People often ask me what I actually ‘do’ as a marketing consultant, and although I can tell you that I help people promote their businesses, it still leaves the question … “but how?”
It does vary, depending on the business so I thought I’d give you an insight into what I’ve been up to in the last week or so.
Monday: Had a meeting with my business coach. It’s always good to step back and take a look at your business and how it’s working. My life changes whenever there is a change to my family’s life e.g. a change of school, an increase in workload, trips away etc. so I have to have strategies for managing my business around that, and I find coaching very useful.
Tuesday: Worked on a couple of projects for The Rosevine. Each month, I create a newsletter which is sent to their email database, but they also have a database of guests who have stayed or enquired. We’ve created a lovely postcard to mail to those guests, promoting a Christmas and New Year break. My job was to review the database, write the copy and brief the design agency, liaising with the printing and mailing company to make sure that everything was provided in the right format. We’re also working on the website in order to improve its effectiveness, both in terms of search engines finding it, and users being able to find the information they need. This involved reviewing the existing website, analysing what’s needed and creating a brief for the design and SEO agency.
I have been working with another client in the catering industry for a year now, so in the afternoon I prepared a proposal for renewing that contract.
Wednesday: Spent the morning working on a new product launch for another client, a point of sale software company. Having devised a marketing and communications plan which incorporated advertising and PR in the trade press, leaflet drops and a new website landing page, I had to create the copy for the advert for approval. Once this has been approved, I will brief the design agency and they will produce the advert which will then be used as the basis for the website page which will be my next task: to create the text, source the images and liaise with the website developer. Then, I will need to book the ad into the trade press and speak to the journalist about doing an interview with one of the product users.
In the evening, I attended a wine-tasting dinner on HMS Belfast for my catering industry client. The event was one of 4 networking events that they run each year for people that work in commercial catering. My job is to take notes, interview key people, take photos and publicise the evening within the trade press.
Thursday: Spent the morning writing up the press release from Wednesday evening, pulling together some of the best images and getting quotes from relevant people to include within the release.
In the afternoon, I prepared for a training session at the weekend. It’s an annual event, run by a coalition of breast cancer advocates in Milan. It includes women from all over Europe who come for a 2 day conference to learn all about the latest advances in science. On the second day, they have a training session that covers dealing with the media, assertiveness techniques and presentation skills. 4 of us travel over for the day and simultaneously deliver the communications training. It’s full on, but very rewarding as they all go away brimming with new ideas and confidence.
Friday: Finance morning. One of my least favourite activities, but I’m trying to get my accounting system a bit more organised, and am transferring everything over to Kashflow. It’s a really easy-to-use system for raising and sending invoices, but all the incoming finances need to be input manually and I’m playing catch-up.
Monday: Here I am, writing my newsletter (feeling slightly jaded from my Milan trip). Once I’ve written the articles and chosen pictures from a photo library I’ll get them loaded onto my website, so that they can be linked from the email newsletter. Technology is a great enabler for communicating regularly with people. Between newsletters, facebook, twitter and LinkedIn, I feel connected to lots of people, even if I don’t actually see anyone face to face all day.