Table of Contents1. dma’s Strategy and the key focus areas of the marketing strategy......................................................................................3

1.1 Marketing goals and focus areas to deliver the strategy....................................................................................................42. Macro trends in marketing and how services clients buy......................................................................................................6

2.1 Macro trends in B2B and Services Marketing...................................................................................................................... 62.2 How Services Clients Buy................................................................................................................................................... 82.3 What does this mean for the dma Marketing Strategy?....................................................................................................11

3. Our clients/target audience................................................................................................................................................. 123.1 Common themes in client feedback................................................................................................................................. 123.2 What this means for the dma Marketing Strategy............................................................................................................13

4. Our Competitors.................................................................................................................................................................. 144.1 What is our point of difference?........................................................................................................................................ 144.2 What this means for the dma Marketing Strategy............................................................................................................15

5. Opening Game – Market Awareness raising........................................................................................................................ 165.1 Brand Positioning.............................................................................................................................................................. 175.2 Thought Leadership and Content Marketing.....................................................................................................................195.3 Corporate Memberships and activity with select industry associations............................................................................235.4 Sponsorships.................................................................................................................................................................... 255.5 Events............................................................................................................................................................................... 265.6 Social Media and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)........................................................................................................275.7 Advertising and Public Relations....................................................................................................................................... 285.8 Award Submissions........................................................................................................................................................... 295.9 How will we measure success?......................................................................................................................................... 30

6. Middle Game....................................................................................................................................................................... 302

6.1 Key Client Relationship Management............................................................................................................................... 316.2 Opportunity Management................................................................................................................................................. 356.3 Client Service.................................................................................................................................................................... 366.4 Client Feedback................................................................................................................................................................ 386.5 Sales collateral................................................................................................................................................................. 406.6 How will we measure success?......................................................................................................................................... 41

7. Budget................................................................................................................................................................................. 42

1.dma’s Strategy and the key focus areas of the marketing strategyThe ultimate goal of the dma marketing strategy is to support the achievement of dma’s business strategy. Every marketing tactic undertaken must in some way connect back to dma’s strategic goals, and the vision of the business to be the Engineering Firm of Choice that build better built environments.

As well as driving general business growth, the marketing strategy seeks to support in particular the following strategic focus areas and growth targets:

Current situation Desired future – 12 months

Desired future – 2 years

Increase market presence and brand awareness and industry credibility

Generally understood as a long-term player on smaller projects, multi-disciplinary not well known, lower price range provider. Staff churn = seen as unsettled/brain drain. Everyone knows who we are, retail player, lower end of the market.

Raised profile of fire and hydraulics, known as a full multi-disciplinary firm. Higher brand awareness.

Strong industry awareness and credibility of the dma brand.

Increase repeat and referral business

Repeat business is good in some pockets. We get quite a few referrals but no formal way of tracking.

We understand where repeat business comes from and why. More referrals from architects. Referral business coming from content strategy/ thought leadership.10% of work from referrals from clients/BAU. 5% from thought leadership/brand.

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Winning more big jobs/marquee jobs and saying no to more small/unprofitable jobs

We don’t know what big projects are coming up, we are not positioned for them. We rarely say no to jobs. 1 job at $330k.

3-5 jobs between $250-500K 5 -jobs between $350-600k

NPS score to 9 or above for all key clients

NPS ratings of 8 NPS ratings of 8 or 9 NPS ratings of 9 or 10

In particular, growth is focused on the following industry sectors:- Retail- Health – hospitals- Health – aged care- Design and construct

1.1 Marketing goals and focus areas to deliver the strategy

In defining our marketing goals to support the business strategy, we will use the Opening, Middle and End Game structure from Hugh and Bacon’s Game of Business Development. What this structure allows us to do is look at our marketing focus areas in three discreet areas aligned to the sales cycle in high value services and complex sales.

The opening game is focused on cultivating the market, or raising general market awareness amongst our target audience (a one-to-many approach). The middle game is where we connect with clients, developing specific relationships directly with current and prospective clients (a one-to-one approach), and the end game is where we condition the deal, or engage in tendering and pitching activities to secure work.

For the purposes of this marketing strategy, we will focus only on the opening and middle games. For the End Game, our focus will be on opportunity management/positioning in the middle game, as well as the pricing review which will be undertaken separately.

OPENING GAMECultivating the Market

MIDDLE GAMEConnecting with the Client

END GAMEConditioning the Deal

Focus Areas

In the opening game, our focus is on activities and tactics that will grow the reputation and

In the middle game, our focus is on developing partner relationships with our clients,

In the end game our focus is on developing winning tenders and pitches as they

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profile of the dma brand amongst our target audience.

Our marketing strategy for the opening game will focus on:

- Brand positioning and activation.

- Thought Leadership- Sponsorships- Events (external and in-

house)- Corporate Memberships

and activity in industry associations

- Advertising (online and offline)

- Social Media

What won’t be covered?- Public Relations activities,

including corporate affairs and Government Relations.

- Internal Communications, apart from where internal initiatives are required to support marketing activities.

positioning ourselves for specific identified opportunities, and ensuring we provide a high level of client service that generates repeat and referral work.

Our marketing strategy for the middle game will focus on:

Client Relationships- Key Client Program- Sales Skills- Client Partnerships

Client Service- Agreed service standards- Obtaining consistency in

client service.- Rewarding excellence in

client service.Client feedback

- A structured client feedback program.

come to market.

