High-Level Strategic Marketing for Founders, Executives and Brand-Led Businesses
Tailored Marketing Strategies
Most marketing problems are not marketing problems. They are positioning, audience, or strategy problems being treated with tactics, which is why so much marketing spend produces so little of value. Taryn Lee Johnston works with founders, executives and brand-led businesses on the strategic layer above the day-to-day, where the decisions that actually shape commercial outcomes are made.
With more than three decades of marketing experience and an active publishing operation that depends on the same disciplines, Taryn brings a working understanding of brand, audience, positioning and content strategy that comes from running real businesses rather than theorising about them.
What Strategic Marketing Consultancy Looks Like
This is a strategic engagement, designed for businesses that have either outgrown their current marketing function or recognise that the marketing they have is not aligned with the business they actually want to build.
Engagements typically include some combination of the following:-
Strategic marketing review. A clear-eyed assessment of where your marketing currently sits, what it is doing, what it is not doing, and where the meaningful gaps and opportunities are. This is the foundation of every engagement, and often the most useful single piece of work a business can commission.
Positioning and audience definition. The work of clarifying who the business is genuinely for, what it stands for, and how it should be talking to its market. Most businesses have multiple competing answers to these questions across their teams, and the result is marketing that pulls in different directions.
Marketing strategy development. Building a coherent, prioritised marketing plan that fits the business, the market and the resources available, rather than the generic playbook that gets handed out by most agencies.
Brand and content strategy. Defining what the business should be saying, where, to whom, and why. This is where most marketing budgets quietly fail, by producing volume rather than meaning.
Strategic oversight and advisory. For businesses with internal marketing teams or external agencies who would benefit from senior strategic input rather than additional execution. This is often the highest-value engagement, because it makes the existing function significantly more effective without adding cost or complication.
Onsite Training
For businesses whose teams need direct exposure to strategic thinking rather than another off-the-shelf training course, Taryn delivers tailored onsite sessions on marketing strategy, brand thinking, positioning, and the realities of building a marketing function that actually contributes to commercial growth. Sessions are designed for the specific business and team rather than pulled from a standard curriculum, and they work best when paired with a wider strategic engagement.
Who Is This For
The marketing consultancy is for businesses that:
Have moved past the stage where tactical marketing alone will produce growth
Recognise that marketing strategy is a board-level discipline, not a junior function
Want senior strategic input from someone who actually runs businesses rather than theorising about them
Are willing to invest in clarity before they invest in activity
It is not for businesses looking for SEO services, social media management, paid advertising delivery, or author marketing.
Working With Taryn
Engagements typically begin with a free twenty-minute fit call to understand the shape of the business, the marketing question that needs answering, and whether the work is a sensible match.
