salt will tackle this one gleefully and reflect the kinds of challenges that are keeping you up at night. Most importantly, they’ll show you that they know how to solve them – and use examples that draw on their previous problem-solving experience. P.S. A marketing challenge isn’t “I can’t find the right print supplier”.

Question 7: If we’re not cutting through, how will you turn things around?

Time to turn to the dark side. Don’t just imagine wins and strengths. Pick out challenging situations to bring out your candidates’ true colours. Stuff happens. Things go wrong. Strategies fail. So see how your potential marketer approaches cock-ups with remedies that’ll give you an idea of what really makes them tick. And because hypothetical questions aren’t always helpful – try and keep it real; around you, your businesses and your real world issues.

Question 8: How will you connect to my market, competition and clients?

Time to separate the outsiders from the candidates who’ve done The Knowledge. So find out how close they are to your audience, your competition and your space. A skilled B2B marketer can reel-off a host of channels and sources. But will those be relevant to you? How do they keep pace with market evolution in your sector? Deep down, how much do they really know? Remember, you’ll rely on them to stay current and move ahead at the speed of change.

Question 9: How will you help grow my business?

This is the question that gets nitty with the gritty. Because what you need now might look very different in 6, 12 or 18 months’ time, test whether they’re sufficiently adaptable and capable of delivering beyond the next financial year. Find out how they’ll approach your longer-term marketing strategy, planning and execution. Ask for insights about current trends. Then introduce some of your more distant goals and assess whether they’ve got what it takes to get you there.

Question 10: How will you market marketing?

Investing in your marketing team means making it more visible and accountable, whether it’s in-house marketing or outsourced marketing. And your leadership team might need some convincing along the way. So your chosen marketer or agency will need to earn respect, demonstrate resilience, prove their worth (literally) and show they’re adding value to your business. What will they do to achieve this, and grow the profile of marketing (as a team and a discipline) sometimes in the face of internal resistance…

Get your essential guide to making B2B marketing work

A new approach to your B2B marketing, with a fresh infusion of talent, energy and expertise, can do more than sharpen your approach and focus your brand. The right people, whether they’re in-house or outsourced marketing specialists, can transform an unproductive line on your budget into an engine of growth at the heart of your business. It’s all down to you – and the people you choose. Download our free essential guide now for insight into how to build high-performing B2B marketing!

And one final question for you…

If you’re thinking of investing in professional B2B marketing services, there’s no time to lose. Why outsource B2B marketing? As a leading B2B marketing supplier in London we’ll be happy to enlighten you. To turbocharge your B2B marketing investment with our insight and experience

Additional reading

If you’re planning on interviewing B2B marketing agencies, take a look at Hubspot’s “7 Questions Every Client Should Ask Before Signing an Agency” (Jul 2014) and Entrepreneur’s article: “10 Questions Every Entrepreneur Needs to Ask Suppliers”.