Home / Archives for Emma Donovan

2018 highlights reel

By Emma Donovan

Posted on 19th December 2018

This year has been an absolute whirlwind! There have been lots of challenges, but each one has come with some form of silver lining, and I’m proud to say that we’re ending the year strong - as an agency, as a team and in terms of our vision for the year ahead.

Here are a few of our highlights from 2018:

What I love is that each one is different, yet they all speak to the fact that we have been inspired, challenged and developed new skills. We have supported each other and become a real family – one that Dom and I are proud to lead and continue to learn from.

So, what does 2019 have in store for Yellow Door? We don’t quite know yet to be honest… but what I can tell you is that we:

– are about to launch our new and improved website

– plan to facilitate more strategic workshops (for current clients as well as new ones – pop me an email to find out more: emma@theyellowdoor.co.za).

– will continue to collaborate with like-minded agencies and creatives that complement our marketing products and services.

– intend to tackle each day with purpose and strive for a sense of fulfilment in everything we do.

We’d also love to hear what you want to see more of, or have us add to the mix, so post a comment and let us know.

Recently on the blog

Make your business stand OUT on LinkedIn

Janine Langheim

13th March 2019

Q&A with Jonny Field

Jonny Field

6th March 2019

Behind the yellow door: an intern’s view

Yellow Door Collective

1st March 2019

Home / Archives for Emma Donovan

You service your car, right? What about your brand…

By Emma Donovan

Posted on 7th November 2018

If your brand was a car, what would it be? How often would you service it or buy new tyres? And when would you trade it in, possibly for the next model of the exact same car, just with better fuel consumption or a little more space in the boot? There is no right or wrong answer here, but those of you who own a car will probably agree that it’s better to service it regularly, rather than wait for things to fall apart.

So, what does this have to do with marketing? Our approach at Yellow Door is to be agile, adapt to trends and offer solutions to clients’ challenges before they even know that they exist. Just like the car mechanic who calls to say they need to replace your brake pads in a routine service.

One of the trends we’ve noticed recently is brands taking their marketing in-house. And we get it – budgets are tight and young, dynamic team members can take on a lot of the work.

But when last did you really take stock of how things are going, and anticipate what will happen next? What are your KPIs? And have you mapped out a high-level strategy for 2019?

When you’re focused on running your business it’s often tricky to find the head space to look at the big picture; but it’s crucial to stay on top of your game.

So, what’s the solution? We’d love to say we can clone you, or magically create a few extra hours in your day… but we’re currently based in Cape Town not at Hogwarts, so I’m afraid it’s going to have to be something a little more practical…

The good news is that we’ve come up with a marketing product that may be part of the answer – based on our belief that a fresh perspective and expert insight are key to continued relevance and matching industry benchmarks.

If we go back to our car analogy, think of it like going in for a service: your car (and your marketing) may just need a few tweaks; sometimes there is a bigger issue to resolve; and you eventually get to a point where it makes sense to invest in a new model altogether!

But I’m getting side-tracked and dreaming of my next car… so back to the marketing audit. Our objectives are to:

· Analyse what’s working and how to improve on your current marketing efforts

· Suggest what else to incorporate or focus on

· Give practical tips to implement these changes

· Advise what to do in-house, and what to consider outsourcing

To keep the process as streamlined and effective as possible, we have come up with a simple five step process, which includes:

1. An online questionnaire for you to complete

2. Lots of research done by the Yellow Door team

3. Feedback and practical ideas in a Word document

4. A discussion via Skype

5. A final strategy document which incorporates your feedback.

We’ve had great responses from clients so far, including Steph Herscovitz from The Wellness Web, a kinesiologist based in Perth, Australia: “It gave me new inspiration, ideas and direction. Having a holistic marketing strategy is something that often gets pushed to the side, yet it should be a priority in every business and doing this process reminded me of that. It was really refreshing having someone from outside the business look in and give me constructive feedback.”

We also did an audit for Conservation Travel Africa based in Zimbabwe, and Jane Palmer had the following to say about it: “Yellow Door’s marketing audit gave us an invaluable insight into our current branding, social media and online activities. Their identification of our business challenges and suggestions for solutions and strategic improvements far exceeded our expectations. They have enabled us to focus on our core areas and develop an ongoing action plan.

As an agency, we have found them to offer a great mix of creativity, professionalism and personal touches.”

And that’s what it’s really all about for us – personal relationships, a professional approach and out-the-box thinking. We love collaborating with our clients and working with them to get the right mix of in-house and agency work done. Email us at hello@theyellowdoor.co.za if you want to find out more, or if you’re ready for us to take a look under the hood of your brand

Author: Emma Donovan