The Brighton Elephant

You know the scene… you get off the bus in Brighton, ready for a great Friday night on the seafront. You get to the bar, order your drink and maybe think about getting something to line your stomach for the impending night ahead...

A great big plastic cup comes flying towards you. It feels flimsy in your hand. It looks and feels cheap. You know you won’t be allowed to use it again, and you can’t see a recycling bin in the surrounding area.

Or you decide to go for a walk along the seafront. It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon in your beloved town, and you feel like being a tourist. You start off with a coffee to walk along the beach with. You receive your plastic lined cup and wonder if the vendor uses biodegradable cups. They don’t. Now what? You go get a selection of lovely local sea food – some lovely prawns, some jellied eel and maybe some pickled whelks! Why not! It’s the weekend! Oh, but that’s in some nasty polystyrene too. And again, you can’t see any recycling bins nearby.

So you sit on the beach… with your plastic cup full of beer, or your polystyrene container full of seafood. And as you finish up, you pop it next to you, and continue to look out to sea. A gust of wind blows your container towards the sea. You jump up, conscious not to let it go in. You wouldn’t want some poor sea creature to suffer because of your single use plastic, so you chase after it and catch it. As you straighten yourself up, you look around for a recycling bin. You can’t see any, so you resign to carrying it until you find one.

You don’t find one, so you prop it on top the overflowing bin you can find, and hope it gets picked up soon, before it gets blown into the sea.

You carry this plastic container with you all night, thinking about it, heavy on your mind. You wonder if the next bar will serve your drink or meal in plastic too.

“What’s the solution?” you ponder. Bring a container with you? Maybe a reusable coffee cup! Or you could keep cutlery in your handbag! And one of those modern new steel straws you saw at the Open Market the other day!

That’s it, you think. I’m going to change this mess, even if it’s just me.

You feel empowered. You’re making a change.

Because you love your town, and you want to care for it.

One reusable item at a time.

We suggest a few of the following as a starter kit to getting you on the way to being plastic free whilst out and about.

Keep Cup

KeepCup is the world’s first barista standard, reusable coffee cup.

Beeswax Food Wrap £12 (2pc)

Reusable food wrap that replaces the need for cling film.

Reusable Wooden Cutlery £5

Take these wooden utensils on the go to avoid having to discard single use pieces of plastic.

Eco Straw £3.99

Reusable drinking straw that you can take with you everywhere!

Retap Bottle £9

Reduce the need for carrying around excess plastic with a reusable Retap Bottle.

A Slice of Green Lunch Box £22

A two tiered stainless steel lunch box that’ll cut out the need for plastic containers.

Guide To SEO - Basics To Get You Started

Search engine optimisation may seem a bit scary initially, but trust us, it’s only the jargon that’s a bit overwhelming. When you take away the fancy wording and hone in on what Search Engine Optimisation actually is, you’ll realise you can start cracking on with it yourself! To start with, SEO comes down to knowing your customer and using quite a bit of common sense. In digital marketing, truly knowing your customers is vital and that’s no different when it comes to SEO. We want to give you a basic understanding of the 5 key ingredients to cooking up a website brimming with optimised content!

1 | Research, research, research. Keywords, keywords, keywords.

So, first thing’s first. You need to know your customers. You need to know what they’re searching for and how they’re searching for it. You need to understand the language that they’re using and where they’re looking for you. It’s important to collate all of this information in a clear format and understand when and where your keywords should be used. This will come in very handy!

n.b. Don’t just assume you already know your customers! This is the most common mistake. Take a look at your analytics and see who’s browsing your site, ask around and approach this with an open mind.

2 | Titles and Descriptions

The next step is to use what you’ve learnt previously to ensure all of your page titles are optimised using your keywords and you have incorporated these into your meta descriptions too. All of this will help to ‘label’ your content so that search engines have a better chance of finding you.

3 | Content is key(words)

Similarly to your titles and descriptions, you need to ensure your content includes plenty of keywords, directing it towards search engines. Content should be optimised in few ways:

•Headers

•Body Text

•Images

•URL Slug

Just remember not to keyword stuff! That’s when you’re stuffing so many similar keywords into your content to a point where it is no longer legible or naturally flowing. This can be detrimental to your search ranking and it’s likely any user who reads it will just turn away.

