Training

Business Northumberland.

Marketing coaching for local businesses, delivered face to face and tailored specifically to their needs.

What was the project?

Business Northumberland is a fully-funded programme aimed at new and growing businesses across the county of Northumberland.

As well as delivering workshops in a previous role four years ago, in September 2022 I started doing digital diagnostics and coaching support for businesses on the programme. This was all available at no cost to the organisations who needed it.

The project involved holding an initial scoping call with each referred business, before auditing their digital presence and creating an outline of coaching activity we would carry out up to a maximum of 5 hours.

As part of the project, I was also invited to speak to around 80 businesses at events in Alnwick and Horton Grange.

What were the results?

I wound up working with 42 businesses, delivering a total of 167 hours of support. I worked with cafes, salons, photographers, coaches, manufacturers, and many other types of sectors I'd never experienced before.

It pushed my skills, but we celebrated some fantastic results across the programme.

One established cafe saw online reach increase by 88% in the space of 4 weeks, leading to more messages, bookings, and enquiries. And one gifting company won a 12 month contract with their first big corporate client within a few weeks of our time together working on their messaging. Other businesses were able to take on staff, bring new products to the market, or keep the doors open while competitors were closing.

Scott has delivered training and digital marketing support to SMEs on a programme that I have been managing for the last 4 years. It is aimed at helping SMEs to grow their digital skills and confidence. Scott is so knowledgeable and passionate about digital marketing and strategy. He is so friendly and organised and just a total joy to work with.

He felt like an extension of our team and nothing was ever too much trouble for him. The feedback from all our clients has been great and the stats themselves show how much of a difference he has made to local businesses.

I really hope I get the chance to work with Scott again.

Programme Manager, Business Northumberland