Workshops

Above: Kate Griffin‘s mood board. The photographer that didn’t want to be photographed – oooh the irony!

I love running our branding workshops. I love the combination of creativity and tangible business benefits that come out of the day, and the way that people walk in with a slightly muddled head around what their business brand is all about (some of them realise it, some of them don’t…) and they leave with absolute clarity. The journey that they go on is so inspiring, and it’s hard not to be caught by the infectiousness of the enthusiasm for their businesses.

The latest branding workshop started out much as most of my workshops do. Clarity and focus around what your brand is all about. We looked at brand values, brand personality and customer archetypes. I got them to think hard about how they carve out a meaningful niche in the market, and pennies began to drop. One of the most exciting things to happen at this point was lovely photographer Kate Griffin, who floated a concept for a marketing ploy that we realised would make a phenomenal niche: storybook photography in it’s truest sense. Kate’s plan is to write stories for the children she photographs. Beautiful!

This is an incredibly defendable niche for Kate. She writes beautifully. I mean truly, goose-pimplingly wonderful stuff that deserves to be read in its own merit as opposed to simply fluffing out a blog post full of gorgeous images. Kate loves to write, she’s good at it, and my sense is that her ideal clients would really buy into an heirloom product that combines images and a bespoke story.

The thing that I think is most exciting about this, is that Kate has the power to really carve out a niche for herself that will really help her business thrive. Sure, she needs a decent marketing plan to back it up, but she’s done much of the hard work by finding herself a powerful niche.

After lunch (yum – there was plenty of deliciousness from our lovely caterer Jilly) we knuckled down to mood boarding. I love how even the most cynical client becomes inspired, enlightened and enthused by this process. Mood boarding is all about “getting out” what you think and feel subconsciously about your brand. It’s not as hippy as I’ve just made it sound, I promise! And it really does help the creative process when it comes to designing a brand identity.

I loved all of the mood boards our guests made. From Flowerona’s vision for next year to Juliette of Fresh Air Fix’s insight into how she can make her blog more engaging, aspirational and “her” to Kate’s manifestation of her concept. I love them! And I can’t wait to start get my hands on the design…

Juliette Dyke of Fresh Air Fix and Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona proudly showing their new mood boards

The next branding workshop is taking place in April and spaces will be limited so I’d encourage you to book as soon as possible. Alternatively, why not join us for our month-long Branding Your Small Business e-class that starts on 6th February? It’s going to be a lot of fun, and we’ll cover everything our branding workshop guests covered plus a whole host of extra goodies that I’ll be able to squeeze in because we have so much more time.

Tagged as , branding workshop in Branding, Workshops

I am super, super excited to be launching our first Branding Your Small Business eCourse and I’d like to invite you to join me on our first course!

The eCourse builds on the creative and positioning work we do in the one day Branding workshop and takes the concept to a whole new level. We’re going to have a whole month together to go on a journey to building a powerful brand. I can’t wait! The eCourse will start on February 6th and run until March 3rd. During that time I’ll cover all the core elements you need to know to create a brand that attracts, engages and retains your ideal clients; differentiates you from your competitors and enables you to charge what you’re worth.

What’s covered

Whilst it’s not just about creating a gorgeous logo or website, there will be plenty of detail on that as well as brand positioning, defining your brand personality and finding, defending and owning your niche. We’ll look at colour psychology, typography and mood boards and how to market your business cost effectively to support your brand.

As you’d expect from any of our workshops, it’ll be fun, creative and practical. I’ll share tons of knowledge with you, and we’ll also work through plenty of exercises so you can put into practice what you’ve learnt. And the great news is that you can do all of this from the comfort of your own desk, so where ever you are in the world, you’ll be able to join in. You can pick up the sessions at your own pace – all I ask is that you try and find a minimum of three hours a week to really focus on what we’re doing.

So if you’ve also fancied joining us for a Flourishing Workshop but couldn’t make the dates or couldn’t physically get to Guildford, this is your opportunity to join us. Full details and booking for the Branding Your Small Business eCourse on our website – do take a look, it would be great if you could join us.

What do you think? Are you in?

Tagged as , branding your small business ecourse in Flourish Stuff, Inspirations, Workshops

If consumers are feeling jaded, short on disposable income and reluctant to part with their hard earned cash, then how do you stimulate spending? How do you attract, engage and compel your current and prospective customers to spend their money with you?

