Last week was a busy one for the team here! We attended a number of events as part of Humber Business Week and here are 5 things I learned from my experience as a marketing professional.
1) Planning is crucial – and let me tell you, being a busy “marketing girlie” around town takes some planning.. especially if you have FOMO and want to attend everything you’re invited to! I experienced this first hand last week. Factoring in client needs, business meetings & also creative thinking time means you may need to plan ahead, a week or even a month just to make sure you’re using your time effectively.
2) It’s not about you! Okay, some context: it’s always important when posting online to remember the question “what do your clients want to see?” – we can post until our hearts are content about the things that interest us and we’re passionate about, or what we think our followers might want to see, but it’s more important to know what your audience ACTUALLY wants to see. Why not ask them? Do a poll, see what the results show. You might be bang on the money with the type of content you’re posting already, but you also might be surprised at the bits people would love to know more about. In my own experience, any content that allows your audience to feel like they’re getting to know the real YOU, “the face behind the brand” always performs well and it’s something I advise clients to do when posting content on their company socials too. Don’t be afraid to tell people who you are out of work!
3) Step out of your comfort zone whenever the opportunity presents itself. I attended one of last week’s events ON MY OWN! Nobody was going that I knew of personally, but guess what? No disasters happened. I actually finally managed to chat with people I’ve spoken to on LinkedIn before, and also met some new industry peers too. People are way more friendly than you think! (especially us Yorkshire folk!)
4) People are proper proud of Hull – Whilst chatting with people about the new Humber Placebrand, it really brought to my attention how much we LOVE this brilliant City we live in. There’s plenty of us who are proud to boast we’re “Hull born and bred” but it’s also lovely to chat to people who relocated to Hull for personal or professional reasons and have fallen in love with the city. Hull is part of people’s jobs and the new placebrand aims to showcase the Humber region’s true potential.
5) Your work life has a huge impact on your mental health. Well, I already knew this. But a talk from MIND Mental Health charity really highlighted the importance of drawing your own boundaries within a workplace, whether you’re an employee or an employer. Your personal life and wellbeing will ALWAYS be more important than any role. If you’re a business owner, you may find it hard to switch off from nurturing “your baby” but I promise you, taking your work phone or laptop away with you will only do your wellbeing more harm than good, taking breaks and setting boundaries are absolute basic if you want your work/life balance to be truly harmonious.
