Hwyl Fawr and Diolch yn Fawr… Fairwell, Alex!

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As the old saying goes, all good things in life must come to an end. And, that is true of our Marketing & PR Consultant Alexandra Davies’ tenure at TMPR.

Having been with the company for the last three years, Alex has decided to make the move away from the world of B2B PR and its technical regulations and free event notebooks (we love a good freebie!) and dab her hand at a new challenge. Reflecting on the last three years, this is what she had to say about being a part of the TMPR team…

 

Joining the team as a fresh, budding graduate, the last three years have been a whirlwind. From diving in at the deep end working on a national PR campaign in my first week, to facing a global pandemic and spending half of my time with the business in my own four walls, Technical Marketing & PR has been a wonderful place to learn, develop and spread my wings.

Although I’m drawing my three years to a close, I want to leave on a high and write about the things that have meant the most to me being a part of the boutique, award-winning agency that has given me the opportunities to develop and diversify my skillset.

 

  • There’s nothing quite like seeing your writing in print…

When I joined the team three years ago, the one thing I knew was that I wanted to write. Matching the energy of our Director, Louise, who has always said that we are first and foremost, writers… I knew Technical Marketing would be a fantastic place for me to develop my own personal writing style and adopt new copywriting techniques that would see me through my career.

Naturally falling more into the PR side of things at TMPR, proactive pitching and PR strategy has been a personal favourite of mine. Aligning messages and audiences to promote business priorities through strong PR campaigns has been a great way to build relationships with the media and educate the market on client offerings. As a result, one of the most rewarding parts of my role is seeing the work I’ve produced coming through the letterbox in trade journal titles!

 

  • Teamwork makes the dreamwork

Possibly the most important and rewarding parts of my role over the last three years has been working with the team. As a small agency, having the agility and flexibility to support colleagues to meet deadlines and achieve goals has been important and this is something the TMPR team has down to a fine art…

Beyond working in the office together, we’ve also done some great team building activities and have many a drunken tale to tell!

 

  • Winner winner chicken dinner…

Finally, being recognised as Wales’ Outstanding Small PR Consultancy was a huge highlight. Working hard to support our clients to achieve their marketing ambitions, TMPR has earned a rather unique position amongst its clients, forming an extension of their in-house teams. With this balance making the day-to-day easy to navigate, being named as an award-winning agency for the support we have provided and campaigns run was an incredibly special moment to be a part of.

 

As I close the door to our office in Penarth for the last time, (Tom, have you got keys? I’ve forgotten mine…) I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to me. From our clients, to the work and the team – it’s been a blast and I am proud to have been a part of the TMPR Team.

Keep smashing it guys ♥

10 Years of TMPR: the Origin Story, pt. 2

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When Louise Morgan decided to go off on her own, it was simplicity that she had in mind. “The name, ‘Technical Marketing & PR’ wasn’t dreamt up trying to create anything funky. It’s the Ronseal school of business branding: it does what it says on the tin.” She laughs. Aptly, two small, branded paint-tins, filled with 10-year celebrations chocolates, perch on the coffee table of the newly refurbished Penarth offices.

In 2011 Louise’s niece was born, and she decided to move her offices to Derby to be closer to family. Business was booming, and while she held firm on her promise not to hire staff, freelancers were soon required for the overflow.

It was in Derby that she met a Welshman, who spurred the move of TMPR to Barry. And while ultimately not being “the one”, she does attribute their meeting to fate, as it is in South Wales where TMPR and Louise remain: “South Wales immediately felt like home. Living by the sea but only 15 minutes’ drive from Cardiff is very different to Derby or Manchester, and everyone is so friendly!”

But it’s not just the sunshine and smiles that kept Louise in Cymru, “Commercially, South Wales has proven to be an excellent fit for the business. It’s an industrial region where the construction and manufacturing sectors are buoyant, so I’ve really enjoyed developing our client base in these areas.”

In the Barry Business Centre Louise grew TMPR to new heights, though always with the help of freelancers. It wasn’t until she met her now-husband, Christopher, that she entertained the idea of hiring staff again. “He said you’ve got all these freelancers, ‘why don’t you just employ somebody?’ And I thought ‘why not? I am the only shareholder, I can make my own decisions about the future of the company.’”