4 | Your website isn’t the be all and end all

Although your website plays a huge part in your overall SEO, it’s important not to forget about the rest of your online presence. Social media and citations on listings are also important and search engines regard these websites highly. Remember to keep everything up to date, consistent and as optimised as possible.

5 | Linkbuilding Gives you power

A good way to think about links is like votes. Links act as pointers to your website, leading search engines to believe you are trustworthy and indicating legitimacy. Links from higher ranking websites should in turn increase your visibility, but make sure that the links are relevant and trustworthy themselves!

If you have any questions or want to learn more, get in touch with us!

Four Brighton Charities We Love And Think You Will Too!

We want to share some amazing charities we work with and a few that we think are doing great things in Brighton and the surrounding areas. We get so much pleasure in partnering with charities that are doing good and we really want you to see what they are up to!

• ONCA Gallery supports the wellbeing of people and places by increasing awareness of, and engagement with, environmental and social challenges. They partner with local and international artists to embrace a diverse perspective and try to foster more inclusive creative practices. They are a space for meeting, thinking, learning and celebrating art!

  Contact the ONCA Gallery: 01273 607101

• Sussex Prisoners’ Families is a community interest company which supports local families to cope emotionally and practically with the imprisonment of a loved-one. They offer support and advice to families as well as training and awareness-raising for professionals so that they can better meet families’ needs.

  Contact Sussex Prisoners’ Families: 01273 499843

• The Railway Land Wildlife Trust consists of a beautiful nature reserve and The Linklater Pavilion. They inspire environmental sustainability by bringing nature to the heart of Lewes. They aim to achieve this goal by running the Linklater building as a community- based hub for the understanding of a sustainable environment, providing inclusive outdoor learning using innovative approaches and supporting the local authority in managing the Railway Land nature reserve for the whole community.

  Contact the Railway Land Wildlife Trust: 01273 477101

• Sussex Oakleaf provides a range of support services to people with mental health needs, those with a personality disorder and individuals at risk of homelessness. They empower people and promote independence by providing recovery focused community wellbeing services, residential care, peer mentoring, housing support and volunteering opportunities.

  If you need to speak to someone about your mental health out of hours then please use the following numbers.

  • Sussex Mental Health Line – 0300 5000 101

  • Samaritans – 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org

  • NHS, non emergency number – 111

  • SANEline – 0300 304 7400

Tips For A Sustainable Halloween

Tips On How To Have A Sustainable Halloween!

Create A Reuse-able Costume!

Why not tailor your halloween costume to your everyday outfit tastes? A Halloween costume can be for life, not just Halloween. Or better yet, why not use second hand clothes to bring your spooky idea to life?

Use Eco-Friendly Halloween Treats

Cheap Halloween sweets are usually covered in plastic and won’t biodegrade any time soon. Consider throwing your own ingredients into a cauldron and making toffee apples instead! 

Say Boo To The Plastic Candy Bucket

Those plastic candy buckets will end up hanging around long after Halloween. Try going trick-or-treating with a different kind of container, get imaginative with a pillow case, laundry basket or even just use a normal handbag. 

Local Pumpkin Pie

Consider researching your local pumpkin patch this year or your nearest farmers market that sell pumpkins! Not only will you be cutting carbon emissions from transportation significantly, but often you’ll find all different shapes and sizes of pumpkins which will only add to the creepy factor once it’s been carved!

Check out a few places in Sussex that you could pick your own pumpkin! Here.

Meaning Conference Fringe Event: Lunchtime Brighton Beach Clean

Tuesday, 13 November 2018 from 12:00-14:30

From the Palace Pier, Brighton (in front of the Sea Life Centre)

Plastic is a man made invention and it won’t simply deteriorate while we’re not looking - plastic items can take up to 1000 years to decompose in landfills. While everyday plastic bags can take 10-1000 years to decompose, the vast majority of plastic used on packaging ends up floating in our oceans and polluting our land, instead of being reused or recycled. Single use plastic is without question, killing our planet and our oceans.

Right now an estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic, everything from plastic bottles and bags to micro-beads, end up in our oceans each year. That’s approximately a truck load of rubbish a minute. Not only does this amount of plastic waste hurt our planet, but it hurts other living creatures; many marine organisms can’t distinguish common plastic items from food. Animals who eat plastic, often starve as they can’t digest it and it fills their stomachs, preventing them from eating real food.

