Sioned Yates from newly launched Access Marketing outlines the biggest frustrations that business owners face in making marketing drive revenue.
Sioned Yates has just launched Access Marketing, a new kind of marketing consultancy offering strategic marketing advice and practical marketing support, which is focused directly on sales generation.
Having worked in senior level construction marketing for more than 30 years, with big name brands such as AluK, REHAU, Lafarge Plasterboard (now Siniat), Brandon Hire and most recently Whitesales, Sioned says she has identified the four biggest frustrations that businesses have in accessing and then applying the kind of marketing support which ultimately drives revenue:
1. Business owners don’t have the time to focus on marketing when they’re too busy running their business, but recognise they are missing opportunities as a result.
2. They don’t have the budget, or their business is too small to justify employing a full time marketing director, but they can’t find someone with specific industry knowledge and expertise to help them in a part time or consultancy role.
3. They outsource their marketing to an agency and then don’t have the time or the experience to manage and direct the agency and are disappointed with the outcome and the cost.
4. They employ a junior in-house team to deliver marketing communications campaigns, but they are disconnected from sales, so the impact of the campaigns is limited.
In response, Sioned has structured Access Marketing so that it tackles all of these frustrations, and provides business owners with a raft of options to suit all requirements and all budgets.
She says: “I’m offering something different to the established marcomms agencies in this industry. My skills are strategic, planning and creative thinking and management. I will come into businesses either on a project or part time basis and carry out sales and marketing audits, help them create strategic marketing plans, and then support the roll out of those plans – either by managing their existing agency or by bringing in my own network of suppliers.
“For some clients, the roll out might be a whole new customer onboarding strategy, for others it might be a repositioning in the market and a new brand launch. There will be no one size fits all approach. The priority will always be to drive sales revenue, so my input will be making recommendations and creating plans which help do that.
“I have worked with some of the biggest names in this industry and I know what works – and what doesn’t. Working on a project or part time basis also means my clients get all the advantages of a senior level marketing director – without any of the associated salary and benefits costs.”
Sioned says that one of the key areas that clients want help with is in acting as a conduit between their business and their agency. She adds: “Too often, businesses think they can take care of their marketing simply by outsourcing it to an agency, when in fact they need to carefully manage and direct that agency and constantly monitor and evaluate results to get any real payback on their investment.
“This is best done by someone like me with senior level experience – who can then mentor more junior in-house team members so that they learn to take on the role themselves over time.
“Similarly, I can guide in-house marketing teams in building workable relationships with sales teams and recommending new work patterns which put sales and revenue generation at the centre.”
As well as providing ongoing consultancy support, Sioned can work directly with clients on short term planning and event support, such as exhibitions and sales conferences.
