Category Archives: Workshops

by | May 16, 2013 · 2:12 pm

Let’s get growing: Join us for our next Branding Workshop

Lets-get-growing-header

Date: Wednesday 3rd July
Time: 9.30am – 2.30pm
Cost: £169 plus VAT (£149 plus VAT if booked before 20th June)

Looking to launch a new business? Has your existing business plateau’d? Are you feeling threatened by increased levels of competition in your industry – or perhaps your business is growing rapidly and your brand needs to reflect where you’re at? Our workshop will allow you to reconnect with your business, giving you the tools and confidence that you need to grow your brand and win more customers

During our one day workshop, we’ll drill down into what makes your business tick, encouraging you to think beyond the day-to-day running of your business and pinpoint the parts of your business which make you truly special. I’ll show you how to defend against competition, build a brand that resonates with your target market and encourage you to think really big about the future of your business and what success means to you.

We’ll cover:

  • Defending against competition: Pinpointing your niche in the market
  • Understanding what your customers value about you, and how to attract more of your most profitable work
  • Brand equity: The ways in which your brand enables you to charge more and increase profitability
  • Thinking big: How to create a brand which supports your long term vision for your business
  • The anatomy of your visual brand: the fundamentals of colour and typography
  • What you can do immediately to boost your brand

About the day

Based on feedback, we’re moving our workshops to the intimate setting of our first floor studios at Ditto on London Road in Sevenoaks. You’ll be in the company of like-minded business owners who face the same challenges – and same ambition to succeed – as you. Our workshops are practical, informal and packed with insights and tips that you can take away to implement on straight away. You can expect to be put to work with a range of hands-on activities, plenty of lively debate and oodles of light-bulb moments. We’ll reward your hard work with a tasty home-cooked lunch and afternoon tea to finish the day.

Your brand workshop was superb.  Getting us to get involved and write down what we think our business offers, who our customers are, our long term goals etc and then discussing was excellent as I really feel like it all went in.  I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and you made it so much more interesting than just sitting and listening. I love Hannah’s friendly and informative attitude’ Laura Gilmour, Synapse Microcurrent

How to reserve your place

Our smaller venue allows much more hands-on interaction, but means places are more limited. To reserve your place, please email hannah@ditto.uk.com, or call 01732 456944.

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by | August 8, 2012 · 11:59 am

Branding & Social Media Workshop, 25th October in Tunbridge Wells

Our next branding and social media workshop is just around the corner! Run by me and Katie King, our resident PR and Social Media guru, we’ll lead you through the world of branding for small businesses, and teach you how to use social media as a powerful platform for your business.The day will be hands-on and interactive (expect to be worked hard!), but we can guarantee that you’ll walk away armed with tonnes of new knowledge to apply to your marketing. The vast majority of our guests score our workshops 10/10 for content, value and presentation.

How will I benefit?

For most businesses, competing in an ever-crowded marketplace is tough. We’ll help you pinpoint your niche in the market – that sweet spot which matters to your customers – and how to package that up into an engaging and compelling identity. This isn’t just about creating a pretty logo (although we’ll touch on the fundamentals of your visual identity too), it’s about understanding what you want to be known for, what your core values are and where you want your business to be in 5 years’ time – and being given the confidence to make your vision a reality. We’ll examine how you can gain equity in your brand and how to educate your clients thet you’re worth paying for. Working through a hands-on workbook, you’ll be encouraged to think big about the future of your business, and put pen to paper by committing to the values you want to be known for.

We’ll then move on to de-bunking the social media revolution, and give you the know-how you need to exploit social media to actually generate sales. We’ll discuss the importance of aligning social media with your wider marketing strategy, and explore the ways you can create compelling content to help you engage and interact with your target audiences. We’ll also equip you with the social media monitoring and listening tools that are available to measure the impact of your activity. You’ll leave with a clear understanding of how to exploit Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and blogging for business, armed with plenty of advice on how to win fans and followers.

About the speakers

Hannah Griffin, Ditto

Passionate about creating business-building brands, Hannah is absolutely dedicated to getting under the skin of her clients to understand what makes their businesses tick, transforming the vaguest of ideas into stunning brand identities which are tailored to the specific goals of each individual client. Aside from her popular blog, Hannah writes a monthly marketing column for local press, and is proud to have reached the finals in the 2011 West Kent Business Excellence Awards.