Want to make a difference? Join Creative Bloom and Brighton’s Surfers Against Sewage in cleaning up Brighton Beach on the 13th November from 12-2:30 - an event which is part of the Meaning Fringe. We are taking direct action against plastic pollution and will prove that anyone can make a difference when they work together. There will also be a short talk at 2pm which will further discuss marine plastic pollution and what you personally can do to stop it.

And if you needed any more reason to fight for the end of plastic pollution- a recent study by Sarah-Jeanne Royer et al, has discovered that plastic wastage, when exposed to sunlight, will emit greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.  

So come help us fight against plastic waste and do your bit to make a difference.

Give Your Business A Head Start & Navigate The Cobbled Streets

Give Your Business A Head Start & Navigate The Cobbled Streets

Running your business can sometimes feel like trying to tackle an incredibly uneven road surface in incredibly inappropriate footwear. No matter where you go, or which part of the road looks smooth there are inevitable hiccups, trips, bumps and set-backs. This is why, truly understanding your business and how other people perceive your business is vital. Do you have everything you need? Have you taken advantage of the free stuff out there?

Small Business Tips to Improve Your Strategy:

Know Your Customer - Data Doesn’t Lie

Important foundations to a business are paramount to success. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, start-up or already established, there will undoubtedly be areas you could improve, refine or introduce (if you haven’t already). Knowing your customer for example, do you truly know your audience? This is not necessarily who you ‘want’ to be your customer, or asking others who they ‘think’ your customers are. Use the data available to you! Remember that Google Analytics account you’ve never looked at? As well as Google Search Console & Social Channel Analytics - they can all tell you exactly who is on your site, where they’re coming from and what they’re doing when they get there. Take some time and dive into your traffic analytics, you will likely be pleasantly surprised what you can find out.

Understand The Basics & Better Equip Yourself

The murky world of Digital Marketing, SEO, PPC etc. can all be quite overwhelming if you’re exploring it for the first time. However, if you take some time to understand the basics in these areas, you will be able to better understand what your business needs, be better equipped to explain to others what you need and you’ll also end up saving yourself money! So eventually, what, 6 months ago you would’ve paid an agency to do for your SEO, you can now jump on and fix yourself.

Have a look at how fast your website is running with Pingdom. If your results say you’re below 2.5 seconds, give yourself a high five. If not, then you are provided with the information you could give to your developer to help improve this. You just became better equipped!

Competitors - Online & Offline

Stella and Jimmela have a flower shop where they take lots of online orders. Just because Olivia has a flower shop across the street does not necessarily make Olivia their competitor - Especially as she doesn’t even have an online website. So understanding your online competitors is extremely important as they are likely not who you think they are.

Jump on Google, type a few variations of your service or product into the search box and see what the results say! Do maps appear? Do some competitors appear for multiple searches? Now you can try and work out why they may be ranking higher than you (or lower) and employ some tactics that they’re using to better compete!

Still itching to learn more about how you can supercharge your own business? Check out our two day digital marketing course that will give you all the tools you need to propel yourself past your competitors.

Three Essentials Of Getting Local SEO To Work

You can't have Batman without Robin. You can't have Wallace without Gromit. And you cannot have a local business without local SEO! If you aren't on the local digital map then there's a very high likelihood that you'll be missing out on lots of potential opportunities that would otherwise be heading your way.

We understand that digital marketing can seem overwhelming, with lots of technical jargon being thrown at you left, right and centre. However we have a fantastic Local SEO training workshop that will provide you with a no-nonsense, no-jargon approach to digital marketing, in particular local SEO. To give you a taste of what you'll learn about, here are some very simple yet effective ways that you can begin the journey of growing your business locally.

Your 'Google My Business' Account
Google My Business is the best place to start. This gives you your very own little chunk of Google real-estate, helping your customers to find out information about you, including opening hours, address and images of your products and services. Google also lets you post information about deals and helps promote what's happening on your social media pages. It encourages your customers to leave reviews by making as easy as possible for them to just log on and express their upmost admiration and appreciation for your business. Google also keeps an eye on the other big review sites such as Facebook, Yelp and Trip Advisor, so encouraging reviews across the board is important.