With business booming and a growing sense of stability, Louise made her first hire, and then another. Soon enough the little industrial space where they’d set up shop was feeling quite crowded, and it was time to start looking for bigger and better offices.

“It was then that I first started to feel excited again about building something.” Louise reminisces, “With IVE it felt from the start that the goal was just to build it, whereas TMPR, it’s always been a part of me.”

Organic growth is a recurring theme in Louise’s management style, and one of her favourite aspects of owning an agency, “I like to nurture from within, growth of the business comes from coaching & training the team, so we grow by increasing capacity rather than headcount.”

When asked why she chose to focus on construction and manufacturing marketing in particular, Louise gives a wry smile, “The thing that made me fall in love with construction was Approved Document E of the building regulations, and that is no joke.”

She recounts the 2003 amendment to sound insulation requirements with the confidence and flow of a woman who has immersed herself fully in the world of technical literature and specifications for the last 18 years.

“In 2003 there was a change to the regulations which decreased the acceptable noise transfer between dwellings. So during a massive rise in people living in apartment blocks, you had strict limits on noise that could go between apartments, airborne and impact. It was quite technical because there was different routes to compliance, whether it was robust details or pre-completion testing, and I was just like ‘oh my god, let me just soak this all up!’”

In what is still a very male-dominated industry (women represent around 11 percent of the workforce in the construction sector), when Louise entered the construction and manufacturing world it was even more so. This only served to spur Louise on: “being able to go into meetings and hold quite technical conversations, dealing with technical directors and writing technical articles, I just really felt like I was on a path that felt right for me..”

Technical. PR. Marketing. The Ronseal academy of business branding. The nitty gritty, the get your hands dirty approach. That’s what TMPR has represented over the last ten years.

And what is Louise looking forward to most for the next ten years? “It sounds boring,” She admits, “but more of the same.” A lot of our clients we’ve worked with for the whole time we’ve been operational, so I’m looking forward to seeing if we still have those clients in the next ten years. Indeed, Louise’s first client at that first agency was Promethean, who remain a client of TMPR to this day.

TMPR has only ever grown from recommendations and referrals. Louise attributes this to her “clients come first” mentality that she had steadfastly adopted when getting the business off the ground.

“Because we work differently to other agencies, we become part of the team of our clients. We get the best of both worlds, the autonomy and variety of an agency, while feeling like you’re part of something bigger.”

Bigger seems to be the motto at TMPR this year, with new offices, new faces, and a big ten-year celebration on the horizon, it’s hard not to get swept up in the excitement of witnessing a company, and director, in their prime.

10 Years of TMPR: the Origin Story, pt. 1

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Louise Morgan wasn’t sure what she wanted to glean from her university experience, but she knew she wanted to write. Starting in a French and European studies degree that just didn’t quite fit, she switched to psychology, having an interest in human nature.

So how does a psychology degree lead to a long, successful career as a Marketing and PR director? “It was a happy accident.” Louise smiles, “I did my third-year placement at a charity in their comms department. I discovered PR there, when I had always thought I wanted to be a journalist, and just fell in love.”

The charity kept her on after her volunteer placement, as a communications manager during the summer between her third and fourth year. By the end of her degree, Louise already had 5 months of real-life experience under her belt. Unsurprisingly, she was offered a job before she’d had a chance to graduate, at TDM, a PR agency in Macclesfield.

Everything moved very quickly then (literally), “I had my last exam on the Friday, had to buy a car, pack up and move all of my things from Birmingham to Cheshire over the weekend, and started my first day on the Monday. I never looked back.”

She didn’t slow down either. From there she shifted gears to an employer comms agency, where she was introduced to the fast-paced corporate life. “It was all big bonuses, champagne, and ‘oh we’ll take everyone up to the Lake District for a team building weekend, all expenses paid in a swanky hotel’.”

While Louise was impressed with the perks on offer, her heart just wasn’t in it. PR and marketing beckoned, as did TDM, and so she returned with a promotion to account manager.

