Who
Stonehouse Logic was founded by Mark Hope in 2000 and specialised in IT consultancy. At the time of its sale to Chess, the business had grown to 50 full time employees. They were a Microsoft Gold Business Partner and a Sage Strategic Partner.

Where
Stonehouse Logic were based in Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire but had a client base within a 100 mile radius of their HQ and a customer base that covered most sectors. We supported them on-site, remotely (via email and video conference) as well as quarterly meetings.

When
We joined forces with Mark, his wife Sally and the team from June 2016 – March 2017 at a key point in their growth. They were moving into new, bigger premises and growing the team from 35 to 50 FTE.

Why
In the short- to medium-term, they wanted to improve their customer acquisition, grow their customer base and turnover and position themselves as experts within their field, but also make customers aware of the future trends and risks in IT.

They were early-adopters of Microsoft Azure as well as Cyber Essentials and had an open, collaborative approach to customer relations – true partners.

However, they were working in a fiercely competitive sector, were resellers for two major software brands (also competitors) and needed to clearly differentiate their brand from the crowded.

What
We were tasked with helping them to raise their profile, build brand awareness in their target geographies and sectors as well as improving lead generation from their online marketing.

Our proposed mix of content marketing included blogs, whitepapers, e-guides and case studies. For digital marketing we recommended using social media, email marketing, web content and SEO. We also helped them maximise PR opportunities in their local media and networks.

Our first task was to create a series of sales emails for lapsed and ‘cold’ contacts (from bought data) and advised on data capture mechanisms to generate ‘warm’ leads. Joanne helped with strategy and content marketing, Katherine (Wildman) created a range of copy for digital marketing, email and PR campaigns.

Outcome / Outputs
We moved Stonehouse Logic from managed (outsourced) marketing to self-managed (in-house) marketing over the agreed timeline. By Spring 2017 they were fully able to develop and publish a range of content marketing to grow the business.

The increased digital & content marketing, along with SEO and PR brought them to the attention of Chess. A longer-term aim was to exit the business via sale and were delighted to hear that Chess had bought them in May 2018 for an undisclosed sum.