Make It Easy To Be Found
A citation is a reference of your business on a directory or local business listing (Name, Address, Postcode etc.). You should add and maintain citations of your business using some of the many software platforms available, such as Moz Local, Brightlocal or Whitespark. Your local citations should stay consistent across the board, so when you're uploading them to any website or listing, always ensure that they match. If you change address, or phone number, make it a priority to go through all of your online platforms and update all of your citations. You can tell google what your website is about by ensuring you use local schema markup. This code applied to your website alongside citations will all count towards your Google ranking.

Creating Content
Although you must ensure that you are using the correct keywords for your business, it's important to remain user friendly as much as possible - Google has an eye on that too. Local keywords can be effectively used within written content, however, it's important to spread them out amongst title tags, alt tags and headers to avoid keyword stuffing. Internal linking within content also helps to boost that local ranking. Look for way to include links on local directories and other businesses, perhaps even approach a local blogger to help get people linking back onto your site. 

We've only hit the tip of the iceberg here but sign up to our next Local SEO workshop if you want to get stuck in.

Train for the Gain | Why Ordinary Business Training Just Doesn't Cut It

Train for the Gain | The Best Way to Learn Business

What comes to mind when you think of the last professional development training session you attended? A positively prosaic afternoon filled with monotonous corporate speak and lukewarm coffee? We thought so.

Was there any practical information or any tailored examples? Any action list for you to implement? You probably filled a notebook full of buzzwords and strategic jargon but it's been collecting dust ever since. We've all been there.

We find that most training that we have experienced take a 'one size fits all' approach. It's rare to find a workshop that really delves deep into one specified area of marketing and instead takes a broad brush approach with attendees no matter what their business needs.

Well we like to shake things up a bit.

At Creative Bloom, we've had enough of textbook training and have spent time developing a different approach. Our new workshops are designed to enable you to tailor your training to find what suits you. We supply you with the knowledge, but also help you to ensure that it is relevant to your specific business and send you away with an action plan for what you need to tackle next. PLUS, we pester you after, to check up on how you're getting on beyond the classroom.

Each of our coaches or 'Bloomers' as we like to call them have experience in their specific field, knowing what it takes to deliver what they preach, and continuing to practice with our current clients, keeping up to date with new tech and trends. 

Don't like tech speak? Neither do we, so all our workshops are delivered minus the jargon and instead with simple to follow steps, tips and examples. You never know, you might find a Star Wars slide in there somewhere. And hey, it's not all for you, we enjoy delivering them - so all that comes with a load of enthusiasm, helping you to have that lightbulb moment!
 

How to Reduce Plastic Waste at Festivals and Events

The hot British Summer is in full swing and we're well into the festival season now. If you're anything like me, you'll love soaking up the summer whilst enjoying a bit of music and culture outdoors. I recently joined a 40,000 strong crowd for a music festival in London. By the end of the evening and a couple of beers down, I was so swept up in the excitement of the headliner's encore, that I thought I would be going home with a lingering sense of contentment (and perhaps some ringing in my ears). As the crowds descended into the evening, the feeling quickly disappeared as I was followed by an overwhelming sound of crunching. As I looked back, I was shocked to see a dense carpet of plastic pint glasses strewn on the ground, and being crushed underfoot. Sadly, this scene is all too familiar during the festival season.

At Creative Bloom, we wanted to challenge the issue that has become a norm amongst festival-goers and organisers. There are many actions that we can take to have some fun in the sun in a more environmentally responsible way. We partnered up with 'Surfers Against Sewage' and the 'Paddle Round the Pier' event and some other fabulous local activists to try to tackle the issue.

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Our project began last year, when members of Creative Bloom along with SAS volunteers, conducted a waste audit at the 2017 Paddle Round the Pier event. This included a review of food and drinks packaging and promotional material that was being supplied by stallholders, availability of segregated recycling bins and guidelines of how and where waste should be deposited. After conducting this audit, guidelines were created to help to inform stallholders of ways to help reduce the production of plastic waste at the 2018 Paddle Round the Pier event.

Although some stallholders found this task a little too tall, many were up for the challenge. Alongside Surfers Against Sewage we helped to arrange two beach cleans after the event and our very own Stuart Davies and local designer Claire Potter held talks throughout the weekend about how to reduce plastic waste as the Hove Local SAS Representatives. During this year's event, Jimmy from Bloom also held a second waste audit to see ways in which the festival had improved since last year, chatting to some attendees & stall holders and discussing their thoughts on the issue.

