We believe that working with marketing experts should be straightforward and easy. You should feel confident we are transparent and honest in how we do things.
We’ve created a list of common questions asked by new clients to help you learn more about the services we offer. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
As a business, we’ve been delivering our expert marketing services since 2015. Before we were FFMG, we were called Marketing Strategy IQ.
FFMG offer a range of services such as strategic marketing advice, in-house or virtual marketing team (done-for-you-service), mentoring and ongoing coaching, and full time consultancy to project teams. We are most proud of providing highly-experienced marketers ready to create strategic roadmaps and help businesses decide on the right infrastructure before go-to-market.
Outsourcing isn’t for everyone, you need to find the right co-marketing partner that has a similar customer-centric marketing approach to you, but if you can find a consultancy like that, you can drive significant business results from your marketing.
The most common benefits include, but not limited to, access to experts bring clarity to issues and provide recommendations on how to maximise your results, consistent voice of your marketing activities, and help move your marketing planning to the next level while lowering overheads.
FFMG offer read-made marketing teams and have served our clients as a critical member of their in-house team but not their headcount.
FFMG is committed to helping you get from your current state to your desired position. We will appoint the best person with niche experience and industry understanding to help you tackle and resolve specific problems. Our workforce is diverse in capabilities, knowledge, skills and personal qualities – essential for your project succeed.
Future Focus Marketing is not a Creative Agency, Design Agency, or an Advertising Agency.
The difference between us and them is the services we offer, the price we charge, and the marketing specialists engaged to deliver your work. Let’s explain what we mean.
The services we offer:
The plans and strategies we present to help your business reach its goals is not created around the services we offer; it’s based on tactics needed to achieve your business goals. For instance, if your goal is to reach all Australian women, approx. nine million to launch a new mental healthcare app, a television (TVC) campaign may be a key tactic in the overall marketing strategy. We don’t do TVC’s, but as strategists that is irrelevant and will include it.
The price we charge:
We charge the hours we work at fair rates you can afford and not the exorbitant rates and hours for personal gain. Having worked in agencies we know how it works and therefore do the opposite.
The accomplished marketing specialists we offer:
We take each job brief and assign the most experienced specialists to deliver that job. This may mean we use an information designer for one piece of work and a graphic designer on another. Its not what is best for s or you but what will resonate with your audiences and get them taking action.
We work with you not for you.
FFMG helps nurture businesses all over Australia. We have two offices in Melbourne to service CBD and regional clients. FFMG’s team of specialists regularly service clients in Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide, Whyalla and Newcastle.
As a business, we’ve been delivering our expert marketing services since 2015. Before we were FFMG, we were called Marketing Strategy IQ.
If you plan to create awareness or promote your brand, product or service, the answer is yes. A strategy is a mastermind behind a clear, concise game plan. Think of your favourite sport; every successful coach creates a plan to beat the competition, each player is trained to use the strategy that will win them the game. Your business is the same, no matter how big or small, work plan with a winning strategy. Keep tweaking it as no game is the same each time.
A marketing strategy, traditionally owned by a Chief Marketing Officer, is the approach to achieve and support primary business objectives. The marketing plan, typically owned by a Marketing Manager, supports the marketing strategy and is more about which tactics, campaigns, initiatives, and promotions your organisation will run in a specific time. Marketing plans should remain semi-flexible to accommodate shifting business priorities.
A marketing campaign is a planned sequence of activities and processes which promote an individual product, service, or resource. Complex campaigns leverage multiple mediums and messages over an extended period. A campaign focuses on reaching a specific goal.
Campaigns are a great way to align your sales and marketing team to achieve your company’s goals. An excellent way to start is by teams working together to create buyer personas, refining ideal target audiences and make compelling target pitches to help increase campaign acquisition.
Successful marketing campaigns require careful planning and identification of your market, including how best to reach them. You can expect added benefits using FFMG’s leading-edge campaign planners such as creative use of market segmentation, sophisticated brand management and planning templates that will form a solid foundation for future marketing planning within your company.
For bigger projects and campaigns its key. For smaller teams it’s a great tool to measure productivity, roadblocks and celebrate great results.
A go to market plan is a key element to your marketing action plan. It’s a tactical action plan that outlines the steps necessary to succeed and deliver a growth strategy or launch strategy to new, existing or both markets.
If we had a dollar each time a client asked us, we would be retired now. The first thing we ask clients is ‘Show us the marketing plan and strategy your marketing, digital, creative, advertising, website or SEO agency provided, and nine times out of 10 they say we didn’t one we got this, which is a list of activities they plan to provide. Our marketing strategy and action plans show the tools, tactics, platforms, processes, systems needed for your business to invest and implement the plan. Together we discuss it in detail walking through different ‘what if’ scenarios before you decide to invest time, effort and money.
We treat your budget as if it is ours. If we wouldn’t invest in the plan nor should you.
You are in business to grow by meeting your goals and objectives. A commercialised marketing strategy means you’re investing in marketing activities that deliver an anticipated return; high, medium or low.
It’s a fact that each marketing tactic will not always deliver a high return as its role differs in each campaign or project set in your integrated marketing plan. What is important is that you are informed of the expected results from the outset rather than later. Imagine a sports coach not letting the team manager know the desired outcome of each game until after the game, that would never happen.
This is a common question with no accurate response as it depends on several things. However, before deciding on a figure, create a checklist and think of it as building a house. List all the things you need and would like to make a functional house to fit your lifestyle. For example, how many people can you support, what systems and platforms, channels does the marketing need to support and deliver activities, what tools and activities do they need to create to support the different roles in the business such as customer service, sales, managers and staff representing your brand.
Consider how you want to present your business online or physical presence, what type of environment to you want to create?
Without people, systems and process your marketing effort and investment are wasted.
Your business needs a marketing team (in-house / outsourced) with the necessary skills to deliver your marketing plan and strategy. Your systems (internal or subscribed) must be able to support your marketing activities and report on performance. Your marketing processes are there to mitigate risk to your people and brand, deliver good governance and compliance and provide clarity of operation.
The first question to ask is, how close are we at meeting our business objectives? Marketing contributes to the success of your business objectives. Don’t be fooled to believe that marketing delivers 100% of your objectives as it’s one piece of the puzzle. If marketing is a significant contributor to the success of your business objectives, then how are you tracking? If they are meeting your objectives, then it is working, if not your need to tweak or change your game plan. Create a tracker to measure success from all areas of the business to ensure your collectively working to meet business goals.
We have worked with different agencies to support the growth of their accounts. We do not replace the Account Manager role instead enhance it. We come in as your Marketing Strategist under your brand. We work with your Account Manager and client to develop a six- or 12-month marketing strategy. The outcome is the client sees the whole picture and agrees to implementation. Your team is now busy for the next six- to 12-months. Now multiply it by ten clients, and your workflow is full.
The strategy often encompasses activities that your agency currently does not offer allowing you to expand or outsource or decline to provide. Either way, the client sees your agency as strategic and not only offering the services you promote.
Most agencies use their Account Manager or Creative Director as their marketing strategist to cut costs, great for the business but not the client. The roles are very different, and you hope the client won’t realise; eventually they do.
The truth is it’s not a cheaper option. The hours spent by both roles to develop a marketing strategy that hopefully delivers to business objectives you will pay anyway; may not get the desired result and you take them away from doing the job well. Investing hours for marketing strategist is once-off and separating the client’s perception of Marketing Strategist, Account Manager and Creative assuming you aim to achieve the best outcome for your client.
Engaging us will also position you as a strategic partner who works to build brand value and equity beyond what you offer.
