Six things.
In this order.
Each one in plain words, and each one commits to what success looks like before the work starts.
Defy conventions
Positioning and brand story. I collect what every competitor in your category already says, put it in one place, and we look at it together. It is usually a sobering hour. Then we go looking for the sentence still unclaimed, and make sure you can actually back it up.
You will know it worked when your own team stops describing the business differently in every meeting.
Be heard
Messaging. The words the business runs on. Website, decks, proposals, profiles, and the answer you give when somebody asks what you do and you catch yourself apologising halfway through the sentence.
You will know it worked when customers repeat your language back to you.
Ignite curiosity
Campaigns, launches and content. Built to be repeated by somebody else, which is a far higher bar than built to be seen. Every idea faces one question first: would a stranger, with every reason to scroll past, want to know what happens next?
You will know it worked when the work is recognisably yours before anyone sees the logo.
Cultivate engagement
Demand generation and paid media. Each audience gets its own argument rather than a resized version of somebody else's, because the line that makes a security lead sit forward is the line that makes a finance lead reach for the back button.
You will know it worked when pipeline traces back to a specific idea rather than a channel.
Build evangelists
Answer engine visibility. Your buyers have started asking full questions rather than typing keywords, and something now answers with one answer in place of ten links. This is the work of becoming the source that gets quoted. It is mostly about writing clearly, and only a little about markup.
You will know it worked when you are the answer itself, above the ten links.
Reshape perceptions
Marketing leadership on demand. Direction and judgement for companies that need a marketing leader's thinking before they can justify the salary. Including building the function from scratch, which I have done from a standing start.
You will know it worked when decisions get made faster because everyone knows what the brand is for.
Published in full. Steal it if you like.
Free, about forty minutes. You describe where things stand. I ask a lot of questions. We both stay honest about how much is still unknown.
I talk to a few of your customers and read everything your competitors say. This is the part that changes the outcome, and the part most people rush.
Too many ideas on the table, including the wrong ones, deliberately. Then we cut hard until one thing is left standing that belongs to you alone.
Words, campaigns, pages, whatever carries it. A brand lives in what survives contact with a real buyer on a Tuesday.
Everything drifts back toward safe within a year. Catching that drift is part of the job, and it is included.
Still deciding which one you need?
Most people are working it out as they go. Describe the problem and you will get an honest answer, including when the honest answer is to walk away.