Making the perfect plan: strategic marketing with Wingz

Inspiring! That’s how General Pumps’ manager, Timothy Crutcher, describes the process behind his new strategic marketing plan, conducted by Wingz Marketing founder Joan Martin and marketing guru, Bob Mitchell. Based on a series of workshops held at the company’s Emu Plains premises, Tim suggests it was Joan and Bob’s ability to seek his input plus that of his staff while making marketing simple and easy to understand which inspired him the most.

About the Company

The General Pump Company is the leading domestic, commercial and industrial pump manufacturers in Australia. Family owned and managed, the business has grown over more than four decades from a small pump supplier in Sydney to a company that services a wide range of clients all over the world.

Hooking up with Wingz

After obtaining a referral from his business coach in June 2017, Tim contacted Wingz Marketing to see what it offered by way of strategic marketing support to help him move forward during a period of growth.

“Initially we were a family business, but we wanted to grow into a corporate-managed business and had gone through a significant transition period by then,” he says. Joan and Bob came on-site to conduct their tailored workshops which would form the foundation for the ensuing plan.

What’s in a Workshop?

Tim describes the workshop experience enthusiastically: “They were very interactive, very informative and very engaging.”

It was during the workshops that Joan and Bob drilled down into the company history, its operations and goals.

Joan herself noted that the business was in a good place and that among the tactics she proposed was to automate more of their practices and procedures.

The plan they devised derived from information gathered in the sessions and Tim says the document itself provides an excellent set of solutions.

“The plan is excellent. We have been implementing it as best we can since we got it.” He adds that if his staff capacity was better, this implementation would be conducted faster, noting that, ironically, the first step in his marketing plan is for him to address staff capacity!

 Marketing made easy

Tim appreciated the way Joan and Bob communicate, transforming often difficult concepts into common sense.

“Joan has the ability to simplify marketing; to bring what is often communicated in complex language down into very easy terms to work with.”

He says that previous experiences with marketers who relied on jargon provided a stark comparison to his experience with Wingz Marketing.

“It was great to have the plan discussed in simple terms and broken into manageable tasks. It was very investigative. Joan and Bob offered us the room to conduct lots of discussion around our past experience with marketing. Bob and Joan both shared a lot of their own experiences, which are considerable. ”

“It was extremely useful. They probed into key market areas. The combination of Joan and Bob is very good. Bob has a lot of practical experience obtained over decades. Joan has more of a grass-roots knowledge. She knows the current methods of marketing: the technological side, including website creation and running marketing campaigns.”

From the workshop fact-seeking mission, Joan and Bob developed a tactical marketing plan that offered a number of clear recommendations for the General Pumps Company.

Getting top results

Of the several measurable outcomes, Tim speaks most highly of Joan’s Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) recommendations and also the contract she lined up with an associate Google AdWords specialist.

“We commenced a Google AdWords campaign over 12 months ago and it has been extremely effective. It has brought in business, with a return on investment of ten (10) times,” he says. “These are excellent results. We are securing customers out of that are continuing.”

The Wingz’ way

Joan explains that the Wingz approach to strategic marketing plan creation depends on listening to clients actively and bringing Wingz and associates’ many years of marketing and business experience to the table.

“We stage interactive workshops with key staff members in order to create the plan. Together we nut out what’s going on in their business, and what’s needed in terms of steps to move forward. The process is simple and relatively fast. Rather than interview the business owner and walk off only to return, a few months later, with a plan that, as you did it alone, will most likely need revisions —  we go right to the business people and work collaboratively with them to develop a marketing strategy from top-level goals down to final tactics,” Joan says.

Final thumbs-up

Tim concludes that he would recommend Joan and Bob to others seeking a strategic marketing plan, and, in fact, has already been putting the word out.