Agency collaboration case study

At Method Marketing, we regularly partner with specialist agencies to deliver expert marketing services on a white-label or network basis. One such collaboration saw us working with a PR agency to support an early-stage startup developing an AI-powered cloud accounting solution. As part of a project led by the agency, we delivered a strategic marketing plan to clarify the client’s positioning, uncover growth opportunities and provide a clear roadmap to build awareness and drive engagement.

The challenge

The client had developed a highly technical, cloud-based SaaS platform with advanced AI capabilities for accounting. However, as a small startup, they lacked internal marketing expertise and needed a clear strategy to bring their product to market. Their challenge extended beyond visibility – they needed to articulate their value, identify their audiences, and set realistic, scalable marketing priorities.

The agency managing the relationship needed a trusted partner to bring depth of marketing expertise to the table.

The approach

We were approached with a clear brief: to create a strategic marketing plan for the client. We began by explaining our process to the agency team, then worked collaboratively to schedule and prepare a discovery session with the client.

Method Marketing then led an in-depth immersion workshop, exploring:

• Business background and objectives
• Founding story, team capacity and tech stack
• Core values and differentiators
• Target market(s) and use cases
• Industry landscape and known competitors

A structured slide deck guided the session and explained the rationale behind each area of questioning. This helped ensure clarity, alignment, and the extraction of insights that would later inform the strategy.

Following the workshop, we carried out independent research and analysis, including:

• Audience research to build buyer personas and understand decision-maker behaviours
• Competitor research to assess the market, content trends and opportunities for differentiation
• A SWOT analysis to highlight internal and external factors impacting growth

From this, we developed a detailed strategy featuring:

• Brand positioning and messaging
• Strategic objectives aligned with business goals
• Channel recommendations across the full marketing funnel
• Content, email, social and personal branding ideas

We then created a final presentation that highlighted key insights and recommendations, supported by detailed rationale and references in an appendix. This served both as a delivery tool and a valuable reference for the client moving forward.

Throughout the project, we worked as a seamless extension of the agency team, providing regular updates and checking in on key decisions. We led the strategy presentation, with the agency team joining the call to offer support and context.

The results

The client was energised by the insights, creativity and clarity the strategy provided. It sparked further ideas during the session and gave them a clear way to map activity to internal resources. After receiving the final deck, they followed up with questions to explore how the recommendations could be tailored to their specific business model and sales cycle – and we were happy to support further.

The agency team was equally pleased with the outcome.

“It’s a real pleasure to have Method Marketing as part of our select partner network for marketing strategy support. Lucy’s creativity and attention to detail is unmatched, as is her level of care to ensure she meets the needs of our clients. Lucy’s delivery is consistently high-quality and we couldn’t recommend her enough to anyone looking for marketing and content support.”