The Hive Academy
Mums in marketing on a mission to help parent and baby groups to thrive
Leeds mums Rebecca Hopwood and Lauren Jones, who are highly experienced marketing and communications professionals, have joined forces to deliver an online social media marketing masterclass to leaders of pregnancy, postnatal, baby, and toddler class communities.
The pair have partnered up to create a workshop, specifically designed for leaders in this community-focused industry, who are often parents themselves, juggling building a business and parenthood, and looking for ways to grow their member base and enhance engagement.
The inspiration for the workshop came after Lauren Jones, Founder and Freelance PR and Marketing Consultant at Shellora Comms, noticed, while on maternity leave, that many people in this industry struggle to find cost-effective and time-efficient ways to successfully market their businesses, particularly when it comes to social media marketing.
This sparked a conversation between Lauren from West Leeds and Rebecca Hopwood, Founder and Director of multi-award-winning Leeds marketing agency, Youbee Media and online e-learning social media marketing platform The Hive Academy - who have collaborated on many projects over the years. They realised together that they could combine their experiences as mums who have attended classes, professional expertise, and community feedback, to develop a tailored workshop specific to this unique, community-led industry.
Rebecca will be hosting the workshop. She delivers workshops to hundreds of businesses every year. She is also a trusted marketing training partner for organisations, including the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s funded programme for start-up businesses, AD:VENTURE, Leeds University, Leeds Art University, and the Business & IP Centre in Leeds.
Lauren Jones commented: “This idea came to me whilst on maternity leave, as I started getting approached by a few people who lead classes, who know I work in marketing, all coming to me with similar issues of being confused by marketing and social media. Many spending too much time and money on marketing that isn’t getting them the result they hoped for.
“These groups depend on marketing to consistently reach and connect with families to encourage attendance and word-of-mouth recommendations - as they are always going to seek new members as families inevitably move on, so knowing how to do so effectively is essential”.
Rebecca Hopwood also commented: “I’m excited to be working with Lauren on this workshop. We already regularly collaborate on projects, as Lauren is a freelance consultant for our team. Together, our marketing expertise and real-life experiences as mums have enabled us to create a professional workshop that looks at marketing tactics and strategies that do and don’t work for parent and baby-focused businesses. Our goal is to help group leaders capture attention, build interest, and connect with their audiences.
“As mums, it’s also great to use our expertise to support others who are also working hard to make their businesses thrive.”
Lauren added: “I’ve experienced firsthand how great these groups can be for people, as I’ve attended classes from pregnancy and still go to toddler classes now with my son. I know we, along with friends of ours, have benefited more than I ever expected to - so I wanted to be involved in helping to create something that could support these group leaders, as they provide such positive experiences in our local communities”.
The event, ‘Building Community & Connection Online’ will be hosted by Rebecca Hopwood at 7pm on Tuesday, 11th November. Tickets can be purchased for just £10 via Eventbrite and the workshop will be made available to rewatch for all ticketholders for 7 days afterwards - but live attendance is advised as there will be interactive elements available to participate in.