“We are a florist based in London and for us the benefits of 7 Keys programme have been (1) a dedicated – weekly period of time to focus on the business (for me this meant stepping back for a short while every week to reflect on what is going on, or what could be happening with our business that currently isn’t) (2) the opportunity to learn from experts in the field of business development (Michelle and David) (3) we learnt that our marketing strategy could be more focused on our niche market; this led us to target key customers, send regular newsletters to wave our business flag once or twice a month; write regular blogs and get support from SEO specialists to monitor and develop our website traffic. Adjusting the optimisation on our website has increased our web orders to the extent we have one of our busiest Valentine days since our business began six years ago. Marketing what we do on our blog has increased our profile on Facebook and google plus and we are now higher up the google ranking as a result of our blog. A good example is when people search for flowers in London we also appear high up and on the same page has Marks and Spencer and other well established retail outlets that retail bouquets and plants. Our newsletters have helped to increase interest in the work that we do and our Christmas sales also increased as a result of using this kind of promotional literature.”

Paul Jokinen-Carter, Owner, Flor Unikon Florists, London UK