These are only small steps that have been taken, but already we have seen a great reduction in the amount of plastic waste created at the Paddle Round the Pier Event. The festival's organisers, stallholders and attendees have shown that with the right attitude, events both large and small are are able to achieve this reduction in plastic waste. We are aware that this is part of a process to try to tackle the issue, but small actions and conversations are a great starting point to help resolve the current plastic problem within Brighton and Hove.

It’s very simple to do - start your own conversation and watch change start to happen.

Top Ways to Encourage People to Review Your Business

Why are online reviews so important?

Whether you are an online or offline business, reviews are a crucial element to your success. A whopping 97% of consumers read online reviews and more than half of those people need to read four or more before they can trust the business. Reviews can give you feedback on ways to improve your business and help to prove its legitimacy. Good reviews can also help to improve your SEO. Just as a user will be more likely to trust a business with good reviews, search engines will trust them in the same way. Google, in particular, will gather information from several review websites and if it likes what it sees, will help to push your ranking up. All of these advantages will put your business in the best position to lead to that greatly sought after sale or sign up.

Tips for Online Reviews

Set it up 

It's up to you to get your business listed on review sites. Tripadvisor, Yelp, and Facebook are all well known review websites, but certain sites are better than others for your particular sector. Dig a little deeper to find out which review site suits your business best and make sure that you're listed. Once this is done, you will have a link that you can forward on to any customer or client you wish!

If you don't ask, you don't get

 We can all be a little shy at times when it comes to asking for feedback directly, but this should really be commonplace in any business. During a conversation in person or even on a social platform, asking directly for feedback and reviews can come back with plenty of results. These can be taken as soundbites and testimonials to be used for web or social content - don't be afraid of blowing your own trumpet!

Keep it easy

A 'thank you' email after an online purchase with a link to your review page makes it easy for anybody to just click and review. They're already online with your business in mind, so what's to stop them? You can automate emails to send as soon as a call to action sign up or transaction has been completed to make it super simple. 

Don't forget 'Google My Business'

Make sure that all of your relevant information is updated on your 'Google My Business' page and get your Google review link to send to your customers. Around 9% of Google's ranking algorithms are based on reviews - that's a good chunk to influence your SEO.

Reply, reply, reply.

It's all fine and well to gain the trust of your customers and clients but keeping it is just as important. Bad reviews will come along every now and again but it's not the end of the world. Someone who has not had a good experience with your business will be far more likely to return if any negative feedback is acknowledged and dealt with quickly and efficiently. So it's important to keep an eye on good and bad reviews to make sure your customers feel like they're being taken care of.

Follow these simple tips and you'll be well on your way to building reviews online and helping to increase your business's success. Believe us - it's important.

Join Team Bloom: PPC (Pay Per Click) Digital Intern

Creative Bloom is an integrated data-driven marketing agency helping green and value-driven businesses on their mission to make a social and environmental impact.

We are all about data marketing on a mission.

 

We’ve worked with a range of local and national businesses striving for change, including Octopus Energy, Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, The Railway Land Wildlife Trust, EcoGym, and LUSH. We also work with an amazing bunch of entrepreneurial businesses and act as the official marketing partner of the University of Brighton’s Green Growth Platform

We are looking for a PPC (pay-per-click) Digital intern with previous experience in pay per click advertising. You’ll be working in a close-knit & friendly team who focus their digital efforts on helping the good guys get found.

We are looking for a person who would like to utilise their digital marketing skills to help sustainable and green companies grow.

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Essential Skills

• Background knowledge / understanding of digital marketing, specifically experience of paid PPC advertising.

• An understanding of SEO and Web Design is desirable.

• Technical & Data minded

• A natural problem solver.

• Ability to write short-form content.

• An excellent understanding of the English language.

• Confident grasp of Microsoft Excel.

• The ability to understand and interpret data.

• Familiarity with Google Analytics .

• A very good eye for detail.

• Use your own initiative.

• Strong organisational and analytical skills.

Experience Required

• Marketing: 6 Months

• Degree level education

Key Personal Attributes

• Share our ethical & green values. A commitment to drive change.

• A strong communicator, both written and verbal.

• Hard-working and has attention to detail.

• A confident short form writing style.

• Strong time management skills.

• Ability to demonstrate in your application an interest in Digital Marketing as a career.

• Open, honest and direct.

Day To Day Tasks

• Optimisation and maintenance of PPC campaigns on Adwords & other social media platforms.

