Foundations Build
Marketing strategy for startups and scale-ups, built around what you need now to grow.
Foundations Build does the groundwork to set your early or growth-stage business up for marketing success - built the right way round, laying the foundations for your brand and marketing before you spend money on ads that may or may not work.
My approach combines formal marketing training with 10 years of hands-on experience as a startup marketing lead. Over 90 days, I build the foundations your marketing depends on: who you're really talking to, what makes you different, and how to say it, taking the guesswork out of marketing planning.
Ring a bell?
You're founder-led, or your "marketing team" is one or two very stretched people
You need a more consistent flow of leads that doesn't rely on your founder's network
Your team knows your business inside out, but you're struggling to nail messaging that lands with customers
You're up against competitors with a much bigger headcount and a decade's head start on brand recognition
Your marketing is a bit ad hoc - a few things have worked, but you're not entirely sure why
If it’s a yes, Foundations Build was designed for you!
A proper process, not a quick fix
When you're working every hour under the sun to grow your business, marketing "hacks" are tempting. The trouble is, even when they give you a quick boost, they're shortcuts around the part of the job that actually takes the work - understanding who you're talking to, what makes you different, and why anyone should care. Skip that, and every campaign after it is built on guesswork.
My Foundations Build follows a structured process taught by leading marketing professors, refined over a decade of doing this properly:
Diagnosis - Understanding where things actually stand, for your business, your customers, and your competitors.
Strategy - Defining who you're targeting (and who you're not), what you stand for, and how to say it.
Tactics - Getting things moving, with a focus on building credibility and the promotion that gets your brand heard.
Diagnosis
Strategy
Tactics
What happens over the 90 days
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Weeks 1-2:
Everything starts with an honest look at where you stand today - your website, messaging, competitive positioning, content, and whether your sales materials back up what marketing is saying.
From here, I pull out what's working, what isn't, and where the real opportunities are, delivered as one clear report you can act on immediately. Starting with an audit ensures we can build on your actual situation, rather than assumptions.
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Weeks 3-10:
The strategic core, in three parts:
Research & Ideal Customer Profile - Drawing on what you and your team already know, I map out a detailed picture of your Ideal Customer Profile(s): their priorities, their pain points, what actually moves them. From there, a close look at your 3-4 main competitors shows exactly how you stack up on positioning, messaging, and overall distinctiveness.
Positioning & Messaging - With that picture in place, I recommend how to position your brand against the competition. Once approved, I turn this into a core messaging framework; the exact language for what you do, who it's for, the problem you solve, and the value you deliver, built to resonate and avoid blending in with everyone else in your category.
Content & Credibility - Building trust and generating demand beyond your ready-to-buy customers are two of the areas that need real strategic thought in startup marketing. Here, I build a high-level content plan that meets your ICP at every stage of their journey, backed by specific, tailored recommendations for building credibility in your market.
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Weeks 11-12:
After final feedback and revisions, everything comes together in one actionable Marketing Foundations Plan. I present this back to you and your team, talking through early implementation, any extra resources worth bringing in (e.g. my trusted partners), and how best to brief whoever's executing.
A plan is only as good as what happens after it lands, so I don't hand it over and disappear. My recommendation from here is to keep working together - ongoing marketing leadership to keep things on track, and dedicated support in content marketing itself, so the plan gets seen through to success.
Recent clients
Why this all matters…
42%
How many startups fail because there's no real market need for what they built. It’s the biggest cause of startup failure, and what proper audience and positioning work is designed to catch early.
5%
Only 5% of buyers are in the market to buy at any given time. You need to invest in making every buyer remember your brand next time they need your services.
Source: Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, for the LinkedIn B2B Institute
90%
90% of B2B buyers trust peers more than vendor content. With no track record yet, early-stage brands need to be proactively building trust and credibility.
Source: Forrester, 2023 B2B trust survey
Built from startup experience
Before becoming a B2B marketing consultant, I spent 10 years leading marketing at a tech startup. Not just observing from an agency, but actually in the business - the same tight budgets and the same small team wearing many, many hats.
I know what it's like to be the entire marketing function. To go up against competitors with reputations and budgets you can't match, and have to win on being better, not bigger. To need marketing that translates a complex product into something a customer actually understands.
I helped grow that startup from its earliest days into a multimillion-pound business, building the brand, winning blue-chip clients, and leading marketing strategy through big periods of change. Not through big budgets, but through getting the fundamentals right and knowing where the real leverage was. That's the experience behind every recommendation in Foundations Build.
What you get, at a glance
A clear picture of where your marketing stands today
Your Ideal Customer Profile(s), defined and grounded in real input
A sharp, differentiated market position, with messaging you can use confidently and consistently
A content and credibility-building plan designed around how B2B buyers actually make decisions
One consolidated strategy; everything above, brought together into a single, actionable document
Executional support, ensuring your Foundations Plan gets seen through to success
Not sure this is the right first step? See Foundations Audit - a faster, lighter way to find out exactly what your foundations need, before committing to anything bigger.
"Mel is highly organised, insightful, and a strong critical thinker, with a real ability to collaborate on strategy and turn it into clear, effective marketing. She’s dependable, thoughtful, and a pleasure to work with, and I would not hesitate to recommend her."
- Adam Castleton, CEO at Startle
Ready to talk it through?
The next step is to book a call to talk through where you are now and allow me to answer any questions you have on my services. I look forward to speaking with you!