I have now been lucky enough to spend a year at Salford Business School, working as a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Digital Marketing Executive. This is a position which revolves around a project between the university and their partner Pennine Telecom. In this role so far, I have researched multi-channel digital marketing strategies and I am now well on the way to implementing marketing automation within Pennine Telecom, which will give the Bury based SME a competitive advantage in the 21st Century market place.
Due to my involvement in the Knowledge Transfer Partnership, I was lucky enough to be offered a place on the university’s MSc in Marketing. As I’ve worked so closely with the business school as both a professional and a student, when I was asked to write a blog post on my ‘greatest experience’ I found the idea of choosing one quite difficult because I’ve managed to accomplish so many things.
During my time here I’ve made great friendships with both classmates and colleagues, I’ve been given incredible guidance in academia and offered invaluable opportunities which will stay with me for the rest of my life.
On reflection, one day stands out, the day I delivered my first guest lecture…
When I was first asked, I was quite nervous but it was an opportunity I could never turn down! I never thought at the age of 23 I would be stood in front of masters students talking about digital marketing strategy, marketing automation and digital business but I’m so pleased I did.
My guest lecture
The ethos behind my guest lecture for MSc Information Architecture and E-Commerce students was to share the tools necessary for them to start delivering a multi-channel digital marketing strategy. The class were an absolute delight to teach, inquisitive, engaged and came up with great queries throughout.
To begin, I felt it was appropriate to give the class an overview of a multi-channel digital strategy to give them some inspiration and help them focus on a starting point. The content included an overview of the channels they could use and the publishing and analytical tools that would assist them with their strategy.
Multi-Channel Digital Marketing Strategy Tools
I demonstrated the various software tools as listed below, to give them an insight into how to use these tools. I also focused on the various analytical elements within each platform and contextualised these within the business environment to help them to imagine how they could utilise them.
Marketing automation
The topic then progressed onto marketing automation, to give them an idea of a more sophisticated approach to digital marketing, with a functionality overview of HubSpot and Pardot. It was then explained how the tools mentioned can allow you to create, manage and automate various elements of your digital marketing.
These new tools are allowing marketing teams to gather real time information on the return of investment for individual campaigns and their overall digital marketing efforts. The students were really amazed at the efficiency of these programmes and the data you could get. I felt that I gave them a good overview of marketings accountability.
Digital launch strategy
The class were then segmented into teams, where they were sent off to create a digital launch strategy for a new bicycle hire company. Listening in on the teams ideas felt incredibly fulfilling as I could see how many individuals had taken in what I had taught them.
The students then presented their strategy to their peers, their ideas were innovative yet realistic, it was clear that they could all work together on creating a digital strategy and that as both individuals and a collective, they embraced the task in hand.
As I mentioned before, I never thought I would’ve had half the opportunities I have had in my short life so far, however my year at Salford Business School has opened doors for me which I never even knew existed.
Who ever knew that a relay could make you feel so good?
If you would like to talk to me about my experience of creating a digital marketing strategy, implementing marketing automation or would just like to get more information on KTP programmes, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
Very informative..good stuff fianna