The marketing strategy will not cover this part of the game in detail, other than to suggest how the brand positioning and key brand messages should be represented in our bids and pitches. We will also undertake a pricing review as a separate piece of work.

Our Goals To become a thought leader for engineering better built environments in the retail and health sectors.

To have a clear, differentiated brand position that can be

To develop partner relationships with the key people of power and influence in each of our identified key clients and prospects.

For our service quality to be recognised as a differentiator in

To win 100% of the work we tender for, and to win more projects valued at over $100K.

To reduce our reliance in discounting and ensure we

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articulated by our clients. our selected attributes. are not leaving money on the table.

How will we measure these?

Meeting 12 month targets in:- participation in industry

associations- content marketing and

thought leadership activity

- leads generated from opening game activities

Relationship feedback from clients.Win rates.Client Service feedback including the Net Promoter Score.

Win rates.Win/loss reasons.

2.Macro trends in marketing and how services clients buy

2.1 Macro trends in B2B and Services Marketing

“B2B needs to be more human.” Andy Goldberg, Global Creative Director, GE.

The marketing strategies and tactics that are most effective in raising market awareness, building client relationships and winning work have significantly changed over the past 10 years, away from a ‘push’ marketing approach towards a ‘pull’ marketing approach, particularly through the adoption of focused content marketing strategies.

In B2B organisations such as dma, with a small and targeted client base, marketing resources should be heavily directed towards the middle game. Where they are focused on the opening game, they need to be value-based, tailored, conversation enablers.

According to the PwC and Australian Marketing Institute ‘Entertainment and Media Outlook 2014-2018’ report, content marketing is on the rise. Their survey results noted a significant strengthening in marketing expenditure to internal channels – primarily to video and written editorial content to engage audiences, backed by scale (and often considerable budget).

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“Organisations are now doing it for themselves by redirecting advertising budgets into relationship management and shareable online editorial and video to build their presence.” (Megan Brownlow, Editor of PwC’s Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook).

According to Kate Maddox from Forbes Magazine, the industry shaping B2B marketing trends include:- Great storytelling.- B2B marketing becoming more humanly relevant – messages need to leverage emotion i.e. USG’s “It’s your

World. Build it.”- Creating shareable content through digital and social channels.- Creating a holistic user experiences – this is a mission between the CMO, CIO and CTO.- Consumerisation – recognising that B2B customers are people. B2B companies need to start acting more like

B2C companies in their marketing.

This is further reiterated in research undertaken by Forrester (September 2015) on B2B companies that have made customer focused transformations. They found that the companies that were most successful are spending more on marketing tactics that are driven by insight, experience, engagement and interactivity, and they are spending less on traditional marketing tactics that are broad and untargeted, impersonal and ‘knee-jerk’.

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2.2 How Services Clients Buy

The Beaton Client Choice Research is an annual survey of how clients across Australia select their Professional Service Providers, with around 5,000 clients participating. The findings outlined next are from the Engineering category of the 2015 research.

Key findings:

- The leading driver of consideration (prior to short listing) across all firms is RELIABILITY, followed by RESPONSIVENESS and then UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUSINESS/INDUSTRY.

- Price ranks fourth but does rise to number 1 for nearly 50% of respondents in the short-listing stage – although 35% still rank UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUSINESS/INDUSTRY as number 1.

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- Despite clients saying these things are important, and many firms claiming that they have these attributes (as per the competitor review) many firms in the sector do not rate well on these attributes – which is an opportunity gap for any service provider.

- In terms of overall client service drivers – the most important attribute is ‘Ease of doing business with’. Second to this is Reliability – an attribute dma has mixed ratings in from the clients interviewed to date. Innovation rates as the third most important client service driver, which is consistent with the importance dma’s clients are placing on receiving new ideas, although they are rating dma’s current performance in this as relatively weak.

- To be considered a leading firm, you need to demonstrate expertise in your area, be innovative and have a known brand. For dma’s marketing strategy, thought leadership will be critical in driving each of these.

Drivers of Consideration:

2.7

8.3

12.8

18.8

24.8

28.2

28.6

34.7

41.9

46.3

46.5

50.9

54.7

55.4

56.1

66.1

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Other

Strong brand

Access to partners / principals

Commerciality of advice

Caring about their clients

Friendly / strong rapport

Innovation

Leading expertise

Cost consciousness

Ease of doing business with

Excellent communication

Quality documentation

Price

Understanding your business / industry

Responsiveness

Reliability

% 'yes'

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What makes a Leading Firm:

In addition to this, the 2015 Global Report on What it Takes to Win Business by RogenSi Research found that “customers are drowning in information, but thirsting for insight. The in-depth understanding of the customer’s situation and challenges must be heard and felt in every communication and interaction. Smart sales professionals will need to have the courage and curiosity to create compelling, customised communication – great storytelling – that will help shift buyers’ thinking and buying behaviours. Buyers are demanding that sales people do more, listen more and find out more. They expect them to be more disciplined in their planning, to be genuinely curious about their business and to be more courageous in developing insights that can help them grow their business.”

