By now you may have seen some posts on our social media or newsletter in relation to our new online programme, ‘Making Sense Of Marketing’ and in this post, I’m going to share a little more about what’s involved.
With over 25 years of experience in Marketing & Sales, I’ve spoken to many people who are brilliantly proficient in their business but who weren’t taught marketing at any point in their journey. Some have found the approach that works for them by sheer luck, others try different strategies every time they get some new advice from an account they follow on social media, and others yet again soak up every training programme they come across trying to find the secret to marketing success.
Thing is, there isn’t a one size fits all method that you can apply to any business or industry, even within the same industry you would approach two businesses differently because they’ve each got their own individual strengths even if it’s just in their people.
Throw in the internet or more specifically social media where an account with large numbers of followers may be considered an expert, it really can be a challenge to know where to take your advice when on any given day you might be told by different accounts how many times to post a week, what to do with your hashtags or what types of posts perform best. Confusing isn’t it?
At The Marketing Shop, we’ve always looked at each business in its own right, we minimise jargon because let’s face it unless you’re heavily involved in any industry technical terms or industry phrases really don’t mean a lot to everyone. We keep it as simple as possible while at the same time ensuring that the job whether that’s Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Content Creation, Canva, Email Marketing, Blogging, Websites, or any other marketing-related task is done.
Our programme was borne of a need to help those who are frequently overwhelmed by conflicting advice, who don’t have time to determine what’s the best advice for their business, who are short on time, or who really don’t enjoy the business or marketing side of their business at all. We aim to simplify it by teaching what you need to know so that you can make informed choices where it matters.
The programme will run with a new module released each week and the running order is as follows;
1. Marketing Foundations – looking at your market, your customers, some exercises that will take you back to understanding your ‘why’ (other than sales of course!) and ensuring that moving forward you’re now going to take a more measured approach to why you do anything when it comes to your business.
2. The Digital Landscape – choosing a website, an email platform, a CRM and of course, your social networks or ad campaigns can be a job in itself. If you google any one of these you’ll find all sorts of options, we’re going to run through what you need, why you need it, and help you understand the reasons you would or wouldn’t need any of these.
3. Social Media Bootcamp – right now you could be on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Linkedin, Snapchat, Pinterest, or another network that’s more suited to your specific niche. Within each of these networks, there are different types of posts you can create, and different ways of measuring what’s working. And you’ve got a specific amount of time to try and facilitate all of these! We’re going to share tips on planning, ensuring that you’re focused on the right audience, and leave you with tips and tricks from our experience of working with lots of businesses across very different sectors.
4. Content Marketing – there are many ways of connecting with customers, creating the right content is one of the most powerful and it outlasts any budget you’ve allocated for ads too. We’re going to look at content for your social media and email, blogging, and video – all proven to work and options to suit your audience and indeed, your team, whether they’re more interested in the written word or visuals (with more focus on visuals in Canva – below).
5 & 6. Canva – we have our own official ‘Canva Champion’ here with Debbie Ringwood who has literally thousands of designs under her belt. Some of you may be totally new to this app, others might have some experience so we’ve catered for both. You’ll learn how to create content that works for your brand, how to work with video, lots of tips and tricks, and, when you’re finished, you’ll be creating content with confidence. This will run over two weeks rather than overwhelm you.
7. Email Marketing – is one of the most effective ways of growing your business but we find very few small business owners take full advantage of it. Having worked across all of the more popular email software providers we’re going to introduce you to two that are very easy to use, guide you on building a list, and talk to you about how you make the most of that list to generate business.
8. Offline Marketing – without a doubt, digital marketing is one of the easiest ways to market your business, it’s also the most straightforward to measure too. However, it’s not the only way to make an impression with your potential customers so we’ve included a module that specifically covers options that might be more suited to you.
9. Measurement & Strategy – we’re going to take everything you’ve learned and create your Marketing Strategy – and Social Media Strategy and Content Strategy too! We’re also going to look at how to measure what works at a glance because our aim is to ensure that you know where to look, if you choose to dig deeper you’ll have the official resources available from that point too.
All of the content will be delivered by Slides / Video / Tutorials / Transcripts, options to suit everyone. We will release one module to you each week starting a week after you join us and you will get ‘lifetime access i.e. as long as the course is available you can log in and refresh your skills.
Making Sense Of Marketing is suited to but not exclusive; Office Managers, Sole Traders, New Business Owners, Business Managers, Retail Outlets, Marketing Team Members, Admin Managers tasked with Marketing, or anybody who needs to put some structure on their Marketing.
To ensure that you’re all set for 2023 we have just one more date remaining this year on Wednesday 5th October 2022.
Find out more on Making Sense Of Marketing at this link and feel free to pop an email to debbie@themarketingshop.ie if you’ve got queries on the programme.
Debbie Ringwood is a Marketing Specialist with over 20 years of experience in B2B and B2C Marketing. She is a Graduate of the Marketing Institute of Ireland and the Digital Marketing Institute. She is a Linkedin Certified Marketing Insider, META Certified Community Manager, and Canva Champion.
Debbie supports, coaches, and trains businesses in Marketing, Social Media, Canva & WordPress along with her team, working with businesses at different stages of their journey.