Spotlight: Nikki Annison, marketing director of Impero Software

Nikki Annison is the marketing director of Impero Software, one of the UK’s most widely used tools to monitor internet use in schools. Nikki spoke to us about the company’s latest PR push on a new feature that helps schools detect the early signs of potential radicalisation, expanding operations to the US and the three must-have comms skills for PRs in the digital age. 

Getting to know Impero Software

What’s new at Impero Software? Impero Software are the authors of leading remote monitoring and management software Impero Education Pro. Already used in 40% of UK secondary schools to address online safety, classroom control and network management, our latest venture is the US market.  We opened our US office a few months back, and although we already have a lot of school districts on-board, this physical presence is allowing us to speed up our expansion.

Our latest marketing and PR push has been based on the development of a new keyword library to help schools detect the early signs of potential radicalisation. We’re currently working closely with some beta schools to test out the functionality before it’s fully released in the autumn.

How have the nature of campaigns that you create for clients, changed recently? In the UK, most schools have heard of Impero and they know what we do. Campaigns are now less about brand awareness, and pitching the product, and more about aligning us with industry trends and issues. Nowadays online safety is a big concern in schools and in light of this we’re hosting a series of events on the subject, where we invite industry experts to deliver presentations and workshops to our delegates.

With education being a very close knit community, we rely a lot on referrals. Campaigns therefore tend to centre on case studies and video testimonials, as we find that sharing the experiences of our customers is a great way to generate interest.

How important is social media as a communication platform for marketing and PR today? Social media has become one of the main ways that customers and prospects contact us. It’s easy to give people an instant response to quick questions and it’s particularly useful for sharing snippets of information. In a marketing environment dominated by content, social media provides an easy way to share it. News spreads quickly so a positive message can reach a much wider audience than direct mail – of course on the flip side so can a negative message so it’s important that there are dedicated staff members responsible for dealing with this media.

Could you list the three must-have skills every PR & marketing team needs to have today?

1. The ability to tell a story – online content needs to be engaging and emotive if it’s going to get noticed.

2. A genuine interest in technology – digital agencies need to be aware of the latest online trend before it’s out. To do this, they need to live and breathe all things digital.

3. A proactive approach – too often agencies are reactive rather than proactive. I look for an agency that comes to me with ideas, chases me for content and never gets complacent in its role.

What is the road ahead for Impero Software? We’ll be showcasing some exciting new product developments at the Bett show in January 2016 (the world’s largest education technology event), where we have a major presence. Moving forward, these developments will help us to expand our market share both in the UK and US, to position ourselves as a major global brand in the education space.

Getting to know Nikki Annison:

The first thing I do when I come into work is…

I make myself a green tea in a very complicated teapot that my team bought me (which took a week to work out how to use) and read through the education press while I drink it.

My biggest social media peeve is…

People treating LinkedIn like if it is Facebook. There’s a time and a place for both and they shouldn’t get confused!

If I wasn’t in marketing I would be…

Writing a novel. I’ve always loved to tell a story, which is probably how I’ve ended up in marketing!

I wish journalists would…

Make their headlines a truer reflection of an articles content.

The best thing about my job is…

Every day is different at Impero and every day I learn something new. If I ever find myself complacent in a role or lacking a challenge I know it’s time to move on.

Five years from now, you can find me…

Writing that novel! Alongside my role leading Impero’s global marketing team (that has quadrupled in size) that is!