About me

Honest, sincere & committed

Personal

I am Donna, a Scottish entrepreneur living in leafy Buckinghamshire with my husband, toddler and cocker spaniel Bucky. My two goals in business are the same as in life- lifting others to achieve their true potential and getting results which is why I also retrained as a personal trainer in my ‘spare time’. Helping people achieve their body goals is no different to hitting the next stage of their business- it is all about the journey and I am on it with you every step of the way. Your goals are my goals.

I am a high energy, zest for life sort of person with an active, busy life therefore my organisational skills know no bounds. I manage multiple projects simultaneously from small business launches to national campaigns and although I run my business and very much the front facing contact for all clients, I have a big team of experts on hand to support in their various specialisms where required to ensure everything is project managed and delivered with care and precision and most of all, with my personal guarantee that I achieve results.

I focus on personal development always, I believe you never stop learning and growing as a person or business owner and I have big goals for my business, and yours.

Work

Using my experience to further your potential

I started my career career working for CBRE Management Services heading up Marketing and Commercialisation for their only Scottish Shopping Centre and was instrumental in the full rebrand and repositioning of the centre from an unloved and underlet scheme to a fun, vibrant boutique shopping centre, a hub for the students and tourists of Edinburgh. Working closely with the Business Improvement District and the key town stakeholders on all aspects of City Centre marketing I was involved in the controversial Tramway Installation Project and the regeneration via Network Rail of Edinburgh Centre Station meetings and ensuring it all worked with the marketing strategy of the shopping centre.

I was quickly scouted to join Capital Shopping Centres (more commonly known as intu Properties PLC) and moved to London where I went from Marketing Manager at one of their medium sized schemes to heading up Marketing and 3.5 million pounds budget across over 300 stores at intu Lakeside, Essex. Across this time I worked on managing the complicated introduction of the intu brand from the physical signage to PR and community awareness and then all aspects of the retailer, community and public consultation liaison. I also worked on a number of large national marketing campaigns that travelled the country winning coveted marketing awards as well as local community projects from charity through to public consultation as part of redevelopment plans.

Moving to NewRiver REIT, a FTSE 250 property company after 5 years with intu, I became Head of Marketing across all 35 owned shopping centres as well as working across the extensive development pipeline on all aspects of communications between the public, Local Authorities, BIDs and other stakeholders. I ran national campaigns with retailers such as New Look, Superdrug, NEXT and The Works to drive footfall in specific locations, created processes and marketing strategies for the local teams to implement as well as looked after all aspects of crisis management, social media strategy, stakeholder engagement and customer experience.

I have been a key member of the REVO Marketing committee for a number of years and now Head up Committee working with the majority of major landlords to create everything from benchmarking tools for service charges to scoping out the Marketing Section of the Centre Management Diploma to Chairing the Purple Apple Marketing Awards.

I founded Know Your Niche Ltd in April 2020, right at the beginning of Lockdown 1.0 in the UK and my aim was to work with small and medium sized businesses creating marketing strategies that work, helping them find their voice in a crowded market. I have done some smaller social media projects for local businesses struggling during the pandemic having to pivot their business and attract a new type of customer as well as working with BIDs, Councils, Shopping Centres and start up online businesses to create full marketing and brand positioning strategies from scratch.

Through my client Maybe*, I am focused on helping to regenerate local economies and drive people back to ‘place’ and I work primarily with BIDs, Councils, Independent Retailers and Shopping Centres to use social data to carefully attract local footfall back to their high streets during and post lockdown. Clients such as Positively Putney BID are enjoying fresh new footfall post lockdown 2.0 off the back of some of my guidance.

I am a specialist in strategically positioning businesses to find the right customers at the right time aka ready to purchase. I do this through creating their unique brand position, deep diving into the business, their services and their target audience to establish a messaging matrix and then creating a 360 degree strategy. I will do the physical implementation or indeed hand over to the business to run themselves depending on the project.

I have a large team of specialists I can bring in for projects such as website development, graphic design, photography, print and much more therefore with Know Your Niche you receive the personal service directly from me but with the knowledge that every aspect of your business can be taken care of and carefully project managed in one central place.

about me

Honest, sincere & committed

Personal

Work

Using my experience to further your potential

Let's make this happen