Case Studies from November 2024

Sector: Marketing Consultancy

Location: Mansfield

Touchpoints Marketing became a limited company in August 2021. Previously, Managing Director, Vic Taylor ran the business as a sole trader for seven years.

Touchpoints Marketing creates education for entrepreneurs. It supports start-up and scale-up business owners to develop clear marketing strategies to grow and build successfully.

Challenges faced

The business faced grave challenges during COVID-19. At the time, the business was run as a marketing agency and in just one week it lost 98% of its clients! With a change in thinking and a pivot for the business, Touchpoints Marketing decided to create supportive marketing content and give it away. This enabled Vic and her team to see that this was something they enjoyed doing. They also received a great response to the educational content being created for entrepreneurs. This allowed them to build this side of the business and scale down the agency work.

Solution and Impact

The business has taken advantage of one-to-one advice from the Accelerator project’s Peter Lawrence. Accelerator is funded by Mansfield District Council’s share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and delivered by East Midlands Chamber.

Peter conducted a diagnostic with Vic to find out where the business was and where it wanted to go, also outlining grants and funding that might be available.

Focussed time with Peter has helped the business apply for a Growth Voucher to the value of £2,000. This has given Touchpoints Marketing 20 hours of specialist support with consultant Martin Broadhurst who was instrumental in helping set up and create its new Six Figure Niche website: www.sixfigureniche.com, which uses new technology and has a lot of automations. It also allowed them to supercharge the launch of this programme, which is one of four they currently run.

The impact of this support has been the creation of jobs. The business has gone from one full-time and three part-time staff members to three full-time and one part-time now.

“Being able to access someone with digital marketing knowledge has enabled our business to supercharge the launch of Six Figure Niche and enabled us to get that to market quicker. It has ensured the growth of the business by helping us take on two full-time members of staff as a result.”

- Vic Taylor, Managing Director

Read the full Case Study

This initiative is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and delivered by East Midlands Chamber on behalf of Mansfield District Council.

Sector: Manufacturing/ Retail

Location: Bassetlaw

Mud Mate is based in West Stockwith, Bassetlaw and was established in 2018. Owners, Nolan and Louise Freebury began their entrepreneurial journey by providing contract laser engraving and sandblasting services, as well as their own range of engraved giftware.

Over time the business has evolved following the in-house creation, design and development of Mud Mate, an innovative range of portable cleaning kits, and the Kitsack range of sports bags. There are three employees in the business.

Challenges faced

The main challenge for the husband-and-wife team was the lack of in-house marketing skills and being able to attract the customers they wanted. They were unable to compete with the vast advertising reach of their competitors. There was also a desire to improve sales from their website as costs were escalating through third-party sites.

Solution and Impact

Nolan and Louise attended the launch event for the Accelerator project last year. Accelerator is funded by Bassetlaw District Council’s share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and delivered by East Midlands Chamber.

The project offers 1-to-1 business advice and they have been working with the Chamber’s Business Adviser, Steve Phillips over the last year. Steve has supported them in creating a new marketing strategy to attract more customers online, from trade shows and markets. Together they identified organisations and groups that could help promote the business by highlighting the benefits of their products.

This, with their product Bio Mate, has led to a collaboration with Paddle UK to help educate paddle sports users about cross-contamination and to help prevent the spread of invasive non-native species (INNS) within the UK’s waterways. In fact, with Bio Mate they recently won the ‘Excellence in Innovation Award’ at the 2024 Nottinghamshire Business Awards organised by the Chamber.

Steve also provided guidance with their application for a £4,000 Growth Grant through Bassetlaw District Council. The grant has enabled the business to purchase a branded mobile display unit that will help promote the brand at the various outdoor trade shows that the company will attend.

Finally, the team has taken advantage of the fully funded workshops from Accelerator including Marketing and Brand Development, How to Master Digital Display & Video Advertising, Getting the most out of Google Analytics and others.

Nolan said: “As a result of the support we will be more competitive and can safeguard our current tally of three full-time employees.”

“The support given has been invaluable and I would recommend any SME in the region to take part in the Accelerator programme.”

- Nolan & Louise Freebury, Directors

Read the full Case Study

This initiative is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and delivered by East Midlands Chamber on behalf of Bassetlaw District Council.