Practical Marketing Skills for SMEs – positive feedback from early courses

After a successful first session of our newly launched ESF-funded Practical Marketing Skills course for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Nottingham Business School are pleased to announced further dates available in November 2020.

Our first cohort kicked off on Tuesday 13 October, and we’ve already had some brilliant feedback from the participants.

Alexandra Johnson from Edsons, a specialist joinery company based in Calverton, said: “Having completed week one of the course, I can safely say that the content and information received has allowed me to go away and review our company’s marketing strategy, giving me much more confidence in accessing what we need to do in order to grow and understand the customer’s expectations of our business. I’m really looking forward to delving deeper in week two.”

Similarly, James Holt from Jigsaw24, a local IT solutions company, said: “I found the first session a good intro as I’ve only been working in marketing a short time, having previously been in sales. The customer journey and how it affects the purchase decision was particularly useful, and something that I’ll be looking to integrate with our focus on shifting to solution selling.”

Alice Kelk from Notts County FC also felt positive after the first session, commenting: “Already after week one I feel confident in the course’s delivery and content. I really believe it will enhance my marketing skills to then showcase them practically within the business I work for.”

Phoebe James from Marchini Curran Associates says: "Having just completed the first session of the Practical Marketing Skills course, I already feel more confident and knowledgeable about the role of marketing and how I can apply this to our business. Both Shamshad and Diana gave presentations using relatable examples making it easy to follow and relate to our businesses. The drop-in session in the afternoon was invaluable, being able to ask further questions in a smaller group, and bounce ideas off of each other. I am looking forward to what the next few weeks entail and am excited to apply my learnings to our business."

The course, which is fully funded for eligible participants and delivered over four sessions, explores the role and function of marketing within SMEs, the factors influencing customer behaviour, and the application of marketing in different settings.

Aimed at everyone from business owners, to managers and frontline staff, you will attend four weekly sessions which look at discovering marketing, the marketing environment, the marketing mix, and review and action planning respectively.

Upon successful completion, you should be able to demonstrate applying the core principles of marketing to your workplace, identifying the right elements of the marketing mix to use, preparing and managing a marketing plan, using business intelligence to your advantage, and influencing customer behaviour.

Sign up now

To express an interest for you or your colleagues to take part, email PracticalMarketingSkills@ntu.ac.uk for information on securing a place on upcoming dates.

You can also find further details, including the full course content and learning outcomes on our website.

Please note that to be eligible for this course, you will need to be an employee of a D2N2-based SME, but a small number of places are available to charities, third sector and larger organisations. A full eligibility check will take place prior to enrolment.