How Tech for Growth Helped Watersports Charity Strengthen Digital Presence

All-Aboard Watersports is a charity based in Bristol, offering lessons in sailing, kayaking, canoeing, rowing, boat building and more. 

Founded over 50 years ago, the charity’s aim is to enable all members of society to participate in watersports, with a focus on children and adults with additional needs and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Originally set up and run by teachers, it was noticed that sailing (the original activity on offer at the time) had a positive effect on participants, giving them an outlet they would not usually have had access too.  

Since then, the charity has grown and evolved offering a variety of sessions to a wide range of the surrounding community. Jemma Corbett joined the team in 2024 as an Administrator. She explained: 

“Participants visit us as individuals, in family and social groups, or with their school, support group or other type of community or social group and we aim to reach a target of 50% from disadvantaged backgrounds or with additional needs. We offer subsidised rates where we can, but the only way we can do this is through a combination of grant income and having a sound financial position. 

I’m always on the lookout for any grants, funding or support that can enable us to continue offering fully or part-funded lessons to some of our learners, whilst at the same time, thinking of ways to increase customers to the commercial arm of our business. 

As part of my role at All-Aboard Watersports, I am tasked with posting on our social media channels and was also recently asked to create posters for marketing, but I didn’t feel particularly confident with either of these duties.

I wanted to build on my skills so I could improve our marketing material, ensure our website was working well and increase our reach on social media, so I was looking for help in these areas. A friend suggested I look at Tech for Growth – I applied online and was thrilled when I was offered support.” 

As part of Tech for Growth, which is funded by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, Jemma was put in touch with Joyann from InClued who carried out a complete audit of the organisation’s website and social media channels, creating a report detailing any problems with the website, what types of visitors they were receiving, what was working well, what was creating engagement on their social channels, what they could improve, a competitor analysis and examples of content they could share. 

Jemma continued, “I had several sessions where Joyann introduced me to Canva, a graphic design platform, took me through how to use it, plus shared hacks and tips. She talked through examples of content that would work well for us and on what channels and answered a lot of questions I had. The time I spent with her was invaluable, all done online which made things so much easier and Joyann was very knowledgeable, making things less daunting for me. 

I feel much more confident creating graphics, putting together marketing materials such as posters and knowing how, and what, to post on social media now. This means I can create new content easily instead of using old stuff. Our followers and engagement have increased, we’ve found our brand voice and personality online and our trustees have some valuable information to help them decide how to move forward with our website.  

Since the support from Tech for Growth we’ve even joined in on social media takeovers, such as with Visit West, which gave us a bigger audience to promote our services too and I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do before. So, in that way, it has also helped build partnerships for our organisation and helped us to get more involved in the local business community.  

I’d definitely recommend Tech for Growth to other businesses.” 

Joyann commented,  

“We started working with All-Aboard Watersports in October 2024, completing audits of their website and social media channels. Since then, their followers have increased by 48% on Instagram and 8% on Facebook, which is amazing and testament to the hard work they have put in and the changes they have made on the back of my suggestions.” 

To find out more about Tech for Growth visit this webpage. 

To find out more about All-Aboard Watersports visit their website. 

 

Tech for Growth is a West of England Mayoral Combined Authority initiative, delivered in partnership with Business West and techSPARK to help SMEs in the region adopt new technologies and improve digital practices to improve productivity and sales. The West of England Growth Hub is the West of England Mayoral Combined Authorities' SME business growth support service.