Lisa Cox is a garden designer based in Leatherhead. We’ve been working together for the past three months on her marketing strategy – focusing on getting Lisa plenty of profitable clients to help her achieve her financial goals. We started in May by defining Lisa’s brand strategy and understanding who her most profitable clients would be. This really helped us target our marketing to some very specific groups of people. In June we looked at pricing – how much Lisa should be charging and how she might package up some of her services to make them easier to sell. We also explored a financial plan for the year and created her a set of sales targets. Finally in July we created Lisa’s marketing plan. Using the knowledge we had gained in the first two months we were able to create a really focused and targeted marketing plan that will help Lisa attract more of the profitable clients.

Lisa's current website

Lisa had recently had her brand identity created and was very happy with that but was unsure about her website. We both agreed that whilst the website could do with some tweaks – both in terms of content and design, it wasn’t the most important area to spend her budget on at the moment. It looks good (if a little technical) and there were more pressing issues that needed dealing with, such as the creation of a branded blog and newsletter and the implementation of a direct mail campaign.

Rob has taken much of the look and feel of Lisa’s brand identity and developed it further to bring out more of Lisa’s personality and create something altogether softer and more engaging.

I love the font he’s used which just softens the look and feel. He’s also kept the very structured images but softened them with an inset border which just feels a bit more classy. It should appeal to Lisa’s target market very well! You can see the blog at the top of this post – both newsletter and blog reflect eachother without being exactly the same, which I think is important.

Over the summer Lisa will be running a two stage direct mail campaign. She already has some brochures printed and she’ll be dropping a handwritten note into each of those before posting off to 300 select houses (we’ll be testing two different notes over 50 houses first to see which one pulls the most response). She’ll follow up that campaign with a very focused flyer aimed at encouraging people to book a consultation with her.

I wrote the copy and Rob has created this gorgeous design to really lift the words and bring them to life.

And here’s the back

So what do you think? We have one very happy Lisa, and I’m pretty chuffed with the results myself – even if I do say so myself…

We’ve been creating a lot of blogs for people recently, and something I must sound like a broken record on in every briefing meeting is my insistance that bloggers work with a {good} photographer to get a professional headshot. I can’t tell you the difference it makes. Actually I don’t need to tell you the difference. You can see it just from the before and after above. I can’t believe I’m sharing this with you but I’m reminding myself that I’m doing it for the greater good…

Let’s start with the presumption that a good headshot will make you look your most attractive, professional and approachable. By attractive I don’t mean sleazy or sexy or like you’ve just stepped off a boudoir shot. I’m talking about a photograph that strokes your ego and makes you proud. But it also needs to look like you.

Before I met Matt Pereira my headshot was a picture I’d had taken in a studio in Birmingham several years before (see above). I was one of the female entrepreneurs invited to take part in a cover shoot for franchise magazine. They had hired a make up artist and after several hours (I kid you not) primping and preening we were wheeled out into the studio where we were draped over a chaise longue . To get us used to the camera the photographer initially took headshots of us on a bar stool. I looked attractive but nothing like myself. I limped on with this photograph for several years but I had to laugh when I met the lovely Shelly Van Litt from the Elmbridge magazine at an Elmbridge Women In Business event I was speaking at. Shelly said to me “I’ve been looking at your website today, I wanted to meet you. You look nothing like your photo! I wouldn’t have recognised you if you hadn’t introduced yourself”. That was me told.

Fortunately a couple of weeks later I had the most gorgeous shots taken by Matt and I’ve never looked back. Like I said, a good photographer will take photos of you that actually look like you. But they’ll be of your best self. He or she will capture the essence of you and present you as someone people want to get to know. A good social media photograph has got to be engaging and approachable. And so that means eyes to camera, smiling and saving those sexy pouts for the boudoir shoots.

And a good headshot isn’t just about helping you appear more engaging in your social media profile. It’ll also help your website and blog appear more attractive. Let me show you how. This post has been utterly inspired by a blog we created for Sam Jones (herself a fantastic photographer) for her Home Truths blog. I loved the makeover Rob worked up for Sam, but was blown away when I realised she’d changed her photo. Here was the blog with the old photo…

And here’s the new photograph. Personally I think there’s a dramatic difference between the two, and all Sam has done is changed the photograph!

