< PreviousAs Fiona celebrates thirteen years in business, she reflects on the key things she has learnt… 1. Intuition – Follow it because it is always right – I have had to learn the hard way like many of us in certain aspects of business and when I look back, I realise that whenever something was ‘off’, I trusted the wrong person, or something didn’t quite go to plan, it was because nine times out of ten I ignored my gut instinct. Make your intuition part of your core values and unconscious strategy in everything you do. 2. Dare to think differently – I have always leaned towards being different to others, in fact I have made it my life goal to be since I was a child, and whilst in childhood it can have its difficulties, as an adult this mentality can often manifest itself into the formation of leaders and I have no problem in setting myself apart from the crowd and daring to think differently. This very thing has allowed me to create a successful, long standing business and to become a leader in my industry - be brave. 3. Stay true to your values – Your core values make up who you are as an individual, they are what you hold yourself accountable to, things you live your life by, things you measure everything against and I have learnt never to compromise on my values in any given situation and to stand steadfast in my beliefs - if something or someone does not align with my values, it’s a polite “no thank you.” By Fiona Duncan-Steer, founder of RSViP Business Networking Agency 20 East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk NETWORKING 7. Creativity is key – As a visual thinker this has always been one of my strongest areas and one I most enjoy. The message here is that you don’t need to be naturally artistic to get creative in business and I have made a career out of spreading that very message, encouraging anyone and everyone to tap into their creative side and to think innovatively in business - after all this is where the leaders hang out. 8. Communication – Believe it or not it is an art and does not come naturally to everyone. As a natural communicator I have based my entire business around this very thing and yet I am still always learning and putting my communication skills into practise in various creative ways - it is by far one of my favourite aspects of my business and so important in the process of relationship management and self-care - keep those conversations going. 9. Surround yourself with the right people – By this I mean those who not only align with your values, but that teach and inspire you. One of my favourite quotes states, “your network is your net worth” and I have spent my entire career building my network to which peers, suppliers, customers, and friends have been formed. 10. Attention to detail – Again as a creative thinker, this is something that has always excited me - the detail in everything that is. The areas that many do not bother to delve into or highlight, the spaces in between, because that is 13 lessons for 13 years in business 4. Self-awareness – Having the gift of self-awareness often comes with experience and/or, if you are lucky, natural intuition and note that there is a difference between self-awareness and self-consciousness. Practising the art of self-awareness gives you control over your decision making processes, allows you to control your own pace and makes you a better communicator, all of which is something I practise daily. 5. Work-life balance – There is nothing more important in life than finding balance and as most of us work, finding that balance can often be a challenge. I have experienced burn- out, stress, anxiety, and insomnia over the years and these do not make for conducive decision making and positive outcomes overall. Practising self-care is not self-indulgent, it is absolutely necessary to encourage a balanced and positive mindset - disconnect to reconnect regularly and watch your productivity grow. 6. Time management – Something my schoolteachers always commented on and not in a positive light! Experience has taught me to prioritise tasks and to create to do lists which can be ticked off daily to encourage not only satisfaction, but motivation. I recognise that I work well under pressure, but it’s not always sensible to leave deadlines until the last minute to reach - allowing space and time to be creative is super important and a way more enjoyable way to work. 20-21.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:14 Page 1www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 21 NETWORKING Arrange a free discovery call with me to explore this further. fiona@rsvipnetwork.co.uk www.fionaduncansteer.com www.rsvipnetwork.co.uk where the sweet spots hide and where you will find your golden USPs, where innovation derives from and where inspiration lies waiting to be discovered. 11. Expand your mind – You can never claim to know everything about everything, so self-development should be factored into your routine, whether it be reading books, listening to podcasts, watching webinars, or taking a course. Over the years I have invested in myself through all of the above and absolutely love learning and sharing what I have learnt with others. Learning is truly one of life’s greatest gifts. 