Katie King, Zoodikers

Katie is a recognised expert in the PR and social media arena. With a career spanning 22 years, she’s advised some of the world’s leading brands. Katie was a director at leading tech agency, Text 100 Ltd, and co-founded her own PR agency in 2002. Katie is an enthusiastic and passionate trainer, and regularly speaks at regional events and seminars. She is also a trainer at The Social Media Academy, where she has trained journalists and other agencies as well as SMEs and corporates. Katie has a regular slot on BBC Radio Kent as their social media expert.

I’m sold! How do I book?

Held at the Royal Wells Hotel in Tunbridge Wells, the workshop costs £199 plus VAT to attend, including lunch, refreshments, your Branding for Growth workbook and all slides from the day, jam-packed with notes, reference points and tips. To make sure you get the very best from the workshop, we’re keeping our courses limited to small groups – so they fill up fast! To reserve your place, please email studio@ditto.uk.com or call 01732 456944.

‘Thank you so much for the smooth, effective and expert delivery of course content I’ve been dreading getting my head around and could not put off any longer! The course was intelligently crafted to cover a lot of areas in a relative short amount of time and the follow up notes were excellent! A must for all those ‘social media’ shy out there!’

Catherine Hill, Catherine Hill Photography

‘Your brand awareness workshop was superb.  Getting us to get involved and write down what we think our business offers, who our customers are, our long term goals etc and then discussing was excellent as I really feel like it all went in.  I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and you made it so much more interesting than just sitting and listening. I love Hannah and Katie’s relaxed, friendly and informative attitudes’

Laura Gilmour, Synapse

So, will you join us?

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by | May 16, 2012 · 9:21 am

Announcing: Dates for our next workshop

If you’ve been meaning to get yourself along to one of our workshops but haven’t made it to one yet, I have good news for you! We’ve just booked two new dates; 7th August at St Julians in Sevenoaks and 19th September at The Royal Wells Hotel in Tunbridge Wells. Run by me and Katie King, our resident PR and Social Media guru, Katie King, we’ll lead you through the world of branding for small businesses, and teach you how to use social media as a powerful platform for your business.The day will be hands-on and interactive (expect to be worked hard!), but we can guarantee that you’ll walk away armed with tonnes of new knowledge to apply to your marketing. The vast majority of our guests score our workshops 10/10 for content, value and presentation.

‘Thank you so much for the smooth, effective and expert delivery of course content I’ve been dreading getting my head around and could not put off any longer! The course was intelligently crafted to cover a lot of areas in a relative short amount of time and the follow up notes were excellent! A must for all those ‘social media’ shy out there!’

Catherine Hill, Catherine Hill Photography

‘Your brand awareness workshop was superb.  Getting us to get involved and write down what we think our business offers, who our customers are, our long term goals etc and then discussing was excellent as I really feel like it all went in.  I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and you made it so much more interesting than just sitting and listening. I love Hannah and Katie’s relaxed, friendly and informative attitudes’

Laura Gilmour, Synapse

So, will you join us? I very much hope so!

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by | March 26, 2012 · 11:06 am

A day of big thinking!

Katie King and I had a brilliant day last week with our guests at our Brand and Social Media workshop. With business people from all sorts of different businesses (including a photographer, a chef, a life coach, business consultant and a travel advisor to name a few), we had a lovely diverse group to work with. Despite frazzling their brains with the sheer volume of content to work through, everyone had a great day and we received some fantastic feedback – so a very worthwhile day all round.

‘Your brand awareness workshop was superb.  Getting us to get involved and write down what we think our business offers, who our customers are, our long term goals etc and then discussing was excellent as I really feel like it all went in.  I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and you made it so much more interesting than just sitting and listening. I love Hannah and Katie’s relaxed, friendly and informative attitudes’
Laura Gilmour, Synapse
‘Thank you so much for the course on Tuesday. It was really informative and gave me a great insight into how I want to project my new venture’
Jill Doherty, Travel Advisor
‘Thanks for a great course, I left buzzing with ideas!’
Sarah Phillips, United Services
‘Yesterday’s event was very good, thank you to you both’
Russell Burton, Principal Chambers
And I’m proud to say that every guest rated the day 10/10 :-) Our next workshop is on 20th April at St Julians in Sevenoaks (such a lovely venue) – will you be joining us?

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by | March 19, 2012 · 3:59 pm

If you can imagine it, you can make it happen

Time to think big

I’m really looking forward to our second Brand & Social Media workshop of the year, being held tomorrow. Our workshops are always full of inspirational moments, you can practically feel the lightbulbs pinging around the room! I’ll be encouraging our guests to think big about the future of their brands; we know that  it can be incredibly hard to have a visionary approach to pushing forward with your business when you’re fighting with the daily challenges of running a business so it’s great to get some time out and re-focus on where your business is heading. The reality is that you can take your business absolutely anywhere you want, and as soon as you dare to dream about the future of your business you’ll start to see things change. So, get creative. What would you do to grow your business if nothing stood in your way?

