Will and Mickeys moment in the spotlight

Well, sort of...

http://www.epsomguardian.co.uk/news/9681261.Cycling_duo_take_on_Epsom_to_Eiffel_tower_trek/

Cycling duo to pedal from Epsom Clocktower to Eiffel Tower

9:00am Wednesday 2nd May 2012 in NewsBy Hardeep Matharu

The pair will pedal from Epsom's Clocktower to the Eiffel Tower

A cycling duo are hoping the rain will ease for their 250-mile charity cycle ride on 1970's bikes from Epsom Clocktower to the Eiffel Tower.

Will Lloyd, 22, from Epsom and Michael White, 36, from Walton-on-Thames, will start the 3-day journey on May 10 to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

The friends, who work at surveying company Love Jenkins Associates, based close to the clocktower in the High Street, will be cycling on 1970s Raleigh racing bikes, which they bought for £20 on the internet.

Mr White said: "We bought the bikes last year and they were old and cheap and we started doing them up and thought it would be fun to get them up to the standard to cycle them somewhere.

"We thought Paris would be nice to go to as it seems like a good route to do, and it would also be a great opportunity to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Will’s partner works at the Royal Marsden Hospital so that’s where the inspiration for the charity came from.

"We have planned the cycle and picked the route ourselves. We will leave work on Thursday lunchtime and try to get to Paris by Saturday May 12.

"We have wives and girlfriends coming out to see us so we hope we finish on time.

"It hasn’t been much fun training in the pouring rain and gale force winds, but we will do it regardless. It would be 10 times easier if the weather eased - the wind affects us more than the rain.

"But we will make it to Paris no matter what the weather."

Mr White cycles 20 miles a day to work, but said he is still feeling nervous as the date approaches.

He added: "I am feeling like I haven’t trained enough and could do with some more time, but I am excited about doing it.

"It’s entering the unknown and I’m really looking forward to that final run down the Champs Elysee towards the Eiffel Tower.

"I imagine there will be highs and lows on the trip, but hopefully there will be more highs."

To make a donation visit www.justgiving.com/clocktowertoeiffeltower

Our thoughts on Marketing via Social Networking

Hi all,

For those that follow us on Twitter, its fairly obvious that we've been actively stepping up our marketing efforts in order to diversify our list of clients. Love Jenkins Associates have historically dealt with commercial, educational or healthcare clients and have thrived on repeat business, but with the recent and future inevitable cuts and spend reduction we've decided to dip back into the domestic market.

Now, marketing can be very expensive and can be done by just throwing money at a marketing man to sort out but we decided to go a seperate route. Our marketing strategy is effectively..

• Introducing ourselves to relevant contacts by email (not our favourite method)


• Cultivating relationships over Twitter.


• Getting into as many directories as possible.


• Spreading ourselves all over the internet (as now!)

The difficulty with marketing like this is that there is no accurate method of working out how each avenue performs. One things for certain though, and that's that the number of jobs coming in has risen twofold since November when we started. Granted, many of these are small and not very profitable but its achieving the aim of widening the customer base.

Emails

Email marketing is a difficult one. The issue being that you send out 1000 emails to 'relevant' professionals, but in all likeliness irritate 200 of them. We've been trying different variations of our marketing email and following the progress on Google Analytics. Wording is everything, but it can't be too long. Pictures can interest people, but also make them delete the email without even reading it - Its a very difficult balancing act. We've not got any direct work from email marketing, but have had some good conversations with like minded professionals and have no doubt made some important contacts for a later date.

Twitter

The way we look at it is that on Twitter we now have more than 2100 followers (shameless plug here) which translates to 2100 people that are aware of us that weren't before. If 2050 of them have no interest in ever using that's OK, but if 10 decided to, with the time spent building up this following it is well worth it.  Once set up, it takes up about 5 minutes of our time a day, and usually this is when we have nothing else to do, like waiting for a train. We've also got a few smaller jobs from Twitter which is never a bad thing.

Directories

We still get work from people looking in the Yellow Pages or Thompsons Local. We only ever advertise ourselves in the free section, so it can't be a bad thing either way. Also, so I'm told, it helps your google rankings..