2.3

1.2

1.6

1.8

2.6

3.0

3.2

3.5

4.5

4.8

5.2

5.3

5.7

9.5

10.7

13.5

30.6

0 10 20 30 40

Other

Communicates clearly & effectively / strong communication skills

Commercial / practical (advice)

Excellent service (responsive, supportive)

Has up-to-date knowledge / up-to-date with the latest developments in theindustry

Understands my business

Demonstrated high-quality work

Excellent in project management (planning, organising, documentation,managing of resources )

Good experienced / quality staff

Has the scope and reach (size of firm)

Reliable

Good track record

Offers value for money / cost-conscious

Knowledgeable of our industry / understanding of our industry

Has good reputation / known brand

Innovative

Experts in the area of requirements

% 'yes'

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2.3 What does this mean for the dma Marketing Strategy?

For the opening game, this means:o Opening game marketing activities need to be insight/story led, tailored, and help clients solve

problems and grow their businesses.o Resist developing and using generic, untargeted marketing such as capability statements, advertising

and brochures.o Focus on developing a strong content marketing strategy, supplemented by traditional marketing that

still has a strong link to the content marketing strategy. o Develop a strong internal platform for opening game marketing and communications (social media and

web based).o Be more humanistic in our communications and messaging.

For the middle game, this means:o We need to ensure that dma has a client management program in place, and that staff who manage

key client relationships and are responsible for winning work have the necessary skills to ensure a high level of engagement in sales meetings.

o These staff need to focus on creating tailored content as needed rather than relying on generic sales content. If it is generic, it needs to be insight based and offer value to the other person.

o When it comes to our service and performance, the key attributes to focus our efforts on are: Reliability – always doing what we say we are going to do Responsiveness Understanding our client’s business/industry/world. Demonstrating expertise through the insights we offer to our clients and the market, and the

leading position we take.

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3.Our clients/target audiencedma has a relatively small, targeted group of clients and potential clients. This means that the best and most effective way to reach these clients will be through our middle game work – developing and building strong partner client relationships, and ensuring that we have the best skills possible to do this effectively to maximise growth. This will also support repeat and referral work, which is the cheapest and easiest way to win new work with new clients.

A small number of in-depth client interviews were conducted in late 2016/early 2017 to help inform DMA’s brand positioning and marketing strategy. These clients were asked about what’s most important to them when it comes to their selection of and work with suppliers in general, and to discuss their experience working with DMA.

Clients interviewed were:Catherine Blackman – AldiPaolo Moretti – Case MeallinBen Finemore - Coles

3.1 Common themes in client feedback

Outlined below are some of the common themes that emerged from these interviews that will help guide the marketing strategy.

On what we do well Our staff are knowledgeable, clear and precise.We make an effort to understand needs at the commencement of a project, and we seek to listen and understand during a project.They trust the team and our recommendations.We are very. Very reactive then they need us to be. We are not as cumbersome as some of the big consultants. When there is a problem, the solution is put forward very quickly.

On INNOVATION and Would like to see proactivity in suggesting new cost-effective solutions that can be

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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP implemented.Bring new ideas to the projects, ideas on new ways of doing things better.

On WHAT WE CAN IMPROVE

Communication and missing deadlines - phone calls not being returned, nothing progressing when people go on leave, not being proactive when deadlines are going to be missed.‘They do good work but the service is not there’.‘Service is a big thing we struggle with.’Quality assurance – things get missed from documents before they go out to tender. Variations because things are missing from tenders.‘When we get what we need its good but getting it is hard.’Sometimes some of the younger engineers need to be prompted to be proactive in their communications.Some errors are popping up and turnaround times are dropping with staff turnover. Need to transition knowledge to the remaining team.

On WHY THEY CHOSE US

Their ability to deliver on time. We work fairly well with other consultants.

On what makes us DIFFERENT

We are faster and more reactive than the larger firms.Experience in retail is where we stand out and ‘no one else can meet that’.

On FEES Our fees are ‘very competitive’. But ‘the fees in some of the big commercial buildings are not as important to the client so being competitive doesn’t really matter’.Looking for more recommendations around the commerciality of getting projects to work.Rates are currently competitive and lower than others they use – but the service has to be there. Not worth paying cheaper rates if the job isn’t done properly.

On LIKELIHOOD TO REFER (NPS)

All clients gave 8/10.

3.2 What this means for the dma Marketing Strategy

- There is a clear need from clients for more innovation and new ideas, particularly linked to smarter ways to do things more cost effectively.

- DMA needs to do more to clearly differentiate in the market place, and emphasis our ability to be reactive and agile.

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- Improve client services standards so there is consistency in reliability of delivery and proactive communications.

- Review pricing to ensure we are not leaving money on the table.

4.Our CompetitorsA competitor brand review was undertaken to inform the brand positioning and marketing strategy. This full report has been provided separately.

4.1 What is our point of difference?

At the moment, none of dma's clients see a real point of difference between dma and its key competitors other than we can be more agile than the big firms. We do have several very strong relationships with our key clients, which is very positive and is important for us to build and foster through our Middle Game Strategy. But to achieve our vision of being ‘The Best’, we need to identify a true point of difference in the market that is important to our clients. Through our competitor, client and market research and analysis, the following opportunity was identified as a space for dma to be positioned differently in our industry and our client’s minds:

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This zone of opportunity is focused on being an innovative and inspiring company (an ‘ideas generator’) that is client-focused in all that we say and do.