Louise was happy to return, “I thought I would stay forever, I loved them and everything about them”. She was on track to taking over as PR director, when the unthinkable happened, and the company suddenly became insolvent, closing practically overnight.

Louise wondered whether she should go off on her own. Clients offered their support and loyalty, but she felt shaken by the company’s downfall, and under-prepared. To ease niggling doubt she went to another agency, bringing with her many of the clients she had worked with at TDM.

Still, the question of whether or not to start up a new agency became a frequent quandary, and all the while one of Louise’s clients in particular kept coming to her with a tempting proposition…

And so, client became business partner, as they joined forces to create IVE Global, a PR and Marketing agency for B2B companies. “Proactive. Creative. Innovative. That’s what IVE stands for.” – An ambitious motto to suit the company’s global ambitions.

Working day and night, Louise and her new associates built IVE from the ground up. By the end of two years they seemed to be going from strength to strength, having been shortlisted for the CIPR’s Outstanding Small Consultancy (North West), and gaining 3 more members of staff.

However, the company was not to last, as life got in the way, and the other partners sadly had to go in different directions. When Louise found herself burdened with the grim task of having to make her employees redundant, she vowed never to hire staff again.

She decided instead to make a fresh start as a freelancer, trading under the name TMPR…

 

What does TMPR stand for? Will Louise ever hire staff again? What is part E of the building regulations? All these questions and more answered next time on TMPR: the origin story…

How to reduce unsubscribers with the power of the preference centre

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Picture this: it’s Monday morning, you check your emails with trepidation. Suddenly, you are hit with an overwhelming tide of digital correspondence.

You put up a mean fight, sorting the influx into various subfolders, a red flag here and a delete there, in your hunt to find those crucial pieces of information amongst the slurry.

It’s 9:05am, and your tired little brain already needs a break. You cry out to the Outlook Gods, “There must be an easier way!”

Well, there is: UNSUBSCRIBE!

Simple, no?

The unsubscribe button oft gets neglected in favour of move-to-trash (or willful ignorance, for those hoarders amongst us), which does nothing to curb the bloat of our inboxes with unnecessary content. But trust us when we say there is something so satisfying in that little act of rebellion: hitting the “opt out” button.

 

Minimalism: fashion statement, or state of mind?

When militant cleaning – Marie-Kondo-style – swept the world in 2017, we experienced a collective eye-opening to the clutter in which we allow ourselves to be surrounded. But clutter doesn’t stop at the physical world.

Our digital space is just as important to keep clean for peace of mind, and ease of thought. You wouldn’t believe how much head space gets freed up when faced with a decluttered inbox, allowing you to focus on the important stuff.

But don’t just take our word for it: a recent study found that 60% of Brits feel less stressed after decluttering their devices, 69% feel more productive, and 71% feel more organized.

 

The best defence is a good preference (centre)

“But wait”, I hear you say, “Why is TMPR espousing digital minimalism? They handle my e-marketing!” Yes, if you’re reading this there’s a good chance you are one of our clients who rely on email marketing as a major source of revenue (and no, we haven’t been taken over by a rogue gang of Zen Buddhists). We’re here to tell you there’s a way to avoid the unsubscribe: a solid preference centre is worth it’s bytes in gold!

Any good marketer knows there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to what an audience will respond to, so why would emailed content be any different? Preference centres put the consumer in the driver’s seat, giving a feeling of control, and allowing your subscribers to decide on the content that is meaningful to them.

Allowing subscribers to tailor what they see, and how often they see it, helps mitigate unsubscribe rates. It also gives you valuable insight into what your customers really want.

In keeping with the hyper-personalised world that digital media and marketing has become, tailored content can be super useful if funnel marketing is your bag. And as data privacy laws are tightening for third-party collectors, Preference Centres provide a direct source for first-party data.

An engaged, interested reader is far more likely to share your content, widening your audience in a way that is far more valuable than “delivered” numbers on a stats report. So, while an email a day may not be able to keep Dr Unsubscribe away, stop worrying and embrace the power of the preference centre.

