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Marketing has become too important to leave to chance.
Your website needs to perform. Your brand needs to stand out. Your customers need to find you. Your sales team needs better support. Your content needs to demonstrate expertise. And increasingly, your business needs to be visible not just on Google, but across AI-powered search.
But who is actually responsible for making all of that happen?
That’s where S2F becomes your virtual marketing department.
We provide the strategic thinking, creative expertise, digital capability and practical marketing support you need without the cost and complexity of building a complete marketing team internally.
One team. One strategy. One point of contact. Your marketing taken care of.
Building an internal marketing department can be expensive.
You might need a marketing manager, designer, copywriter, SEO specialist, web developer, social media expert and campaign manager and that’s before you consider the specialist skills you only need occasionally.
Then there are the additional costs: recruitment, salaries, National Insurance, pension contributions, holiday and sick cover, training, software, equipment and the management time needed to coordinate the team. And when you need a specialist skill that isn’t available internally, you’ll often end up outsourcing it anyway.
With a virtual marketing department, you get access to all those capabilities when you need them without having to carry the cost of a full internal team.
You are investing in the marketing expertise your business needs, rather than paying for a department of people you may not need every day.
It’s a more flexible way to build serious marketing capability.
One team to take care of your marketing. Imagine having an experienced marketing team available to your business without having to recruit one.
A strategist who understands where you’re going, a creative team that brings your brand to life, digital specialists who make you visible and content experts and web developers who make your website work harder.
All working together directed by an account manager who meets you weekly/monthly to suit your budget. We bring these capabilities together as one team, working around your business rather than selling you disconnected marketing services.
A great marketing strategy is worthless if nobody implements it. Equally, producing marketing activity without a strategy is unlikely to deliver the results your business needs.
Our approach connects the two. Think. Plan. Create. Deliver. Measure. Improve.
We can help you define your proposition, identify your audiences, develop your strategy and then deliver the campaigns, content, website, digital activity and creative required to make it happen.
You don’t get a report telling you what you should do, you get a team that does it.
Your virtual marketing department can provide as much or as little support as your business requires.
We start with your business objectives – not a list of marketing activities. We identify where marketing can make the biggest commercial difference, then build a practical strategy around it.
We help you articulate what makes your business different and why your target customers should choose you. From proposition and messaging to brand identity and campaigns, everything works from the same strategic foundation.
Your website should be one of your best sales tools. We create websites designed to communicate what you do, demonstrate expertise, attract the right visitors and turn interest into enquiries.
Being found matters. We optimise your website and content so your business can be discovered through traditional search and increasingly through AI-powered search experiences. That means creating useful, authoritative content around the questions your customers ask and demonstrating genuine expertise.
our expertise is one of your biggest marketing assets. We turn the knowledge within your business into content that your customers actually want to consume. From thought leadership and case studies to blogs, guides, landing pages, video and social content.
Marketing should contribute to your pipeline. We develop campaigns and activity designed to reach the right audiences, generate interest and create relevant opportunities for your sales team.
Being active isn’t enough. Your social channels should have a purpose, communicate your expertise and help keep your business visible to the people who matter.
From campaign concepts and presentations to brochures, exhibitions, photography and video, our creative team provides the skills you need to make your brand stand out.
Marketing and sales should work together. We provide the content, campaigns, case studies, presentations and other tools your sales team needs to start better conversations and progress opportunities.
We don’t just deliver marketing and disappear. We review performance, discuss what’s happening with you and continually look for opportunities to improve.
“With 720% increase in online lead generation, S2F have contributed massively to our fantastic growth over the last 10 years.”
Matthew Rose Sales Director, MWA Technology
Outsourcing your marketing isn’t simply about saving money. It’s about getting the right capability without having to build and manage all of it yourself.
How many people currently touch your marketing? A web company, SEO agency, freelance graphic designer or a PR company. And perhaps someone internally trying to keep everyone moving in the same direction.
It can become a full-time job just managing the marketing. Our virtual marketing department brings those capabilities together.
One strategy. One team. One relationship.
That means less time coordinating suppliers and more time concentrating on running your business.
“Arrange a FREE strategy session over Teams”
The real value isn’t simply having lots of specialists; it’s having specialists who work together.
That’s why we don’t operate as a collection of separate suppliers. We operate as your marketing team.
Your marketing should sound like you
Outsourcing doesn’t mean handing your brand to an agency and hoping they understand it, quite the opposite.
The longer we work with a client, the better we understand their business, their people, their customers and their ambitions. That knowledge becomes part of the marketing.
Marketing and sales shouldn’t operate in separate worlds.
Your salespeople know what prospects are asking, they know which objections are slowing deals down, they know which competitors keep appearing, they know which sectors are generating opportunities.
We turn that insight into marketing. That might mean new content, campaigns, landing pages, case studies, sales presentations or a completely different proposition. We work with your sales team and become part of their sales process giving them the tools to sell more effectively.
You don’t need the same marketing resource every month, that’s normal. Perhaps you’re launching a new service, entering a new market, rebranding the business, exhibiting at a major event or even launching a new website.
Your virtual marketing department can flex around those requirements with an underlying objective of accelerating lead generation. We start with what you need, add capability as you grow and can even manage your whole marketing function.
