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See your marketing more clearly
Today is World Sight Day, an annual day of awareness to focus attention on blindness, visual impairment and rehabilitation of the visually impaired and is held on the second Thursday of October.
Maybe its time to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and look at how they view your company, what would you expect from your company if you were a customer? What would you do to improve the user experience?
As marketing professionals, we understand what customers want from a business, so why not have a chat with us and see for yourself, with our help, what your customers want.
Marketing activity in September
Our clients at Win Marketing ask us to support in many marketing activities and as we offer such a comprehensive range of marketing services and experience within the team, we thought we would share with you some of the projects we are currently working on during September.
Jo:
Jo has been pretty busy over the past few weeks as she took control of the fort whilst Ann jetted off to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup.
As well as looking after the day-to-day operations, she has been spending a lot of time developing the social media sites for a couple of clients which include a renewable energy company, health and safety training and a specialist medical company.
She has also been looking into a number of general PR ways to improve a company’s on-line presence with blogs and press releases.
Nad:
Nad has been doing a lot of work on the new Win Marketing site which saw the creation of a new blog being made for the site.
As well as working on projects for Win Marketing he has updated the way in which payments are made on the new Restoration UK website and adding functionality to the new Solus Renewable website.
There have been a few additions to other websites such as a news section to Med-Innova, new videos and pictures on James Fordham’s website and a few subtle changes on Optilang.
Michael:
Michael joined us at the beginning of September and has been working with us analysing visitor stats and producing reports for BSS, Med-Innova as well as working on Restoration UK adding products to the site.
That’s all for now!
Visiting the RealRussia- Ann’s blog on her recent visit
The one thing that marketing as a profession provides is an opportunity to develop into new markets and new opportunities. Over my 30 years in marketing I have been lucky enough to experience many cultures across the world, but I have never worked in Russia until now.
Having flown on Aeroflot to Moscow from Heathrow I arrived in Volzhski on Wednesday night , a city about 30km from Volgograd (the former Stalingrad), and then onto Volgograd. The brand new Airbus planes were superb, lovely, and very comfortable – this would not be the first of my Russian perceptions to be proven to be misguided.
Moscowairport was heaving as people in the domestic departures sought to get home after their commute toMoscowand our flight toVolgogradwas full.
Thursday and Friday, saw me in the offices of Real Russia. The team there works so hard and pride themselves on delivering excellent customer service – we could learn a few things in the UK from their commitment to ensuring customer satisfaction. The travel operators are so knowledgeable they can answer any questions related to tours on the Trans-Siberian express, the best routes to take, what you need if you go to places like Mongolia or Belarus, it was fascinating. The visa team was equally knowledgeable on how to obtain visas and what you need when traveling around Russia.
The offices of Real Russia are situated in an old children’s nursery and the building houses a sauna, steam room, swimming pool and a lovely café/restaurant. I did enjoy some traditional Russian food for lunch, but did not have time to relax in the leisure facilities.
I have experienced many restaurants (the food is excellent) and have taken in the local sites of the impressive Russian Orthodox churches and the statute of Lenin. I cannot get over how wide and spread out everything is here. The city is similar in size to Leicester, but you hardly notice people as the roads and pavements are so wide. Many buildings are typical Soviet block and not the most attractive in the world, although practical, not too tall and broken up by trees and shrubs. Yesterday, I visited the impressive Mamayev Kurgan monument and the memorial in Volgograd from the battle of Stalingrad, where I felt truly humbled. People in that city were under siege for 18 months and 2 Million people died in the battle.
The river Volga is a truly impressive site with sand banks and sandy shores, not what you would expect fromRussia’s longest river. Children were diving in and the water looked so clean and inviting in the temperatures of low thirties centigrade – wait until summer fully arrives. The realRussiaI have experienced is not all about Vodka andMoscow– it is about a different way of life, we are 100 miles fromAsiaand on the edge of the Steppes. It has helpful people, fantastic food, great scenery and some interesting history – and yes some good beer and vodka.
My time here in Volzhski has been tremendous and I look forward to working with the office to develop the marketing further. Yes there are challenges for a Western European visiting Russia – you can’t read all the menus, you don’t always have a clue which is the ladies and men’s toilets and life is different – but that is what adds to the charm of visiting a destination and widening our horizons as people. Even I have managed to learn the odd word here to make life a little easier and make me feel a little less stupid. I strongly recommend anyone interested in European history to visit Volgograd and for the independent traveler to take time and visit the Real Russia.
I left Volgograd on an 18 hour train journey to Moscow. After discussing with the travel staff at Real Russia, I decided on booking a women’s only cabin in business class. This 2 person cabin had two beds, a TV and electrical points for my computer and iPad to recharge. As I went into the cabin I was delighted to see some complimentary refreshments. This included a miniature bottle of vodka, but this was not the size you get on a plane, it was twice as big! I later shared the bottle with my client, as it is very bad form to drink alone in Russia.
The train journey was fascinating – we went through miles of open countryside, disused factories, villages and large towns. Every few hours we stopped at stations and had the opportunity to stretch our legs.