Image credit: Doodlelove at notonthehighstreet

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by | February 23, 2012 · 12:55 pm

Time to spring clean your brand?

I adore spring – and between you and me, I think that after months of miserable, soggy wintery days, spring might just be peeping round the corner. Hooray! For me, spring is a time full of optimism, positivity and new beginnings. While convention dictates that the year begins in January, my year never really starts until the early daffodils pop their heads above the ground. I always feel somewhat giddy about the prospect of a new season, lighter evenings, warmer weather and good things ahead – it brings out my whimsical and playful side (hence the ‘When I Grow Up I Want To Be a Pirate’ print – it’s just fun). Spring tends to be the time where we’re starting to get a feel for how business is going to pan out for the year too, and is often the time where we make our boldest decisions (tends to be that way at Ditto, anyway!). And certainly we reflect upon our direction and message at this time of year.

The thing is, a lot can happen in a short space of time, and often in business we find that what worked 6 months ago just isn’t as relevant today. Websites need tweaking, messages need refining and everything needs a bit of a fresh feel about it. If you’re finding yourself falling slightly out of love with your business image, you’re certainly not alone. And the good news? We can help you find your focus and regain your mojo – join us for our Brand and Social Media workshop in March and we’ll show you how to find real value in your brand, rediscover what really matters in your business and show you how to effectively communicate your message through social media. We’ve not got many places left, so if you’re up for it, do get in touch to book. I very much look forward to helping you to brush off your brand and get you ready to make 2012 a corker.

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by | January 30, 2012 · 10:00 am

Join us for our next Brand & Social Media Workshop

I’m really excited to announce our second workshop date for 2012, which Ditto are running in partnership with Tunbridge Wells PR & social media agency, Zoodikers. In our full day course (including plenty of refreshments and a buffet lunch), we’ll examine the importance of developing a powerful and profitable brand identity, uncovering the ways in which a well thought-out brand will win you business and how you can use social media to support your brand identity. We’ll lead you through the sometimes mystifying world of social media, and explain how it can help you drive sales and add real value to your business. This workshop will focus you in on what your brand is really about, and help you to discover how to communicate your strengths to prospective customers via social media.

Date: Tuesday 20th March
Time: 9.30am – 4.00pm
Venue: St Julians, Sevenoaks
Cost: £199 + VAT (£179 + VAT if booked before 29th February)

Should I attend?

If you want to make 2012 the year that you take a huge step towards a bigger and more profitable future, then yes! Held in small groups in the beautiful surroundings of St Julians, our workshops are practical, informative, extremely interactive and packed with insights from experts in their field. You’ll be in the company of like-minded business owners who face the same challenges as you – and share the same passion and determination to propel their business towards greater success. We can guarantee an inspirational day full of eureka moments! Our last workshop was scored 10/10 for value and presentation by the vast majority of our guests.

What will I learn?

For most businesses, competing in an ever-crowded marketplace is tough. We’ll help you pinpoint your niche in the market – that sweet spot which matters to your customers – and how to package that up into an engaging and compelling identity. This isn’t about creating a pretty logo (although we’ll touch on the fundamentals of your visual identity), it’s about understanding what you want to be known for, what your core values are and where you want your business to be in 5 years’ time – and being given the tools and confidence to make your vision a reality. We’ll examine how you can gain equity in your brand and how to educate your clients about the value of your brand and why it’s worth paying for. Working through a hands-on workbook, you’ll be encouraged to think big about the future of your business, and put pen to paper by committing to the values you want to be known for.

We’ll then move on to de-bunking the social media revolution, and give you the tools you need to exploit social media to actually generate sales. We’ll discuss the importance of aligning social media with your wider marketing strategy, and explore the ways you can create compelling content to help you engage and interact with your target audiences. We’ll also equip you with the social media monitoring and listening tools that are available to measure the impact of your activity. You’ll leave with a clear understanding of how to exploit Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and blogging for business, armed with plenty of advice on how to win fans and followers.

About the speakers

Hannah Griffin, Ditto

Passionate about creating business-building brands, Hannah is absolutely dedicated to getting under the skin of her clients to understand what makes their businesses tick, transforming the vaguest of ideas into stunning visual identities which are tailored to the specific goals of each individual client. Aside from her active blog, Hannah writes a monthly marketing column for local press, and is proud to have reached the finals in the 2011 West Kent Business Excellence Awards.