4.2 What this means for the dma Marketing Strategy

To achieve this position, we will need to:- Focus on the client and end-user experience- Avoid self-centric language and behaviours (in our marketing, sales and BD activities)- Drive innovative and creative thinking – for clients and our industry.- Connect more strongly with our project outcomes, client challenges, and our client’s world.- Collaborate with clients and business partners.

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ZONE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR DMA: HOW WILL WE GET THERE?

5.Opening Game – Market Awareness raisingIn the opening game, our focus is on activities and tactics that will grow the reputation and profile of the dma brand amongst our target audiences in our key target sectors of retail, hospitals, aged care and design and construct. To do this, the opening game strategy needs to be focused on a combination of the following 9 tactical areas:

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5.1 Brand Positioning

In the short term, our opening game strategy is to grow the awareness of the dma brand amongst our current and future clients, key stakeholders, and the end-users of our services. Brand development and engagement is also important as a staff pride building activity.

It is important to remember that our brand is made up of every experience that a person has with dma – both staff, clients and prospects. When we talk about ‘rebranding’ we are talking about updating the visual brand identity of

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the firm to better match the brand experience that dma offers. It is critical that what is portrayed through our visual brand is then delivered through our brand experience.

Although it has been decided to retain the dma engineers brand name, I recommend a brand refresh is undertaken to strengthen the visual brand, create a stronger connection to what the firm stands for, and create a stronger point of difference in the market.

Tactic Actions When Budget (ex GST)

Brand positioning

Develop and agree our differentiated brand positioning.

Engage a brand agency to assist with a review of our current brand positioning.Develop a recommendation on the brand positioning. Once agreed, develop a brand activation strategy.

Commence May 2017

$5,000

Implement brand activation strategy for staff. This is a critical activity within the first 6 months to ensure DMA staff are acting as brand ambassadors in the market, and telling a consistent brand story.

Brand activation strategy to be developed and rolled out.

July 2017 $1,500

Visual Identity Develop a full visual identify toolkit for DMA to be used in all marketing and communications activities. This needs to be aligned to the brand positioning.

Develop full visual identity brand suite.

July 2017 $3,000

New staff photography to align with refreshed brand image

July 2017 $3,000

Website Redevelop DMA website to align to any brand change.

Update the content to be more client-centric and less self-oriented. Redesign the home page to include client testimonials, newsletter sign up and links to valuable content.

Following brand review.Make minor updates (blog etc.) ASAP.

$4,000

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5.2 Thought Leadership and Content Marketing

“A thought leader is an individual or firm that is recognised as an authority in a specialised field, and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded” Forbes.com.au. What is a Thought Leader, 2012.

Thought leadership will be a core element of dma’s marketing strategy over the next three years – not only because thought leadership and content marketing has now been shown to be more highly effective than traditional above-the-line marketing tactics, but because dma have been told by their clients that they want dma to bring new ideas and new thinking to them and the market.

Of the three types of thought leadership positions that dma could seek to take, the focus needs to be on seeking a position as a ‘thought leading problem-solver’ – this aligns to client feedback.

To do this, dma will need to start with a strategy focused on building a foundation level of thought leadership throughout 2017, together with some insight led activity. This is considered level 1 of the three levels of thought leadership.

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Three levels of Thought Leadership: dma’s Thought Leadership Strategy across the three levels:

Specific thought leadership tactics recommended are:

Initiative Details When Budget per year (ex GST)

Establish foundation level thought leadership

Confirm our technical thought leaders in each sector – aim for two per sector.This thought leader needs to become very involved in the relevant sector industry association. Each thought leader needs to contribute regularly to the ‘dma insights’ blog, creating shareable content for social media. They also need to be active publishers on LinkedIn, and active in online forums for their technical area.

Costs: public speaking and media training for thought leaders (as required) and potential PR assistance to pitch

Thought leaders identified by May 2017Blog and content calendar established by June 2017Plans completed by June 2017

$5,000 TBC

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thought leaders to potential magazine/blogs/websites to be published.

Establish Insight level thought leadership for 2018.

Establish a thought leadership think tank from the foundation level thought leadership group.Think tank is to identify an opportunity for dma to undertake research in the market with the aim of producing an annual publication that is of both value to clients and newsworthy.

Identify partnership opportunities for the research – i.e. an educational institution, client or like-minded services firm, or an industry association.

Costs: costs associated with research and publication.

Establish think tank by end of 2017.Identify research opportunity by Feb 2018Research complete and published by July 2018

$10,000 (2018)

Blog Get blog functionality added to the dma website as part of the website overhaul.

The name of the blog will be determined as part of the brand review, but it should be something like ‘dma insights’, like what ARUP do with ‘Arup thoughts’

Aim to post to the blog at least twice a month, using keywords identified as part of the keyword mapping undertaken for the social media strategy.

In addition to the identified thought leaders, other team members to be identified to contribute articles to the blog on a quarterly basis.

Develop content calendar and assign to content contributors.

Blog added by end of May 2017Content Calendar created by end May 2017Launch blog June 2017

Part of website costs

Conference Speaking

Submit papers to speak at the following:- 2018 World Hospital Congress Brisbane (hosted by

AHHA)

Add deadlines to marketing calendar once

Travels costs as applicable

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- 2017 IHEA Healthcare facilities management conference 2017 (AHHA) – October

- Australian Healthcare Week 2018 (March)- Health Facilities Design and Development

- Retail – to be discussed once industry associations are agreed.

agreed

Newsletters As we will be developing unique content for the dma blog, we should look to directly share this with clients via targeted industry e-newsletters. I would recommend establishing three newsletters that are issued once a quarter each:- Retail- Aged Care- Hospitals

Actions that will be needed to get these underway are:- Implement a CRM tool or at minimum a distribution

tool like Mailchimp.- Add newsletter sign up to the dma website.- Develop branded newsletter templates.

