Another month has whizzed by and I’ve now been here for three months! We are so close to Christmas now and work is getting very busy in the run-up. I have continued to work closely with Jess on client work and I am constantly learning something new during my time in the office. I feel I am becoming a Purple person now and whenever I need a hand or feedback on a task there is always a member of the team who is more than happy to help - I can’t imagine not being in an office surrounded by people now!  My new mint Le Cruset mug has also arrived in celebration of passing my probation period and has been christened with several cups of tea and hot chocolate. ☕

What I’ve been up to

I have settled into client work and I am enjoying speaking to clients and creating some great social media posts, graphics and blog content for them. It’s great getting into a rhythm of client work and understanding my day to day role and responsibilities and I am now able to work independently on content creation. 

Mailchimp has been a bigger part of my role this month as I was tasked with creating both the Gluten Free Kitchen and Purple newsletters. I knew very little about email marketing before starting and through Jess’ guidance and a Mailchimp webinar presented by Purple I have gained some great skills and have become much more confident navigating it. As a result, I was able to create two lovely mailouts for clients and I can’t wait to work on the next batch!

I’ve been continuing to keep my journalistic skills up to date too, recently writing a piece for Milners of Leyburn celebrating their win in a national window display competition! I also had a quickfire introduction to some web page editing this month which was all new to me but I got stuck in and lent a small hand to the team. It’s fantastic that I get to utilise so many of my skills on the job here at Purple and it is always keeping my day varied!

Working on competitor analysis has also been a key task this month which has not only given me opportunities to carry out some of the off the job learning required during my apprenticeship but has also meant I have learned a lot about my own clients and their competitors, and use that research to improve my own campaigns. 

Finally, I had my first progress review meeting with my development coach, Rebecca, as well as Jess and Scarlett. I was a little apprehensive beforehand as this was my first proper progress meeting. It was a great opportunity to share what I had been up to and ask any questions related to the course. I was overwhelmed with the feedback I received from Rebecca, hearing that the work I have carried out so far is of an extremely high standard and it’s great to know I am making good progress. It was lovely to receive a big thumbs up and pat on the back from Jess and Scarlett following the review too 😊. Again, this has given me another huge confidence boost and made me really proud of everything I’ve accomplished and worked on in a short period of time being with Purple! 

Apprentify

When it comes to my apprenticeship I am getting stuck into group work now through my virtual classroom sessions and recently completed the ‘Marketing Strategies’ unit in which I got to work in a group to create a pitch that we will be presenting in our next classroom. Through my apprenticeship, I am able to apply tasks and new skills to my job and this has been really helpful in balancing both my on the job and off the job hours whilst helping to enhance my client work too. I have also dusted off my photoshop skills by completing a short course via Apprentify which I found really enjoyable as I have missed diving into photoshop - and I needed to get to grips with Windows’ shortcuts instead of Mac’s. 😅

What’s Next

I am really looking forward to the festive season here at Purple and our staff Christmas party - we have now all locked in our meal choices.😋 I have a few virtual classrooms coming up over the next few weeks centred around technical marketing and content development which I think will be extremely beneficial to my job role including learning some new ideas for content creation. I am also starting some new client work this month which is very exciting. I’m sure the next month will fly by in no time and I can’t wait to update you on what I’ve been up to in my next blog!