The Client.

Yellowtail Financial Planning, based in Exeter, serves as the trusted financial planners for high net worth individuals and families across the UK. Their mission is to provide clarity, control, and confidence to ensure their clients achieve a prosperous retirement and financial peace of mind.

The Background.

Operating without a dedicated senior marketing leader, Yellowtail faced challenges in managing their marketing needs effectively. With most marketing tasks either handled internally by non-specialists or outsourced to agencies, Yellowtail recognised the need for strategic marketing support to align with their new direction in early 2024. This led them to partner with VCMO for short-term strategic and operational marketing assistance.

The Marketing Challenge.

Yellowtail sought to swiftly evaluate their value proposition and key brand components, aligning them with their evolving strategic direction. The priorities included re-articulating the value proposition, optimising client personas and the customer journey, simplifying pricing strategy, rebuilding the website for enhanced organic search, developing a comprehensive content strategy, and facilitating marketing and AI knowledge transfer for in-house capability strengthening.

Marketing Transformation.

Here is a summary of what was delivered over a short time frame:

• Redefining Yellowtail’s Value Proposition: VCMO facilitated agile workshops to deconstruct Yellowtail’s value proposition, starting with a review of their purpose, vision, mission, and values statements. Through challenging established perspectives and leveraging external insights, VCMO guided Yellowtail in describing their brand in a fresh and compelling manner that sets them apart in the industry.
• Optimising Ideal Customer Personas (ICP): Collaborating with Yellowtail’s team, VCMO conducted workshops to validate and refine their client and referrer personas. By identifying primary needs, buyer questions, objections, and triggers, VCMO assisted Yellowtail in creating detailed personas to inform targeted content creation.
• Simplifying the Pricing Strategy: Addressing the challenge of varied client financial situations, VCMO introduced a new pricing model based on the complexity of each client’s financial scenario. This model offered clarity and simplicity in communicating Yellowtail’s pricing structure.
• Website Rebuild: VCMO briefed Yellowtail’s external web agency to make enhancements to the CMS to facilitate the creation of visually appealing landing pages. VCMO re-engineered the existing website structure, and provided training to Yellowtail’s team to develop optimised content for improved search engine visibility. This included migrating podcast content hosted on an external site to the main Yellowtail website.
• Content Strategy: With the foundation laid, VCMO collaborated with Yellowtail to re-engineer their content strategy, nurturing prospects through the buyer journey via a planned content calendar, LinkedIn newsletter, and podcast episodes.

Result.

The collaborative efforts between Yellowtail and VCMO yielded these results:

• Fully refreshed value proposition that clearly articulates who Yellowtail are, what they do, who they serve and the value they provide.
• Fully re-skinned company website with new brand messaging, fresh optimised content and new features.
• Organic search traffic increased from 14% to nearly 41% following the launch of the revised website, with a 195% increase in total traffic acquisition.
• Key landing pages and thought leadership blogs achieving high rankings on Google search results pages.
• Decommissioning of external podcast website and migration of 25+ podcasts to main website.
• Yellowtail experienced a surge in prospect enquiries, reflecting increased engagement.
• Knowledge transfer initiatives empowered the Yellowtail team with digital, SEO, and AI expertise, reducing reliance on external agencies.

Client Testimonial

"Working with VCMO has been instrumental in our marketing transformation. The pressures of a growing business meant our marketing activities were squeezed around other priorities and our ad-hoc approach was sub-optimal. Every aspect of our work with VCMO has been valuable. From creative, analytical workshops, through website redesign, to on-the-job training. Their expertise and collaborative approach has empowered us to achieve tangible results and strengthen our brand positioning. Having access to a fractional chief marketing officer at this level is perfect for a business like ours. We look forward to continuing this partnership to drive further success."  

Sarah Steele
Director, Head of Operations at Yellowtail Financial Planning

Fractional CMO's Comments

"Collaborating with Yellowtail has been a brilliantly rewarding experience. Their receptiveness to innovative marketing strategies and commitment to growth have been key drivers in our success. Through our strategic collaboration and innovative solutions, we have empowered Yellowtail to redefine their brand, enhance customer engagement, and drive tangible business growth. This case study exemplifies the transformative impact of fractional marketing leadership in achieving organisational objectives. I am confident that together, we will continue to elevate their brand and achieve even greater commercial success."

Paul Mills
CEO & Founder, VCMO

About VCMO

VCMO helps SMEs and investor-backed portfolio companies with a £2 million or higher turnover that operate without a full-time senior marketing leader. Our Fractional CMOs and tailored services transform marketing potential into a competitive advantage that delivers scalable and predictable growth, increased profits, and enhanced enterprise value.