Tuesday 26 June marked the first of eight digital marketing and communications workshops to be run over the summer. Their goal is to help colleagues enhance their digital marketing and communications skills and knowledge as part of the Digital Marketing Skills Programme.
The first session, led by John Hill from Pickle Jar Communications, covered the basics of optimising web copy. Colleagues learnt about how people read online, the role of keywords and key phrases, and the importance of structure, layout and natural language.
One participant said:
I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about how people read online. What surprised me the most was the fact that people scan the page looking for keywords and phrases, they don’t read the whole thing!
Making sure our marketing and communications content can be easily understood and is optimised for search engines is essential to the University’s success.
Richard Prowse, Head of Digital, said:
Over 65% of traffic to bath.ac.uk in May 2018 came from people using search engines. Improving our search engine ranking is critical if we want to reach and engage with a wider audience. We can do this by optimising our site and the quality of our content.
As part of the Digital Marketing Skills Programme, colleagues have the opportunity to benefit from a blended learning programme, including face-to-face training, online learning and peer mentoring.
To be eligible to take part, you either need to be a marketing and communications professional or a colleague who is required as part of their role to regularly create and edit content for the University website or social media channels. Eligible colleagues were invited to complete a digital marketing self-assessment and submit it by 15 February 2018.
If you haven’t had the chance to check your personalised training plan, now’s your opportunity. The good news is that if you were recommended to attend the first workshop on optimising web copy, but couldn't take part in it, a second one is planned for later in the summer.
To find out the workshops you can attend, check your inbox for an email sent to you by Robert Perry from Pickle Jar Communications. This contains your personalised training plan and you can register for workshops using the links in the training schedule that you will have received at the same time.
If you've been recommended to attend them, make sure you don't miss out on:
- Optimising Web Copy
- Creating User Journey and Empathy Maps
- Developing Compelling Multimedia Content
- Tools for Creative Storytelling
If you have any questions about the Digital Marketing Skills Programme, email digitalmarketingskills@bath.ac.uk