Launch in September 2017

$1,000 for design of newsletter templates$100/year for MailchimpCRM TBC.

Challenges and issues by industry sector that might influence our thought leadership topics and content strategy:

Aged Care:o Value for money v functionalityo Uncertainty with their development programs and bed allocation.o Providing a point of difference, being more attractive to clientso Affordability/viability of their developments.o Mode of care/client delivery - adding the flexibility.o Meeting deadlines and delivery dates.o Reputation of aged care providers.

Hospitals:o Existing health facilities need upgrading but the feasibility doesn’t exist.o Addressing requirements in a cost-effective way. Generating solutions to last another 20 years.

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o Funding.o Quality and compliance. Completion and commissioning on time.o Legionella outbreaks of late on existing hydraulic services costing hospitals bottom line eg Wesley and

Mater.Retail:

o Online shoppingo Amazono Competitors like Costco and Aldi who are doing things differentlyo The economy – people are spending lesso Delivery and deadlineso Staff churno Managing shut downs for refurbishmentso Changes in fit outs and store functionalityo Growth of clients like Kmart with homewares growtho Evolving design briefs/design evolution

5.3 Corporate Memberships and activity with select industry associations

Being active in our chosen industry associations is a critical opening game initiative in the services sector. According to research undertaken by RAIN Group in 2011, being active in industry associations is in the top 4 most effective lead generation tactics that can be undertaken by professional services firms.

A full list of industry associations needs to be agreed across all dma sectors, with internal sponsors for each nominated. Note that there should be alignment between the sponsors and the thought leaders identified previously.

Sector Association Details Who and When

Budget per year (ex GST)

General CEDA Membership not required but should attend relevant events and take clients.

$1,500

Infrastructure Association of Queensland

Have we been a member in the past? Potential for networking with

$600

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construction firms. Could just attend some events to start with.

Property Council of Australia Aim for a place on the Retail Committee by 2018, and the Retirement Living Committee.

TBC

UDIA Attend events as relevant

$400

BrisBim Memberships not available, attend events and seek participation on the committee.

TBC

Health – Hospitals

Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association

World Hospitals Congress is being held in Brisbane 10-12 October 2017

$1,500 inc GST

Institute of Healthcare Engineering

Corporate membership $760 inc GST

Australian Health Design Council

Seek committee membership - this was hosted in Brisbane by Conrad Gargett earlier this year.

$100 for an individual membership

Health – Aged Care

Leading Aged Services Australia (LASA) – Affiliate membership

National Congress Gold Coast 15-18 October 2017QLD state conference will be around March 2018

$1,354 + GST (to June 30 2018)

Retail Australian Retailers Association

TBC

Retail Design Institute There is no Australian TBC

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chapter – is this an opportunity for dma?

Design & Construct

Construction Industry Drinks and networking

Other relevant industry associations and events to be identified.

Attend future events.http://cidn.heise.com.au/events/book-your-tickets-for-aprils-cidn/

$22 per ticket – budget $500

5.4 Sponsorships

Paid sponsorships need to be properly leveraged and supported by pre-event and post-event activities from the individuals involved in the sponsorship as this is where the true value exists.

Where possible, speaking spots on conferences should be secured instead of taking paid sponsorship opportunities – these are far more valuable from a branding and thought leadership perspective. When combined with a sponsorship, speaking positions can be undermined in value if they are perceived to be paid speaking spots.

The focus for dma Sponsorships in 2017-2018 needs to be on sponsoring targeted seminars and events with industry associations aligned to Health and Retail. But where possible, we should look to develop these forums and seminars ourselves, in partnership with others, rather than waiting for others to organise them and then simply appear as a sponsor.

At this stage I have allowed for one sponsorship per industry sector per year, apart from Retail where I have allowed for two so we can build our profile with the Property Council. Budgets indicated include an allowance for supporting collateral and activities associated with this. Note that for each sponsorship this equates to a further 50% of the sponsorship fee. These activities may include:

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- Pre-or-post conference events that dma hosts for clients.- Supporting collateral or handouts for the event (thought leadership focused)- Social media campaigns, including the development of landing pages

A specific campaign plan for each sponsorship will need to be developed. Work still needs to be done with each sector lead to determine the key sponsorship for the year, and then negotiate with the relevant industry association around a particular opportunity.

Sector Details Who and When

Budget per year

Retail Sponsorship of QLD Property Council Retail event/s $6,000

Health – Hospitals

Sponsor an AHHA event, or an event like the Health Care/Health Design event for 2017: https://architecturemedia.com/media/am/uploads/Events/2016healthcarehealthdesign_fullprogram.pdfWorld Hospital Congress is being held in Brisbane in October 2017

$5,000

Health – Aged Care

Sponsor a LASA event $3,000

5.5 Events

While content marketing and thought leadership are considered to be the most effective opening game activities in 2015, in-person events are still considered to be strong lead generators and relationship builders, and are usually more valuable than sponsorships as they are more highly targeted and personalised.

