About
The aim of this blog is to provide practical tips, advice and strategies about how to improve marketing and business development skills specifically tailored for the social care, support and community sector.
I’ve set this site up particularly with market development people and providers ready to develop and grow with the personalisation agenda in mind. I hope anyone working in the sector will find some useful stuff here.
I’m Glen Crosier, I live in Brighton and this my blog 
I’ve worked in the care and support field for 18 years and am passionate about helping new ideas get off the ground and working with people using innovative ways to create and grow new services. I’m self employed and despite some entrepreneurial diversions have been making a living as a freelance consultant for the last 7 years. I work with friendly local authorities and care/support agencies.
What’s It All About?
With the personalisation agenda and big changes about to affect everybody involved in the sector, everything is changing. It’s definitely happening…
The shift from local authority led services to personalised services chosen by individual customers many community based organisations will need a range of business skills…
In some cases, new skills may be critical just for survival.
While the majority of providers provide high quality life changing services within their community, this alone may not be enough to compete in what will be a whole new social care market.
From experience and recently published guidance, marketing skills and resources are thin on the ground, particularly for smaller organisations.
Marketing and effective business development needs to be near the top of list of priorities for everyone looking to create new services, develop, expand and make a bigger difference to more people in communities.
Here’s a few examples of how an effective ‘marketing’ approach can help…
- Create and package flexible and viable services that people want
- Become more recognised in your local community
- Grow your reputation
- Spot new opportunities and take confident action that will give you the edge in local markets
- Sell in the private market
- Attract workers with the right skills and talents to your organisation
- Advertise your services in a meaningful way that connects with your target audience(s) and attracts new business to you
- Create on-going demand for your services. This stops you from having to constantly chase and be fighting financial fires
- Enables you to sell your services with integrity by helping individual paying customers and their advocates make the right choices for them
Why a Blog?
Welcome to this blog…just in case you’re unsure what a blog actually is - its really just a website designed to be updated often and makes it easy for readers to join in the conversation and make comments below each published ‘post’ (article) .
- The content will be designed to help community organisations market and develop their services within the personalisation and wider transformation agenda.
- New content will be posted at least weekly
- The stuff I write will be practical, educational and relevant to what’s happening in the social care and support sector right now
- Anyone/everyone interested in any way, shape or form is invited to join in by making comment.
- Your comment will link back to your own website if you have one so you may even get some extra visitors finding out about what you do. (your first marketing tip)
- Ask questions in the comments section and I’ll answer to the best of my ability
- This ‘commenting’ business takes place underneath the main body of content. See below.
If its of interest you can check back often to read new content and see what others have to say. The best way of keeping up is to simply register for sellingcareplus in the column on the right and I’ll let you know by email what’s happening over here.