12. Be the authentic you – I remember in the early days of business when I was almost afraid to be myself for fear of not fitting into the corporate stereotype and it was exhausting. I once even attended a meeting at a beautiful stately home and found myself talking in a posh accent the whole time (but once I had committed, I had to continue) and laughed all the way home at myself at how ridiculous it was that I put myself through that - well never again! People want to know who you are - you are your own best PR, so stand tall and proud and let people see the amazing you. 13. Feel the fear and do it anyway – Yes, this famous Susan Jeffers quote is actually my mantra and something I have held in my back pocket since taking the leap into self-employment in 2008. There have been many occasions in my early days when I turned work down due to imposter syndrome and it feels wretched. Something clicked in me a few years back and I no longer allow my fears to prevent me from moving forward. A biggie for me was my fear of public speaking - believe it or not a few years ago I hated it and avoided it at all costs. Now I speak for a living through my events, training and consultancy business and regularly take part in radio, television, and podcast interviews without batting an eyelid - in fact I actually love it now! So, I urge you to work on those insecurities and fears and find a way to overcome them because it really is possible - if I can do it, you can too. 20-21.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:14 Page 222 East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk DESIGN & MARKETING Today, digital marketing is core to the survival of businesses, growing their online presence, reinforcing values and brand image, driving traffic to a company/its website, and for standing out amongst competitors. There are a plethora of tools and techniques to utilise, which will help with exposure, managing customer relationships, winning leads, finding new marketing opportunities, and more. East Midlands Business Link dives into a few of these. SEO All businesses want to be placed on the first page of Google, to beat out competition, due primarily to the traffic to be gained from this with most people never venturing past the front page to find a response to their search. As a result, perhaps one of the biggest buzzwords in digital marketing is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), which involves techniques to improve your organic ranking, and thus visibility, on search engine results pages by creating a high-quality website that is attractive to Google’s algorithms, driving more traffic to your site. It also helps ensure the right audience visits your website, those that want or need to be there. Essential to SEO and increasing a website’s rankings in the search results are keywords (the words used that describe the work your business does and are relevant to search queries), website loading speed, having user- friendly URLs, having a mobile-friendly website, user experience, accessibility, linking internally to other pages on your site, providing excellent on-site content, and avoiding content duplication. There are a variety of SEO tools and all in one platforms available which can track ranking on search engines, conduct keywords research, uncover site errors affecting SEO and more. Content is a great way to enhance SEO, demonstrating to search engines what a page is about. The more relevant the information, the more likely it will rank well. Content may include blog posts, product pages, directories, guides and so forth. As long as these provide value for customers, seeing more people engage with the content, the better a search engine will view it, and the higher a page will be ranked. If it seems like you are constantly fighting against competitors for the top spot on search engine results pages, differentiating may be the way to go. Consider target keywords, adding more keyword variants and long-tail keyword phrases to avoid scrapping over head keywords, or offering different types of content, tapping into Digital marketing key to survival Marketing has become increasingly digital as companies look to boost their exposure. 24 Á 22-25.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:16 Page 1www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 23 DESIGN & MARKETING © Shutterstock /Bloomicon 22-25.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:16 Page 224 East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk DESIGN & MARKETING submarkets, and using geographic location/local SEO to beat businesses in your city. Furthermore, your SEO strategy shouldn’t exist alone, but be part of a multi-channel marketing approach so a brand and content appears across platforms. While SEO is being worked on, paid ads can create awareness, such as through Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - buying and managing ads that appear on search engine results pages. Though not as popular as organic searches, they do place a business on the front page, creating brand visibility. Social media Social media is also a vital tool in digital marketing, offering a large audience, and has become a priority for many businesses. It allows for a relationship with customers/leads to be developed and nurtured, is useful for gathering data on what customers want, and can be used to spread awareness of a business and promote products. When using social media, one will need to understand platforms and their demographics, and utilise the platform that best represents the target audience - if you are looking to engage with professionals, LinkedIn is the go-to. Moreover, it