• Designing and creating innovative content for PPC creatives.

• SEO using keyword research and competitive landscape analysis.

• Reporting on Google Analytics data.

• Using tools such as SEM Rush, Moz, Excel etc. for data findings and conversion reporting.

About You

• We’re looking for a self-starter - someone who is willing to take the initiative.

• You’ll need the the ability to work autonomously and as part of a team.

• A good communicator is essential - You shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions or for help.

• You should have good time management and be able to prioritise your projects & tasks.

About Us

• We really value a relaxed working environment and when she visits, our golden retriever will make lying on the floor seem like an even more attractive working position than you ever would’ve thought it was.

• Personal development is something we encourage and when applicable we will put aside time for personal training in house or externally.

• Staying in the loop often means attending local events, talks and conventions that you’ll be attending too & supporting Creative Bloom with our ‘eco’ campaigns, such as beach cleans & waste packaging action days.

• Only the finest coffee will be made every morning, but be wary that it’s decided via random spinner!

Important Details

• Your day: 9 till 5:30pm.

• You will be working 3 days per week, for 10 weeks.

• At the end of your internship, we will review your time with us and may offer you a more permanent position.

• You will have competitive internship pay at living wage rate of £8.57 per hour, we don’t believe interns shouldn’t be paid!

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This position has been filled.

However, we are always up for working with likeminded people so send your CV to hello@creativebloomrocks.com

The New Way to Network: Why we think old-school business events should be a thing of the past.

We all know the standard networking event format. You arrive at a swanky venue, slap on a name tag and proceed to wonder around the room clutching a glass of red and nodding your way into conversations with strangers. Then there's shaking hands whilst holding both a paper plate & glass of wine (a very difficult task) and leaving with pockets full of business cards. This is the classic 'old-school networking event'. We do understand the need for these events and how important getting out there and chatting to other businesses is, but we'd much rather do it in a different way! 

Brighton is home to one of the most thriving communities of start-ups, freelancers, organisations and charities, all enthusiastic to get to know one another. In turn, there are a whole host of exciting events that cater to many different industries. We would much rather have a chat with someone during a workshop, take part in an open discussion or try out a new product to learn about how we can collaborate. Laid-back events can lead to a true sense of trust and create an atmosphere of fun, where ideas and real in-depth conversations can be exchanged. Exactly how we believe business should be!

Here are some of our favourite events to meet new contacts in Brighton:

TEDx

Brighton

If you haven't heard of TEDx then this is certainly the time to learn about it. These inspirational talks are usually held at Brighton Dome and give an insight into a whole host of industries. You'll get talks from speakers such as Dom Joly from Trigger Happy TV and Steven Day, Co-Founder of Pure Planet and Renewable Energy Expert. By the end of the evening you'll definitely have something to talk about with fellow attendees.

Wired Sussex

This organisation has been bringing the digital community of Sussex together for over a decade, hosting events all over the city. They provide a platform for freelancers, start-ups and bigger businesses to connect through workshops, breakfast sessions, talks and loads more.

Toast

The hosts of Toast Brighton began running their breakfasts after they became bored of the usual corporate networking events - just like us! That's why they run events to create a buzz around networking and make it fun and relaxed. You can mingle around a breakfast buffet and leave feeling inspired after hearing from one of their motivational speakers.

PECHA KUCHA

This is a similar one to TEDx Brighton but on a slightly smaller scale. Local people and small organisations can get involved to share the story of what they're doing. With only 20 slides of 20 seconds each, the talks are short and fast-paced, giving time to include more speakers that add variety to the evening. If you're thinking of attending, the PechaKucha Brighton website has a whole host of past talks you can check out before you go.

Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce

This business community hosts events both large and small, from conferences to workshops. Though you'll have to pay for membership, it's well worth it, as the Chamber of Commerce really does act as a central hub for local businesses - giving you so many opportunities and connections. They have a great selection of events so you have loads of choice of what to attend.

Green Growth Platform

Hosted by Brighton University, the Green Growth Platform provides a network for sustainable businesses to meet as well as offering business support to them. Their upcoming events include marketing workshops and courses on sustainability in action.

O N C A

With sustainability, creativity and community driving everything they do,
O N C A provides a space to create and expand a network of individuals and communities with the same values. They hold regular events such as storytelling evenings, workshops and artist's talks at their gallery on London Road, welcoming those looking to host events of their own.

