marketing for defence

We empower businesses to enter and build momentum in the complex, multi-layered defence landscape. And as a Make UK Defence Fit for Defence partner, we’re helping companies refine and reshape their marketing for the sector.

Breaking down barriers

As a member of industry network Make UK Defence, we draw on specialist industry insight… and can access valuable connections.

We’re also a proud partner in the Make UK Defence Fit for Defence programme: through this, we’re helping many companies across the country refine or reshape their marketing for the sector.

Maximising on opportunities in defence

With a renewed focus on building sovereign capability and the UK Government committing to boosting MOD spending with SMEs directly – and across the supply chain – by £2.5 billion, manufacturing and engineering SMEs have a major opportunity to integrate into the UK’s defence supply chains.

The Fit for Defence programme is playing a key role in helping companies seize this opportunity and to help Make UK Defence members become fit for defence.

Navigating the defence sector

We have the experience, connections and marketing know-how to help you break through barriers. Need support in conquering trade shows, building profile or reshaping your website for the defence sector? We can do all of that and much more.

Diversifying into defence – and growing within the sector – comes with its challenges, from generating the right messaging and content, to simply getting in front of key decision makers.

Brand identity and positioning
Exhibition support and event materials
Social media
Content and thought leadership
Video and animation
Public relations

Make UK Defence Fit For Defence programme.

The Fit for Defence programme is a bespoke business improvement programme for organisations of all sizes and experience in the sector. Through the programme, Make UK Defence’s specialists and partners, including Horizon Works, assess an organisation’s strengths and weaknesses and develop a bespoke action plan to maximise its future growth.

Over the past three years, we have been delivering free marketing health checks to Make UK Defence members who are entering the defence sector – or who’ve needed to re-energise their marketing for this industry.

What is the marketing health check?

Our marketing health check includes taking a ‘deep dive’ into a member’s marketing, analysing strategy and tactics across multiple channels, and creating a report filled with actionable short and long-term recommendations specifically for the defence sector.

We provide a fresh perspective on their brands, messaging, content, website, social media, SEO, PR and marketing assets, and we help reshape marketing for the defence sector.

A scoping session at the start of the process to understand your business, strategy, objectives, competitors and current marketing activities.

We ask you to provide us with key information to help us assess your various marketing channels, such as website, Google Analytics and Console logins, examples of sales and marketing assets and key presentations/pitches for the defence sector.

From this, we undertake a deep dive into all aspects of your marketing and benchmark your top competitors’ activities.

We prepare a report with feedback on all areas of your marketing and provide key recommendations for improvements.

We present this back to you and also provide a summary which clearly directs what your short, medium and long-term marketing priorities should be.

What does the marketing health check involve?

The complimentary marketing review is delivered through the lens of marketing experts. The team provide honest feedback which can transform your business. We went through the process a few years back and the advice helped us to make some changes that were instrumental in membership growth."Kelly Maddison, UK Membership Director, Make UK Defence

With our strategic expansion into the defence market, we required specialist advice on our messaging and offering for the sector. Horizon Works completed a comprehensive health check of our website and other promotional channels and presented us with valuable findings and recommendations."George Brown, Marketing and Communications Specialist, Polar Technology

I was pleasantly surprised by the level of insight and detail that Horizon Works went into during our marketing deep dive. It has completely changed our attitude towards marketing and kicked us into action. I would fully recommend using Horizon Works to any organisation – its knowledge and expertise would be useful to businesses of all sizes."Alex Cotton, Research and Development Manager, AML

As a new member of Make UK Defence, we were offered a ‘Marketing Health Check’ under their Fit for Defence programme. Horizon Works carried out the health check, focusing on our website, messaging and social media. The subsequent report was enlightening and gave us plenty of food for thought, in terms of improving our defence marketing and general company messaging."Simon Price, Director, Power Plastics

Wow! What an incredible group of talented individuals at Horizon Works. We interviewed a number of marketing firms, and it was apparent from our first interaction that they have the talent and resources to deliver a professional marketing campaign."Travis Tashjian, Vice President of Sales, AmeriWater LLC

Horizon Works has taken the time to really understand our business and guided us well through the marketing process from developing our marketing strategy to helping us get the tools in place so we can market ourselves effectively."Adam Taylor, Managing Director, Taylor Packaging

Working with the Horizon Works team has been a game changer for us. They have guided us through our marketing investment, increasing our ROI significantly, and freeing up our time to focus on other activities – which has been invaluable."Ailsa Anderson, Director of Development, Engineering and Manufacturing Network (EMN)

When IMH set out its exciting and challenging long-term growth plans, we recognised the importance of partnering with a professional and competent marketing partner. We don’t see Horizon Works as our outsourced company, we see them as our strategic business partner."James Griffiths, Managing Director, Industrial and Marine Hydraulics

When the time came to find a partner to assist in the marketing of Devine Chemicals, I already knew I wanted to work with Horizon Works. Their planning, attention to detail, advice and ideas were exactly what we needed."Dan Devine, Director, Devine Chemicals

Horizon Works’ knowledge, experience and skills ensure that our message is conveyed and understood amongst our audience and in-line with our company brand and guidelines. I would highly recommend their outsourced marketing services."Sean Clemens, UK Sales and Business Development Manager, Atlas Copco Rental UK

We’ve never worked with an agency like Horizon Works before – we view their team as part of Gate 7’s extended family and the experience is like having our own in-house marketing department."Harry Wickham, Managing Director, Gate 7

Horizon Works have been a valuable partner to NTG Group. I would not hesitate to recommend them to any business large or small looking to outsource this function and would like to thank the team for their outstanding work to date!"Nick Betts, Group Business Development Director, The NTG Group

Ready to become fit for defence?

Whether you want to diversify, expand or refresh your marketing, our free Make UK Defence member marketing health check can help you.