“The course was well presented, clear, articulate and fulfilling. Rachel was a very good communicator, encouraging and supportive. It was very informative, interactive, clear and honest.”

Aim of the workshop

To understand the role of effective marketing and communications within your organisation’s overall viability. To discover the range of audiences, skills, techniques and channels available, and how to prioritise them.

These lively courses encourage you to approach your marketing, press campaigns and communications for audience development in a more professional and effective way, and from a customer-focused viewpoint. They help you understand why your audience might be interested in what you have to offer, which are the best messages to communicate and whether your audiences will hear your message.

Who is it for?

For people new to marketing and communications responsibilities or those currently carrying out the role who need a more secure grounding for their skills. Also for those interested in moving into marketing and communications careers, performing arts students and anyone looking to set up a new/ smaller arts company of any type.

Workshop outline

The workshop will help you:

• Identify the purpose of your communications activity at any given moment.
• Understand the centrality of the target audience in drawing up communications plans.
• Identify the characteristics of a target audience and understand the variety of ways the target audience will gather information before a ‘purchase’.
• Understand the principles behind ‘marketing’ and such concepts as product and segmentation; and the stages in building an effective communications plan.
• Gain an overview of the skills and techniques required of people in a communications role.
• Learn how to choose the most appropriate channels and techniques for what you want to achieve.
• Practice some of the techniques discussed, in an ‘action-learning’ scenario.
• Deal with communications issues with more confidence.

Workshop format

This is a full-day workshop with access to online resources afterwards. The workshop is delivered through group work, exercises, tutor-led discussion, Q&A and resources. Participants are encouraged to share your own experiences, problems and ideas.

Where next?

This workshop includes an introduction to some of the specific communications skills, which are covered in practical depth in my short seminars as required (see separate information). It would also be reinforced by either a one-to-one surgery session or a limited number of one-to-one mentoring hours (by phone and email) to support you in putting the lessons learned into practice.