You hold the answer to your own question

The difference between a marketing company and a marketing support company is that the former can only tell you what they think you need to do, whereas the latter – Big Red Moose, no surprises there – will support your existing activities. We can help with the strategy if required, but most companies that have been in business for a while clearly have got a fair old grip on what marketing activities have worked and continue to work for them.

One of our clients springs to mind that will serve well as an illustration. The company concerned has been in business for well over sixty years, is one of the biggest and well respected in its sector, and is run by the Managing Director who is blunter than a really blunt thing. Should a marketing company try and tell him how best to market his company, the shrift they would get would be far shorter than they ever could have imagined. The reason is simply that they know what they are doing, so they don’t need an enthusiastic twenty-five-year-old graduate suggesting they need to promote themselves exclusively through social media.

The reason, one supposes, is that business people have an instinctive feel for what works for their organisation, and in a lot of cases, a lifetime of experience. There is another pointer that can also help. We are all consumers; we all eat, need insurance, most drive, and bank somewhere. If you’re selling to consumers, simply look at the drivers that persuaded you to buy, and that will give you an insight in how a scaled-up campaign works. If you are B2B, then it is more complicated, although focussing on how your suppliers marketed and sold to you may well be fruitful.

So, if you ever have to ask yourself the question of how to market your own organisation, the likelihood is that you already know. But if you need support in doing it, insights in to what new techniques work and which are tech-fads, and you look for value for money, you’ll know who to call.