APPROXIMATELY 100 people turned up to learn about the changing shape of digital marketing in a series of seminars run by The Westmorland Gazette.

Local businesses from an expansive range of industries attended the talks, which were held at the Castle Green Hotel in Kendal last Thursday.

The seminars were aimed specifically at local businesses who would like to expand their digital knowledge and cut through the jargon.

Nick Fellows, a regional managing director of The Westmorland Gazette’s parent company Newsquest, gave an introduction to those in attendance at the start of each talk.

The seminars were delivered by Rachel Dunn, business development manager for Reach Local.

“After 17 years in media I’ve seen a lot of changes and challenges for SMEs (small to medium enterprises) when it comes to marketing their businesses,” she said.

“The most common issue at present relates to online marketing: ‘Where do I start?’ There are too many options!”

But often, these businesses forget about the key fundamentals you have to have in place before you even look into online marketing.”

The talks focused on how the marketing landscape has changed; how to set realistic marketing objectives; getting online displays right; social media and multi-channel marketing.

Ruth Davies, advertising manager at The Westmorland Gazette, said the seminars had been huge success.

“Rachel delivered a series of eye-opening talks that opened up a whole host of new digital marketing opportunities to those who attended,” she said.

“Many of the businesses that came have acknowledged that and fed back to us how useful the talks were. “I would like to thank Rachel for sharing her expertise, and also the Castle Green Hotel for hosting us on Thursday.”