The key to making these events of most value to clients is to ensure that there is always a mix of speakers/hosts, not just from dma. Ultimately clients don’t care where the best ideas come from – they just want to get access to the best ideas. dma needs to be seen to not only have smart thinking and new ideas, but to be able to facilitate access to other leading thinkers.

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Initiative Details Who/When Budget per year (ex GST)

Industry Forums As part our foundation level thought leadership, host an industry forum series for clients based on our technical thought leadership topics – innovation and smart thinking for retail and health built environments.

- Aim to host two per year per industry sector.- Investigate options to partner with other

organisations or industry associations where possible i.e.: partner with Conrad Gargett for an Aged Care event.

- Purpose is to bring together key clients in a dma hosted forum to talk about a topic we know is important to them. This does not require us to already have established thought leadership in this space – it is just positioning this as a topic we know is important, and we’re bringing together the best minds to discuss it.

- Invite key clients, plus other leading thinkers who can contribute to the conversation.

Commence in July 2017.

$1,500 per forum = $9,000 per year.

Insights research launch

Host an event to launch our insights research work (as part of our thought leadership strategy).

2018 $3,000

Annual client event

Annual client event – in 2017, this should be linked to the new office warming.

August 2017 $5,000

5.6 Social Media and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Social Media:Developing dma’s social media channels is critical so we have a platform on which to share content.Based on the competitor research undertaken, LinkedIn is the primary platform that we should focus on developing. This is consistent across most professional services organisations. While some organisations also have Facebook and it might be worthwhile considering setting up a dma Facebook account to simply have a presence

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there, the focus of our efforts should be on building dma’s LinkedIn profile in the first 3 months. I do not recommend starting at Twitter account at this point.

As part of our content strategy, some of our content should be created as video content and uploaded to YouTube. YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world after Google, so generating video content is important for SEO. It is also a point of difference as there is little activity with videos in the competitor space, as per the competitor review.

The key tactics to focus on are:- regular sharing on dma content to LinkedIn (minimum once per fortnight)- Regular sharing of third party retail and health content with dma commentary – the aim is to develop the

dma LinkedIn page as an information portal for insights on these topics.- LinkedIn Groups

o Our identified thought leaders are to identify 1-2 LinkedIn Groups to become active in (post comments at minimum once a week, post content once per month).

o Blog post authors are also to publish their content to LinkedIn to repurpose it and increase its reach.o Within 12 months, identify opportunity to develop our own LinkedIn group/s.

SEO:In terms of building dma’s SEO for dma to appear higher in google search rankings, for 2017 I recommend that dma focus on building SEO through content generation and keyword targeting, the content calendar and blog will be essential for this.

5.7 Advertising and Public Relations

Advertising:At this stage I do not recommend dma undertake any paid advertising as part of the marketing strategy.

Public Relations:

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Public Relations efforts should be focused on pitching dma content to external industry publications. Some of the publications to be targeted could include:

Retail:- Inside Retail- The Retail Voice

Hospitals:- Institute of Healthcare engineering – Healthcare Facilities Journal- Healthcare Design magazine (international) – pitch in association with Architects- Medical Construction and Design Magazine (international)- Health facilities Management (international)- Healthcare Design and management magazine (UK)- The Australian Hospital and Healthcare Bulletin- Healthcare Facilities Today (International)

Aged Care: - Institute of healthcare engineering – Healthcare facilities journal.- Aged Care Design- Australian Ageing Agenda

Note that these publications are also excellent sources of third party content for sharing on our social media platforms – the lead for each sector should be signed up to receive news alerts from these publications, with valuable content being shared to the dma LinkedIn page.

5.8 Award Submissions

Winning or being named a finalist in industry awards is valuable for building credibility for the firm, as well as relationship building for those clients we enter with or on behalf of. A targeted award submissions plan for 2017/2018 needs to be developed separately, with a focus on awards including:

Engineers Australia: Now held on a two-year cycle, no awards until 2018.Property Council: 2018 nominations open in August 2017

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IESANZ: QLD Lighting Design Awards – check June 2017. Luminaire design Awards – check May 2017.Others to be identified.

Budget – some award submissions include a fee, so I would recommend allowing for a $1,000 budget for Awards.

5.9 How will we measure success?

Each specific marketing tactic in the opening game will need to have it’s own set of measurables, however, overall the following measures of success will need to be tracked:

- Market awareness through client and prospect feedback- Client feedback on thought leadership and content marketing materials- Event attendance and feedback- Social media engagement and unique visits- Number of dma staff active in industry associations- Number of media mentions/articles published in external media/publications- Number of award submissions made and finalist positions announced.- Website activity – track click through and referrals through Google Analytics

6.Middle Game

In the middle game, our focus is on developing partner relationships with clients, positioning dma for specific identified opportunities, and ensuring we provide a high level of client service that generates repeat and referral work.

Our marketing strategy for the middle game will focus on the following five key elements:

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6.1 Key Client Relationship Management

In services and B2B organisations where there are a small number of high value clients, such as dma, it is critical to have an effective client relationship management program in place.

The keys to success of the client relationship management program are:

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- Starting with a small number of clients in the program and then building on that as success builds. I would recommend starting with 9 clients in the program – 3 clients per industry sector. Once these are up and running well, you can add more.

