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Louis Lawrence on digital marketing with edge

By Louis Lawrence

Founder, LDOT

A high level of detail is the common thread in everything Louis Lawrence does – from small touches in property projects, to an in-depth understanding of the psychology of sales to inform the granular details of the digital marketing campaigns he creates.

But… it is in the quality of delivery that creates fire in Louis’s belly.

Having spent 20 years in Southampton studying computer engineering, building the infamous Junk nightclub, running the region’s first large-scale festival, running tours across Europe and winning the 2013 DJ Mag award for Best Small Club in Britain, there’s one thing that’s ground his gears…

The amount of substandard marketing in the world.

From this broad business experience, a wealth of technical experience and an ongoing frustration with agencies that just about tick the box, LDOT was born.

LDOT isn’t for everyone, however. There’s no fluff, no jargon and no long proposals. Just a straight-talking, very experienced team that push their clients to achieve even more than they ever thought possible.

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What’s the set-up and services of LDOT?

We've got three core service pillars of the business: websites, branding, and traffic.

The website pillar is establishing what needs to be built, what function it needs to perform, and how it’s going to help our clients’ businesses.

Then we make it look, feel, and sound fantastic – this is branding. That's how we get our clients to get repeat business with their customers.

And then, when you’ve built this lovely island that looks incredible and perform brilliantly, we need to make sure people know where it is and how to get there – so that's traffic.

We've got different clients that we help with different arms. Some use all 3. The extra value our clients get from using us is that we do everything in-house; for example I can lean over and speak to my traffic guy, and I can get an answer in under a minute – this helps stops any resistance in the development process when we're building solutions.

We’ve helped brands in hospitality, recruitment, health & fitness, finance, marketing, design, property, retail, SaaS – in short, we can help any business in any industry grow. If you’re seriously invested in your business, we can help build it with you.

If you’re looking for a quick / cheap website or a logo “knocking up”, we’re not the choice for you.

One of our recent clients brought an idea for app to us but had no idea how to launch it – after 18 months of preparation and planning, it’s just launched and they’re now tipping 10k paying subscribers.

We’re a pretty diverse team and always up for a challenge…

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What are your top digital marketing tips for business?

I’ve recently written a book entitled “Website Secrets for Business Owners & Marketers”, it takes people through our exact framework – the (previously) secret, proven, 11 step process to successfully building a business website that actually gets you more business.

We’ve found historically this sort of content has been coveted by agencies and web designers but I think business owners and marketers need to understand the (proper) process to avoid wasting valuable time and money.

Making a website is easy if you know what the design is; the design is easy if you know what the content is; the content is easy if you know what the messaging and the result is (and so on) – it always comes back to (proper) process.

The value is in following that process, the ideas that you come up with, and how that applies creatively to converting your visitors into paying customers. ROI needs to be at the forefront of every conversation.

My top digital marketing tip is to ignore noise online about shortcutting everything and making a website in 5 mins… the truth is yes you can, but… I can guarantee you’ll be back to do it again very soon – and you will have wasted time in the process.

If you’re serious about your business, just get it right the first time.

What is the process you take your clients through to get them to where they want to be?

Firstly, we find out all about the business, the goals, the journey, the budgets.

Then we find out why now is the time to invest in digital marketing.

Then we workshop the most effective, scalable way of achieving their goals.

Our workshop follows… we’ve got a tried and tested process for these, customer profiling is paramount – it’s really important to know the darkest, scariest thoughts your customers are having (whilst pretending to listen to their partner) before they go to sleep.

Once you’ve identified your customer and these pain points, you can then draw the messaging for how your company provides a solution to fix those problems.

By profiling them, you can also find out where they congregate online and how to target them. You can build your messaging and branding according to your audience, and create a strategy of where and how to present it to those communities or groups online.

Simple, innit.

"You can’t even begin to produce a digital marketing solution until you understand the deepest, darkest, bedtime thoughts of your future customers"

What’s happening in the digital marketing space at the moment?

There are always new trends and tools available, for example, Figma is massive right now for design – but ultimately, they’re just tools to implement the age old marketing strategies that don’t ever change.

Today’s, or tomorrow’s tools are great – and we make the most of them – but… we’re heavily focused on the psychology of sales – those psychologies remain the same and have done forever. We’re big on how to leverage the psychology of customers to present the messaging that’s required to get them to do the actions you want them to.

If you could work on any project, what would it be?

I’ve always wanted to build and run a hotel – a large-scale project that mixes my experience with property and the marketing, systems, and processes of business.

What do you enjoy doing when you get a bit of downtime?

Historically, clubs and events were my thing, so I still have a passion for that and music.

That said, I’ve got a young baby and beautiful partner, any spare time I have I like to spend teaching him how the world works and telling her what a wonderful Mum she is 😉

Where do you like to spend time to relax?

When the pressure’s on, and I need to escape to get some clarity, I like to get amongst nature – going for walks or being near water is soothing and calming for my hectic and headstrong mindset. The studio we’ve built for LDOT is in a beautiful setting on the edge of the countryside.

Louis Lawrence