Results, not marketing by numbers. We don’t measure success by how much marketing activity we can squeeze into a month, we measure it against what you’re trying to achieve.
Depending on your objectives, that could mean improving:
The right metrics are the ones that help you make better commercial decisions. Marketing activity should have a reason.
The marketing department of tomorrow won’t look exactly like the marketing department of yesterday. AI is already changing how people search, research businesses, create content and make buying decisions.
We’re embracing that change.
We use AI to improve productivity, research markets, analyse information, develop ideas and streamline marketing processes. But technology isn’t the strategy and AI isn’t the customer. People still buy from people.
Our approach is to combine technology with human creativity, strategic thinking and commercial understanding. The future should never be AI instead of people.
The virtual marketing department isn’t a new idea for us. It was part of the thinking behind S2F when the business was founded in 2005.
Having previously worked within UK and international marketing departments, we understood the frustration of managing multiple agencies for different aspects of marketing. The original S2F proposition was created to give businesses access to experienced marketers who could look after and manage their marketing from start to finish.
Nearly two decades later, the channels and technology have changed, but the principle remains the same.
Today, S2F brings together strategy, account management, creative, content, web, digital, video, photography, PR and other specialist capabilities under one roof.
And because we work collaboratively with our clients, your objectives become our objectives.
You don’t need another supplier. You need someone to understand your business, take responsibility for your marketing and help turn your ambitions into action. That’s what your virtual marketing department should do. That’s what S2F does.
We’ll sit down with you and your team, understand where the business is heading, look at what your marketing is currently doing and identify where the biggest opportunities are.
No generic presentation, no off-the-shelf package, no obligation. Just a proper conversation about your business and what your marketing needs to deliver.
A virtual marketing department is an external team that operates as an extension of your business, providing the strategic, creative, digital and specialist expertise normally associated with an internal marketing department.
A virtual marketing department brings multiple disciplines together under one strategy and one team. This means your website, brand, content, SEO, campaigns and lead generation can work towards the same objectives, while giving you one point of contact and responsibility.
Yes. S2F can provide a complete outsourced marketing function, from strategy and brand development through to website development, SEO, content, campaigns, creative, social media, lead generation and reporting. The level of support is shaped around your business.
Absolutely. An external team can complement an existing marketing manager or small team by providing additional strategic and specialist expertise. Equally, S2F can take responsibility for the entire marketing function where a business chooses to outsource it.
It can be, depending on the size and requirements of your business. The comparison should consider the total cost of recruiting and employing multiple specialists, including salaries, National Insurance, pensions, recruitment, training, software, equipment, holiday and sick cover. A virtual marketing department gives you access to a wider range of expertise without carrying all of those costs internally.
What we’ve achieved over the last two days has been nothing short of phenomenal. S2F has been a pleasure to work in partnership with! This has left us all thinking about what comes next in the Nielsen. Thanks again for all of the hard work and support your giving us!
Graham Robertson Head of Sales, Nielsen
I just wanted to say that I think you have done a great job on the website. The photography etc is great giving the right look, feel and overall impression of the company; way beyond anything PMP has had online before. It will be interesting to see what comes from the marketing initiatives I know you are planning to drive prospects to the site.
Simon Lane Chairman, PMP Essex
I’ve worked with S2F for 8 years, their service has always been ‘spot on’.
Richard Wileman Managing Director, Wileman Fleet
We have been working with S2F for a number of years now and their professionalism and creative design has taken our brand to the next level. By creating a structured and proactive marketing strategy for our company we have seen a huge increase in sales over this period.
Ian Bytheway Managing Director, Conveyor Units
In S2F we have finally found a marketing company that has genuinely strived to understand our growth opportunities, and their experience has both strengthened our strategy, and focused our customer offering
Richard Barton Group CEO, Strip Tinning
S2F understand design and appreciate the overall strategy of sales and marketing. A group of OEMs such as us need a return on our investment. We need to make sure that all marketing is in line with our business objectives and reinforces the sales and marketing goals and deliverables.
Peter Davies Chairman, MAN Group
S2F are innovative and proactive marketeers who take the time to really understand what our customer wants.
Chris Wood Managing Director, DWV
S2F really understand our business. I would gladly recommend them to anyone.
Adam Land Operations Director, TechnoGroup
S2F Marketing have been a massive help in supporting Magic of Milly. Websites, branding and supporting our events. I would recommend S2F to any charity looking to grow
Emma Hill Founder, Magic of Milly
S2F impressed me from day 1, as we had some immediate needs – a global partners event within a few days of my 1st discussion with Warren. He mobilised a team to support what turned out to be a very successful event, and we haven’t looked back since. Many thanks to Warren and his excellent team, they feel like an integral part of our company.
Alan Peel Chairman, Impression Technologies (ITL)
S2F Marketing have been instrumental in the success of Freddie’s Wish. Creative, supportive, and always a pleasure to deal with. S2F really understand the charity sector.”
Charlotte Founder, Freddie’s Wish
With 720% increase in online lead generation, S2F have contributed massively to our fantastic growth over the last 10 years.
Matthew Rose Sales Director, MWA Technology
If you’re looking to speak casually to an expert about a possible retainer or a specific marketing project, just fill in the form and we’ll come back to you that same working day.