The marketing department plays a vital role in promoting and developing the business and mission of Smith & Associates. An effective marketing strategy will increase leads, successfully convert leads into proposals, convert proposals into contracts, and drive repeat business. The goal and intent of this proposal is to define a marketing strategy, set a budget for 2019, and generate a path for achieving goals throughout the fiscal year.

Smith & Associates (S&A) provides a niche service within the engineering community, focused on geotechnical engineering, construction materials testing services, and environmental consulting. While S&A is disadvantaged at being able to bid at a whole project level, the firm is advantaged at being able to provide specific services to a broad range of clients and maintain a narrow focus to ensure the firm is the best within their discipline. As New England sees an increased need for engineers in 2019 and beyond, S&A niche field and expertise will be further in demand.

The primary competition for S&A is other geotechnical engineering firms within Maine and New England, and civil engineering firms with geotechnical engineers on staff at the local, regional, and national levels. Due to the larger nature of competitive firms, it is important for S&A to create a marketing strategy that impresses upon prospective clients that S&A is capable of competing with large firms, and also highlights the advantage of S&A as being a small firm with direct access to engineers and staff at all levels within the company.

S&A’s primary target is business customers within the construction, engineering, and government sectors. Based on proposals issued in 2018, the top 5 (by number of proposals) prospective client firms employ a median total of 46 people, earn a median annual revenue of $4 million, and have been established for a median total of 31 years.

Full data contained in these tables may be viewed in full in Appendix A. From this information, we can create a focus on retaining and cultivating continued work with our top clients, and establish a target range of new firms to approach for work.

In order to continue growth of the firm and maintain a high level of focus, it is important to have clear and quantifiable goals as a result of proposed marketing actions and activities.

Geotechnical engineering and environmental consulting produced 73% of project revenue and accounted for 43% of total projects for S&A in 2018. If S&A plans to keep these numbers consistent while increasing revenue by 25% overall, the goal for total projects awarded must increase from 111 projects in 2018 to 139 projects in 2019 (an increase of 28 projects) at a value of approximately $9,749 per project.  This will account for an additional $270,522 in revenue for 2019.

It is anticipated that all marketing strategies and tactics outlined in this proposal will attribute to this increase and help achieve the 2019 goal.

One of the most important ways for S&A to hit goals year over year is to have a clear and consistent marketing strategy. This strategy will include the activities that the marketing department will employ daily, weekly, and monthly to ensure S&A’s brand voice is consistent and is heard loud and clear across multiple channels.