Katie King, Zoodikers

Katie is a recognised expert in the PR and social media arena. With a career spanning 22 years, she’s advised some of the world’s leading brands. Katie was a director at leading tech agency, Text 100 Ltd, and co-founded her own PR agency in 2002. Katie is an enthusiastic and passionate trainer, and regularly speaks at regional events and seminars. She is also a trainer at The Social Media Academy, where she has trained journalists and other agencies as well as SMEs and corporates. Katie has a regular slot on BBC Radio Kent as their social media expert.

I’m sold! How do I book?

We had a lovely group at our January workshop and it’d be great to see some more of you in March. To make sure you get the very best from the workshop, we’re keeping our courses limited to small groups – so they will fill up fast! To reserve your place, please email hannah@ditto.uk.com or call 01732 456944. Katie and I look forward to welcoming you.

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by | January 21, 2012 · 12:51 pm

This weeks’ Brand and Social Media workshop: a round up

This week Ditto’s wonderful PR partner, Katie King, joined me to run our Brand and Social Media Workshop at St Julians in Sevenoaks. Despite being a murky, grey day, there was no shortage of inspiration in the room. Joined by a lovely group of ambitious business people who are all serious about taking big steps forward with their business in 2012, we started the day by taking a good hard look at what a brand truly is. There was a lot of discussion about branding as we explored the ways our guests could own their niche in the market, their value proposition, how to develop a set of core values and how to build value in their brand to enable them to charge a premium for what they do (yes, that’s right – if your branding is strong enough you will be able to charge more for your services. Sound good? Come to our next workshop to find out how – we’re about to release our next date for March).

Needless to say, there was a lot to take in

I really enjoyed the very active debate that took place as each of our guests discussed their particular challenges, and it was great that everyone was sufficiently relaxed that they felt able to open up and bear their souls to one another as we got to the basics of everyone’s businesses and what makes them tick. Inspirational stuff. When Katie and I designed this course, we felt it was essential that our guests were crystal clear about their brand message before they started using social media. By truly understanding who your clients are and why they buy from you, you can be sure that the message you’re broadcasting via Twitter, Facebook LinkedIn and YouTube is exactly what it needs to be. After all, being consistent with your message is absolutely key to creating an engaging brand that will win you new prospects and make it easier for you to sell.

And so after lunch…

We cracked on with a whistle-stop tour of social media. Social media is a massive topic and with so much to digest in a relatively short space of time, I’m sure our guests will find Katie’s information pack invaluable as they start using social media to grow their business.

I’m proud to say that the majority of our guests scored the day 10/10 and the feedback we had was outstanding. So, fancy joining us in March? We’ll be unveiling a whole load more ways you can create a powerful brand which will win you business. And so here are some of the lovely things that were said about the day…

‘I found the branding session challenging (in a good way!) and came away with lots of food for thought’

‘Useful way to focus my thoughts. The overview of social media sites and how to use them was particularly beneficial’

‘Very informative and well presented – 10 out of 10!’

Incidentally, Katie now has a regular slot on BBC Radio Kent with Dominic King at drivetime on Monday afternoons to talk about social media – do try and catch her if you can!And keep your eyes peeled for our next workshop in March, I’ll keep you updated.

 

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by | December 1, 2011 · 12:11 pm

Accelerate growth in 2012 with our Branding and Social Media Workshop

Ditto have partnered with Tunbridge Wells PR & social media agency, Zoodikers, to bring their hugely popular branding and social media workshops to Sevenoaks. Following a brilliantly successful start to our workshops in 2011, Zoodikers and Ditto are excited to launch their joint workshops. In our full day course (including plenty of refreshments and a light buffet lunch), we’ll examine the importance of developing a strong brand identity, exploring the ways in which a well thought-out brand can win you business and how you can use social media to support your brand identity. We’ll lead you through the sometimes mystifying world of social media, and explain how it can help you drive sales and add real value to your business.

Date: Wednesday 18th January
Time: 10am – 3.00pm
Venue: St Julians, Sevenoaks
Cost: £199 + VAT (£169 + VAT if booked before 31st December 2011)

Should I attend?

If you want to make 2012 the year that you take a huge step towards a bigger and more profitable future, then yes! Held in small groups in the beautiful surroundings of St Julians, our workshops are practical, informative and packed with insights from experts in their field. You’ll be in the company of like-minded business owners who face the same challenges as you – and share the same passion and determination to propel their business towards greater success. We can guarantee an inspirational day full of eureka moments! If that isn’t enough to tempt you, we’ll also be giving all our guests a £50 gift voucher to use with either Ditto or Zoodikers.

