Earlier this year, Nicky Rudd, Managing Director and Founder of Padua Communications joined Warren Munson, founder of the weekly Evolve to Succeed Podcast. The podcast invites entrepreneurs and business leaders in a variety of sectors to explore the link between personal and business success.
Warren was curious about the challenges Nicky faced setting up Padua Communications during a recession, and how she works as a team with her husband and business partner Jason Jenkins and how they manage to separate work and home life.
Nicky’s path into PR and communications started when she was a teacher, looking for her next career move. After a serendipitous conversation with a previous student, she was recommended to speak to his dad who was a high-flyer in the advertising world – this time, the conversation was not at a parents’ evening! He arranged for Nicky to meet the head of PR and shape her CV, which helped her get her foot in the door at a PR agency.
The podcast covers several things including the advantages of volunteering, considerations for anyone looking at their PR and comms strategy and which is better – using in-house marketing or outsourcing to an agency.
Nicky said: “It was a real delight meeting Warren face to face for the podcast and being able to share my journey. I feel very blessed running my own business but I have learnt from some great people along the way. And it is a thrill to work alongside the brilliant team that we have in place.”
For business owners, marketing, PR and comms is a challenging subject, and Nicky shared some of her top tips to consider.
- Think about your audience; who are you trying to sell to? Spend some time profiling and thinking about what their pain points are.
- Don’t think that marketing must be expensive and new all the time. Your business will evolve and change and there will be fundamentals with core values and offerings. Spend your budget on marketing those, they’ll last longer. You can revamp ‘evergreen marketing assets’, so they offer better value for money.
- You don’t need to do both marketing and PR. They offer different solutions and work nicely together but they are different. Market your business all the time. Use PR when you have a great story to tell.
You can listen to the podcast in full above, or at this link.
If you want to talk to us about how we can help your business and help you craft your story and decide what will get you better returns on your spend, give us a call on 0203 282 7570, or email [email protected]
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