“Before I brought Katie into my team, I had concerns about whether I was making the right decision in hiring someone. What if it wasn’t the right time or I didn’t have enough work to give to them? Was I better off just outsourcing more tasks? Taking that leap was really tough, but at the end of the day, the decision to hire someone came down to three things: first, my marketing requirements were relatively consistent; second, I needed someone who was immersed in the business so they could sound authentic writing under my brand; and third, I needed someone who was really invested in my business and could eventually lead my marketing.”

Ros Conkie, Founder of Ros Conkie’s Marketing Academy

The challenge 

When Katie joined the team, she was completely new to marketing. She joined as a digital marketing apprentice which meant that 1 day a week of her time was set aside to complete her level 3 qualification. The rest of her time was then spent working with Ros to implement and bring a new perspective to her marketing plan and strategy.

Very quickly into the apprenticeship, it became clear that, although the college was teaching her a lot of the “what’s” in marketing, like what is an ideal customer persona, it seemed to be down to Ros to fill in the blanks and teach her the “how’s” and “why’s”. Like, how do you create an ideal customer persona that's actually useful in a small but complex business? And, why’s it important to have an ideal customer as part of your strategy? 

Ros explains that “there were a couple of moments in Katie’s apprenticeship where I wondered how business owners who were not marketers would support their new marketers. A lot of Katie’s peers were working for financial advisers and gym owners and hairdressers who definitely weren’t strategic marketers. They’d hired a marketing apprentice to be their marketer, but how could they make sure their marketing was working? Well, unfortunately they weren’t!”  

The solution 

Like with many of her clients, Ros knew that the best step would be to take Katie's learning back to marketing foundations. Understanding the principles of marketing was useful, but in order to grow Katie into the marketing superstar she needed within her business, Ros knew that her understanding of the whys and hows was also essential. She wanted Katie to be able to not only apply these principles to her work within the business but also to feel confident one day advising clients on this too. 

To support Katie's learning in the first few weeks of her apprenticeship, Ros began by taking her through the Marketing Machine process. By giving Katie this tried and tested process, she could learn how all the different cogs in the marketing machine fit together to form a strategy and how they could be applied to small business marketing. Because of how the marketing machine programme was structured, it also meant that Katie had ongoing access to the video tutorials, workbooks, and resources that she could keep referring back to as she built her confidence and started to take on more responsibility within the business. 

Ros knew that developing a new marketer into a marketing superstar would take some time. But, having a clear marketing strategy and strategic process that explained exactly how to do marketing that actually works helped to streamline the process and get results sooner.

“This whole process really highlighted to me the importance of having a clear marketing strategy, plan and process in place before she joined because it meant that, even while Katie was still learning her course materials, she was putting out great work that was getting us closer to our marketing goals." - Ros Conkie

The result 

Since integrating these marketing processes with her learning, Katie has gone on to achieve a distinction in her level 3 apprenticeship. She is now working directly with clients, leading strategy sessions for the Marketing Machine programme, and helping clients who have completed the programme with ongoing implementation and content creation. Ros has also seen a significant increase in their business and has since gone on to grow her team further with the addition of another marketer.

As Ros explains, “I knew what I was looking for when I set out to hire a potential marketing superstar, but I was also very lucky in finding Katie. She’s thrown herself into the role, and learned so much so fast and her energy and enthusiasm has also energised my business as a whole. The process also gave me the confidence that this was something I could replicate both for my business and for my clients if they needed it.”

And as for Katie, she explains, “I think the biggest thing the Marketing Machine process has given me is the confidence to bring new content and lead generation ideas to the table. Because I understand how the overall strategy works, I can see how everything I do helps us to achieve our quarterly goals to help me build my plan and be confident in my ideas and knowledge. Having the Marketing Machine videos available also makes it really easy to manage my own workflow as I can dip in and out of them when I get stuck before I need to go to Ros."