GLUG

If you're a creative type you'll probably have come across Glug already, but if not we'll tell you a little about it. This event is always packed to the brim with graphic designers, illustrators, animation wiz kids and loads of other creative people. Often held at the Patterns nightclub, the evening could begin with a mingle around the bar, trying out VR headsets, watching live art or pulling your own screen print. This gets everyone chatting before the line-up of speakers begin. Past speakers have included David Shrigley, Supermundane and Kyle Bean. Get ready to be inspired!

Brighton Meetup

We're cheating slightly on this one but felt it was too great a networking platform to miss out. If you haven't come across Meetup yet then we urge you to give it a go! This is a great space to create online communities, find people with similar interests in Brighton and take part in those interests together. You are encouraged to create your own events and invite your group to take part. So if we haven't listed an event that you would be looking for here, then check out the Meetup site and see if it exists. If not, we'll leave it up to you get it up and running.

All of these events are held in Brighton and are great ways of creating relationships with people outside of 'work mode'. Organic conversations that come from a shared experience or topical point are far more worthwhile and memorable than those which aren't. But we'd say the best way of getting out there is by hosting an event of your own!

We GLITTERALLY can't believe it! Nursery cuts microplastics

We've been hearing all about the recent ban of plastic microbeads in UK cosmetics due to the damage it can cause to marine life, but did you know that glitter can be just as responsible for aquatic pollution?

So when, Brighton residents, you last shook your beard/bed/coffee in the months after Pride, just consider that these microparticles turn up just as easily in our oceans, leading to growth problems in sea life, amongst other issues.

We are, however, beginning to see some very welcome changes. Tops Day Nurseries group have recently called out for a glitter ban in their classrooms in the run-up to Christmas, now using environmentally friendly alternatives such as lentils and rice. It won't make any difference in the development of a child's learning, but it could make a difference in our oceans if we all follow suit!

Don't worry, we don't expect everyone to turn up to Pride 2018 covered in lentils and rice, but there are some environmentally friendly glitter alternatives that you can choose from. There is an increasing number of companies creating bio-degradable glitter from compostables and renewable resources such as Eco Glitter Fun, Eco Stardust & Glitterlution.

Although we're well aware that cutting out conventional glitter will not solve the issue of plastic pollution, it will hopefully set a goal for others to follow and create a conversation about more hidden pollutants in our homes. 

Rubbish at Recycling? The Truth About Brighton & Hove

If you live in Brighton & Hove, I’m sure that you would make the same assumption as most when it comes to the city’s recycling. We are the only city in Britain that is home to a Green Party Constituency so Brightonians must be green?

Surely we would have some of the best recycling statistics of the nation?

You may be surprised to hear that in 2014/15 Brighton & Hove was ranked 337th out of 351 English authorities for the performance of household recycling, composting and reusing - with only 24.6% of household waste being sent to council waste management. Top of the list was South Oxfordshire District Council, managing to send 66.6% of their household waste to council organised recycling, composting and re-use management.

However, if you walk from one end of Brighton’s city centre to the other, you will come across an abundance of environmentally driven restaurants, activists, and pub conversations. This could lead you to the conclusion that Brighton has one of the most green-conscious communities in Britain. So why isn’t this reflected in the statistics?

If you take a look at the list above and compare the recycling capability of South Oxfordshire and Brighton & Hove, you can see that the number of materials that can be recycled in each city varies greatly. So if the only plastics that can be picked up from your home to be recycled are bottles, where do you turn to when it comes to drinks cartons, tin foil, and other recyclables?
 

OUR RECYCLING SOLUTIONS

One answer lies in Brighton & Hove’s well known make-do and mend mentality which stretches as far as the resident’s approach to recycling. In the true community spirit of Brighton and Hove, 3 volunteers from Hanover Community Centre began to collect recyclable waste around residential and business areas in 1990 and are still running 27 years later under the name of Magpie Recycling Co-operative Ltd. Magpie Recycling Co-operative has a far more extensive list of items that can be recycled and offer weekly home collection services under the name of 'Green Box' from as little as £1.39 a week. They have also set up 'Shabitat' - a warehouse of bric-a-brac that gives truth to the phrase ‘one man’s trash is another’s treasure’.

There are several other recycling organisations that provide similar services, for example, The Wood Store who collect unwanted wooden items.

