‘Napier Has a Get Stuck in Approach’
Starting out as a young B2B marketer can be daunting, especially in such a competitive landscape. Where workplaces offer insufficient training, it can become easy to get buried amongst high expectations and crazy workloads which ultimately deter young marketers from the field. In fact, a recent study uncovered that 77% UK workers feel that employees could offer more training, with 44% of Gen Z likely to quit their jobs due to a lack of training.
In an ever-evolving landscape, you can never learn too much. Whether you’re joining a company at the start of your career or as an already well-established marketer, we believe that training is just as important.
At Napier, we have the Napier Academy which is set up for all of our new starters. The academy offers an extensive training programme, which includes weekly group training sessions, and an experience tracker where different members of the staff train a new employee in specialist areas such as writing a press release or creating Google ads. We also offer a huge online catalogue of all our previous training sessions, which are accessible at any time.
But the Napier Academy is more than just training, it aids in the development of great marketers, allowing individuals to excel above and beyond their expectations.
We spoke with Napier’s Digital Marketing Apprentice, Maddie Legg, to discuss her experience with the Napier Academy so far.
What makes the Napier Academy so unique?
Maddie: The Napier Academy uses multiple resources such as teachable and handbooks, which are really handy to look at in order to learn independently. But Napier also has a get stuck in approach that encourages people to learn on the job so employees can bring their ideas and identify areas for improvement. And from that, a personalised training plan is created. So that’s something that I actually did with Helen [Head of Digital Marketing], and it’s not necessarily structured, but instead works around the individual. So, for example, I’m more of a visual learner, I tend to watch a process, ask to see some examples and then give it a go myself and if needed I’ll do additional research to better my understanding. So, I think the process is really unique because it suits all types of learners.
Upon joining the Napier Academy, did you have any expectations?
Maddie: I didn’t come in with many expectations as the marketing world was also new to me and I wanted to be as open-minded as possible. The main thing that I wanted was to see progress in myself. It’s really important to me to be in an environment where I’m continuously improving and developing on my skills. So that was the main thing I was looking for and after six months at Napier, I can confidently say that I feel I’ve made a great amount of progress.
What has your Napier journey been like so far?
Maddie: I would say my Napier journey has been really exciting and no day is the same. There are always new challenges and opportunities. I have had the chance to assist various people on various accounts, which has been fantastic for both learning but also building relationships within the team and because of these opportunities, my confidence has grown massively.
What has the Napier Academy taught you?
Maddie: So much. The training varies massively and covers so much. I’ve taken part in technical training through to how to deliver a presentation successfully and confidently, and I think learning from different team members means that you get such a varied perspective. Each person varies in their teaching approach too, which helps keep the training really engaging. We have the weekly Wednesday training which focuses on different topics, including ones I wouldn’t have thought about before, so it is really useful. My experience tracker is also great. So, I can just go back and look at some goals, and then I reach out independently to the people attached to those goals.
How does the Napier Academy support your Apprenticeship?
Maddie: The Academy offers a variety of training and covers both basic and more advanced marketing concepts, which helps ensure that my knowledge is well-rounded. The team are always around to answer questions and for additional information support. So, we get an amount of time to train but that can go beyond because I can then go off in my own time and ask questions, find out more information. There are also multiple resources available which really support my learning and growth. Like I said, there’s teachable, so you can do independent research and learning, but there’s also always people in the office to help in person too, and I would say all these forms of support mean that I’m able to succeed in my apprenticeship.
You’ve done campaigns before, such as the pneumatics outreach campaign alongside one of our Digital Marketing Specialists, how did your training support you in this?
Maddie: I would say obviously I had training to support that as I had some training on LinkedIn, which was required for that campaign, but I would also say that it was a learn-on-the-job campaign. I learned how to use WordPress to make a landing page. It was so beneficial and helped me understand it more. Natasha [Digital Marketing Specialist] was great for supporting with LinkedIn. She was really good. I had to create ad copies with the LinkedIn ads, and she showed me some past examples. I then took what the campaign was about and merged them together and managed to make some really good ad copy.
How are you finding your apprentice so far?
Maddie: I’m really enjoying my apprenticeship; I can apply what I learn in my training directly to my work. I also really value the balance between the independent study and the strong support that I receive.
What has been the most difficult part of your apprenticeship and what has surprised you?
Maddie: I would say prioritising and balancing the workload has been the hardest and something that surprised me is that I have a degree, I’ve written a dissertation, I know how to write well. But I was quite surprised by how different the written tasks within my apprenticeship have been compared to that level. I kind of thought I could go into it quite confidently, but I had to unlearn what I’ve learned from my degree and start again because, writing something like a dissertation versus a report on a multi-channel marketing campaign is so different. So, whilst my degree definitely provided me with a really strong foundation, I had to unlearn certain habits and adapt to new methods to meet specific requirements.
How do you feel the Napier Academy supported you with those difficulties?
Maddie: On my experience tracker one of the tasks was to develop a piece of writing. So, I reached out to David, one of our Account Managers and he gave me some tips and tricks. I feel like that really helped. Although writing something like a technical article is so different to writing a report, it just gave me insights on how to write well and how to get to the point rather than waffling.
What do you hope to achieve at the end of your apprenticeship?
Maddie: I would say first and foremost, I obviously want to complete all my apprenticeship work to a high standard and receive strong results. I also hope to be offered a permanent place at Napier and continue to progress in my marketing skills. As well, I want to find my niche and my strengths within the field. I’m currently gaining experience in both PR and digital marketing, but by the end of my apprenticeship, I want to find out what I’m best at.
Has the varied training within the Napier Academy helped you pick a marketing niche?
Maddie: I’m still sort of in the middle ground. I’m still learning. I think both are great. I think with digital you can be a bit more creative. But with PR, it’s really great for building relationships with clients and getting to know what we actually do as a company. So, I’m really grateful that I’ve been able to try both because I didn’t know that that was going to be the case coming in.
How does your apprenticeship tie into the Napier Academy?
Maddie: The Napier Academy training is really broad, and it covers a wide range of topics and all these topics directly support my apprenticeship. So, for example, we have upcoming training in July on Google Ads, which aligns perfectly with my next apprenticeship project, because I will be focusing on how to implement Google Ads into campaigns, analysing the statistics and working out how to improve the ad. We also have training sessions on analysing advertising statistics which are great for my apprenticeship, especially when writing the analysis, recommendations and conclusion part of my report.
What made you choose Napier?
Maddie: I chose Napier because I already had some previous creative knowledge. I did some creative marketing through photos and videography for my university course when promoting shows and upcoming events. But I really wanted to better my understanding of the more technical aspects of marketing, so I was particularly interested in learning how to understand and analyse statistics and not be scared of them. I think the main reason why I chose Napier is because from my very first interview through to my fourth interview, I instantly felt welcomed. I felt comfortable and could really easily envision myself being a part of the team and I knew Napier was the right place for me to be able to grow and start my career.
All our new starters spend a year within the Napier Academy, but the resources are still accessible throughout their time at Napier should they need it. Having joined in December 2023, Maddie has just under six months left in the Academy and once completed she will be a well-equipped marketer, ready to face anything her marketing career throws at her.