- Have a mix of current high value clients and future potential clients in the mix.- Making sure the right people are running the client team (Client Director) and the right team is in place (only

those people who are 100% committed to the success of the client) from a cross-section of the business.- KPIs are in place for Client Directors and Client Team members.- Rewarding and recognising those who run the client teams so it is not just seen as an additional piece of

work.- Create a community amongst the Client Directors so they can share their experiences. Provide regular

upskilling and training opportunities as required.- Getting the balance right on reporting – too much reporting will make the program too inwardly focused. But

it’s important that Client Directors are being held accountable for client engagement and growth.- Making sure client teams have the right skills to engage with clients and build trusted partner relationships.- Bringing the client in as part of the planning and strategy process – this is a critical opportunity to really build

the relationship with them.- Ensure Client Directors have access to the project and financial information they need to make informed

decisions.- Develop a platform for information sharing about the client’s business, industry and our meetings with the

client. This can be done through sharepoint, or a specific CRM program such as salesforce.- An internal communications plan needs to be in place to ensure all staff are aware of the program and which

clients are part of it, and to be able to recognise achievements made with that client.- Communication protocols are in place for each of the key clients – for example, how and when do people

need to let the Client Director know if they are intending to speak to or visit the client.

The key actions that need to be undertaken to launch the key client program are:

Activity Details Who/When Budget per year (ex GST)

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Client Teams nominated and agreed

Confirm 9 clients to launch the program with.Nominate Client Directors for each client. Client Directors to nominate Client Teams.

Allen PBy end of May 2017

Time only

Reporting KPIs for client teams established.Key Client Strategy templates developed for workshops.Internal reporting process agreed.Establish CRM/sharing platform for each client.

KK and APJune 2017

TBC depending on CRM/sharing platform.

Kick off Workshops held to develop strategy for each key client.CD to present strategy to leadership.Strategy to be made available on the agreed sharing platform.

KK and APJuly 2017-August 2017

Time only

Skills Training for all Client facing staff in relationship building and sales skills.

May 2017 $12,000

Communications Send communications to all staff to launch the program internally.

KK and APJune 2017

Time only

Ongoing management Client teams to meet monthly for update meetings on actions, and quarterly to revisit the strategy.Client Directors to be evaluated annually on progress against the strategy.Client Directors to meet quarterly to share experiences. Comms rep to attend this meeting to seek stories for sharing more broadly around the organisation.

Client Directors

Time only

Key clients to be considered:33

Aged Care: - Current: Regis (has been good but staff changes necessitate rebuilding), Sundale, RSL, Prescare, Woollam

Constructions, Tricare- Targets: Anglicare, Blue Care, McKenzie, St Vincents, Aveo, Greengate, Bupa.

Hospitals:- For Regional spend: Mater, Montserrat, Evans Built, QLD Health Remote Districts.- Architects: Thomson Adsett, Cox, DWP Suters.- Others: Ramsay Health Care, BASS.

Retail:- Current: McDonalds, Aldi, Coles, Stockland, - Re-engage with Westfield, Centro, Charter Hall.- Target: Service Stations, 7/11.- Metrocash- Industry Super Funds- Fire: Outback Steak House- Architects: TRG, Cayas, PDT.

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6.2 Opportunity Management

Through the client relationship management program, we need to identify major opportunities in advance so dma can position to win them. At present, we usually don’t understand what the opportunities are in the market until the tender is issued, which is too late for any positioning work to be done. We need to be identifying these opportunities much earlier on so we can plan and pre-position for them, increasing our chances of being successful and reducing the need to provide discounted or low pricing to try to win.

When a major opportunity is identified, we should run an Opportunity positioning workshop with the client team. This will help us to identify what gaps we have in our knowledge about the project, what relationships gaps with have with the decision makers that will need to be filled, and plan our strategy to win.

I would recommend running workshops for all opportunities with potential fees over $100k.

Some of the opportunities that have been identified include:

Hospitals:- No specific opportunities identified, but it is understood that the maintenance and upgrades of regional

health facilities and refurbishments of regional hospitals is where the major opportunities lie.Aged Care:

- None identified.Retail:- Shopping centre refurbishments- Regional areas including Western Corridor and Sunshine Coast- Aura- Biloela

6.3 Client Service

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As a service based business, dma needs to create consistent, positive client service experiences that give competitive advantage and support business growth. This goes beyond the key client program – this reaches across all staff at dma, as every single staff member has a part to play in the service that clients receive – whether or not they are in a client facing role.

Putting client service standards into place helps staff connect to the HOW of dma’s Values. The values state what we expect staff to do, the client service standards give them specific direction and guidance on how they actually live the values, including:

- Be accountable for actions and results, successes and failures.- Be honest and reliable.- Anticipate and create solutions that meet our client’s needs and exceed their expectations.- Continuously improve service for our customers.

There are many, many things that organisations can do when it comes to improving client service. The key is to identify and focus on only those attributes that are most important to clients.

We know from our own client feedback that we provide somewhat inconsistent service to our clients. We meet expectations but we rarely exceed them, and our client service is not nominated as a differentiator for us by any of our clients. We know that there is opportunity for improvement in our reliability and proactive communications in particular.

We also know from the Beaton Client Choice research, that the most important factors for clients and prospects when considering a firm to use are reliability, responsiveness and understanding their business. This provides guidance for us on what to focus our efforts on when it comes to client service.

