Log In Unlocking Success with a Digital Marketing Mentor: Sue’s Story
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more
Meet Sue, the visionary behind National Forest Ebike Holidays! Sue runs a sustainable tourism business that offers electric bike and walking holidays in the National Forest. Sue’s passion for nature led her to start her business, but she soon realised that she had a knowledge gap when it came to the digital world.
Sue describes herself as the ‘pre-computer’ generation, and she’s not alone! Digital Boost supports many entrepreneurs from all stages of life, and one of the main challenges is moving into the digital world. Thanks to the support of her mentors, Sue’s business is thriving and she’s seen organic traffic and bookings in her business thanks to her new digital skills.
Sue’s Vision
Sue’s journey began with a vision to offer unique, sustainable tourism experiences in an area of the UK often overlooked by traditional tourism. After exploring some off-the-beaten-track holidays in Germany, Sue saw an opportunity to showcase the hidden gems of the National Forest. With this vision,
National Forest E-bike Holidays was born!
📸 images from Diane Jarvis via National Forest Ebike Holidays
A passion-led business
National Forest Ebike Holidays, is more than just a business! It’s a reflection of Sue’s deep-rooted love for nature and her desire to share its beauty with others. The National Forest has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last century. With the transition from coal mines to incredible greenery, the landscape has gone from ‘black to green’ thanks to the hard work of local conservationists. Inspired by this transformation, Sue is passionate about continuing this regeneration and educating guests through her sustainable tourism business.
Embracing Sustainability
Sue encourages guests to travel to the area in eco-friendly ways, taking the train or carpooling to create as little environmental impact as possible. Her tours are all focused on ‘leaving no trace’ and ensuring that her guests can enjoy the area of natural beauty whilst not damaging the landscape. Sue also donates money from each booking for tree planting so that she can positively impact her area! Every aspect of Sue’s business is beautifully thought out and a testament to her dedication to preserving her local area.
Impact of Digital Boost’s Mentoring
Coming from the ‘pre-computer era’, Sue says that she was looking for support to increase her online presence. With a 25-year background in marketing, Sue had all the “practical” marketing skills to build her business. But she didn’t have the digital skills to confidently grow her business online. Sue needed support to reach a larger audience online, so she was introduced to Digital Boost through Leicestershire’s Business Gateway programme.
Initially, Sue was looking for support with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to reach a new audience. But she admits that she didn’t really know much about digital marketing so thought mentoring could be the answer!
Digital Boost connected her with Jonny, a seasoned volunteer mentor who supported Sue as she moved into the digital marketing world.
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more
Saving time and money
After meeting with Jonny, Sue soon realised that her business wasn’t ready for pay-per-click marketing. In her own words, she acknowledged that she had the website, the social media and the SEO. But there was more that she could do that wouldn’t cost her money before she needed to move into PPC.
Sue describes how Jonny helped her to look at her business as a whole. Rather than seeing her marketing as individual pieces, he helped her to see the bigger picture of her marketing strategy. He asked questions to get her thinking strategically so that she could understand how to align her marketing efforts with her goals.
By helping Sue step back and see the bigger picture, Jonny saved her an enormous amount of money and time! Sue says that rather than wasting time setting up PPC ads and ‘frittering’ away money without a strategy, Jonny’s guidance allowed Sue to take stock and double down on the organic marketing that she could do that wouldn’t cost her a penny!
Building confidence
Sue was blown away by the ‘quality of the mentoring’ and described her experience with Jonny as ‘incredible’. She noted that Jonny was an excellent listener and, not only was he really experienced, he was also an amazing teacher too! Jonny always ensured that Sue understood the topics they covered together in their mentoring sessions. As a result of Jonny’s mentorship, Sue saw her confidence grow! She left her mentoring session armed with new confidence and knowledge to take the digital world by storm.
Measurable Success
With the support of her mentors, Sue’s digital efforts have started to pay off! She’s increased traffic to her website and secured bookings which is an amazing achievement. We’re so proud of the progress that Sue has made with both her business and her confidence and we can’t wait for more people to discover her incredible business!
We also loved hearing that we’re not the only ones celebrating Sue! National eBike Forest Holidays was awarded the Silver Award for sustainable tourism by Visit England in 2023! This is a huge milestone in Sue’s journey and a testament to her commitment, vision and hard work as she grows National Forest Ebike Holidays.
Conclusion
Sue had the vision and drive to grow her business, but needed the support of an expert to guide her as she ventured into the world of digital marketing. The advice of a mentor can make all the difference to small businesses as they navigate new territories like this.
Small businesses don’t have time and money to waste, and by having the support of her mentors, Sue was able to save money and still grow her business! And not only that, but as we’ve seen time and again here at Digital Boost, mentoring has unlocked new confidence for Sue. She now knows that whatever lies ahead in the Digital world, she can tackle it. And she’ll always have the support of Digital Boost’s mentors at her fingertips.
Whatever stage of business or life you’re at, our mentors can help! So if you’re a founder who needs to build their confidence and skills online, why not connect with our mentors and access free support?
back to feed