is important to ensure to properly brand profiles, that content is relevant to the followers you want to build (as increasingly platforms are choosing the content they show to people based on what they generally interact with), and to assess when your customers will be browsing to best time any posts. One must also try to keep up with any changes that are being made by social media platforms, which can often present new opportunities, like Twitter’s launch of ‘Twitter Spaces’, introducing audio conversations, and Revue, allowing Twitter users to publish free and paid-for newsletters to their audience. Social media audits should also be conducted, to make sure they are performing optimally. In managing social media, there are myriad dedicated software options to facilitate the sharing of content, to help organise content calendars, and schedule and publish content across platforms when followers are most active. Such software should also offer social analytics, for instance highlighting posts which perform best, how successful social campaigns have been - taking out any guess work. Social listening ‘Social listening’ is a further important aspect in wielding social media in your digital marketing plans, involving monitoring social media channels for brand, competitor, product mentions, keywords related to a business, and more. It provides the opportunity to track conversations on social media to be analysed and acted upon and is used in audience research. Social listening assists with monitoring and reacting to customer feedback and sentiment on social media posts - whether these be a business’s own posts, those of competitors, or industry groups - and the identification of trends throughout your industry and potential customers. By monitoring social media feedback, insight into customer opinions and gaps in the market can be gained, relationships built, engagement improved, the competition can be tracked, and potential negativity and bad publicity uncovered early for informed decision making. One can gain knowledge from comments on customers’ experience of your business which can be used to improve services and products. Social listening additionally allows you to become more proactive when used to monitor discussion about one’s industry, presenting insight into future trends. There are many other aspects to digital marketing plans, email marketing is the “old faithful” in digital marketing for example, offering a personal way of connecting with customers and forging relationships with them, alongside display advertising, video, et al. Whatever digital strategies are implemented, businesses will need to be able to measure their success, to see what platforms are performing best, where it would be best to focus attention on, and to optimise marketing strategies. At a basic level Google Analytics is a useful tool in digital marketing, providing performance information, and giving view to stats like click-through volume and bounce rate. Outsourcing The choice of marketing tactics has become so much more diverse and complex. To get the best results there is often a need to outsource specialist areas such as digital marketing, PR, website development, SEO, social media and pay per click (PPC) advertising to experts in each specific field says Bev Cook, Managing Director of Simple Marketing Consultancy. She added: “The East Midlands is blessed with a plethora of great agencies and independent consultants offering these services, but 22-25.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:16 Page 3www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 25 DESIGN & MARKETING Outsourced Marketing for Owner Managed Businesses Access to CIM Chartered marketers without the payroll commitment www.simplemarketingconsultancy.co.uk knowing where to go to get the best advice can be a minefield. Making the wrong choice can lead to disappointment and wasted budgets if a clear brief is not given, objectives set, and expectations managed. Rarely does one in-house person possess all these skills so unless you have a full-time role for all of these specialists, outsourcing is often the best option. It also works better if these specialists are managed by a qualified marketer as they generally have enough knowledge in these areas to know what questions to ask, will understand the answers and are therefore able to ensure the right team of specialists is appointed. The qualified marketer can also be full time or outsourced too, depending on your needs.” 22-25.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:16 Page 426 East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk PUBLIC RELATIONS P icture the scene...you’ve been diligently working on your marketing, perhaps even reading my blogs and watching my videos, free PR tips and tricks. As a good student, maybe you’ve started to interact with your target reporters on social media? Gold star to you if you have! You might be doing all of this beautifully and any minute now, it might be all about to pay dividends because one of the little blighters has clocked one of your comments on his tweets. Maybe he spotted a link to an article you shared on LinkedIn that has really got him thinking too. of their website and neglect what might be their most important customer of all - the media. This isn’t about complicated coding or even an extra plugin. This is simply about creating a really easy section on your website designed purely for the