Member Article

The Marketing Centre Supports the Expansion of Small Businesses in the North West

Fuelled by the drive and innovation of the many entrepreneurial businesses in the North West, The Marketing Centre has experienced rapid growth and high demand for its part-time marketing director services.

In an exceptionally competitive market many small business owners are looking to expand, but cannot afford a full-time marketing director. A rising number are now recognising the importance of investing in marketing to achieve their ambitions. However, these ambitions are brought to a halt when their budgets cannot stretch to support the creation of a permanent position to develop new business.

The Marketing Centre was set up in response to this challenge. Founded by Clare Methven, their goal is to support small businesses by helping them to experience the benefits of high-level marketing expertise, in an affordable, flexible and low risk way. With their team of 80 marketing directors across the UK, 10 of which are based in the North West, The Marketing Centre provides personalised service to each business they work for. As opposed to paying for the generalised services of a marketing agency, each company is provided with their own director who works ‘in-house’ as part of the business management team. Every one of the directors at The Marketing Centre has more than 10 years’ experience in senior marketing roles. This extensive experience means they are well used to challenging the norm, developing effective marketing campaigns, and procuring the right services for each client.

Having recently celebrated its first birthday in the North West, regional director Julie Brook, is planning ahead for the coming year to keep up with the exceptional client demand. However, just as the businesses she supports face challenges in expanding, she too recognises fast growth presents difficulties:

“It can be quite a challenge to manage team growth in line with business demand. The beauty of our model is that the Marketing Directors work typically one day a week with each client, and they are more than happy to travel. We can therefore access a wider team geographically - enabling us to service specific market needs, and to react swiftly when the situation requires.”

Julie believes that the marks of success come in different ways to just growing more revenue and the team. Her goal is to be able to celebrate handing over the reins to a full-time head of marketing - trained from within The Marketing Centre to understand the unique needs of the client. Watching her clients’ businesses grow, is the mark of her success.

With many small businesses in the North West seeking to expand their enterprise in the coming year, Julie offers some tips: -Keep looking for new ways to be resourceful and agile. -Always go for the right people, even if it takes a little longer. -Set objectives and have a plan to achieve them, however don’t be afraid to adjust the plan swiftly to cater for new situations. Remember - a strategy is a plan around which we must improvise to keep us on track.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Marketing Centre .