How Strategic Marketing Helped Absolute Architecture Scale from £250k to £1.5m

When this growing SME needed to professionalise their marketing and attract higher-value clients, they chose Your Marketing Department as their outsourced marketing department rather than hiring full-time staff.

Absolute Architecture had reached a crossroads. After bringing on an associate, founders Kate and her team knew they needed to generate more revenue without simply increasing their workload. The answer wasn't working harder—it was working smarter through strategic positioning and targeted marketing.

Working with Your Marketing Department for six years, they've transformed their business from a £250k operation winning bread-and-butter projects to a £1.5m practice securing premium commissions. The strategic focus on higher-value work has driven sustainable growth, allowing them to expand their team as the business flourished.

Finding Strategic Direction

When Kate contacted Your Marketing Department, Absolute Architecture was doing well but had clear growth limitations.

Like many SME owners, she was struggling with inconsistent marketing that wasn't delivering results. She explained: "As our architecture practice grew we realised that we needed to refocus, develop and implement a more strategic marketing strategy rather than the ad-hoc approach we'd been taking."

Kate knew she needed professional marketing help but wasn't sure when to hire a marketing consultant or whether to bring someone in-house.

Their marketing up to that point had been entirely relationship-based—estate agent evenings and low-key networking that had built a solid foundation but wouldn't scale to their ambitious growth targets.

They'd grown through word of mouth to become established in their local market, but that organic growth had plateaued.

The challenge was clear: they needed to move away from "champagne tastes, beer budget" projects (up to £150k), maintain their core £150k-£300k market, and significantly grow their large-scale project base in the £850k-£1m range.

Rather than simply taking on more small projects, they wanted to win the kind of high-value work that would support sustainable growth.

Initially, Kate was sceptical about investing in a marketing strategy for SMEs. Her biggest fear was "that it wouldn't tell them anything they didn't know." She was also concerned about finding cost-effective marketing support that would actually understand their business.

The Strategic Breakthrough

Your Marketing Department conducted comprehensive market research, analysing both customer segments and geographical opportunities.

The strategy session revealed something that completely shifted Absolute Architecture's approach.

"Whilst much of it was telling them what they already knew, the biggest nugget was around the price of housing," Kate recalled. "Our focus had been Devizes & Marlborough (going West) where we assumed the large houses were, but research showed an average house price of £250k—there would be no way that we would get £1m work in an area where house prices didn't reflect that level of spend. The best piece of advice was to look east to the Chilterns."

This geographical insight fundamentally changed their business development strategy and opened up an entirely new, more lucrative market they hadn't considered.

Implementing the Strategic Marketing Plan

Armed with clear strategic direction, Your Marketing Department developed a comprehensive communications plan that included:

• Strategic positioning around their expertise in high-value residential projects

• Geographical focus on areas where property values supported premium architecture spend

• Targeted networking strategy in the Chilterns and surrounding areas of outstanding natural beauty

• Professional marketing materials that reflected their premium positioning

• Website updates to attract higher-value prospects

• Ongoing marketing reviews with monthly, quarterly, and annual assessments

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Rather than just delivering a strategy document, Your Marketing Department worked alongside the team to implement the plan, sourcing local suppliers and ensuring consistent execution across all marketing channels.

Training for Long-term Success

Understanding that sustainable growth requires internal capability, Your Marketing Department trained Absolute Architecture's staff to take over day-to-day marketing activities.

This approach helped build marketing capability within the SME, meaning Kate could focus on what she did best—designing exceptional buildings and leading client relationships—while maintaining professional marketing standards.

"We recognise the huge value in having an independent SME marketing consultant working alongside us, to the extent that we have continued to employ Sophie on an ongoing basis to develop and monitor our marketing action plan, keep us to task and coordinate input from other marketing partners," Kate noted.

This fractional marketing director approach gave them strategic marketing support without the overhead of a full-time hire.

Measurable Results

The strategic shift delivered sustained results:

• 200% increase in large projects in the first year alone

• Turnover growth from £250k to £1.5m over six years

• Typical project value now £500k-£750k (up from £250k bread-and-butter projects)

• Sustainable team growth from 2 to 13 people supported by higher-value work

• Strategic project mix shift towards premium commissions

  
  

The practice successfully repositioned itself to win projects including:

• New-build country houses

• Extensive refurbishments

• Major transformation projects

  
  

All achieved through strategic focus rather than simply working longer hours.

Strategic Marketing Success and Evolution

After six years of partnership, Absolute Architecture has transformed from a small local practice into a thriving £1.5m business.

Having achieved their growth objectives and built strong internal marketing capabilities, Kate was ready to take the business to the next level with fresh strategic input for their next phase of development.

Kate concluded: "We are now more focused and feel that we are driving the business forwards positively. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend Sophie. The process has been great, she is thoroughly professional and a pleasure to work with."

The success of this partnership demonstrates how strategic marketing support can fundamentally transform a business—delivering not just growth, but the foundation for continued evolution and success.

Ready to professionalise your SME marketing for sustainable growth? 

Contact Your Marketing Department to discover how strategic marketing support could transform your business—just as it did for Absolute Architecture.

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