It’s important with any business to publicise or post on social media about anything that can boost or encourage new business. Video marketing has been around for a while and in a world of social media it still produces great benefits for a business. Consumers love videos and there is no doubt that video is still one of the most versatile and profitable tools on the market. The power video has to get a message out to the public is second to none. Videos help boost your social media profile. They can help add weight to award entries for your business. Videos are also a great way to attract potential employees, who can see what your business is all about.

In the surveying profession, we are always trying to build awareness of surveying as a career. It’s important to promote diversity inclusion; according to Construction News, women currently hold just 16.2% of jobs in construction. Videos help to promote the profession to all, including 15–16-year-olds who will be considering future careers.

The latest technology trend in technology for filming is, of course, drones. These are not a new addition by any means, but their popularity is really growing and they have revolutionised the way building projects and events can be filmed.  We filmed the racecourse at Worcester from above for our graduation video, which added a beautiful touch to the final video.

Here at The Survey Association, we understand how powerful video is. And we believe video is just one way our members can build a better business. We often film a video at the many events we hold throughout the year. Watch some highlights of one of our latest videos here

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“In relation to marketing, we have to know the audience we’re targeting, we have to make sure that what we do and what we say fits the with the wider corporate and marketing strategies.”

So says Chartered Marketer Neil Kelly, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for the Marketing Subject Group at Leeds Business School and author of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning, the next in our series of Business Briefing Notes, which is now available to download here, free of charge for all our members.

Neil specialises in marketing communications, with a particular focus on digital marketing and planning. He has worked in a number of marketing roles for some major brands and has been on the judging panel for the CIM Marketing Excellence Awards.

This latest guide, written for TSA members, introduces Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP), a key strategic marketing decision-making process.

The guide contains some academic content but is also a practical how-to guide, containing checklists, models, some useful links for further resources and questions to apply and consider when developing your marketing programme.

Segmentation

Markets are segmented through bases, which Neil terms as demographic, geographic, geodemographic, psychographic and behavioural. He explains how audiences can be categorised into loyal brand users, favourable brand switchers, other brand switchers, other brand loyals and potential new category users. He also describes what is meant by a ‘buyer persona’ and includes a useful template of a persona to get you started.

Targeting

Once you have identified a variety of different segments to target, how do you choose which ones to try to reach? How do you avoid wasting time, effort and money? Follow Neil’s advice to ensure the best use of these resources.

Positioning

Simply put, positioning is how your market positions you in their mind against those of key competitors. The guide includes a perceptual map, along with a template to copy to help you understand positioning. There is also a list of key questions to ask yourself to prompt you to develop a strong brand positioning statement, all of which will assist you in planning your marketing and communications approach.

This series of useful guides to running a business is available free of charge for all our members to support one of our vision statements that ‘TSA will help you build a better business’. The guides are aimed at any size of business, at whatever stage of development it’s at. Whether you are just setting up a new business for the first time and need to put systems and processes in place, or you have a more established firm and you’re now looking to healthcheck existing practices or introduce new ideas, the guides are ideal for all our ‘time poor’ members, who are looking for effective, yet easy to implement, solutions.

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That’s the message from Steve McKevitt, Visiting Professor of Brand Communication at Leeds Business School and author of Vision, Purpose and Brand, the latest in our series of Business Briefing Notes, which is now available to download here, free of charge for all our members.

Professor McKevitt has spent 30 years working as an advisor to some of the world’s biggest companies. A renowned author of several books, his work has featured in newspapers and magazines around the world, from The Guardian and The Observer to Business Insider, OUP.com, TheHuffingtonPost.com and RollingStone.com. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

His easy to follow guide, written for TSA members, shows how you can develop your own brand identity, using the same principles as internationally renowned brands, such as Nike, but based on your own core values.

Drawing on real life examples, Professor McKevitt starts with the building blocks of how to establish your vision, mission and purpose before moving on to your customer value proposition. Simple, jargon-busting language makes the guidance easy to understand and apply to your own brand, even when it comes to explaining more complex theories, such as the ‘brand identity prism’.

The guide contains some excellent links to further resources if you want to explore any of these themes further.

This series of useful guides to running a business is available free of charge for all our members. They are aimed at any size of business, at whatever stage of development it’s at. Whether you are just setting up a new business for the first time and need to put systems and processes in place, or you have a more established firm and you’re now looking to healthcheck existing practices or introduce new ideas, the guides are ideal for all our ‘time poor’ members, who are looking for effective, yet easy to implement, solutions.

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The 11 guides will be available for TSA members to download from the website here https://www.tsa-uk.org.uk/members-area/. The first guide, Good Mental Health, is already available. 

Business guides aid decision making

The diverse range of topics included encompass all aspects of managing a modern business. The guides cover everything you need to know, from building a brand, to finance, productivity, digital marketing, business resilience, sustainability and much more.

The guides contain top tips and recommendations of best practice in every area of business. With some academic content included, the guides also provide practical checklists, models and questions for you to apply and consider in order to support and guide your decision-making.

A healthcheck for businesses of all sizes

The guides are aimed at any size of business, at whatever stage of development it’s at. The guides are ideal for all our ‘time poor’ members, who are looking for effective, yet easy to implement, solutions. Whether you are just setting up a new business for the first time and need to put systems and processes in place, or you have a more established firm and you’re now looking to healthcheck existing practices or introduce new ideas.

Each of the 11 guides has been authored by a different expert in that particular field. These range from human resources and marketing specialists to experienced practitioner academics. Each one provides top tips on strategy and implementation, as well as suggestions for further reading and other helpful resources.