Donna Pourtyemour of Cobham Pilates is so sold on the benefits of having great headshots that she insists that all new staff have a professionally taken headshot. This shows consistency on her website and ensures that all members of staff come across professionally. Something Donna has found is that by having her website revamped she’s been able to attract world class teachers to her studio and her business is now expanding at a rate of knots. I have no doubt that the professional and engaging photographs (along with the gorgeous new branding and design of course!) have a lot to do with this…

So next time you think you’ll just upload that holiday snap from two years ago, think again. Find a great photographer and get some professional headshots done. It will pay dividends.

Blogging has many benefits. It’ll help you build relationships with your clients and prospective clients. It enables you to demonstrate your expertise.  It helps you gain immediate feedback on an idea. And done correctly you’ll also gain targeted leads for your company which should turn into profitable business. Oh, and the traffic you receive from your fabulous content will also help you in the search rankings.

There’s a reason that I added SEO as an afterthought. It’s because it should be when it comes to blogging. SEO is a nice outcome from a good blog – it’s not the reason for its being.

At the recent Blogging workshop I ran a couple of weeks back with Tom Evans a large chunk of our audience were motivated to blog because of the perceived SEO benefits a blog brings. They felt that if they could just manipulate their blog to bring them in thousands of visitors, then that would have a positive impact on their website. I’m delighted to report that by the end of the day they all felt somewhat different!

Your blog will receive thousands of visitors if the content is great, if it looks good, and if you post regularly. You’ll build up a following of loyal readers who will recommend your blog to their friends and where it features in the search engines will be but a distant memory. You’ll be generating enough business from the blog it won’t matter.

Recently I stumbled upon a blog that had clearly been contrived to provide search traffic for the company. It was an imagery-based website and the images were gorgeous. Sadly I felt a little “used” because the writer clearly wasn’t writing for my benefit. She was writing for the search engines. She’d clearly handpicked a couple of search terms (and no, I won’t tell you what they are) – let’s just say they were lifestyle artist hampshire for arguments sake. Every single blog title was pumped full of these keywords. And scrolling down the list I could see this wasn’t a one off, this was a Search Engine Optimisation onslaught.

Imagine this blog, full of lovely images but pumped full of keywords that mean very little in relation to the post they’re describing. How would you feel as you were reading it? Like a valued reader who just had to return to see what said company had been up to? Or a little used and worthless that the point of the blog was simply to scramble the website up the search rankings.

There’s an art to using your blog to gain traffic and pumping your titles and posts full of “clever” keywords isn’t it. I’m not suggesting that it won’t work from an SEO point of view – I’m sure it does. But my point is that this isn’t a blog.

A blog is your chance to journal what’s going on in your world. It enables you to showcase your expertise, build relationships and generate profitable business. Make the most of the opportunity: if you don’t, your competitors certainly will.

I’m on a bit of a roll with my in the studio this week… posts this, ahem, week. So much so that I’ll be staggering them throughout the next few days. And what better a design to start off the week with than the MIB music blog. Sera Golding is one of those dream clients who tends to give us pretty much free rein on her projects (just wait till I share with you her latest band!!!) and plenty of encouragement and positive feedback along the way.

Sera attended my blogging workshop back on 17th June and fired up from that commissioned us to create her a fun and funky blog for her music management agency, MIB. I know I’m blowing my own trumpet but personally I think Rob has done a cracking job on this one. I love the font he’s used, the polished look and the overall cohesiveness that the design has about it. The pink makes a statement without being over the top (at least I think so) because it’s tempered by the white page background.

I know that Sera is over the moon and is already frantically blogging away. The feedback has been very positive on twitter, and we’d love to know what you think. Do also check out the blog, she has some great articles on there already and I’m loving her song of the week section!