media which is a quick snapshot of you and what you do. It is your marketing highlights package on Match of The Day. Here’s a recap of what you will need and remember, if in doubt...KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid): • Your contact details or those of whoever you are tasking with press stuff Your press page - where reporters on tight deadlines come to die By Greg Simpson, founder of Press for Attention PR and the PR and Communications Ambassador for the IoD in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Or just as likely, he spotted an article someone else wrote on you and he thinks: “Aha, she would be PERFECT for my angle too, this is awesome, especially as I’ve only got 24 hours to file the copy.” Standby gentle reader, this is it...this time next year Rodders!!!! He gets out his little virtual black book, dips his metaphorical quill and prepares to take down your details. He’s on your website, not long now before he finds your contact details, they will be there on your dedicated Press Page won’t they? Won’t they? I ask because I know that so many businesses seem to forget about this part 26-27.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:18 Page 1www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 27 PUBLIC RELATIONS (it might be your PR consultant). • Downloadable photo/s of your key spokesperson, flagship product, logos, screengrabs. • Defined area of expertise and any qualifications/experience. Mastermind not generalist. • Links to your social media profiles - you can even have them as a feed on the page. • Links to previous examples of press coverage. • Any milestones in the company’s history, a general overview of what you do, size etc. • Previous press releases. That should give them a really simple to navigate, potted history of you, how and who you can help (in terms of the press) and how the dickens they can get in touch with the person they need to help them with their article. Remember, PR = Public RELATIONS. Don’t forget you are there to help them with their story. The key thing is to be helpful. So, if a reporter does need to ‘reach out’, they can find them and they can grab other useful bits and pieces without even speaking to anyone if need be. It speeds things up and makes everyone’s lives easier. Now, please excuse me because I said “reach out” and now I need to go and be sick! A former business journalist, Greg Simpson is the author of The Small Business Guide to PR and has been recognised as one of the UK’s top 5 PR consultants, having set up Press for Attention PR in 2008. He has worked for FTSE 100 firms, charities and start-ups and conducted press conferences with Sir Richard Branson and James Caan. His background ensures a deep understanding of every facet of a successful PR campaign – from a journalist’s, client’s, and consultant’s perspective. 26-27.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:18 Page 228 East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk ENGINEERING Lean engineering 28-30.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:19 Page 1www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 29 ENGINEERING A skills shortage, COVID and lockdown have all forced engineering in our region to become leaner than ever. E ngineering and manufacturing have never been tested as hard as they are being now. The economy has levels of borrowing not seen since WW2, and is expected to shrink drastically, remaining at a contraction of four per cent even by 2025. This is a necessity and, for once, not a result of poor expenditure or Governance, but just a sign of the times. The COVID-19 and lockdown may soon be a thing of the past, but that does not mean we should not learn from the lessons of it. Engineering has had to play a key part in this simply because the current crisis does not allow for many other solutions. Staffing is difficult, space is mandated and COVID has not been a problem that can be navigated by throwing more employees at it. Instead, companies have had to look to innovative solutions such as heightened automation, outsourced production or new designs of manufacturing lines to maximise space for key employees. Businesses have had to become leaner and more efficient to cope with lockdown, working from home and health and safety – and while many manufacturing industries have been termed high priority and are thus working through lockdown, its results have still been felt. Worse still, the sector had its fair share of problems before lockdown, many of which have been exacerbated by the situation. The skills shortage has long been a problem for engineers of all kinds; design, civil and technical. Universities have in the past been pushing for more engineering students, but universities have also been hard hit by COVID-19 owing to the high levels of students living in confined conditions, and the difficulties adapting to online or digital classrooms. The alternative to this has always been apprenticeships, aiming to train new engineers up by working with an experienced mentor. This, however, has also been next to impossible thanks to the social distancing rules. Even where those can be waived or navigated by stringent health and safety protocols, 2020 has not been a great year for apprentices, and many businesses aren’t prepared to risk their key personnel by making them train a recruit. Times are 30 Á © Shutterstock /Gorodenkoff 28-30.qxp_Layout 1 01/07/2021 12:19 Page 2Next >