Rebecca White

As I ventured into the unknown nearly seven years ago, marketing was something that fashionably dressed and overpaid young professionals did in cool offices with slides. 

I now understand some of that (perhaps not the slides!). Not only is marketing done by trendy types, it also commands vast sums of money, huge tracts of time, and when done well, great talent. 

Marketing is a nightmare. And a joyous revelation. After seven years I might have expected to know a higher percentage than when I started. I don’t. Thanks to my unconscious incompetence evolving slowly into conscious incompetence, I am at least now aware that I know much much less than when I started. After year one I probably thought I knew about 10%. I reckon I’m about 1% now and it’s still receding. Here’s hoping I plateau soon. 

What I’ve learnt is relevant across sectors, albeit we’re marketing different things to different audiences with different values and intentions. Like any specialist area that takes itself seriously, there’s jargon. I’m fairly anti-jargon on the grounds of elitism and exclusion, whilst (as a linguist) accepting the importance of nomenclature for the purposes of specificity. 

That terms like ‘key messages’, ‘value proposition’, ‘personality’ and ‘target audience’ now get bandied about in our team is a source of great pride and self-loathing (and team-loathing of me!).

Below is what I wish I’d known, but probably couldn’t have grasped without discovering it for myself:

1. Less is more. The best marketing quote I have heard is ‘great marketing is saying most with least’. This is my sense check. 
2. Know your audience. Understand who you’re communicating to, what they care about, what your offer does for them and be lovely to them and about them. 
3. Target one thing to one audience. Our messages have been mixed and confused because our offers and customers are multiple. Focus on one at a time on the right platform. 
4. Keeping doing it. I’m a quitter. So if it’s not yielding results after five minutes I’m probably bored and want to move on. Don’t. Hammer it in for weeks and months with great images, stories, values, brand and key messages. Again and again. And again.
5. Measure it. This doesn’t have to be complex. Every platform let’s you get under the bonnet and check the analytics. The clicks, the unsubscribes, the likes and the right time of day. This isn’t rocket science and you can do it yourself. And then apply a return on investment. 

What these have in common is focus, simplicity and probably doing a bit less. 

Over the last few weeks I’ve found myself clicking on articles, posts and blogs.  I’m searching for the answer, an answer, the silver bullet, the good advice and hope.  What I find is a mixture of soul-searching, clickbait and unhelpful advice.

It was only after an eye opening conversation with a someone I respect, that I started to put my finger on a number of possible reasons why we’re making so little progress here in Norfolk.   The white privilege I possess, our utterly inept efforts as a society, my own sense of inadequacy at even discussing this and the need for change are not up for debate.  

Following the horrific murder of 46 year old George Floyd in March this year, outside a shop in Minneapolis, at the hands of an officer of the law, I did what many people probably did. I asked for help in my role and responsibility as CEO of Your Own Place.  That we are not representative of the community we serve is a source of deep shame. It’s simply no longer acceptable to sit back and wring our hands or attribute our lack of progress to our geography.  

The first reason I quickly realised, was inexperience among our business community.  Having enquired after the practical steps we could take, I was presented with a template of an Equality and Diversity Policy.  Seriously, that was it.  To think that this is what’s needed is highly indicative of why we are where we are. In short, if this all we’ve got to offer businesses here in Norfolk, is it any wonder at our lack of progress?

My reticence in writing this piece comes from fear of using the wrong words, my white privilege and my right (or not) to speak on such things. Some, but certainly not all, of this trepidation, comes from the bile that social media is at times party to.  It happened last week too. I wanted to share a pretty innocuous tweet about male mentors. Then I stopped to consider if I was allowed to refer to ‘male’ mentors.  And no, I don’t think that it’s ‘political correctness gone mad’.   I think it’s an appropriate pendulum swing that provides us with a moment to be thoughtful about the language we use when in so many arenas prejudice still pervades.  However, that pendulum has another side and that’s to stifle exploration and conversation when we don’t feel equipped to have it. 

We have recently recruited an entirely new Board of Non-Executive Directors.  Despite ‘considerable efforts’, not one person from a minority background applied.  This is a failure and one I now plan to put right.  It seems clear that it’s never been about quotas or positive discrimination at particular times (although these may have a place), but about an ongoing approach, value-system and effort.  It’s simply no good during your recruitment campaign to think you’ve done the right thing by advertising in certain publications.  Doing the right thing is doing the right thing and something proactive for 365 days a year.  That means giving people from a range of backgrounds the opportunity to get involved in your business.  This won’t happen by accident and there’s no point waiting for others to make to happen.  There’s only us and there’s only now.

So when my friend, whom I respect, says, ‘but that’s just Norfolk’ I no longer accept that. It’ll only be different when we make it so. Who’s with me?

Following our Unconscious Bias training in November with the team, I will be exploring, with our incredibly limited resource, what we can do to build relationships across communities and provide people from all backgrounds with belief that they can be a part of anything, including a respected and equal member of our team at Your Own Place.  

Like so much during this pandemic, we can’t be absolutely certain, as we’ve not been here before.

The ban on evictions in the private rented sector was announced by government on 18th March.  What seems like a lifetime ago, was a moment of reassurance for many that eviction by their private landlord was on hold (this included social landlords, although it was broadly felt that the risk of eviction was lower).

It is estimated by Shelter that some 230,000 private renters face the risk of eviction having fallen into arrears during the pandemic.  Rent arrears of eight weeks or more can legally trigger automatic eviction. 

That private landlords get a bad press is not new and often unfair.  More likely it is the result of their being ‘accidental’ landlords rather than bad ones.  Most landlords don’t own 100s of properties or make millions of pounds.  They have mortgages to pay too. And like those of us running a small business, they frequently lack the skill, knowledge and capacity to do everything well.  However, this combined with undoubtedly a ‘landlords’ market’ has led to some unethical and downright illegal behaviour too.

On 20th September, the temporary extension on the eviction ban ends.  As the lid lifts, evictions will flow. Concerns now abound that this temporary halt is simply a time for people to pack their bags as courtrooms fill with landlords seeking possession.

Proper safeguards are being called for to avoid a significant rise in homelessness.  Whilst street homelessness is always most visible on our streets, more likely are homes and families being put under increased pressure.  Families and households already experiencing worklessness, children living in poverty and sometimes violence, are about to find themselves under further pressure.  For those seeking help from the local authority for housing, if they are lucky enough to be housed they will be putting more pressure on a squeezed system that already lacks sufficient housing capacity.

The cycle of unemployment and homelessness is an all too familiar one.  Try holding down a job without a home.  The situation post pandemic however, is that it is the loss of the job that it more likely to result in the loss of a home.  For those that are lucky enough to get another stab at a home, finding an income to sustain it has never been harder and for some the revolving door of homelessness beckons.

It is for this reason we have this week launched our #privaterenters social media campaign.   With our limited resource, but great friends and champions, we will provide online, flexible and accessible information to help private renters during the looming eviction crisis. This will include anything from coaching to crisis help and signposting.

Follow us, share, comment and like on our social media – it’s a small thing to do to reach people who may need our help right now.

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