Who is nC²?

nC² Engineering Consulting is one of the leading engineering firms specialising in solving complex technical engineering challenges. They provide expert advice and services within materials and surface science, mechanical testing, failure analysis, and corrosion control.

As an enterprise unit within the University of Southampton, nC² can access world-leading expertise and cutting edge facilities across all areas of science and engineering. Partnering with nC² means companies can access the most advanced expertise and solutions, as well as support further research and development via the University. 

What marketing challenges did nC² face?

The marketing strategy for engineering consultancy firm nC² was fragmented with a lack of cohesion, clarity and deliverables. The various digital marketing activities from social media, to email marketing, were not aligned and delegated effectively between internal and external stakeholders. Within engineering marketing, consistency of brand voice is critical, and nC² was experiencing issues with being able to effectively communicate their key message and unique selling points to their target audience.

This problem meant that their messaging showed inconsistencies and looked different on different digital marketing channels. Having a consistent message is key, so core values and key propositions are always communicated front and centre. It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it. Different stakeholders produced content in varying tones, resulting in inconsistent messaging across platforms. This made it harder for prospects to understand nC²’s core capabilities and values.

Additionally, The nC² team’s priorities sat within completion of scientific research and technical problem solving projects. Too much time spent on marketing would take valuable project time away. This lack of marketing skillset and ownership within the team led to marketing not being considered enough in business planning. Over time this led to a decrease in new business for nC², and they were relying too heavily on their current clients. 

 Our strategic marketing solution

Creating a marketing strategy for an engineering consultancy firm like nC² requires careful planning and preparations, and deep stakeholder collaboration. We began by engaging internal and external teams to understand their challenges, opportunities and priorities. Engineering firms can sit within a wide range of specialties, and with nC²’s tie to the University of Southampton, we also had to make sure that our strategic marketing plan aligned with the impact goals of the University.

We worked closely with the internal and external stakeholders to formulate a streamlined brand messaging and tone of voice strategy. We distinguished how they currently communicate with their marketing, and what they would like to change. From this we developed their defined tone of voice – this is to ensure their website copy doesn’t sound completely different to their LinkedIn posts or email marketing.

We established that their team needed to be trained on how to effectively utilise the nC² LinkedIn page as well as their own pages. We worked with a specialised training partner to modernise their LinkedIn strategy with a comprehensive team training session, this way they felt fully equipped to engage in the digital marketing strategy.

Our audit of nC²’s digital presence revealed untapped  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) potential. We engaged one of our marketing associates and dedicated  SEO partner PinkSEO Ltd to enhance the website’s visibility and ensured alignment between ongoing SEO and other marketing activities. This minimised overlap and maximised reach across different prospect segments.

We ensured this SEO strategy was aligned with their current Pay Per Click (PPC) activity on google ads, ensuring that they were working harmoniously and targeting different prospect segments, not working against each other by competing for the same clicks on google.

While we focused our marketing on driving traffic to the website, we wanted to make sure the website was properly optimised for lead generation and with the right amount of work-related content. We worked closely with a copywriter to rewrite sections of the website and formulate new client case studies, as well as add new call to action’s (CTA’s). 

To ensure that we were competitively strong in the market, we conducted a thorough competitor review for nC², where we analysed their top 10 competitors. This competitor review looked at competitor websites, social medias, online ads, finances, strategies, and more. From this we developed a series of recommendations and updates we could make to improve compared to the competitors. 

Finally, We introduced a  newsletter ‘nC² Insights’, aimed at educating prospects and clients about the breadth of tasks that they can support with, provide company and team updates, and drive new opportunities through thought leadership and technical content. 

Delivering this marketing strategy required monthly status sessions with our team to assess progress, allocate resources, brainstorm new ideas, and contribute as much as we can to making a positive impact on their marketing and business. 

The results from our marketing strategy

• nC² achieved a turnover of £1.1 million, more than the previous two years combined, surpassing targets.
• Due to a rapid increase in enquiries, an additional expert was hired to support demand
• Search Engine Optimisation effectiveness score from Google grew from 61% to 91%, demonstrating a demonstrable improvement in effectiveness reaching prospects via google search
• Grew the total website traffic by 67% in a 12 month period
• Annual new clients grown from 12 to 29 in a 2 year period

Services we delivered for nC²

• Marketing Kick-Off
• Strategic Marketing Plan
• Competitor Review
• Ongoing Strategic Consultancy
• SEO onboarding
• PPC review
• Website review
• Newsletter launch

Testimonials

“We have been working with Tabitha since January 2024 – she is very knowledgeable, easy to approach and has helped us very much in producing a new marketing strategy and bringing it to life. We would definitely recommend collaborating with her.” 

Dr Ilaria Corni, nC² Engineering Consultancy, University of Southampton

“We needed a B2B marketing expert and turned to The Marketing Associates, all I can say is that I wish we had been working with them sooner, their professionalism and strategy they brought to our marketing has had a ten-fold increase in our work we do.”

Professor Nicola Symonds, nC² Engineering Consultancy, University of Southampto

Contact us to discuss how we can help drive business results with an integrated marketing strategy. At The Marketing Associates, we specialise in strategic freelance marketing support for professional service practices, providing excellent quality advice on your marketing strategy to develop and grow your business on a retained basis. 

FAQ’s

How do you typically market an engineering firm?

Marketing an engineering firm requires a strategic approach that highlights expertise, credibility, and strong technical understanding. Unlike consumer marketing, audiences in the engineering sector expect depth, precision, and evidence of competence before making a decision. Establishing who your audience is, can be the first step that can take you towards a marketing strategy. In the engineering industry customers can sometimes be technical experts who demand deep knowledge in the field in which they are seeking help from, customers can also be middle management or operations workers who know they have a problem but are not sure what to do, or how to solve it. Figuring out who you are targeting, can allow you to establish how you want your business to communicate what it does, as well as its areas of knowledge. 

Once you have your ideal customers and messaging strategy defined, then you can look into the market and establish where your customers are. What events do they go to? What kind of things do they search for on google? What content do they consume?. These are all key questions which will point you in the right direction when it comes to knowing what marketing channels you should use. For example if your customers all go to a specific engineering event, you might want to sponsor or exhibit at the event, as well as sponsor the events newsletter. 

How do you typically market a consulting firm?

The consulting industry is built from companies and individuals having specific, niche, or often complex problems that demand expert attention. The first step for building a marketing strategy for a consulting firm is to carefully define what problems you are solving for your customers. Looking at this first will give you the ability to decipher how you can best communicate your understanding of these problems, as well as effectively communicate what your solutions are. Once you understand how your solutions can cater to customer problems, you can next look to the marketing channels in which you can best communicate these issues to your audience. This is the basis of a marketing strategy for an engineering company