Northfield Neighbourhood Network Scheme is a project that supports small local community groups and charities that support people over the age of 50.  We do this by mapping local services and collating them on the Birmingham connect to support website under a community directory, we have give grants to support local assets that range from £500 to £10,000 and also support with capacity building offering free training and support. 

 

When covid hit and lockdown began, many services moved to a more digital platform to connect with citizens, this included using zoom, social media, email marketing and printing leaflets.  We could no longer "walk through doors" and have face to face contact.  There was a new emerging need for support in this. Also, local groups and charities often don't have marketing staff members, budgets for training staff or in house technical teams.  With this in mind we talked to Pinfields Marketing and requested they support us in upskilling these smaller groups and charities to understand and more effectively use digital marketing to inform older people what is on offer to them.

 

Pinfields provided us with 3 workshops, that included using social media affectively, email marketing and using free resources to help produce professional printed materials/ social media posts/ emails. 

 

The sessions were facilitated by a very knowledgeable team, who have vast experience and skilled in the subject matter.  They not only produced the training sessions for us to our own individual needs, but delivered them with confidence. They made trainees feel comfortable, reassured and even offered follow up support where required.  The training facilitators managed to engage a group with varying abilities and experience, yet still offer something to all in the group with everyone fully engaged throughout the sessions. 

 

Pinfields have now upskilled small groups, charities and volunteers in the Northfield area in their marketing strategies and have ensured that very important messages of what support is available to older people is well and professionally conveyed. 

 

I honestly can not thank you enough for your support and sharing of expertise.  

 

Trainee comment:

 

"I didn't know any of this before, I'm not too keen on the computer but I can't believe how easy it is... I can't wait to get started!" 

 

"I always wondered why our posts on Facebook and our leaflets looked such poor quality compared to richer organisations.  I thought it was to do with budget, so I was so pleased that Pinfields helped us with free things that still help us be more professional." 

 

"I am quite confident in marketing, or so I thought until I attended these sessions.  It was so interesting and I really learnt a lot. I particularly found the bit about what colours to use and why really helpful, I had never even noticed things like that before but was really useful."