Destination Digital

Debbie Porter Joins BBC News To Talk About The 10.1% Inflation Rate Rise Impact On Small Business

Life at Destination Digital can take some twists and turns. Today, the one thing that our MD Debbie Porter was not expecting was to be appearing live on TV, on BBC News at lunchtime, talking to news anchor Annita McVeigh. Scroll down to hear Debbie being interviewed on the impact of the newly announced 10.1% inflation rate and its impact on small businesses.

If ever there were a day to not turn up to work in just a t-shirt it would’ve been today.  However, with just 40 minutes of prep time for the live TV piece after saying yes to Dominic Hiatt of Newspage, all concerns about hair and makeup had to be pushed aside to spend time figuring out how to answer the questions in as media-friendly way as possible.

A 10.1% inflation rate announcement this morning, with further rate rises as high as 13% promised by the end of the year, is a further kick in the teeth for the UK. It’s also the biggest story in the news cycle today.

The nation has already endured the pain of the pandemic, the impact of Brexit on the supply chain and a reduced market opportunity. Latterly the impact that the Ukrainian conflict has had on key supplies into the country has just added fuel to the fire. We now find ourselves in 2022 dealing with inflation that’s out of control, having already registered a 40-year high earlier this year, but on 17 August 2022, we topped that record.

Government inaction on inflation that has been rising out of control in the year to date makes our blood boil, and so we responded to a Newspage call out for commentary. Here is the quote that kicked off this opportunity:

“The current economic situation is far worse than the challenges of the pandemic. As a small business owner, I am lurching from one worry to the next. Supply cost increases and helping employees out with salary increases whilst absorbing National Insurance and Corporation Tax rises is emptying the coffers.

In the meantime, navigating the tricky price increase conversation with clients means I’m left gambling whether to twist, stick or bust to try and cope with the financial situation in front of me.”

Watch the full BBC News piece here:

But enough about us, what is this Newspage thing all about?

About Newspage UK & Dominic Hiatt

If you follow us on social media, you will have seen us giving Newspage a shout out before, and so we’re going to switch the focus of this blog to talk about Newspage UK and what a transformative lifeline it can be for small businesses. Led by Dominic Hiatt, award-winning ex-journo and current weaver of PR news-coverage magic, the service turns PR on its head.

With a mission statement that promises, “Newspage is now on a mission to decentralise the PR world and democratise the media, giving everyone the chance to #BeTheStory for FREE.” we’re happy to vouch for this. Dominic and the Newspage team don’t record their columns in inches any more, needing yard sticks instead and have got Newspagers up and down the UK to #BeTheStory.

We already got coverage on our thoughts about the 9% inflation rate earlier this year via Newspage.  We were featured in Wealth DFM Magazine, commenting on what was the 40-year high at that time (and doesn’t 9% look kind of affordable in face of 10.1%?). We also got a full feature piece in our local newspaper, the Derbyshire Times on the same subject. So to bag live TV coverage is great for our profile, even if spiralling costs and insane petrol prices is not all that great at all.

Getting PR coverage alone is amazing for your business’ profile, helping you reach people who wouldn’t otherwise have ever heard of you. The bonus (speaking as a digital marketer and SEO) comes when you get press coverage that includes a backlink to your website. Having launched our brand in early 2021, whilst still dusting ourselves off from the hell that was 2020, we needed all the help we could get. At a special launch offer of ‘free’ for the first 100 respondents, we figured this was a fair price and have been ardent fans of Dom and team ever since.

We’ve had step changes in traffic and Google reach each time we’ve gained a high authority inbound link from coverage that Newspage has secured for us.  So although, in Dominic’s own words, you don’t want to p*** journalists off by asking for backlinks after they have done you the service of featuring you in their piece, when a backlink comes, it’s link-building nirvana.

Convinced yet? You should be.

To get this happening for your brand, create your own Newspage account, cough up the £19.99 a month and then watch the opportunity alerts come in. Register here: https://app.newspage.co.uk/register

 

Contact us

If you’d like to chat on things other than a 10.1% inflation rate, or even if you would like to have a robust conversation about the state of the economy, you can email us on info@destination-digital.co.uk or give us a call on 01629 810199.

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