Sam Roberts, Director at Met Geo Environmental Ltd and our Technical Committee Chair, has spearheaded the production of the business guides. He says,

“We have been delighted to work together with The Retail Institute at Leeds Beckett University, one of the UK’s leading academic research centres, to provide these in-depth business guides. One of our vision statements at TSA is, ‘TSA will help you build a better business’. These guides are designed to do just that and we hope our members will find them informative, practical and helpful.”

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The Covid-19 pandemic has cast a long shadow for many people’s mental health, which in turn has meant that many organisations, including our own, are now prioritising wellbeing as an important part of our day-to-day working life.

Jenny Evans has provided TSA members with a special downloadable guide to Good Mental Health, which is in the Members Area of TSA’s website. With some great ideas and techniques to improve your wellbeing, the guide includes a helpful resilience checklist, designed to help you work out how resilient you are feeling, before diving deeper into how to develop resilience traits. This will increase your ability to bounce back in times of particular challenge and help improve your overall mental health. In the guide, Jenny also covers how to identify your core values, deal with stress, provides practical suggestions on mindfulness and also some excellent simple tips for setting achievable mental health goals and lifting your spirits generally.

Health, Safety and Wellbeing Day for TSA members

We are delighted to confirm that Jenny is also one of our guest speakers at our next member event, the TSA Health, Safety and Wellbeing Day, scheduled to take place on Wednesday 15^th March.

As well as a practical wellbeing workshop with Jenny on recognising and tackling stress in ourselves and others, we will also be including Health & Safety sessions. These will comprise Legislation and HSE Statistics updates from Martin Mulholland of MD Safety Management, followed by a focus on ‘Promoting a Positive Safety Culture’ within the business of each member company. Make sure you put the date in your diary and register directly with the Secretariat.

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Terrestrial Laser Scanning for measurement purposes has seen rapid development over the last 20 years, with it now being commonplace in the geospatial surveyor’s ‘toolbox’. To address these advancements, a revised version of TSA’s Terrestrial Laser Scanning Client Guide has recently been uploaded onto TSA’s website. It provides an overview of Terrestrial Laser Scanning techniques, providing information on what they are, how they are used, and some of the important considerations you should think about before commissioning or specifying a survey that utilises this technology.

What is Terrestrial Laser Scanning?

Terrestrial Laser Scanning – which is also known as Three-Dimensional Laser Scanning (3DLS), High Definition Surveying (HDS) or 3D Reality Capture – is used to measure surfaces and objects within a space, resulting in a rich, geospatial dataset. Over recent years there has been major improvements in hardware functionality, data acquisition speed and software processing algorithms. The data captured by a laser scanner is referred to as a point cloud. After processing, this data can be analysed to produce large quantities of geospatial information. Laser scanning is ideal whenever highly accurate, detailed geospatial information is required, or the object of interest is simply out of physical reach.

3D laser scanners can also capture high-resolution digital photography in conjunction with the measured point cloud data. The images can then be overlaid onto the point cloud to show a true representation of the physical world in digital form. Laser scanning collects detailed geospatial data rapidly, facilitating health and safety advantages. Less time is required on site and personnel are physically separated from hazards as data is captured from a safe distance. Laser scanners can also be mounted onto unmanned moving vehicles.

Information from TSA

While the Client Guides provide an overview, TSA’s Guidance Notes are generally aimed at survey companies and clients who require detailed information on a particular subject. This could include where procedures are recommended for specific professional tasks. The Guidance Notes offer ‘best practice’ advice to meet a high standard of professional competence.

Drilling down

The Briefing Notes from TSA are intended to provide information and explanations to members on specific topics of relevance to the profession. However, are not intended to be used for recommendation on professional procedures.

There are over 36 documents available for download from TSA’s website. Client Guides cover a multitude of topics from Aerial LiDAR and Satellite Imagery surveys through to How to Tender and Geological Mapping from Satellite Imagery. Guidance Notes include Network RTK GNSS Best Practice and Railway Surveying, while Briefing Notes cover topics such as Class 3R Lasers and Theft Mitigation Measures.

If you are in the surveying profession or work with surveyors, visit our website and see what resources we have to ensure you get the best survey results: www.tsa-uk.org.uk/downloads

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This Client Guide was created as a summary of geological and geotechnical survey methods with an emphasis on earth observation techniques, in order to help professionals understand the latest methodologies and survey developments within this specialism.

The guide covers the scope of a Geological survey, understanding of depth, contributions of remote sensing and geotechnical surveying concluding with the factors to consider when commissioning a Geological Survey.

Download it for FREE here: www.tsa-uk.org.uk/for-clients/guidance-notes/

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This Briefing Note has been written to highlight the importance of ensuring instruments involved with the survey and measuring of data are properly calibrated and monitored throughout their working life.

It will be of interest to surveyors, clients and anyone involved with quality assessment of works undertaken and compliance monitoring.

Download it for FREE here: www.tsa-uk.org.uk/for-clients/guidance-notes/

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Tagging is a fast developing technique for accurately recording the position and attributes of buried utilities.

As the technology is becoming widely adopted for both new installations and exposed existing assets TSA felt it important to provide a new client guide to help users understand how the technology works and what features to look out for.

Download it for FREE here: www.tsa-uk.org.uk/for-clients/guidance-notes/

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This Client Guide was created to aid the procurement of coastal zone hydrographic services. It gives advice on communicating the requirements of a survey to ensure that its outcome contributes to the success of a coastal zone project. It also briefs the reader on the standards of operation, technical ability and deliverables to expect from survey companies operating inshore and nearshore. The guide is essential reading for anyone about to commission a survey in the coastal zone.

Download it for FREE here: www.tsa-uk.org.uk/for-clients/guidance-notes/

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