Sam Jones is a superwoman. Not only is she a well renowned photographer, famed for making women look beautiful, she’s also a property sales consultant extraordinaire. Sam runs a very unique business helping people who are struggling to sell their houses achieve their maximum value – usually without dropping the price. As you can imagine, she’s pretty busy in this market!

Sam approached us to help her create a more engaging blog that would help her communicate her expertise and get the word out about her services. She literally is unique – she’s not an estate agent, but she helps people sell their homes. And she’s not a house doctor, although home staging does form a part of the service. Sam works with couples who have had their house on the market usually for more than 6 months, and she helps them get it sold for it’s maximum value.

Here’s Sam’s blog before we waved our fairy dust over it.

Ok so the design is wholly uninspiring, and you can see why she was keen to work with us on the design. But the content is fantastic and that’s the cornerstone of a great blog. Blog regularly, make sure your posts look great and write great content and you’re on to a winner.

Back to Sam’s shiny new blog…

The imagery gives it the upmarket polish her clients expect of someone at the top of her game and the colours add style and professionalism. Sam has only just updated her photograph and I can’t tell you the difference it makes (in fact, I feel a blog post coming on for the subject of headshots, but that’s another story…). The blog is now much easier to navigate – visitors aren’t forced to read posts in chronological order, they can click on the subjects that interest them in the “menu” bar at the top of the page. Oh, and just in case people want to get in touch, Sam’s contact details are there loud and clear.

What do you think?

When you’re starting out with your blogging, getting into “the groove” can be hard. Just how long should your posts be? And where on earth do you find the time to blog?

I’m a firm believer that you should be blogging 2-3 times a week, and if you can manage to squeeze one in every day, so much the better. Your writing will be better for it and your readers will thank you. In fact, as long as you can keep focused, the more you write, the better you’ll be. And the better you are, the stronger your following of readers. And that means more business for you. So it really is a win-win.

But to answer my original question, just how long should your blog posts be? Well I recommend that they’re around the 250- 300 word mark. This length is easily digestible for your readers, and is pretty quick for you to write. You should be able to produce something of that length in around 30 minutes. And if you can write quickly, you’ll be blogging often.

You don’t need to get too perfectionist about it. I reecntly read an article that was lambasting people that didn’t spend at least a day refining and sculpting each blog post. I’m sure that it does make for great writing, but the fact is that unless you’re a professional, full time blogger, none of us have 8 hours to spend perfecting, refining and crafting one post, so why even try. Write from the heart. Start with a plan and stay focused. And if you stick to my recommended word length you’ll find that you don’t have time to ramble on. Just make one point, and make it well. A bit like Sam Jones in her latest blog post…

Phil Johns runs Ergonomic Office Imports – a company that pretty much does what it says on the tin. Phil mostly sells to the trade, but is just about to take on premises in Wood Street Village which will enable him to sell direct to the public. I worked with Phil a few weeks back on his marketing strategy, and we identified a few key areas for him to start investing in.

First of all, he needed a logo and identity for the business. Getting this right at the outset will mean he attracts the right type of clients from the get-go, and will also save him money in the long run. Every business needs a logo, so why not start as you mean to carry on? He was still going to need signage so rather than throw out a poorly designed sign in a few years/ months time, Phil is starting out with a gorgeous logo and identity from the off.

Phil didn’t have an enormous budget, so we’ll be working on as many low cost and no cost marketing activities as possible to get him started: workshops and seminars, building up strategic links with other local businesses, leaflet drops in the areas that he’s had success in before, and blogging. Phil has such an enormous knowledge of all things ergonomic – he is a true expert in his field, so the sooner we can get him on social media, the better!

Here’s Rob’s design for the blog. I love the clean, fresh approach he’s taken.

What do you think?

We had a great day at the blogging workshop yesterday, some wonderfully inspiring business owners and great headway made. In a moment of rare modesty I showed the delegates lots of beautifully designed blogs from some of the world’s best bloggers. But what I didn’t show them was any of the blogs that we’ve designed at Flourish. So without further ado, here are five simple and stylish blogs hot off the Flourish press.

A simple, stylish and quick blog design for a weight loss specialist and image consultant.

