At Impression, we’re proud of our links with Nottingham’s universities and our work to ensure that the pipeline of digital marketing experts keeps coming thick and fast!
We’re keen to in inspire students to consider digital marketing as a career and then provide them with the skills that they need to ace the application and interview process, whether they’re looking for in-house or agency life.
Chloe and I recently hosted a skills workshop in partnership with the careers department at the University of Nottingham and Alice Yeates of Distinction, a neighbouring Nottingham agency.
The two-hour evening event offered students the opportunity to try their hand at three key digital marketing services: digital PR, SEO and development and PPC (paid per click).
Attended by around 25 students, the workshop began with intro presentations that covered our roles at Impression and our career journeys to this point; Chloe and I are both languages graduates from the University of Nottingham, so it was good to be back!
Task: digital marketing for a nightclub
The group then split into four groups to work on different tasks covering the four services, which all had the common goal of revamping a Nottingham nightclub after a PR disaster and a drop in sales!
For example, the groups completing the digital PR task were asked to create a story that would appeal to two audiences: worried parents and pre-undergraduates, who might be considering Nottingham as a future university town.
We discussed how these stories would need to differ in content and format to engage the different audiences, and what journalists would be looking for in a story.
The web design task asked students to create a wireframe for a new website for a Nottingham nightclub. Alice Yeates, a junior designer, was on hand to offer advice and inspiration!
Students working on the SEO task spent time considering which keywords they would optimise for if they were working for a Nottingham nightclub and then brainstormed the content for a new webpage after completing some competitor analysis.
Finally, students on the ‘PPC table’ planned how best to target potential clubbers through pay per click advertising. Would Search or Display ads be most effective, and why? The final part of the task was to draft an ad in the chosen format.
Each group completed each task with the agency members on hand to provide support, inspiration and provoke discussion about industry news; we just about had time for a quick Q and A session at the end of the evening.
Feedback from the students was that they enjoyed the event and enjoyed getting more ‘hands-on’ at a careers event, and it’s always interesting for us to hear out of the box ideas when we venture out into schools and universities.
You can find out more about graduate opportunities at Impression here.
Many thanks to the University of Nottingham for having us; here’s to the next edition!