The desired outcomes of a client service program would be to ensure: All employees are aware of the important role they play in servicing dma’s clients, how they can live dma’s

values, and how they can personally impact dma’s growth aspirations. Employees have greater confidence in communicating with clients for a positive outcome even in difficult

circumstances. Employees have clear guidelines and tools to use when communicating with clients.

Client Service also presents an excellent opportunity to reward and recognise staff for behaviours that encourage business growth.

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Activity Details Who/When Budget per year (ex GST)

Establish client service vision, principles and basic standards

Involve employees in the creation of a service vision and service standards that are exclusive to dma employees. They decide what the experience of being a dma client should look and feel like, what the team behaviours are and what the service standards are. They get the scope to put their own stamp on how they engage, while still maintaining base standards.

September 2017

Workshop only

Client Service Quality Program

The customer service quality program embeds the service behaviours into the business, and challenges employees to continually look for new ways to improve service and delight customers. It connects good service to employee job satisfaction, recognition and fulfilment. The key elements are:

- staff training- Development of service principles books and

toolkits for staff

October 2017

$2,000

Reward and Recognition Program

Establish a reward and recognition program linked to the client service standards.This needs to be linked to a communications program so that client service success stories can be shared across the business -this enables all staff to get a clearer picture on how to bring the client service standards to life, and helps to set a benchmark.

October 2017

$4,000 (annual)

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6.4 Client Feedback

Seeking regular client feedback is not only important to help inform business decisions, but it’s a critical part of developing a partner relationship with our clients. For clients, this is not only an opportunity for them provide feedback that they might not otherwise have a chance to do, but it demonstrates to them that they are important to us, and that we want to invest time and resources into understanding them better. At present, dma undertakes no formal or regular feedback mechanisms with clients, however a small number of in-depth interviews have been completed to help inform the business and marketing strategy.

It is recommended that the following client feedback structure be put in place at dma:

Feedback type Details Who and When BudgetEstablish feedback process

This would include identifying and developing:- questionnaires and methodology for each type of

review.- survey tools/methods for each feedback type- frequency that we would survey any one client

across multiple projects

By October 2017 Nil – time only

Project Milestone reviews.For any major projects that span a long-time period (over 12 months) it’s important that formal project milestone reviews are being undertaken. These should be undertaken by someone not specifically related to the project – either someone senior from dma, or an external consultant.The questions in this review should be specific to project performance.

Nil unless engaging an external interviewer

End of Project reviews.As above, but at the end of a project.Depending on the value of the project, this may be

TBC

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conducted in-person, by phone or online.Tracking the Net Promoter Score (NPS) would be an important element of this review.Need to determine how often a single client who we do multiple projects for would be asked for feedback.Project dashboards.Project review information needs to be collated into a projects dashboard or project review meetings for ratings to be monitored, red flags to be followed up, and common themes to be identified that may need to be actioned.This is also a critical tool for Client Directors to be able to assess performance on projects with key clients.

TBC

Client Relationship

Annual key client relationship interviews.An in-depth interview to be conducted annually with each nominated key client. This is to be undertaken by one of the leadership team who is not directly involved with the client, together with a representative from marketing or an external consultant.

Time only

Reward and Recognition

Develop a plan for a reward and recognition process for Project Managers and project teams who receive excellent feedback in the project reviews.

By October 2017 TBC

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6.5 Sales collateral

The intent of the ENGAGE training program is to give staff the tools and confidence they need to ‘sell’ without the need for a lot of written sales support materials such as capability statements and brochures, which are usually relied on too heavily, yet never read by the client.

However, from time to time during the sales process written documentation in the form of a capability statement or proposal will be required, or we may need some written collateral to support an event of conference that we are hosting. It is important that where possible, any materials we develop are as tailored as possible to the intended client, low in self-orientation, high in perceived value and not generic.

To help facilitate the development of this kind of sales collateral I recommend that we develop the following:

What Details Who/When CostTemplates Branded word templates for capability statements

Branded word templates for proposalsBranded word template for project profiles

After brand development work completed

$1,500

Sector collateral A printed resource for each of the 3 industry sectors – Retail, Hospitals, Aged Care.These need to be developed as a resource for clients rather than a self-promotional brochure for dma. They should contain information about the future of the industry, future of design and built environments, industry insights, and insights from projects we have worked on.

As above $4,500

Research Insights As per the thought leadership section of this plan, an outcome of the insights research will be a printed document that can be used as the primary piece of sales collateral for client meetings.

As per 5.2 As per 5.2

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6.6 How will we measure success?

To measure the success of the key client program, in the first year the success measures need to be focused on the activity that is being undertaken such as:

- a client strategy is in place- client teams are meeting regularly- perceived value of client interactions

In the longer term, measures of success will include:- account growth – increased margins.- client feedback- volume of cross-sell- Referral and repeat work from key clients.

Other success measures will include:- Success of the client service program will be measured by client feedback (satisfaction ratings across each

nominated criteria), and staff feedback.- Success of opportunity management will be win rates for major opportunities ($100k+)- Success of the client feedback process will be the number of projects reviewed and key clients interviewed

within 12 months.

7.Budget

Final total budget for Opening, Middle and End game activities TBC.

Other general items to be budgeted for include:41

- CRM system (TBC)- Stock photography - $300/year- Canva – graphic design tool that can be used by non-graphic designers. $150/year.- Merchandise - $1,500/year.

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