I love the colours and energy that exudes from this blog. It perfectly captures Elizabeth in all her sparkling glory, and the warm and welcoming photograph of Elizabeth only adds to the mood.

Tom’s had many a blogger assume that he’s a 6-figure blogger thanks to this design. It perfectly encapsulates Tom’s brand of slightly esoteric with creative thinking and technical backup.

I’ve shown this one to you many a time. Beautiful, timeless and elegant; with a good pinch of romance thrown in.

I love the friendly images down the side (which neatly click back to the “team” pages on their website) and the gorgeous background image.

I have to say that this blog is in the main, thanks to prolific garden blogger Claire Brown from Plant Passion who very kindly sent me through her top five list of blogs (and I haven’t completely cribbed from her! This includes my list as well…). We’re also creating a blog for a garden designer as we speak and so we’ve been doing much research into garden blogs here at Flourish.

And so without further ado, here are eight inspiring gardening blogs in no particular order. Let me know what you think? Any that I’ve missed off?

Fennel and Fern

This has to be the queen of garden blogging, surely? Delicious images, an evocative header and unobtrusive advertising. And it’s a great read to boot. Interestingly it’s written by a consortium of writers – now there’s an idea if you’re worried about not having the time or energy to blog yourself!

Carrots and Kids

LOVE this one. Beautifully photographed and designed – thanks Claire for the prompt! It’s written by Fennel and Fern’s Debbie. Isn’t that photography just delicious?

Stopwatch Gardener

I love the fact that the whole design of this blog feels fast. See those hastily written menu bars? The scrappy notes? It all adds to the feeling of accessibility, like we can all squeeze in 5 mins of gardening.

Bumblebee Blog

It’s a quirky design that’s quite fun, and I have it on good authority from Claire that it’s a good read…

Plant Passion

A passionately and brilliantly written blog that’s regularly updated with useful gardening snippets that we should all take note of. Claire’s passion and personality really shine through – well worth a read.

Debra Prinzing

I’ve only just discovered this one, but it’s ramajammed full of useful articles that are really well illsutrated with some stunning photography.

Glad to see that you found my first list of inspiring blogs useful. As a designer I always find looking at blog designs inspiring, and where better than a photographer’s blog? All those gorgeous images to drool over! So here’s my top seven.

Matt Pereira, of course, how could I not put Matt’s beautifully designed and photographed blog in my list? The wide column shows off the shots perfectly. And I love the textures and tones in the background that seem to complement his work so well.

Jasmine Star’s Vogue-esque blog is out of this world isn’t it? It’s a certain style of design and it won’t appeal to everyone, but it’s utterly stunning and incredibly well crafted. And so different to a lot of blogs that you see. From a colour psychology perspective this is a winter design: strong in terms of colour and layout, sleek and very upmarket.

I love up and coming photographer Kate Griffin’s blog for it’s beautiful images and also it’s sheer personality. I love the way she intertwines her images with stories, and the fact that she has her big and bold signature at the end of every post. And just read the story on the bluebell shoot, it makes my heart melt.

I love SegeriusBruce’s brochure style blog – evocative “front pages” that take you through to the meat of the post. Obviously their style is also fabulous, as are the way the posts are written. Gorgeous.

Ben Chrisman’s blog is very cool and very different. Bravely letting the images speak for themselves (and to be fair, they do speak for themselves. As one of the USA’s top 10 photographers he knows his stuff) this pared back and confident blog draws you in through the seduction of the photography.

Quirky, bold and colourful sums up Sarah Yates‘ blog. I’d love to get my hands on the typography, but the images are just so stunning that I had to include it in the list. And the personality really shines through.

Obviously photographer’s blogs are ten a penny, but the ones that made the grade were the ones that stood out. I was looking for blogs that were well branded and had presented their images well. Call me picky but I like portrait images to be side-by-side so that they take up the same width as a landscape image and keep a nice clean line as you travel down the page. Small things but they matter to me…

So how about you? What are your favourite wedding and lifestyle photographer blogs?

And last but not least, this deliciously bright and well branded blog by Daria and Andy. What lovely colours and such a psychadelic backdrop. I love it!