A new addition to the TMPR team

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Woman Sitting SmilingIn the height of UK lockdown, where closed doors were the norm, TMPR opened their door (metaphorically) to a young Australian who found herself on the wrong side of the world. Hazel joined the team in March, and has quickly settled into our fast-paced way of life.

You may be wondering, what are her koalifications? Well, with a BA double-majoring in communications and marketing, Hazel’s experience in marketing had all been B2C up until now. But she has welcomed the opportunity for professional growth with open arms, and is always excited to learn something new.

In her first month at the agency, Hazel quickly got to work getting stuck-in to writing blog posts, organising PR activities, and picking up the overflow from our rapidly growing business, all the while learning as much as she can about the intricate world of construction and manufacturing marcoms.

“Starting fresh in a new job is tricky, let alone when you have to work remotely, but Louise and the team at TMPR have been so accommodating, and have truly done everything they can to make the transition as smooth as possible.” Hazel said of the move, “I feel very welcomed. I just wish everyone would stop making questionable geographically-themed jokes…”

It would be pretty kanga-rude of us not to say oath, Hazel, you’re a true blue ripper Sheila.

Celebrating Tom’s two-year TMPR tenure…

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This week, we’re marking two years since Tom Martin first joined the Technical Marketing & PR team!

The pandemic saw Tom’s second year with TMPR take place against a very different backdrop to the first, but he has carried on working closely and creatively with the team and our clients no matter the situation – and always with a smile!

Over the past year, Tom has carved out more of a niche within the team and his highlights include seeing a major client campaign through to launch after managing data analysis and copywriting, and securing a selection of exciting articles in the press. Tom has truly gotten stuck in to the TMPR spirit, becoming a subject matter expert on a range of technical topics and finding new ways to communicate manufacturing and engineering with flair.

Although team outings haven’t gone much further than Zoom recently, Tom can’t wait to meet up with the team again to have some fun and really start getting back to normality – and with more and more of Wales opening up again, it surely won’t be long!

From the TMPR team, we’re still so pleased to have you on board and can’t wait to see what the next year brings…

Hello again, friends

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Well hello there! You may have noticed we’ve been a little quiet lately, but don’t be fooled – we have certainly not been hibernating. Instead, we’ve been cocooning (a very different animal analogy), in a state of metamorphosis and growth.

The last year has been a collective trial for the world, but we’re coming out stronger against the odds. The TMPR team has been working busily behind the scenes as we grow our business, making sure our clients get the specialized attention they deserve.

In fact, we’ve been focusing so much on our clients, and keeping the collaborative spirit alive in our team, that we’ve had no time to pop our heads up and do a little bit of PR for ourselves.

Zoom sweet Zoom

Working from home has been a learning curve. In an industry that focuses so much on relationships, removing the face-to-face element has meant we have had to shift gears and rethink how we communicate.

Digital communications are more crucial today than ever before, and we’re proud to be part of an industry that has helped the world stay connected in difficult times. Clients have been our priority, and the TMPR team have been absolute champions in keeping things moving in a time where roadblocks have become the norm.

Celebrating milestones has been tricky. Sadly, the immortal words of the Beastie Boys have never been less relevant: the right to party has not been a plight worth fighting for!

That’s not to say that we haven’t had chances to celebrate: a virtual Christmas party, afternoon tea, pay day pizza deliveries, and valentines cheese hampers (to name a few), have all been facilitated by Zoom, the unequivocal MVP of the last year.

And so…

As the flowers are beginning to bloom, and beer gardens boom, we thought it’s time to emerge from our chrysalis and say “hello again, friends”. We’d say “we’re back” but we never went away!

Watch this space… there’s plenty more to come.

Why lockdown doesn’t have to mean shutdown

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The coronavirus pandemic has affected every aspect of our daily lives from the way we interact with our families and colleagues, to the way we do our weekly shop. As lockdown restrictions are beginning to relax, the last few weeks have seen some businesses busier than ever and others at a standstill.

