The strategy project

A marketing plan does not start with channels, campaigns or content. First it must be clear who you want to reach, why that customer chooses you, and which message makes that credible. Every euro spent before those choices are made buys activity, not direction.

That is why this project starts with a diagnosis, not with solutions. It runs in three steps, each with a concrete deliverable. The end result is a strategy specific to your organisation and your market — not a filled-in template — translated into a roadmap for the next 90 or 180 days.

What you receive

Marketing strategy memo

the diagnosis, the key insights, the strategic choices on audiences, positioning and core message, and the measurement model. The reference point for every subsequent marketing decision, internally and for whoever executes.

Presentation deck

the core of the strategy in presentation form, to explain the choices to management, staff and partners. So everyone understands why choices were made, not just what they are.

90- or 180-day roadmap

a concrete execution plan with priorities, sequence and timing. Every action gets an owner, a measurement point and room to set its own budget.

Strategy working session

I present the first version in person and discuss it with the people involved. One revision round follows, then final delivery.

Step 1: Diagnosis

Every engagement starts with the commercial diagnosis — the same diagnosis you can also commission on its own. The project does not begin with a round of introductions. At the start you receive a focused questionnaire: the information I need to make the diagnosis. Your answers form the first working document of the project. Where those answers raise questions, or where several key people are involved (management, sales, operations), a short focused conversation follows. Topics include:

the business itself: roles, offer, revenue model, relative margins, ambitions
the customer: who buys, through which channel, with which doubts
the lead flow: where leads come from and what happens to them
current channels: what runs today and what it produces
measurement: what is actually being tracked today
the competition: who wins which deals, and why
existing proof: references, numbers and guarantees that go unused today

I also ask for access to what already exists, where available: Analytics, ad accounts, Google Business Profile, social channels, CRM or lead list. Numbers are verified, not copied. If little or nothing is being measured, that is not a problem: that too is a finding, and the strategy takes it into account.

Step 2: Strategic choices

The diagnosis must lead to choices. This phase answers, among others:

Audience: which customers are commercially most interesting, and who the marketing targets first.
Buying motives and objections: what the customer really wants to solve, and which doubt slows the decision.
Positioning: on which relevant point the company credibly distinguishes itself from the alternatives.
Core message: which single conviction a buyer must accept for the rest of the offer to become self-evident.
Offer: whether the offer is presented sharply enough, in structure, proof and guarantees.
Lead generation and conversion: through which channels the right prospects are reached, and where customers are lost today.
Measurement: which numbers determine whether the strategy is working.

These choices are tested against what the competition claims, what customers value, and what the available data shows. Where proof is missing, an assumption is explicitly marked as an assumption.

Step 3: Strategy and roadmap

The findings come together in one coherent strategy, translated into the roadmap. Not every action gets equal priority: the roadmap makes clear what must happen first, what depends on it, and what deliberately comes later or does not happen at all. The time horizons: immediately, the first month, the months after.

I present the first version in a working session, not just by email. Questions are handled on the spot, factual errors corrected. After this discussion, one revision round follows and the final delivery of memo, deck and roadmap. The measurement model is part of it: how results are concretely tracked, so later discussions are about numbers, not impressions.

How I work

I start by listening, not with assumptions. Your answers, the available numbers and my own research come before conclusions.
Choices over a long list of ideas. A strategy also says what does not happen for now.
Every claim is backed by data, or explicitly marked as an assumption.
Communication is direct and free of jargon, even when the subject is technical.
The result is one coherent system, not loose actions side by side.

What the project fee covers, and what it doesn’t

The diagnosis, the strategy and the roadmap form one whole, at a fixed project fee agreed in advance. Not per hour, not split into parts. The reason is substantive: the parts depend on each other. Delivering only a competitor analysis, or only a positioning exercise, produces a weaker, less usable result.

Execution is not part of this project: managing ads, producing content, changing a website, technical implementations, media budget. That distinction is deliberate. Locking in execution budgets before the strategy exists means deciding on resources before it is clear where they will earn the most. The plan sets the priorities, not whoever executes them: that can be your internal team, an existing partner, or an executor chosen once it is clear what work there is.

Included in this project	Not included
Questionnaire, focused conversations where needed, analysis of data, market and competition	Execution itself: managing ads, writing content, changing a website
Strategy memo, presentation deck, 90- or 180-day roadmap	Media budget and technical implementations
Working session, one revision round, final delivery	Guidance and follow-up after delivery: separate engagement, on request

After the strategy

The roadmap can be executed by your own people, by partners you already work with, or by executors chosen on the basis of the roadmap. If you want guidance during execution, that is available as a separate engagement: I direct the executors, guard progress against the roadmap and adjust based on results, with a two-weekly working rhythm. In the opening weeks that guidance is more intensive; it tapers off as the system starts running. Scope and fee are agreed separately.

Turnaround

From start to final delivery: typically two to four weeks. The clock starts when the questionnaire is answered and access is arranged — not at signature. At the start, a concrete date is agreed for every step.

Phase	Indicative timing
Questionnaire answered, access arranged, focused conversations where needed	Week 1
Research, diagnosis and first draft of the strategy	Week 1–3
Working session and revision round	Week 3
Final strategy memo, presentation deck and roadmap	Week 3–4

Investment

The entry point is the commercial diagnosis: €2,900, fixed. That standard rate applies to a typical single-location business in Belgium.

If your situation demonstrably requires more work at the start — multiple locations across the country, locations abroad, deliverables in more than one language, or physical attendance at, for example, a board meeting — the rate is higher. I say so immediately, as soon as that information is on the table, and the amount is fixed before the start. No surprises afterwards.

If, after the diagnosis, you decide to do the full strategy project, that project fee is set per engagement, based on scope and complexity, and it too is fixed before the project starts. Guidance during execution and the execution itself are discussed separately once the strategy makes clear what is needed.

Commercial clarity over marketing activity. The first step is the intake on the homepage — ten minutes, no pitch.

Start the intake ↘