Jun 24, 2011 | Events, marketing training
I will be running a free two hour workshop on How to Write a Press Release on Thursday 21st July at 10am at Nottingham Trent Uni’s Brackenhurst Campus. If you have ever wondered how to get your business featured in the media, this workshop will give you lots of ideas and take you through a step-by-step guide to writing press releases.
It is just one of a series of free workshops for East Midlands Businesses being run at The Rural Knowledge and Enterprise Centre at Nottingham Trent University’s Brackenhurst Campus near Southwell.
To find out more about any of the events and book places please contact the RKEC on 0115 848 5294 or rkec.enquiries@ntu.ac.uk
The other workshops include:
Online/Offline Marketing Solutions Thursday July 7th and 14th (2 full days)
This two day seminar is designed to help align your online and offline marketing and improve the effectiveness of both.
Making your website work for you – Thursday 21st July (2pm – 4pm)
Have you ever wondered why you don’t get business through your website? This workshop will provide an introduction to creating a website, optimising your website for search engines, improving your conversion rate and examine techniques for using social networking tools.
Business Expenses – Thursday 28th July (10am – 12.00)
This session will cover all aspects of business expenses and tax allowances, including self-assessment online.
How VAT works Thursday 28th July (2pm – 4pm)
This session will give you all the information needed to understand VAT; how to tell the difference between inputs and outputs, the different rates of VAT and how they are applied, how to work out VAT owed to you, how to access VAT Online and how to complete a VAT return.
Effective networking Thursday 4th August (10am – 12.00)
An effective network is of vital importance to any business. This seminar will help you to improve your business networking skills and to develop your “little black book” of contacts.
More information is available on the RKEC website
http://www.ntu.ac.uk/apps/news/106787-34/RKEC_Business_Skills_seminars_2011.aspx
http://www.ntu.ac.uk/rkec/news_events/rkec_events/index.html
Jun 20, 2011 | marketing mentoring
Many businesses find it hard to understand how a marketing mentor can help them, so here is how it is working for one of my clients. Of course, each business is different, but Sally and Andrew’s story is an interesting one…
I met Sally of Northgate Business Centre at a seminar I gave on How to Write a Press Release. As usual, I offer all delegates a free marketing mentoring session, and Sally and her business partner Andrew take me up on this offer.
At our first session, we discuss the difficulties the business faces, in particular the website, which was not featuring in Google searches, and they felt needed updating. A quick search on Google showed that a lot of the top results are big property agencies, and a couple of local competitors are there too! In fact the website does not do the beautiful Georgian buildings justice, is quite tired looking, and cannot be updated by Sally and Andrew. They are also considering expanding the business but don’t know how to integrate the new building into current marketing plans, or how to increase the Business Centre’s profile.
All these issues were concerning Andrew and Sally, and they knew they needed to do something to address them, but they just didn’t know where to start. I reassured them that there was plenty we could do and set about suggesting some answers to their marketing and business development problems.
We discussed how the Business Centre is positioned, and how this should be reflected in the website. I suggested it is like a boutique hotel, and they agreed – they consider themselves to be a hotel for businesses, as the offices are fully serviced.
Over the next four months we meet four times, and during this time Andrew and Sally acquire the lease for a former telephone exchange just across the road from the Northgate Business Centre, and completely renovate the upper floor. Although this is a huge amount of work for them both, we agreed a marketing plan, so that the marketing does not get overlooked.
By the time the local MP opens the new office in the Exchange, they have professional photographs taken of both sites, a completely new website designed which they can update themselves, coverage in the local press, and a high quality folder which they can use to promote both sites. The new offices are filling rapidly, and enquiries are coming in steadily from the new website, which is ranking well in Google. Here is what Sally said about marketing mentoring:
“A business like ours needs lots of skills but neither Andrew or I are naturally good at marketing so the sessions with Beryl keep us focussed on what we should be doing, and at a price we can afford!”
The story doesn’t end there – I am still mentoring Sally and Andrew because they have learnt that marketing needs to be ongoing, and they have plans for future growth. And if you are looking for new offices, virtual offices or meeting rooms in the Newark area, do have look at the Northgate Business Centre website www.northgatecentre.com
So, if you’re stuck in a rut with marketing your business, but don’t have the budget to pay expensive agencies to do the work for you, why not talk to Ridgeway Marketing for some inexpensive, yet highly effective marketing mentoring sessions to get you kick started in the right direction?
Author: Beryl Pettitt
