Fluent Forward Ltd

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and COO of Paranimo, a mental health tech platform in the UK. I’ve taken care of the operational side of the business for the last couple of years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fluent Forward Ltd?

We needed to come up with a cost-effective marketing strategy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fluent Forward Ltd’s position is centered around understanding our customers well enough so they can put valuable marketing materials in front of them rather than spamming out a bunch of pointless rubbish on social media. They have a consultant-based approach. 

Initially, we spoke to Matt (Director) about how we could develop a marketing strategy for our startup. We went through the overall brand, its personality, what we wanted to accomplish, what the goals were, and what we were trying to get from the customers. They’ve proposed an alternative approach, taking it more as a product research and customer persona perspective rather than just trying to produce marketing materials.

What is the team composition?

We just work with Matt.

How did you come to work with Fluent Forward Ltd?

We met through a local entrepreneurial group talking about development work. Matt helped us with a government-funded grant to build some mental health tech for charities.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent roughly between £12,000–£15,000 (approximately $15,000–$18,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them around May 2020, and our relationship is ongoing. We still work together on various things, and Matt is a shareholder in our company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re currently working on the strategy, so we don’t have any metrics at the time. Nonetheless, the most significant improvement is that we’re no longer doing the typical marketing things that only try to drive people to buy something that everyone is used to seeing. We’ve taken a more strategic approach, focusing on what customers actually value. Therefore, we’ve started to put valuable materials in front of them before they make a purchasing decision, rather than just trying to drive the small percentage of people that might be in a position to buy just by spamming them out on LinkedIn, for example. Overall, their work is more strategic. They think about it from a leadership perspective of how to do something that will get the best ROI.

How did Fluent Forward Ltd perform from a project management standpoint?

They approach things with professionalism and have a respectful demeanor. We’ve used Jira for the development work, not for project management. Also, we typically use Slack, emails, and Zoom for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We know who they are. It’s relationship-driven because we’ve worked with them for two years. Moreover, their mentality is having a strategy-led view on how we proceed, which stops us from making expensive and pointless mistakes. It has definitely changed our perspective of things.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing stands out. They’ve done what we expected.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do as much as you can in a very targeted way, taking a research-led approach as opposed to just copying other people.