Freegle is a homegrown Brighton and Hove  online freecycling community, a site similar to Gumtree, but where everything’s free! It encourages the community to help each other to reduce the demand for buying new products and cut down on waste. Freecycle is another great resource that works similarly, so if you’ve got a spare microwave or child’s buggy, you know where to go. 

Katie, a current Brighton resident who used to live in Oxford, commented on how she felt both cities council recycling compared,

“I was surprised that as a green seat, Brighton doesn’t do much about food waste but in Oxford, they communicated information at least 4 times a year about what we could and couldn’t put in bins and gave us loads of resources for food waste.”

Although there is currently no food waste collection by Brighton and Hove City Council, they are aiming to help reduce food waste by working with The Brighton and Hove food Partnership organisation to set up community composting around the city. They have already set up 16 community composting sites, as listed below. In addition to this, The Brighton and Hove Food Partnership alongside the council are on track to set up a community fridge, funded by Sainsburys. This will allow local residents to leave any spare food for hungry people and again help reduce food waste around the city.

Having reviewed these areas of recycling around Brighton and Hove, you could argue that although the statistics for household recycling may not seem very high, there is without a doubt a sense of community ownership of recycling which is not quantified in these statistics. The council decided, only a few days ago, to phase out the use of single-use plastics in the city. This motion was supported by a public petition, proving that the people of Brighton & Hove take it upon themselves, with the help of private and public organisations, to find creative ways of cutting down, re-using and recycling waste in the city.

So perhaps the fact that we have a lack of recycling resources available on our doorstep doesn't matter as much when there are efforts in place to cut down on the production of waste in the first place.

There is that old saying that 'prevention is better than cure' after all.

We are going to start talking a lot more about designing out waste.

How to build the marketing strategy for your eco business

Promoting a brand, product or service with limited marketing resources is a difficult challenge. We've been working with the University of Brighton's Green Growth Platform for the past few years, hosting regular free workshops to their members, to help give them the tools to execute a great marketing campaign on a low budget. 

One practice that we use to put together a marketing strategy for all of our clients, as well as advise in our workshops, is "POST". 

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What goes into a POST marketing plan?

P | People

Who are you trying to target?

Every successful business is centered around solving a pain point for people. However, in order to reach the people with the pain, you need to know who they are and how you can reach them.

When we talk about ‘people’ at the start of a strategy, what we’re really doing in “official marketing terms” is creating different ‘audience segments’.

The more detail you can go into on who you’re trying to target, the more creative you can get with the messaging - and the lower the risk of alienating people.

The most effective marketing strategies identify and target between 3 and 5 different ‘personas’, painting a picture of them with the following types of data: 

• Age

• Gender

• Location

• Occupation

• Routine (specifically relationship commitments and work patterns)

• Buying habits (what they choose to spend their money on)

• Views (political, sociological and other topics important to them)

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O | Objective

What are you trying to achieve?

 

'Marketing' is an open ended practice. There are so many different ways that a product, service or brand can be marketed, but the most ineffective campaigns are those who spread their efforts too thinly. 

This is where separating your marketing efforts by campaign objectives is vital. Firstly, it enables you to keep your "eyes of the prize" through the campaign, but it also acts as a pinnacle through the strategy planning stages to help you keep on mission.

And you need to be specific: How many more sales do you want? How much higher would you like your reach or engagement to be? How many more site visitors or social media followers do you want?

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S | Strategy

How are you going to achieve it?

 

This is when you start really getting into the creative thinking through identifying the messages that would both speak to your audience and help you to meet your objective.

The best marketing plans include a range of different ways that you can do this.

Examples of strategies that would be implemented include educating the audience on your industry, directly selling your product, highlighting certain aspects of your product, and building or supporting a community to promote brand awareness.

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T | Tactics

Which tools will you use?

 

Here's where you get into the details and map out which platforms you're going to use for getting these messages out there - with a big focus on where your target audience are.  

For instance, if you're trying to promote discounts to certain organisations, it can be most effective to flyer outside of their building. Alternatively, if you're trying to sell a type of food to families across the UK, Google display ads would be better practice.

You can use a range of different tactics per strategy.

You can find out more about POST, as well as a whole range of marketing practices that keep costs low and success rates high, at our very popular two-day digital marketing workshops.

Or you can contact us and we can run them for your business