It was lovely to welcome familiar faces and new ones last Tuesday at the WIBNI Networking event in theLodge Hotel, where attendees enjoyed a relaxed and informal networking session with coffee and a chat with other Business Owners before the event kicked off.
Attendees had the pleasure of learning from Marketing Strategy expert Gillian McLean from Thrive Marketing & Communications. Gillian, a former CIM Ireland ‘Marketing Director of the Year’ and recipient of Women in Business award for ‘Marketing Campaign of the Year’, has extensive marketing strategy development and execution experience across a range of industries. Gillian told us of just some of her vast experience, which included rebranding of National Museums NI and explained to us how important market research of the customers was in developing the current “Explore, Engage & Enjoy” theme, this saw visitor numbers double at museums in Northern Ireland!
The group were keen to hear more about how Gillian develops marketing strategies. Gillian strongly advised us that MARKET RESEARCH is crucial. In fact, Gillian stressed that marketing strategies should never be developed without doing proper research first. Gillian talked us through the structure of developing a strong marketing strategy, this resonated with the group there and got their minds thinking how they could apply this to their own businesses.
Gillian made sure that the attendees understood that measuring marketing campaigns success was crucial, whether that be phone calls or digital analysis of conversions.
The group thoroughly enjoyed the event and have left well informed and educated about how to best develop a marketing strategy for their own businesses.
It was beneficial to hear the principles we teach here at CEA, reinforced and reiterated from an expert in the field. Thank you, Gillian!
View the full gallery from the event HERE
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