In addition to PR and Marketing and all the other usual services you would expect from a marketing consultant, I also offer an award entry service. I monitor the various awards that are available - business awards, trade awards, local, national etc and if I see any that are relevant to clients that sign up for the service I let them know. If they are interested and think they have what it takes to enter the award I help them do that as well! They just need to supply basic information to support their case and then leave the rest to me!

This has now paid off for client, Birkwood Plant Training, having just won the MYCCI Business of the Month award for August 2008! This comes in the same week that we secured a radio interview for Sally Ramskill from Birkwood to talk about the quality standards the business has recently achieved!

As well as targeting local press with news stories, I am also involved in issuing releases to and negotiating coverage with trade magazines for my clients.

We have been doing this for a number of construction publications for Birkwood Plant Training, for whom we have also achieved a lot of local coverage, and have had some fantastic successes securing a half page spread in Construction News and a 3 page spread in Earthmovers!

For those not in the Construction industry, Earthmovers is a specialist magazine targeted at the Plant industry and Construction News is the building trade 'bible' with an annual circulation of almost 20,000! Imagine getting your message in front of that many companies within your sector - without paid for advertising!

Skeptical about the power of PR? How about this for a success story?...

We have been pushing stories through to the media about Sharon Marshall from SLK People for the last couple of months and have achieved some good coverage (see news stories below). Our latest release concerned a motown evening that Sharon was organising to raise awareness and funding for her trek up Mt Kilimanjaro in September.

SLK People is a new business, established by Sharon Marshall. Sharon is a business coach who works with senior people in organisations to help them develop their business by becoming more effective. The driving force behind Sharon's decision to create the business was to help raise funds for the Katie Walker Teenage Cancer Trust - a charity set up following the sad death of Sharon's niece. To promote the business and raise awareness of the charity we generated some press coverage in several local newspapers in South Yorkshire.

We are now working together to develop SLK People's marketing strategy and launching the company to its target audiences.

I have been working with Stafford based company Training Masters UK Ltd, who provides document solutions to the care home sector, to help re-launch the company and attract new customers. Working in conjunction with designers, ego, I have devised a marketing strategy for the company and created the copy for the new website which is now live and offers customers the opportunity to order online for the first time!

Birkwood Plant Training offers a range of training to Plant Operatives. The company particularly wants to target Red CPCS Trained Operator Card holders to encourage them to undertake their NVQ level 2 in Plant and Machine Operations with Birkwood in order to convert their red card to blue before it expires. This card is not renewable so if plant workers fail to qualify within 3 years they could be forced off site. We created a poster for Birkwood to address operators directly and instill a sense of urgency in them to upgrade their qualifications.

More PR success for Birkwood Plant Training! Sally Ramskill, Director of Birkwood Plant Training, is doing such great things to develop the business and her staff that we felt inclined to shout about it! After creating a detailed editorial which we issued to the local press, Sally has achieved coverage in several publications already and more have expressed an interest in interviewing Sally for further features.

We will now be approaching the construction trade press so watch this space!

Birkwood Plant Training is a fast growing small company in the construction industry doing some fantastic things to develop their business. I have recently got involved with them to help communicate their recent success in the LSC CoLaS awards in which their employee won the Construction, Planning and the Built Environment category. This resulted in coverage in local newspaper, the Wakefield Express, and also led to trade magazine, Earthmovers, taking up the opportunity to feature director, Sally Ramskill, in a detailed editorial piece in a forthcoming issue!

I have recently achieved some valuable press coverage for local school, Kettlethorpe High School, for their forthcoming production, Uncertain Voyage.

Fancy pampering yourself?! I have recently been involved with helping Marlin Images Photography Ltd launch their fabulous new makeover service.

Due to open an additional studio very shortly, Marlin has joined forces with beauty and hair specialists, Sisters MC Ltd, to offer a range of packages, all of which include hair, make up, a professional photo shoot and a mounted photo.

I have recently been working on a number of PR projects for clients either as part of a wider campaign or as a stand alone project and as a result have secured several pieces of free editorial in key local media, helping them achieve credibility and valuable exposure.

Wakefield based recruitment agency, First4Staff, are engaging in a high impact direct mail campaign in order to persuade their target audience to question their current recruitment practices.