Restructuring Marketing from the Ground Up: A Complete Overhaul for Fireart Studio

<aside> 🤝 When Fireart Studio came to O-CMO, their marketing was in disarray. Here's how we helped them regain control, build a solid strategy, and redefine their market positioning.

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Before teaming up

Scattered and ineffective efforts: Fireart Studio’s marketing was fragmented. They had teams working on PPC, SEO, content, and social media, but there was no unified strategy or clear direction.
Outdated tactics and wasted budget: The SEO strategy was outdated, using ineffective methods like page spinning and redundant geo-targeting. PPC campaigns were costing around $6,000 per month but primarily generated spammy leads, while SEO spending of $2,000–$2,500 per month showed little return.
Reliance on limited channels: The company heavily depended on platforms like Dribbble and Behance for leads. Changes to Dribbble's subscription model led to a sharp decline in lead volume and sales.
Leadership overload and team burnout: The CEO struggled to manage various teams without a clear strategy, leading to team burnout and the potential loss of valuable talent.

<aside> 🤝 Our job was to take control of the marketing function, restructure the team, and build a cohesive strategy.

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Project details:

<aside> <img src="/icons/clock_gray.svg" alt="/icons/clock_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Timeline: August-November, 2023

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<aside> <img src="/icons/groups_gray.svg" alt="/icons/groups_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Team structure: 1 Fractional CMO 1 Fractional Head of Marketing/Strategist 1 Head of Content 1 SEO specialist

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Results

Built a new positioning and value proposition: Refined positioning and value proposition based on ICPs and thorough competitor research, setting Fireart Studio as a design-first development agency.
Centralized marketing control: Took control of the entire marketing function, leading to improved coordination and strategic focus across all teams.
Enhanced vendor performance: Replaced underperforming SEO and content vendors while empowering existing SMM and PPC teams to improve their effectiveness.
Optimized marketing budget: Reallocated spending to high-impact channels, reducing waste and increasing ROI.
Clearer client messaging: Conducted 13 client interviews to refine messaging and better align with customer needs, which improved customer engagement and retention.

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715 articles optimized

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Growth of US traffic to 4.38K

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<30% of spam leads via PPC

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What we did

Analyzing the landscape / Onboarding

Stakeholder interviews: Conducted interviews with key stakeholders (CEO, Chief Strategy Officer, Head of Sales, Head of Delivery) to uncover goals, challenges, and market insights.
Marketing audit: Completed a comprehensive audit of all marketing activities, including content, SEO, PPC, and social media, identifying gaps and inefficiencies.

Untitled

Portfolio analysis & Market segmentation summary (Dev agency Example)

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Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) (dev agency example)

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Competitors messaging analysis (dev agency example)

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Positioning, UVPs, Core Messaging (dev agency example)

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Creating a focused strategy

Client segmentation: Analyzed the most successful projects in terms of LTV and revenue and studied their market segments.
ICPs, buyer journey, and buying committee: Devised Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) based on customer interviews and market research to target marketing more precisely.
Competitor research: Conducted competitor research to identify gaps in the market, informing the new value proposition and positioning strategy.
Positioning and value proposition: Revamped the company’s positioning to niche it down into UI/UX design based on the company’s expertise.

<aside> <img src="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/f984c7e8-9043-4d73-b4f1-0d6ddc2b0fa1/de11351e-7514-4045-96c5-9a3e6b4ee54e/Mask_group.png" alt="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/f984c7e8-9043-4d73-b4f1-0d6ddc2b0fa1/de11351e-7514-4045-96c5-9a3e6b4ee54e/Mask_group.png" width="40px" /> Yuliia Shvetsova, Fractional CMO at O-CMO:

Most companies are afraid to interview their clients, fearing conversations might scare them off. But for us, these interviews are gold.

Fireart was open to it, and it paid off. The feedback we received helped us understand the real value clients were getting from Fireart and mirror it back at them. It helped shape our entire marketing strategy – from the messaging to the content we produced.

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Restructuring Teams and Vendors

Vendor changes: Switched underperforming SEO and content vendors for more effective partners to enhance quality and impact.
Team empowerment: Provided existing SMM and PPC teams with better resources, clearer goals, and refined strategies to boost performance.

Optimizing Content and Digital Marketing

Content revamp: Updated 715 blog articles and created new assets, including blogs, case studies, and social media posts, aligned with refined messaging and strategy.
Digital marketing optimization: Refocused PPC campaigns on high-converting keywords and audiences, reducing wasted spend and improving results. Updated SEO tactics to drive organic growth.