That said, in a crisis, a natural response is to batten down the hatches and safeguard the business in the short-term. However, from our personal experience we have seen some companies using this time to effectively plan a long-term response and focus on the things that will really make a difference when normality resumes.

So, as we start to approach what is being coined ‘the new normal’, what role does marketing play and why is it important that your voice is heard?

 

  1. Keeping customers informed – with uncertainty everywhere we turn, keeping customers as informed as possible in your business plans is important. Whether you’ve been operational from the beginning or are completely out of action – ensuring you communicate your actions is fundamental for business continuity.

 

  1. Staying connected – more people, including new and existing customers, are online and engaging with content more than ever before. This has opened up a world of opportunities for content and digital marketing. If you haven’t before, now is the time to invest in marketing to reach those people that you can’t meet in person.

 

  1. Building your brand – it may not seem like it now, but normality will resume eventually. Take this time to focus on your brand, the messages you want to convey and those jobs that usually get overlooked. Whether it’s updating website copy, re-branding technical data-sheets or re-evaluating your businesses’ story, use this time wisely.

 

Marketing will help you to stay in front of the people that really matter. During a crisis, keeping in touch and staying connected with your customers is important, but it’s also an opportunity to get your ducks in a row so you can be fast out of the starting blocks when the world fully reopens for business.

Re-thinking events: Taking them online

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One of the longest standing forms of marketing, events are a major element in many businesses’ marketing strategies. Particularly well-established in B2B sectors, events such as trade shows, are the ideal opportunity for brands to elevate themselves on a relevant platform with a targeted audience. To launch new products, network with the industry or generate new leads, face-to-face events have been fundamental.

Much like every other area of marketing there has been a rise in digital formats in recent years – webinars proving particularly popular. That said, face-to-face events are still a major springboard for activity for many businesses.

However, as face-to-face events have halted for the foreseeable future, now could be the perfect opportunity to add digital events to your plan and get creative with the space to explore what works (or more importantly, what doesn’t) for your brand.

So, if you’re looking to get started, what are some of the practical things you need to consider?

  • Audio – Audio is the most important element in online events. Ensure you have appropriate mics and technology that you can rely on.
  • Video – Live video is not always needed, but if this is your chosen method, use it as an opportunity to share the experience – and most importantly, it has to be done right.
  • Time – Dive into the most important content quickly. It is vital that your audiences are engaged from the outset.
  • Customisation – By taking your content and localising it for different regions is key to engaging different audiences and creating evergreen content.
  • UX – whatever your chosen platform, the user experience needs to be simple from registration through to follow up. Give your audience easy access to everything they will need to further their understanding.
  • Plan – have a structure in place but leave room for spontaneity. Audience demands may lead the way, don’t be intimidated by this, ensure you can be agile.
  • Unique – be unique and have a personality. Bring your brand to life just as you would on a stand at an event.

 

While face-to-face events will always have a place in the marketing strategy of B2B brands, digital events can help to plug the content gap while we wait for normality to resume. And when it does, we expect to see much wider spread digital adoption given that they break down geographical and time boundaries, making audiences accessible without the need for travel.

In fact, the current situation could actually be the catalyst needed for many businesses to review event strategies and identify where digital has the potential to add value.

Tom’s TMPR highlights – a year in the making

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Amidst uncertain times and new working procedures, Technical Marketing & PR has cause for celebration, with this week marking one year since Tom Martin first joined the team!

Looking back on his first year, Tom was spoilt for choice in selecting a few highlights. From the numerous personal development opportunities and training sessions to attending networking events on behalf of the business, it has been an eclectic and exciting time during which he has become a valued member of the team.

Tom took a hands-on role from day one, immersing himself in a wide range of activities and developing new skills – and has produced several successfully-targeted social media advertising campaigns.

Being the sole England supporter in the TMPR contingent has led to few rugby-induced heartbreaks along the way (much to the joy of the surrounding team), but Tom has fit right in with the company’s enduringly positive atmosphere. For England, there’s always next year – and Tom’s second year at TMPR will surely see him encounter new challenges and scale new heights.

From the TMPR team, we’re proud to have you on board – and look forward to toasting our collective successes once we can meet up again!