Angle PR launches in the Highlands
Having honed her PR and marketing skills at companies such as Bupa and Hill + Knowlton Strategies, Carol set up her first events management company over 25 years ago in the Middle East. Over the course of a varied career, Carol has worked with a variety of high-profile clients from British Airways through to Jaguar and even the Government of Bahrain, where she helped spearhead employment reform in the country.
After the Arab Springs, Carol relocated to the picturesque town of Melrose in the Scottish Borders and continued to work in the world of PR. Her latest venture, Angle PR, officially launched in February 2017. The firm's goal is to provide strategic creative PR, marketing, branding and social media services to charities and small businesses in the area.
The Angle PR website has been key to giving my business legitimacy.
Being well aware of the benefits of marketing, Carol was quick to set up a website to promote the business. This has helped to address one of the biggest challenges Carol has faced so far: "One of my main tasks is to help potential clients understand the cost effectiveness and importance of PR and why they need this professional service. It's easy to explain this when I show them that I helped generate £500k worth of free publicity in one year about the Dandie Dinmont Terrier, which is now a vulnerable breed."
"The Angle PR website has been key to giving my business legitimacy, providing information and a point of contact for potential clients. I knew it might be complicated to set up a website so I was looking for an easy-to-use tool. I looked at other website builders, but once I'd signed up with them, I got stuck as there were no instructions as to how to get up and running and very little help and support," Carol explained.
Interestingly, it was actually one of Carol's clients, The Gallery Melrose, who suggested using GoDaddy. "After signing up, I had my website up and running the same day. The select-a-theme feature was fantastic as was the ability to choose photographs from the pre-populated image library."
Committed to her startup, Carol opted for a three-year package for her website during the free trial period after contacting GoDaddy’s customer service.
The five-year-plan for the business is to offer syndication, compete with the bigger players and become one of the top three agencies for reputation and image management in the region.
Jolly Good Events springs to life
Born out of a passion for creative projects, from floral design to chocolate-making, Jolly Good Events was brought to life by BBC journalist, radio presenter and producer, Rebecca Jennings.
Having worked with local food producers and artisans over the course of a 20 year career, Rebecca wanted to branch on her own and celebrate the best of the local creative talent in Hampshire. Rebecca mulled over her business idea for a long time before finally taking the plunge at the start of this year.
One of the first actions to get the business off the ground was to plan an event that could be sold to the public. This culminated in the creation of the Easter Floral and Chocolate Workshop in April, where Triple Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medalist, Pip Bensley, and award winning chocolatier, Kerry Witt, were invited to impart their expertise and lead practical demonstrations.
The GoDaddy website builder was really easy to use and cost effective.
To help build the Jolly Good Events brand in the early stages, Rebecca also launched a website quickly after inception. "Marketing a business is difficult without a website and you'd struggle to be taken seriously if you just have a Facebook page and don't make any investments in your idea," Rebecca said.
"I didn't want to pay a designer thousands of pounds to create a website so I used GoDaddy because I was familiar with the brand. The GoDaddy website builder tool was really easy to use and cost effective. It provided me with all the templates to get started and saved me having to start from a blank page, which can cause panic. By using the e-commerce package I've also been able to take payments for my workshop directly through the website."
At present, Rebecca plans on taking it slowly as she still has her day job. The plan is to grow Jolly Good Events at a sustainable pace and ultimately have a bespoke venue that hosts events and can be hired out.