What will I learn?

For most businesses, competing in an ever-crowded marketplace is tough. We’ll help you pinpoint your niche in the market – that sweet spot which matters to your customers – and how to package that up into an engaging and compelling identity. This isn’t about creating a pretty logo (although we’ll touch on the fundamentals of your visual identity), it’s about understanding what you want to be known for, what your core values are and where you want your business to be in 5 years’ time – and being given the tools and confidence to make your vision a reality. We’ll examine the importance of brand equity and how you can educate your clients about the value of your brand and why it’s worth paying for. Working through a hands-on workbook, you’ll be encouraged to think big about the future of your brand, and put pen to paper by committing to the values you want to be known for.

We’ll then move on to de-bunking the social media revolution, and give you the tools you need to exploit social media to actually generate sales. We’ll discuss the importance of aligning social media with your wider marketing strategy, and explore the ways you can create compelling content to help you engage and interact with your target audiences. We’ll also equip you with the social media monitoring and listening tools that are available to measure the impact of your activity. You’ll leave with a clear understanding of how to exploit Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and blogging for business, armed with plenty of advice on how to win fans and followers.

About the speakers

Hannah Griffin, Ditto

Hannah is absolutely dedicated to getting under the skin of her clients to understand what makes their businesses tick, transforming the vaguest of ideas into stunning visual identities. Aside from her active blog, Hannah writes a regular marketing column for local press, and is proud to have reached the finals in the 2011 West Kent Business Excellence Awards.

Katie King, Zoodikers

Katie is a recognised expert in the PR and social media arena. With a career spanning 22 years, she’s advised some of the world’s leading brands. Katie was a director at leading tech agency, Text 100 Ltd, and co-founded her own PR agency in 2002. Katie is an enthusiastic and passionate trainer, and regularly speaks at regional events and seminars. She is also a trainer at The Social Media Academy, where she has trained journalists and other agencies as well as SMEs and corporates.

I’m sold! How do I book?

To make sure you get the very best from the workshop, we’re keeping our courses limited to small groups – so they will fill up fast! To reserve your place, please email hannah@ditto.uk.com or call 01732 456944

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by | November 22, 2011 · 9:09 am

What’s your story? Case Study: Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, Sevenoaks

What’s your story? Most business owners that we speak to had a pivotal moment in their lives where something clicked and ta-dah – they’re running a business. Sometimes it’s that lightening bolt of inspiration that occurs while you’re eating your cornflakes which seeds the growth of a business, while other times it might be a life changing event such as redundancy or death of relative which finds you in charge of the family business. Whatever it is, there’s a story behind each and every business out there, and I firmly believe that being honest about the reason you got into business is key to engaging with your customers. I’d like to share with you the story of Riverhill Himalayan Gardens in Sevenoaks, and the success that publicising their story has bought them…

‘I was 21 when my father died suddenly and it was with some trepidation that I took up the reins of Riverhill. I had grown up here and so knew every secret path and hiding place, but now it was different; the very walls I had hidden behind were now mine to repair! Thankfully, I haven’t had to face this alone. Four generations of the family currently live at Riverhill and we are all very much involved.

My great-great-great grandfather bought Riverhill in 1840. In its glory days it was fully staffed both inside and outside, but after the Second World War it entered a period of decline. We now face significant restoration projects in the house and gardens.

In 2009 we were approached by Ruth Watson and the ‘Country House Rescue’ team and their subsequent involvement has been invaluable. A team of volunteers now assist us, visitor numbers have vastly increased and the resulting income has meant that we have taken significant steps on the restoration ladder. It is great that so many families enjoy exploring the gardens and woodland, discovering its magic as I did as a boy and as our children do today.’

I absolutely love that this takes pride of place on the homepage of their website, and is accompanied by a gorgeous informal snap of the whole family. If you caught the Rogers family on Country House Rescue, you’ll know all about the massive amount of work undertaken to turn Riverhill around, and I’m so pleased to say that the family have enjoyed an incredibly successful year since Ruth Watson’s team got involved. I’ve no doubt that this was helped in no small part by their brand new website, social media activity (Catherine from Riverhill recently attended one of our workshops!) and the masses of PR that you enjoy from being on national TV – but I can’t help but wonder if the Rogers family would have seen the same results if they hadn’t have been so open with sharing their story. The charm and passion of the family is what drives this business, and it’s really that which we all love with them for.

The story of your business may not be steeped in quite as much history, but there’ll be one there nonetheless – and probably one that your clients would love to hear. So go on, tell me: what’s the story behind your business?

Image credit: riverhillgardens.co.uk

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