Marketing service
Marketing Strategy Design
Assessment-led work on the decisions that sit above campaigns: audiences, positioning, message, which channels to operate, and what is deliberately not being done.
What you need to know first
- What problem does this solve?
- Marketing activity is being executed without agreed answers to the questions underneath it. Nobody can state concisely who the priority audience is, why a buyer should choose this business over the alternative, or which channels are worth operating — so campaigns are judged on activity rather than on whether they advanced anything.
- What exactly do I receive?
- A written marketing strategy: defined priority audiences, a positioning and message you can defend, the channels to operate and the ones to stop, an explicit list of what is not being done, and how progress will be judged. It is a document your team can act on and a new supplier could be briefed from.
- How is it priced?
- Assessment requiredThe fee is set after a scoped assessment, because the work cannot be priced responsibly before the current situation is understood.The fee is set after a scoped assessment. Strategy work cannot be priced responsibly beforehand: the effort depends on how many audiences and markets are in play, how much usable evidence already exists, and how many people have to agree on the outcome.
- How long does it generally take?
- Confirmed after the assessmentNo indicative duration is published, because it would be meaningless before the scope is known. The timescale is stated in the written scope.
- What happens next?
- Send an enquiry describing the requirement. We confirm whether an assessment is the right starting point, then set out its scope and fee in writing before any work begins. An enquiry is not an order: an engagement becomes binding only when it is expressly accepted, as set out in the Terms of Service.
Deliverables
- Written marketing strategy covering audiences, positioning, message, channels and priorities
- An explicit "not doing" list, with the reasoning
- A measurement approach: what will be judged, and what will not be treated as evidence
- A sequenced set of next actions
Included
- Assessment of the current position, market context and available evidence
- Working sessions to establish constraints, objectives and internal agreement
- Audience and positioning definition
- Channel selection, including channels to stop operating
- Measurement approach
- Two review rounds
Not included
Stating the boundary is part of the offer. Anything here can usually be arranged separately.
- Execution of the strategy, campaign management or content production
- Primary market research, surveys or commissioned data
- Brand identity or visual design work
- Advertising or media spend
- Any guarantee of revenue, market share or growth
Customer prerequisites
- A decision-maker available for the working sessions
- Willingness to state commercial objectives and constraints, including budget reality
Information and access we need
We will ask for these. Where the work needs access to a system, access is arranged and scoped with you rather than assumed.
- Current marketing material, positioning and any existing strategy documents
- Read-only access to the analytics and sales/CRM data you consider reliable
- Commercial objectives for the period the strategy should cover
- Known constraints: budget, capacity, regulatory or brand
Expected process
Enquiry
You describe the situation and what decisions are blocked.
Assessment
A scoped assessment establishes what is known, what is contested and how much work the strategy actually is.
Written scope and fee
The strategy engagement is scoped and priced from the assessment, in writing.
Working sessions
Audiences, positioning, message and channel choices are worked through with your decision-maker.
Delivery and review
A draft, two review rounds, then the final written strategy and sequenced next actions.
Meetings, revisions and scope
- Meetings
- Meeting required, during the assessment (about 90 minutes)
- Revisions
- 2 revisions included. Two review rounds are built into the process, so the strategy is shaped with you rather than presented at the end.
- Scope
- Deliverables are limited to those expressly included in the agreed scope. Additional revisions, meetings, research or services outside that scope may require additional fees — see the Marketing Services Terms.
Frequently asked questions about this service
What does Marketing Strategy Design include?
Work on the decisions that sit above campaigns: which audiences to address, how the business is positioned against alternatives, the message, which channels are worth operating, what is deliberately not being done, and how progress will be judged.
It is assessment-led and a meeting is required. Designing a strategy from a written brief alone produces something plausible rather than something usable — the constraints that matter usually surface in conversation.
Is an assessment charged separately?
Yes. An assessment is its own service with its own fee and its own deliverable, and it is not a free pre-sales exercise.
That is deliberate. An assessment that is bundled into an implementation quietly pressures its own conclusion towards "yes, proceed". Paid for separately, it is free to conclude that the implementation should be smaller, different, or not done — which is frequently the most valuable thing it can tell you.
Where an assessment and a following implementation are commissioned together, any relationship between the two fees is stated in the written scope.
Next step
Reference marketing-strategy-design is added to your enquiry automatically so it reaches the right place.