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?

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

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

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

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.