Yesterday saw our second connective3 event take place at Avenue HQ. This time however, rather than focusing solely on digital marketing, we took a different tack, and instead delivered an event on ‘How to grow your start-up’ business in partnership with NorthInvest.
We were joined by nearly 70 attendees, with a mix of business owners, investors and marketers all looking to learn more about how to pitch, secure investment, market and ultimately grow a start-up business. For those who weren’t able to make it on the night, we’ve pulled together our round-up of what took place below:
First up was connective3 Content Marketing Director David White, speaking on securing PR coverage for your brand. David ran through how he has been able to achieve international coverage for brands that are either unknown, or come from ‘hard to market’ sectors. His strategically creative approach (outlined in full here) involves gaining an understanding of what journalist’s interests are and creating relevant and engaging content around this to ensure you achieve coverage for your brand.
Following David was James Dawson, founder of Tea Plus. Having started his vitamin tea business five years ago with just a concept for a brand and no FMCG experience, James took us through his journey from starting out, to achieving a joint venture with Vitabiotics following his Dragon’s Den success. The Tea Plus brand is now stocked in several leading supermarkets and Holland & Barrett stores across the country.
Charlotte Scott from NorthInvest was next to the stage, outlining the power of a pitch deck. She ran through practical examples of how to improve your pitch so that when you do finally get your brand in front of potential investors you are able to sell your business, and walk away with the investment you need to grow your brand. Find out how to build your deck, and how NorthInvest could support you in growing your business here.
After a short break we were joined by Jordan Appleson, CEO of IoT company Hark. In his talk Jordan took us through Hark’s journey from a team of just four software engineers (and a dog), to where they are today with 20 employees. Having successful secured an contract with one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains, Jordan talked through the challenges involved in working with an enterprise brand from procurement, to risk management. All in all, his talk was a deep dive into the input required to win and work with big businesses.
Wrapping up the event was connective3 Paid Media Director Claire Stanley-Manock. Claire’s talk looked at how to get started with paid advertising, the benefits it offers for your brand as an immediate strategy, and how to take your insights from competitor’s activity. Keep an eye on the blog for a follow up post from Claire on this topic.
Thank you to all who attended, supported and spoke at the event! Our next event will be announced on the connective3 twitter soon, so watch this space!
