August 2020
August might be known as the ‘silly season’ where not much happens – but that’s certainly not the case at KPC. We’ve had a very busy month, working across all our clients as they either come back from furlough or continue with the marketing plans we developed at the beginning of the year.
We’ve been focusing on our increasingly popular marketing sessions where we take business owners out of their business for a day to focus on their marketing strategy. This month, we’ve been planning ahead for a number of new workshops in September – for businesses in professional services and B2C. The great thing about the format of our in-depth sessions is that they are applicable to, and can be adapted for, businesses of all types and across all sectors. All you need is a desire to get your marketing right from the basics onwards and the commitment to spend a day with us, coffee, a whiteboard and a bit of clear thinking.
Clients who went through the workshop earlier in the summer found the day and the report to be of real value to their business, changing their way of thinking in order to approach their marketing in a way that resonates with their audience. Helen Neatherway of From the Hip, said:
“During our workshop with KPC we uncovered fundamentals that we hadn’t appreciated and also shook off some hang ups that had been holding us back. A completely refreshing and unexpected and a really open, honest and down to earth approach by Deborah and her team has ignited a fire in the belly of our company. We feel like we have focus and a realistic approach to making even small changes that have a big impact. The fact that we laughed a lot and enjoyed it was a total bonus!”
Find out more about our workshop
This month, we’ve been working with our client Saur to encourage more women to get involved with the water industry. Saur is a French water and waste management company and we work with the Glasgow facility. Our campaign included an advert designed to show that the industry is open to anyone and Saur is currently recruiting widely.
Social media advertising is measurable, focused and gets results. We’re working with two of our clients on moving away from traditional safe-feeling print ads – where it’s difficult to measure any sort of accurate return on investment – to targeted paid ads on relevant online platforms. We’ve seen this work really well for clients in the past, who get a far better return for the same or less spend.
For our client Furlong Flooring, we’re starting by targeting their commercial audience; breaking this down into individual personas in order to generate LinkedIn ads that resonate and drive results. As they are new to the world of social media advertising, we’ve worked on creating a scalable plan that will allow us to adapt our targeting, ad types and budgets as we start to generate results.
If you’re curious about how paid advertising could work for your business, check out our Paid, Earned, Owned explanation tool that explores the benefit and need for all three media types.
Find out more about the Paid, Earned, Owned model
Getting a product launch right depends on organisation, great communication and a sound understanding of the target audience. During August, we worked with one of our clients to launch a new range to their retail and commercial customers, and have begun planning for the next launch in September using a gant chart which originated from a brown-paper exercise we conducted with the client which identified and detailed every part of the launch process. The resulting process document is now a critical checklist and ensures everyone is aware of the tasks required, who is responsible and critically the deadlines. Everything from product development to manufacture to sampling to marketing routes and social media planning is detailed ensuring a smoother launch process
This has been a good time for us to re-assess our own strategies and practices. We have moved to a shared working space in Farnham, which gives us the flexibility to mix office working and working from home. It’s also great for meeting other businesses in the area and collaborating more widely with our local networks.
However, not being in the office all the time brings its own challenges, and it’s an issue that we know some of our clients have been tackling. During August we published an article in TAB’s newsletter (The Alternative Board, a group for business owners to discuss opportunities and challenges) offering our guidance on how leaders can positively impact remote workers as the return to office begins.
Here’s to September – a month where 2020 may start to get back on an even keel. We’re looking forward to the challenge.
