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Topic Descriptors for Business Gateway Workshop Programme

Contents Advertising on Social Media .................................................................................................................... 2

Blog your way to Success ........................................................................................................................ 3

Branding & Packaging for Island Businesses ........................................................................................... 4

Build your own Business Website ........................................................................................................... 5

Business Bookkeeping ............................................................................................................................. 6

Business Planning & Market Research .................................................................................................... 7

Create Amazing Graphics with Canva ..................................................................................................... 8

Customer Care Skills................................................................................................................................ 9

Digital Marketing Strategy – DigitalBoost ............................................................................................. 10

Doing your Tax Return Online ............................................................................................................... 11

Effective e-Commerce - DigitalBoost .................................................................................................... 12

Facebook for Business – DigitalBoost ................................................................................................... 13

GDPR and Staying Safe Online .............................................................................................................. 14

How to Write a Business Plan ............................................................................................................... 15

Mailchimp for Email Marketing ............................................................................................................ 16

Managing Difficult Behaviours in the Workplace ................................................................................. 17

Marketing your Business Well .............................................................................................................. 18

Paid for Advertising – DigitalBoost ....................................................................................................... 19

Pinterest, Instagram and Photography for Business – DigitalBoost ..................................................... 20

Presentations Skills ............................................................................................................................... 21

Producing Engaging Online Content – DigitalBoost .............................................................................. 22

Social Media Platforms ......................................................................................................................... 23

Time Management ................................................................................................................................ 24

Video Production for Social Media – DigitalBoost ................................................................................ 25

2

Advertising on Social Media A practical session to help you grow your skills in setting up advertising on the main social media

platforms.

Objectives:

How to target the right people using paid advertising

Set up your own advert on Facebook

Monitor the results of your adverts

Tools to help you set up your advert

Overview of advertising on Instagram & use of Stories on Facebook & Instagram

3

Blog your way to Success A practical session to give you confidence and experience in using blogging to help grow your

business.

Objectives:

Knowing your Customer

Content Creation

Eye Catching Titles

Scheduling and Business Planning

Integration on your social media channels

4

Branding & Packaging for Island Businesses A half day practical workshop for anyone new to establishing or developing a brand

Objectives:

Identifying how to create a strong brand for customer awareness and adding value

Apply consistent branding to all areas of the business including packaging

Confidence in developing the brand to an off-island market

5

Build your own Business Website A workshop covering how to build a website from scratch or replace an existing website.

Objectives:

Buy it or build it?

Overview of the self build platforms available

What to consider when commissioning a web developer

Complete your website brief

Practical demo on a self build website

6

Business Bookkeeping A hands-on half day workshop delivering a practical example of cash book record keeping using a

spreadsheet template.

Objectives:

Create and maintain a simple cash book system for your business

Understand the sales and purchase ledger transactions

Understand how to reconcile bank transactions

7

Business Planning & Market Research A half day practical workshop for anyone new to setting up and running business.

Objectives:

To understand the links between business planning & success & how to avoid failures

To assist in identifying a good business plan

To understand what the market is and what constitutes where you find your market research

To relate Market Research findings to setting sales targets

8

Create Amazing Graphics with Canva A practical session to help you gain confidence and experience in using Canva as a marketing tool:

Objectives:

Setting up an account

Brand styles

Adverts

Social Media Posts

Photography

Flyers & Invitations

9

Customer Care Skills A half day practical workshop for anyone working in a customer facing environment.

Objectives:

Understand the importance of focusing on customer needs

Identify how your business performance will be measures by your customers/clients

Identify what excellent customer service is

Understand how to deal with difficult customers

Identify how you can gather customer data to assess their levels of satisfaction and help

improve products and services

10

Digital Marketing Strategy – DigitalBoost Digital marketing can deliver real world business growth, and this workshop will show you a practical strategy for success. This inspiring workshop will guide you through the practical steps needed to design a digital marketing strategy to meet your business objectives and create more leads. Successful strategies have three key elements: Content Creation, Content Publication and Content Amplification©. You will learn time-efficient techniques for developing these elements so you can confidently drive more traffic to your website. We’ll help you understand the digital trends and equip you to work more strategically with the big search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) to improve the quality of your search results. We will show you how to plan more engaging email newsletters and posts on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. This is a ‘DigitalBoost’ event which is funded by Digital Scotland and delivered by Business Gateway.

11

Doing your Tax Return Online A practical half day interactive workshop to gain confidence and experience in Self Assessment Tax

online.

Objectives:

Understand the key dates and deadlines for self-assessment

Motivations for filing your tax return early

Registering for self-assessment/a personal tax account

Broadly understand how to complete your self-assessment personal tax return

12

Effective e-Commerce - DigitalBoost Want to grow your business? Not sure about selling online? This workshop will arm you with valuable skills and information that will help you increase the effectiveness of your eCommerce presence. What’s the best way to sell YOUR products online? The key to improving your eCommerce business is measuring its effectiveness - you can then take steps to optimise its performance. Should you be using eBay or Amazon, neither or both? This workshop will also take you through the factors to consider whether you are setting up a new online business, or increasing the efficiency of an existing one. This is a ‘DigitalBoost’ event which is funded by Digital Scotland and delivered by Business Gateway.

13

Facebook for Business – DigitalBoost This workshop is designed for people who want to deepen their understanding of how Facebook can be used to engage with their target audience in order to boost conversions. Facebook is an increasingly effective tool for reaching target audiences and engaging with them when they are in a responsive mode. People who attend this workshop will learn how to assess whether Facebook is an appropriate medium for them, how to find and refine their audience and to target, create and optimise posts and adverts. The event will also cover measuring the effectiveness of pages, posts and adverts, including through the use of Facebook Insights (a powerful tool that lets you track user interaction), as well as integrating Facebook with websites. You will also gain valuable knowledge about e-commerce, security, compliance and privacy. The ultimate aim is to equip delegates with knowledge that will enable them to use this crucial element of social media to increase sales and solidify brands. Delegates may wish to bring along their laptops so they can work on their Facebook accounts during the workshop. This is a ‘DigitalBoost’ event which is funded by Digital Scotland and delivered by Business Gateway.

