Stephen Robertson, director and founder of Metis Partners, explains why the business should win the marketing and PR category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition.
As intellectual property experts, we celebrate innovation and emulate it in every aspect of our business, including marketing. Our overarching marketing strategy is to expand our client base, while enriching our current relationships.
Presently our marketing is focused around our IP League Table – a new ranking of companies’ IP wealth – which will raise awareness about the importance of IP, highlight innovative companies, and further Metis Partners’ reputation as leading IP advisers.
To attract entrants, we used a gorilla marketing strategy. We used social media and email, sent helium balloons to incubators, made targeted calls, and put on events such as a bowls tournament for local BPOs [business process outsourcing]. Each method targeted a different demographic: emails and events generated entries from companies we already knew, while the balloons attracted startups.
We also used tribal marketing methods to develop an IP-savvy community, and created an IP100 Club, consisting of entrants, sponsors, and champions – BPOs who promote the initiative and hosted events.
Currently we have over 50 entrants, six champions and Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank as our lead sponsors, and we’re already receiving interest in our services from entrants.
One of our goals is to establish Metis Partners as thought leaders in the IP industry, using techniques such as B2B dinners, free workshops for SMEs, informative mail-outs, and webinars.
Our growing reputation has prompted a recruitment drive and in the last year our team increased by over 50%. We’re excited to see what the year ahead brings.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