It all comes down to creating a proposition that excites your customer. One that creates satisfaction, not just within the product, but the buying experience as well. It’s about truly engaging your customer in a way that compels them to buy.

Of course, this is easier said than done, and over the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing with you some of the things you can do to create an engaging customer experience.

In the meantime, I’d like to extend an invitation to you.

The Summer Social: Creating an Engaging Customer Experience and Compelling Proposition

Thursday 21st July, 6.30-9.30pm, Horsley Park, East Horsley, Surrey KT24 6DU

Fancy joining us?

Liz Machtynger and I are running a couple of seminars around this theme as a part of our Customer Greenhouse summer social. We’ll be looking at how you create a proposition that excites your customer and how you create an engaging customer experience through your website: be it ecommerce or otherwise.

As you’d expect, the content will be inspiring and easy to understand, it’ll be peppered with things you can do the very next day, and packed full of real life examples. As you might also expect, there will be plenty of delicious nibbles on offer as well as drinks to ease the evening along. You can find full details of the Exciting Customer Experiences and Engaging Propositions evening on the Customer Greenhouse website

How would you like to join us? I have five tickets to giveaway – on me!

Tickets are £97 each but here’s the thing. I’d like to give away five tickets to you lovely blog readers as a celebration of the summer and a big thank you for your support this year.

I’ll pick five winners at random by 2pm on Friday 15th July. All you need to do is tell me what you’d like to gain from the event in the comments section below. (do make sure you also put a working email address in the comment box so that I can contact you if you’re lucky enough to win)

Good luck!

{The important stuff} My decision will be final. No correspondence will be entered into. You are responsible for getting yourself (safely) to the venue. No other costs will be covered other than the seminar entrance fee which includes a glass of wine on arrival and complimentary nibbles. Please ensure you’re able to make the event (on 21st July) before entering the competition.

Tagged as , competition, customer greenhouse, engaging propositions, powerful ecommerce, successful ecommerce, summer social in Branding, Business Strategy, Marketing, Powerful Ecommerce, Websites, Workshops

Yesterday I welcomed seven ambitious business owners and marketing consultants into the Flourish studio for a Workshop workshop. They spent the day planning, learning and thinking about how they can launch their own workshops to promote their businesses. In the morning I got them working very hard: planning topics, content and thinking about writing copy. [...]

Tagged as in Workshops

I am positively evangelical about the benefits of running workshops and seminars for your clients. It’s a fantastic way of building your relationships with existing customers, sharing your knowledge and giving something back to the relationship. It helps you improve loyalty and gain recommendations. And workshops also give prospective customers the chance to “try you [...]

Tagged as in Marketing, Workshops

Wow, do we have a busy couple of months lined up in the Flourish studio space. What with my own Flourishing Workshops and our Customer Greenhouse joint venture with Customer Essential we have no less than four marketing workshops between now and the end of June! With the exception of the Customer Greenhouse conference all of [...]

Tagged as in Flourish Stuff, Workshops

Yesterday saw the first of my Copywriting Essentials workshops for the year. Based on previous delegates feedback I extended the workshop to a full day, and I think we all really enjoyed the combination of theory in the morning and practical writing in the afternoon. I got them working incredibly hard. Focusing their minds on [...]

Tagged as in Workshops

Yesterday 8 wonderful ladies joined me at the studio for a Branding Workshop. Goodness did we work them hard! I had really hoped that the day would help clarify peoples thinking around their brands – what they wanted to be known for, their niche and the message they wanted to communicate. By lunchtime you could [...]

Tagged as , branding workshop in Flourish Stuff, Workshops

Just how powerful is your business brand? I’m not talking about how pretty your website is or how creative your logo, I’m talking about your brand. Do you have a strong position in the marketplace? Are you offering something that gives you the edge over your competitors? And are you communicating all of that powerfully [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Workshops

I’ve just returned from our very first (and fabulous I might add) Customer Greenhouse event that we held today and Denbies vineyard in Dorking and despite being utterly shattered and well ready to collapse on the sofa I just couldn’t resist sharing these photos of the day with you. Almost 40 people joined us from [...]

Tagged as in Flourish Stuff, Marketing, Workshops