Marketing as a system, not a pile of promotions
Yandex on its own, SEO on its own, a social media person doing their thing, a discount "when revenue dips". Everyone is doing something, there's no whole picture, and the money dissolves between channels. Strategy ties everything into one plan: one goal, one positioning, clear priorities and economics.
I act as the strategist on your side: I help you see the system as a whole, make decisions by numbers and stop putting out fires. From fog to clarity: what to do, in what order, and why.
In 30–40 minutes I'll tell you whether you need a full strategy, or one bottleneck fixed first.
Many channels, no system
When marketing is a set of unrelated activities, they don't reinforce each other. They split the budget and pull in different directions.
Every contractor has their own plan
The ad specialist, the SEO person and the designer each invent the positioning anew.
The Russian launch is a copy of the home one
Same channels, same messages, same funnel. Half of it doesn't exist here, the other half reads differently.
Nobody counts the economics
Clicks and reach in the reports; what a customer costs and what they bring, nobody knows.
Everything at once
New channels get added before the old ones start working. The budget spreads thin.
One symptom: there's no system where every action works toward a common goal. Strategy builds that system.
Logic first, tools second
Strategy isn't a thick document for its own sake. It's the answers to simple questions: whom we sell to, how we differ, through which channels, and how we measure the result. Without the answers, the tools are useless.
From the customer, not the channel
I don't start with "let's launch Yandex". I start with who your customer is and what they pay for. The channel is a consequence, not the starting point.
A system where everything connects
Brand, advertising, website and sales aren't separate projects but parts of one mechanism. I set them up to reinforce, not cancel, each other.
Decisions by numbers
I count the economics of a lead and a customer, not clicks and reach. Strategy is also about where not to spend: dropping the unnecessary saves more than optimization.
Priorities instead of "everything at once"
Resources are always limited. My job is to sort what gives the most now and what can wait. The order of actions matters more than their number.
What a strategy is built from
A sequence where each step rests on the previous one, not a list of services.
Goals and economics
Where we start: the business goals, the unit economics, what a customer costs and what they bring. Without these numbers, strategy is fantasy.
Customer and positioning
Whom we sell to, why they choose us, how we differ. A clear answer to "why you" that all communications grow from. For a foreign company: how that answer changes for a Russian buyer.
Channel map
Which channels for which task and segment, and how they connect into the customer's path: Yandex, VK, Telegram, Avito, marketplaces, SEO. Where the top of the funnel is, where the close, where retention, and what to drop as ballast.
Priorities and plan
What we do first, what second, with what resources. A roadmap over a clear horizon, with checkpoints where we look at the numbers.
Metrics and control
Which indicators tell us it's working. Transparent analytics so decisions are made on data, not on feelings.
Briefs for contractors
Clear inputs so the ad specialist, the SEO person and the designer do one job instead of each their own.
What you'll have in hand
One plan
Marketing assembled into a system: goal, positioning, channels, priorities. One picture instead of ten scattered ones.
Clear priorities
What to do now, what later, and what not to do at all. The end of "grabbing everything at once".
Briefs for contractors
Inputs the ad specialist, the SEO person and the designer work from, together.
A system of metrics
Clear indicators and analytics that show what makes money and what only looks like activity.
From a one-off look to a full strategy
Sometimes you don't need a big project but a sober second opinion before a decision. Sometimes you need the whole system.
Strategy consultation
A one-off review of a specific question: whether to launch a direction, where to move, what's wrong with the marketing. A quick second opinion from someone who has seen a hundred projects.
Marketing audit
A deep look at what you have: channels, positioning, economics, bottlenecks. With written conclusions and a plan of what to tackle first.
Turnkey strategy
The full system: from goals and the customer to a channel map and a roadmap. When you need to bring order and build marketing for the long run.
I'll name a range for your task after the review. I don't quote blind.
A strategist who has seen the system from different sides
From meaning to traffic, in one pair of hands
I know both brand work and the advertising channels from the inside, so I see marketing as a whole, not as pieces from different specialists. Two degrees, the second in brand strategy.
100+ projects, responsibility for money
10+ years of practice, 80% of projects reach a measurable result. Marriott, EKSMO, a RUDN University research institute, the Russian Business Forum with Robert Kiyosaki. I count sales and payback, not activity.
Common questions
How is strategy different from "just setting up the ads"?
Setting up ads is one tool. Strategy answers whether that tool is needed at all, whom to address in it and what to say, and how it connects with the rest. You can set up Yandex brilliantly for an offer that hooks nobody and waste the budget. Strategy insures against that.
We're a small company. Do we need a strategy?
Strategy isn't the thickness of a document; it's clarity of decisions. A small business needs it even more: you have less room for error and less money for random experiments. I fit the format to the scale; sometimes one consultation is enough.
Will you run the channels yourself?
If you want. In the strategy format I set the system and hand clear briefs to your contractors. If you need me to keep running the project and keep a hand on the pulse, that's a separate format: a marketing lead on retainer.
What does a marketing audit include?
A look at four things: who actually buys from you, what you tell them, through which channels, and what of it pays back. I look at analytics, ad accounts, the website and how you describe the product. The result is a map of gaps: where the meaning doesn't reach the customer and where money goes to waste. I separately count the economics of a lead; without it, talking about channels is pointless.
What does a marketing strategy look like in practice?
Not a hundred-page volume for the drawer. A working document: goals in numbers, positioning in one sentence, a channel map with priorities, a plan for the coming months and the metrics you'll know it's working by. Plus briefs for contractors, so each does their job instead of reinventing the positioning. I show an example of such a document on the review.
How is positioning different from strategy?
Positioning answers who you are for the customer and why choose you. Strategy is the plan for getting that answer across and turning it into sales. Positioning without strategy stays a nice sentence on a website; strategy without positioning becomes a set of channels saying different things. They only work together.
How long does developing a strategy take?
A strategy consultation is one meeting and a follow-up review. An audit takes one to two weeks, depending on how much data you have and what shape it's in. A full strategy is several weeks of work, because it includes customer research. I name the exact timeline after seeing the scope, not before.
Where strategy connects
Let's bring order. Start with a review.
In 30–40 minutes we'll go through your situation and I'll tell you honestly: whether you need a full strategy, whether an audit is enough, or whether one bottleneck should be fixed first. Even if we never work together, you'll leave with a plan.