Category: Case study

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Case study: a Christmas blog for a non-Christmassy business

A Christmas blog for a locksmith - case study
Photo by Katrien Grevendonck from Pexels

How do you market your business at Christmas when your service isn’t seasonal? A Christmas blog sounds like a great idea, but what on earth do you talk about? If the problem you solve could come up at any time of year, you might find yourself struggling to make it festive.

The good news is you just need a bit of lateral thinking. You might also need a writer who doesn’t work in your business every day.

The client

The client came to me through an SEO expert they’d been working with to improve their search rankings. They’re expert locksmiths based in Scotland and serving a clear geographical area, so their SEO campaign was helping them to build their local reputation. They wanted to let local people know about their employee credentials and show why their service was better than the competition.

They were already starting to see results, and then came the question of the Christmas blog.

The challenge

The great thing about being a locksmith is that people could need your services all year round. This is good for business but not so great for your Christmas marketing. Do you ignore Christmas altogether or try to include it? The client had only just started blogging and didn’t want to lose momentum. They also realised that a Christmas blog would be more likely to attract readers. The question is, how do you make it interesting and relevant to your audience?

The Christmas blog solution

Luckily for the locksmiths, they were working with me, a writer with a strong lateral thinking streak. It turns out that people lock themselves out of their houses much more often at Christmas, simply because they’re distracted or out of their normal routine. There’s also the increased risk of burglary when your house is full of presents. We talked about simple solutions and included details of what a locksmith could help with. It was helpful and sent a clear message.

So, there you have it – a Christmas blog for a non-Christmassy business. If I can help you create one of your own, email me or book a call here.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook ’50 blog topic ideas for your business’ as a thank you.

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Case study: a content repurposing collaboration

Photo by Gabriela Palai from Pexels

One of the best things about working in a creative industry is the fact that it gives me opportunities to work as part of a team. The other one is working one-to-one with clients, but they’re vastly different experiences. A collaboration for me often comes about when one of my website-designing friends creates a new website (or redesigns an old one) for one of their clients. They don’t do the wordy bits, so if the client doesn’t already have someone in mind, they send them in my direction. I love it because I know there’s already a clear vision for the site, so I can jump straight in. It’s brilliant when another creative brain has already got things started because it sparks so many ideas in me.

All of which brings me to another kind of project. When I first ventured out of the (frankly boring) world of corporate networking and into drinking coffee with creatives, I hadn’t considered working with people who make films for businesses. I kind of assumed that they’d already have people who are good at that sort of thing. What I didn’t expect was a collaboration that took videos and turned them into something else.

The project

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’re probably already familiar with local initiatives that encourage business growth. I’ve seen everything from funding schemes to education projects. Beyond the obvious benefits to local businesses and regional growth, projects like this have one other massive advantage. It gives the people offering the scheme the opportunity to shout about how great they are. A Leicestershire-based agency had been offering grants and loans to local businesses. The funding enabled them to secure premises or buy new equipment that allowed them to grow. There were lots of positive stories. Clearly, everyone involved wanted to get the word out.

The marketing

The marketing plan had several different strands, taking in both online and offline marketing. A video agency had already interviewed businesses that’d benefited from funding and creating short films to share online. They just needed to turn the stories into a form that would also work in print. That’s where I came in. I took the transcriptions of the interviews and turned them into good news stories that could be shared online, via social media and even in printed mail-outs to other local businesses.

The whole initiative was so successful that it’s happening again. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I get to put together another collaboration and share some of the stories again this time round!

If I can help you share your story in a new way, book your call here and let’s have a chat.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook ’50 blog topic ideas for your business’ as a thank you.

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Case study – Graeme and Charlotte’s blog

Blog case study - holiday park

If you’ve ever wondered what writing a blog can do for your business, here’s a great example.

The Challenge

Graeme and Charlotte run a holiday park in a gorgeous location (I wish I could tell you where, but I’m not allowed). This wasn’t somewhere you could just book for a week like you can with some of the bigger chains. This was a family business where everyone who visited owned their own caravan and came for weekends as well as for longer holidays. The owners might lend their vans out to friends and family, but it was mostly just for them. The business was ticking over, but there was no growth, so they got some help with their marketing to try to change things.

Their blog had got a bit samey. There was a lot of news about what was happening on the site, but they really wanted to talk about the area and show people what was special about their location, and encourage them to visit. I came up with some new ideas and started writing their blog for them.

The results

Over the next 9 months, they increased their enquiries by 150% and got more revenue from their existing customers.

Why did it work so well? Because we love a good story. When they read the blog, new customers could picture themselves in their own bolthole, looking out over some incredible views. Current owners felt looked after because we included things that would help them to enjoy their time there. Some paid to upgrade their accommodation. They even started spending more time at the bar or the shop because they felt like part of a community.

Could writing a business blog do that for you? If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook ’50 blog topic ideas for your business’ as a thank you.

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Case study – We Are Bostin’s lockdown adaptation

We Are Bostin lockdown case study

We’ve all heard about businesses pivoting during the pandemic. Here’s one that did it in style. Lake Contracts provide high-quality shop fitting services, so when lockdown came, their business went quiet. After all, who’s going to pay for shop fitting when all the pubs and most of the shops are shut?

They adapted with style, setting up a new business using their existing skills. We Are Bostin was created to provide new windows, doors and shop fronts to both residential and commercial customers. I don’t know about you, but our time at home has left me with a long list of home improvements. A new front door and some brand new windows are definitely on there somewhere!

The Challenge

Their web designer set to work and recommended that they add a blog to show their expertise. I’d got to know Andreea Lake, one of the management team, thanks to my networking habit, and she got in touch. There was one big challenge – we only had three days to act before the web developer went on holiday for a month. Thankfully, Andreea had loads of great ideas for the kind of posts they needed, and their branding and customer knowledge were strong.

All of this meant that I was able to get to work quickly, turning the finished post around in just over 24 hours. (That’s officially a record for me – I’m pretty quick, but it usually takes a smidgen longer than that.)

The result? One happy client with a gorgeous new blog. All that remains is to find out how many hits they get now that the site is live. If you’d like to read the first two blogs and find out more about We Are Bostin’s services, here’s the link.

If you need high-quality content on a schedule that works for you, email me or book a call

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here, and I’ll send you a free copy of my eBook ’50 blog topic ideas for your business’ as a thank you.