UKAWP - THE LEADING INDUSTRY BODY FOR THE UK WEDDING PLANNING MARKET

Posts Tagged ‘Top Left Design’

WPE Speaker Focus: Top Left Design

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Here at the UKAWP we love Keren who owns Top Left Design. not only is she incredibly talented and creative she is truly a wonderful person who is eager to pass on her knowledge. She has presented at WPE before so we are delighted to have her back!

headshot-kerenlerner

Describe your company in 100 words or less!

Were a friendly team of talented designers and coders, with 9 staff total, based in Soho London, creating online, and helping small businesses improve their presence online.

What’s your USP?

At Top Left Design we specialise in designing personality into websites, so it feels more like a face to face experience. We want our clients to embrace what’s unique about their businesses and encourage them to bring out the “human aspect”. Some people find this hard but it works so much better if you can see and learn about the people in the business, their stories, case studies. We encourage and train clients on unique copywriting and images, blogs, and active social media interaction.

What do you hope planners will learn on the day from your talk?

How to ensure they have a unique website presence which shows off what’s great about them as planners, and gives visitors a really great understanding of why they should choose them.

How would your clients describe you?

Creative, reliable, professional and patient - with an understated yet precise and personable professionalism that sets me ahead of my peers.  (These are actual quotes from a couple of my LinkedIn  testimonials!)

Have you ever had a challenging client and how did you deal with it?

No, I have never had a challenging client. Haha just kidding!

I try and be humble at all times, and see things from their point of view. If things go wrong, I think - how could I do better next time? And then I do! I have learned so much from working with clients over the years. I want to make sure every one is happy, and tend to take things to heart, but I know often people are really just stressed and take it out on others, and the best way to deal with this is calmly. I always keep filed all written correspondence, filing all emails in corresponding client folders, and following up conversations with a written record of who said what - this really helps to ensure good communications.

What is your vice? 

I like cake, chocolate, cookies, ice cream and pizza. But at the moment I have been really good as I am on the Ultimate Yogi 108 day yoga programme (see www.theultimateyogi.com) and it’s amazing.

What’s the best piece of business advice someone gave you?

That really no one really knows anything. I was told that 18 years ago but some one I knew and it stuck with me. What he meant was that everyone is just trying to do their best - and even people who are celebrities or big shots in the business world have worries and want to make a good impression - just like you!

Describe yourself in 3 words

Friendly, Caring, Business-obsessed

Name one blog you follow religiously

http://socialmediatoday.com/

What if you are going through a “quiet time”?

Friday, September 16th, 2011

Our thanks to Keren Lerner for her insightful post below….

In general, businesses go through cycles, and there are times when a business owner feels “in demand” - confident that the work is flowing in - and other times when you feel - well - worried that you don’t have enough clients/enquiries/projects! I would love to read any comments you have about this.

What if you are going through a

Image courtesy of Visual Panic

If you ever have a time or a season where things seem a bit quieter for you then - you can worry, - but as the saying goes “Worry is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.”

And if someone tells you “don’t worry” that just makes it worse!

So, my advice is, allocate 10 minutes in the morning, say, when you first wake up, to do some worrying, and then use the other time to get focused and organised with your online marketing plans!

A bit of pre-planning will mean you will be ready again for the busy times when they come around again.

So, what do you do with all that time that will still help your business?

Blogging of course! I am a big fan of blogging for business and I think it’s a skill that you need to nurture and develop over time, and then you will see the rewards. Our clients who blog regularly see the different it makes to their business and their profile.

Your Blogging Plan

Blogging is great for building up leads and referrals for your business. If you have a blog then your website has a place where you constantly keep it updated. Blogs are also great for search engines as every time you add a post to your blog, it creates effectively another page on the internet, and search engines like Google LOVE websites which have more pages.

Ideally you want to have 4-6 blog posts going out a month, or around 1 a week. Then you can plan out your blogs within an “editorial calendar”. This is a really easy to follow tip. All you need is a calendar, a pen and your brain.

Step 1: brainstorm blog headlines - as many as you can think of. Consider blog posts with numbers in the title (eg 15 reasons to have a seating plan at your wedding” or The “5 types of brides - which one are you”) as well as catchy “myth-busting” headlines (eg “Should the bride’s family pay for the wedding?”).

Step 2: Once you have around 35 blog headlines, cut them down to around 25 and then look at your calendar, and put the headlines into your calendar on the dates you want to post them.

Step 3: You can then write them in batches and make sure they go out on days which make sense - paying attention to the seasons and when brides are more likely to attend wedding shows, when they would be choosing rings, etc. This way your blog will be seen as a resource for brides all through the year.

But what if you don’t feel like you are a good writer?

You would need to read more and more blogs as part of learning and over time it would get easier and easier. But if you really want you can get a copywriter to help you put your advice and ideas into words. I recommend still writing a few posts to see how it goes, and then perhaps getting a copywriter to go over it and make the post more punchy and impactful. Like anything in life - you either do it yourself and get better and better all the time, or you pay someone else to do it for you!

Ok, there’s blogging, but what else can I do?

Marketing is a mix of many different activities, and it can be overwhelming to manage  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email newsletters, Flickr, YouTube and blogs. But the fact is, the more visible you are the more often people are going to see you!

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Special Offer for UKAWP Members - Social Media Course - Keren Lerner and Tamsin Fox-Davies - (5.5 Hours CPD)

Tamsin and I will be holding a course on social media and online marketing on the 23rd of September - if you can come along it would be great to see you there. For a 50% discount on the ticket price please quote TLD-UKAWP

BOOK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR PLACE

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