Almost a year DJ Learning Ltd. began to transform as we doubled in size from a one person to two-person organisation; this change was very significant as Oliver joined me and could bring a range of skills and abilities which were clearly going to make a significant difference. One of our early priorities was to evolve and implement a clear and effective marketing strategy.
Our marketing plan has clear and measureable objectives that are consistent with our core philosophy. Our key statements are ‘Inspiration is contagious’ and ‘nothing is impossible if you believe’ and are at the core of every learning intervention we offer.
In the early days, we posted a weekly inspirational quote on our twitter page, this was our beginning. Our next priority was creating a website that would reflect who we are, what we offer and gave a clear brand consistency. Word of mouth from our accountant led us to a local supplier who designs websites, emphasising the value of a good network. Once we had made that connection and decided to move forward we had to create a company logo and create content for the site.
The logo represents upward progress and is consistent with our statement ‘inspiration is contagious’. Even details like the colours had to be thought about before we decided on the final version; this process took patience and time. Similarly, with the site content, we had to make sure that the information reflected our brand, but also made sure it contained the relevant ‘key words’ to help with the search engine optimisation. Our supplier was on hand to give us some excellent advice and guidance.
Our logo and website content did evolve over time, in all about 3 months. However, every aspect of both represents us. For example, the colours used and the words in our key statements all represent input (favourite colours) and ideas (statements) from my children. We did everything we could think of to ensure brand consistency.
Once the website had gone live, our next step was making sure we attracted people to it. Along with regular postings on social media, we also put together a blog strategy. So far, we have written and posted 4 blogs. Again, consistency is key and we make sure our blogs are relevant and informative, containing content which we hope you have enjoyed so far and will continue to enjoy.
It is so important to keep our company philosophy at the heart of everything we do, including with our marketing structure. Brand clarity and consistency is our aim. We have come a long way, in a relatively sort time, from placing inspiring quotes on twitter, to a website, a blog strategy and a company page on Facebook.
Our exciting journey embraced more new adventures as we decided to go filming and create a series of vlogs. We decided to profile what we offer visually. Our supplier is a film company that we had worked with before on work we did for the University of London when creating both our M.O.O.C.s. Again, the benefits of networking have been demonstrated.
We had great fun when filming our vlogs and learnt a great deal along the way. We have look to cover a range of topics, all of which build on what we offer here at D.J. Learning Ltd.
We were very pleased with our vlogs and as with our blogs, we hope you enjoy them.
In summary, when developing our marketing strategy, our key learnings have included:
- Achieving a balance between marketing activities and exceeding the expectations of existing clients
- Effective use of resources, in terms of the positive outcomes we hope for from our marketing strategies
- The value of effective networking as we have continually discovered how this can lead us to first class suppliers
- Probably above all, to ensure that every aspect of D.J. Learning Ltd has brand consistency and is truly reflective of who we are
We are really pleased to let you know that our first vlog will be released this coming Wednesday, 7th June. We are looking to share with you a little more about who we are and why we are so passionate about what we do.
As always, we would be delighted to receive your feedback about our blogs, vlogs and of course about what we offer here at D.J. Learning Ltd.
Thank you.
David and Oliver.