14

GDPR and Staying Safe Online A half day workshop for anyone looking to understand their obligations under GDPR and the impact

on their business.

Objectives:

What is the GDPR and what it means for you

How GDPR applies to the UK post-Brexit

How the Data Protection Act might change

What you will need to do differently

What the penalties could be for non-compliance

How to stay safe online

15

How to Write a Business Plan A half day practical workshop for anyone who has a requirement to write a business plan.

Objectives:

Understand the different elements contained in a business plan

Identify and recognise best practice in the key elements of the business plan

Understand on a practical level how to collate the information required for a business

plan

16

Mailchimp for Email Marketing A practical session to help you grow your skills in using MailChimp.

Objectives:

How to set up an account

How to set up & import your customer list

How to create a marketing campaign

How to build in email marketing in to your overall marketing plan

17

Managing Difficult Behaviours in the Workplace A practical workshop covering skills needed to deal with difficult workplace behaviours.

Objectives:

Identify the root causes of tension in the workplace

Recognise common triggers of workplace behavioural issues and difficult behavioural types

Tools you can utilise to deal with difficult behaviours

Understand and apply behaviours for defusing/calming situations & managing expectations

18

Marketing your Business Well A half day practical workshop for anyone new to setting up and running or developing marketing

strategies.

Objectives:

Define Marketing & draw up a Marketing Strategy for a business

Understand the key elements of your marketing plan

Recognise and choose appropriate promotional methods for your island business

Confidence in creating good quality marketing content

Help in creating a website brief

19

Paid for Advertising – DigitalBoost This workshop is ideal for those looking to increase the effectiveness of their paid advertising and digital marketing strategy. After completing this workshop you will be able to make more informed decisions about where paid-for advertising fits in to your strategy. We will explore the relative merits of all the different types of paid-for online options available to you, as well as the mix of social media platforms you can choose from. The event also covers strategy, ad content guidelines and ad sizes, keyword planning, tracking and analysis to optimise your campaigns. You will gain a clearer understanding of how to evaluate and analyse existing social media advertising campaigns, pinpoint areas for improvement, and be on top of legal guidelines. This is a ‘DigitalBoost’ event which is funded by Digital Scotland and delivered by Business Gateway in partnership with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise.

20

Pinterest, Instagram and Photography for Business – DigitalBoost Find out how to use image sharing apps Pinterest and Instagram to grow your business. Learn how to shoot, process and upload photos. Move from being a beginner to knowing enough to gain commercial benefit from the use of Pinterest and Instagram. Learn which type of audience you can reach via each platform and the factors and analytics such as cost and timing of posting images and how that can maximise impact. Discover the basic ‘does and don’ts’ of taking your own pictures, processing them and uploading them onto digital platforms. See some real life examples of posts that demonstrate good, bad and indifferent use. This is a ‘DigitalBoost’ event which is funded by Digital Scotland and delivered by Business Gateway.

21

Presentations Skills A practical session covering the key areas of making presentations in a business capacity.

Objectives:

Plan a presentation keeping the audience in mind

Develop clear objectives for your presentation

Develop effective visual aids

Use several different methods and tools for presenting

Use positive presentation style behaviours

22

Producing Engaging Online Content – DigitalBoost Producing quality content is an excellent way of helping customers develop a meaningful relationship with your brand, and ultimately boosting sales. Learn to understand, source and measure content. Even if you are not traditionally in the business of providing content, it’s important to have good-quality articles or even nuggets of useful information on your website and elsewhere to drive customer engagement and help you stand out from your competitors. If you can provide easily accessible evidence that you are an expert in your field, or are able to provide an attractive “space” that makes customers more inclined to spend time with you, it’ll be easier for them to choose you when they’re ready to spend. This session will help you understand what kind of content your customers are looking for, how to find, write and package it, how to market it to them and how to measure how engaging it is for them. This workshop is ideal for businesses that already have a commercial website or use social media, and want to move to the next level of engagement. It will equip you to amplify your brand and message, and to boost sales and profits. This is a ‘DigitalBoost’ event which is funded by Digital Scotland and delivered by Business Gateway.

23

Social Media Platforms A half day hands on workshops that will build and develop the skills and confidence of anyone

wanting to build on their social media skills.

A practical session working on your own social media accounts to:

Set up your business on all the main Social Media Platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest & LinkedIn

We will cover how to get your platform working well for you, hints and tips on the full range of tools available

24

Time Management A half day practical workshop for anyone looking to improve on time management in the workplace.

Objectives:

Explain the importance of effective time management

Identify how their time is spent currently and where improvements can be made

Identify personal time management strengths and weaknesses

Recognise barriers to good time management

Set short and long-term targets

Monitor time management

25

Video Production for Social Media – DigitalBoost Video captures peoples’ attention online and is becoming increasingly important for engaging with potential, or real, clients. Discover why the use of video helps people find your brand or website and how this kind of content has become a powerful way to engage with your audience. Learn how to create a short and effective video without pain or expense, including how to plan, shoot, edit and upload it without special kit or expertise. Get to know the various digital platforms that can be utilised to view and share video content. See what editing apps are available and how to add music and subtitles. This is a ‘DigitalBoost’ event which is funded by Digital Scotland and delivered by Business Gateway.