One stop was for about 20 minutes and the station had small shops selling souvenirs. The station buildings were beautiful – not like the modern shelters we see in many European towns. During the evening, I made my way to the restaurant and enjoyed a meal of local food – which I cannot pronounce, but included tongue. Well, when you are in Rome . . .
The train ride was smooth for most of the journey and not quite the same roller coaster that one experiences on the Midland Main Line, Leicester to St Pancras journey. Sometimes on those journeys, you struggle to drink a cup of coffee without spilling it due to the train movement.
After dinner, I settled down to bed in my comfortable cabin, watching a film on my iPad, knowing that in the morning we would be approaching Moscow. I had an excellent night’s sleep and after a wash and breakfast was looking out on the suburbs ofMoscow. At 9am and in bright sunshine, we arrived into Moscow station, I was impressed at the art deco sign highlighting Mockba – it seemed to provide a presence amongst the crowds.
We made our way to the hotel, showered, changed and were in the office for late morning – what a pleasant way to travel. During my two days in the office, I met the staff and many of the customers who were travellers from all over the globe. They had fascinating stories to tell about their experiences in Russia and most of them were collecting tickets for the Trans-Siberian Tour – something which I now would love to do.
Unfortunately, my time in Moscowwas spent mainly in the office, but I did manage a quick tour of Red Square, Lenin’s memorial and some of the city’s fabulous architecture. If anyone is interested in visiting Russia, I would recommend giving Real Russia a call, they can help you with train tickets, tourist information and visa support, I found them very helpful and supportive, and, as I said in my comments above, determined to give great customer service and to help as much as possible. They also speak perfect English, which I found a big help!
Visit the Real Russia website for any travel or visa needs in or around Russia
Marketing activity in August
Win Marketing continues to help clients in all aspects of marketing services, here are some updates from this week:
Jo came back from a week off to lots of client work waiting for her; needless to say, she got back in the swing of things quickly!
George has been designing graphics for a clients’ van and for our own rebranding of our marketing materials.
Nad has been busy getting our latest website uploaded, Med-Innova, and has been working away on development of our latest e-commerce website, Restoration UK.
Ann has had a busy week, working on strategic marketing for Real Russia and Hegarty Solicitors, along with some online marketing research for UWC.
We have picked up a website for a telecoms company, and will be starting the process for this soon.
Also this week, we had a lovely comment from a client, Sharpaclean, for whom we recently developed a new website for. They said that since the website went live (3 weeks ago); they have had a number of enquiries and have even picked up a new contract, worth £100,000! We are really glad we were able to help on this project, and are really pleased for Sharpaclean!
During the rioting, you may have seen on Twitter, the trending topic #operationcupoftea , where people up and down England, and the UK, all took photos of themselves having their anti-riot cup of tea, well, as a treat, here is Jo in the office with her anti riot cup of tea on Wednesday 🙂
So it’s a short one this week, but do check out our Twitter and Facebook for more regular updates until next time!
Marketing Services – Activity in July
The first week of July proved to be hectic for all the team here at Win Marketing with Jo trekking around London, George editing lots of graduation video footage, Nad perfecting and launching the new Shapaclean website and Ann mixing work with pleasure in Spain! And with everyone busy, it’s time for me, otherwise known as temporary team member Jen to fill you in with all the goings on this week!
Ann was in the sunny Costa Del Sol having a working holiday, taking a bit of time to relax but also sorting out marketing audits and strategies left, right and centre, while also making sure she was up to date with all the news in the office and keeping us all on our toes.
She managed to fit a bit of time in with her friend San though. San Miguel that is… Nad turned his talents to more websites this week, including Med-Innova, Sharpaclean and our very own shiny, new Win Marketing website, working hard to get the Sharpaclean site up and running, seeing it go live on Friday afternoon.
Make sure you check it out to sort out all your cleaning needs.
He also gave a bit of market research a go, calling businesses on behalf of East West Link and helped out with technical issues from helping Audrey, our accounts lady with her computer, to supporting me with a binding machine with a mind of its own! George was up to his elbows in NEBOSH videos, editing footage of a graduation ceremony at Warwick University, filmed the week before.
He also collected data from clients for a big power point presentation, and developed a new logo for Real Russia, which was swiftly printed onto new hats for the company! He also prepared several website templates to go on to Nad to bring his designs to life! Jo was London bound at the end of the week, heading to the capital to meet with the team in the offices of Real Russia, and working with Real Russia’s Brigitte to do a bit of mystery shopping.
Earlier in the week saw Jo and George put their heads together to work on the NEBOSH video, as well as her doing market research for Hegarty solicitors and taking the reins and becoming Ann mark 2 to keep everything running smoothly with Ann by the pool in España! Jen.
The week saw me getting a nick name (Jaydot 2!) and helping everyone as much as possible in this very busy week, carrying out market research for both Real Russia and Hegarty, following up on a press release we sent out for Air Fuel Synthesis which has been published in both the Australian and US media and working on blogs and social media updates for companies all across the board!
Keep an eye out on Facebook and Twitter for all the news from us here at Win Marketing and all of the companies we are working with!? ? See you next week!
