Introduction:
Located next to Easter Road in Edinburgh, Norton Park SCIO has been a pioneer in shared premises for third sector and social enterprise organisations since 1998. Norton Park Business Centre has flourished into a busy and vibrant office complex, now home to 20 charitable organisations. The organisation also manages a unique events and conference centre housed in the historic St Mungo’s Church on the site next door. This facility features a modern auditorium, training suite, and eight well-appointed meeting rooms available for hire to both charities and businesses keen on supporting social enterprise.
With its office space nearly at capacity and a reputation for fostering collaboration among third sector organisations, Norton Park is a great example of social enterprise supporting social enterprise.
The Problem:
With a thriving Business Centre, Norton Park has turned their attention to focus on the need to increase the rental of its events and meeting spaces in the conference centre to ensure long-term financial sustainability. This shift in focus highlighted the lack of a dedicated marketing person in the staff team, which can often be the case for social enterprises of this size.
With limited time and capacity for marketing activities, Norton Park was struggling to effectively promote its excellent facilities to potential clients. The organisation had previously engaged support through Just Enterprise partner, Community Enterprise to develop a Marketing Plan, which provided a solid starting point. However, they recognised the need for additional support to progress key parts of this plan and, importantly, to increase their understanding and use of digital analytics for more informed marketing decisions going forward.
This challenge isn’t unique to Norton Park. The 2023 Charity Digital Skills Report reveals a picture of the digital landscape for Scottish charities. Of those surveyed:
- 57% reported struggling with upskilling staff and volunteers in digital skills.
- 41% admitted to being too busy “firefighting” to prioritise digital initiatives.
- 55% confessed to poor skills in using data for decision-making and implementing SEO strategies.
These statistics reveal the widespread nature of the digital skills gap in the third sector, highlighting the importance of targeted support and capacity building in this area.
The Solution:
Just Enterprise 1-2-1 Business support was able to provide a tailored approach to tackle Norton Park’s specific digital marketing needs. The strategy combined a number of aspects, developed not only to address immediate concerns but to equip the Norton Park team with the skills and resources for longer term success.
Step 1: Review and Align: The first step was to thoroughly review the existing marketing plan developed by Community Enterprise. This crucial stage ensured no duplication of effort and helped to identify areas where the most value could be added.
Step 2: Focus on Digital: In collaboration with Norton Park’s Chief Operating Officer, we identified key areas to focus on, prioritising digital aspects where staff felt less confident. This included setting clear aims and objectives for the website and social media channels, with the aim to measuring success and identifying areas for improvement.
Step 3: Setting a Baseline: We spent time delving into the organisation’s website and social media analytics to set a baseline. This coincided with Google’s migration from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4, presenting an additional challenge, and learning opportunity for the team.
Step 4: Staff Training: We provided hands-on training in interpreting analytics data, focusing on key measurements such as identifying trends, understanding visitor journeys, and interpreting user behaviour. We hoped this approach would help the Norton Park team to make data-driven decisions about their digital presence.
Technical Challenges: During the review, we discovered several technical issues. The main website and online bookings platform weren’t connected, and analytics hadn’t been installed on the booking’s platform. Additionally, keyword tracking wasn’t set up. We guided Norton Park through addressing these issues, including engaging a developer to support where necessary.
Step 5: On-site Visit: To truly understand Norton Park’s offering, we arranged to visit. First-hand experience of the space was invaluable in informing our content creation ideas and understanding the unique selling points of the venue.
Step 6: Content Strategy: Based on our visit and analysis, we developed a bank of suggested social media content aligned with existing marketing streams. This provided Norton Park with a foundation to increase their digital marketing efforts.
Throughout the process, we encountered and overcame several challenges. For instance, we discovered difficulties in accessing one of the social media platforms due to outdated login information – a common issue for organisations when staff and trustees change. We used this as an opportunity to advise on best practices for managing digital assets to ensure smoother operations in the future.
The Outcome:
Norton Park received:
- An example social media calendar for planning monthly content, providing a structured approach to their digital communication.
- New, SEO-optimised website copy designed to drive more targeted traffic and inquiries. This included guidance on how the copy relates to keywords and optimises the website for search engine discoverability.
- Supporting resources for regular analytics reviews, enabling any staff member to make informed marketing decisions. These resources were designed to be user-friendly, allowing even those with limited digital experience to gain valuable insights from the data.
- A digital marketing report documenting all steps taken, key findings, and recommendations for improvement. This serves as a roadmap for Norton Park’s ongoing digital marketing efforts.
Though it’s too early to provide quantitative data on the impact, the qualitative feedback from the client was positive. The Chief Operating Officer expressed in an email:
“I can’t believe how comprehensive your reports and attachments are. We have a great lot of resources here and I am going to share them with the team. I really appreciate all you have done for us.”