Blogging

Obviously we're new to this, but already its driven a number of people to our website.. Fingers crossed!

We'd welcome any comments regarding marketing for professional companies, it'd be interesting to hear what everyone thinks (especially about email marketing!)

Will

Twitter Link

Twitter Link

Hi all,

For those that follow us on Twitter, its fairly obvious that we've been actively stepping up our marketing efforts in order to diversify our list of clients. Love Jenkins Associates have historically dealt with commercial, educational or healthcare clients and have thrived on repeat business, but with the recent and future inevitable cuts and spend reduction we've decided to dip back into the domestic market.

Now, marketing can be very expensive and can be done by just throwing money at a marketing man to sort out but we decided to go a seperate route. Our marketing strategy is effectively..

• Introducing ourselves to relevant contacts by email (not our favourite method)
• Cultivating relationships over Twitter.
• Getting into as many directories as possible.
• Spreading ourselves all over the internet (as now!)

The difficulty with marketing like this is that there is no accurate method of working out how each avenue performs. One things for certain though, and that's that the number of jobs coming in has risen twofold since November when we started. Granted, many of these are small and not very profitable but its achieving the aim of widening the customer base.

The way we look at it is that on Twitter we now have more than 2100 followers (shameless plug here) 

The cycle blog update....

Hi all,

Eurostar is booked, hotels are booked, ferries are booked - Now we just need to get there!

We had our photoshoot thing today with a local photographer from Epsom which was pretty good, though people in the High Street had a good stare.



Oh, and we got ourselves some logo clothes - A first for LJA...



We're off for a 45 mile ride later on, probably Epsom to Guildford and back. This will be the last long-ish ride before we go so should highlight any issues...



Will

Photo Shoot...

We've just been photographed by the paparazzi (or local newspaper)..

Will and Mickey Cycle to Paris

As I'm sure you've heard on our ramblings across Twitter, Will and Mickey are planning a cycle from Epsom Clocktower to the Eiffel Tower via Calais on the weekend of the 11th May for Cancer Research. This isn't part of a larger scheme, rather a bit of a joke that has gone way too far.

Myself and Mickey have been challenging each other to various things over the last year and a bit, from cycling to a meeting in Islington to a Triathlon in September. The issue has been that whenever we are coming up to one of these events, Mickey breaks a bone. Whether this is to avoid the challenge, or just clumsiness I don't know.

I bought a bike for £15 off of Gumtree last year, as did Mickey just for a bit of a laugh and to see if I would enjoy cycling. It turns out we both do, and so the long cycle idea was formed.

As mentioned before, this cycle ride is in aid of Cancer Research UK and if you would like to be generous and give to this worth cause then please see our JustGiving page.

The plan is to leave work on Thursday, cycle the 90 miles or so to Dover, over to Calais and have a well earned rest. Next will be the the cycle on Friday from Calais to Amiens (stopping for a beer and a burger at some point) and Saturday from Amiens into Paris.

This is all well and good, and the hotels and ferries up to Amiens are booked. Now the challenge lies in getting a hotel in Paris on one weeks notice, as well as flights for the Wives and Girlfriends, as well as working out how to get ourselves and the bikes back to London one way without having to pay £160 (Thanks Eurostar!)

Wish us luck...

Past Job: Wimbledon Theatre

Past Job: Wimbledon Theatre

A couple of photos from one of our past jobs. Was slightly different from most of the jobs in the education sector that we do...
[gallery]

Delving into the unknown...

Right, so, Wordpress...

We're dragging ourselves even deeper into the technological quagmire that is 'online networking and presence'.

At some point I will find a time to write something a little more interesting and worthwhile, so fear not, this is not a taste of what's to come. We're planning on posting up progress pictures on jobs that are vaguely interesting, and various little snippets of information that have caught our eye.

A major happening at Love Jenkins Towers (or small office) is the fervent planning for myself (Will) and Mickeys cycle to Paris - Though I'll save that for another post.

Happy Monday, if I get a little time later I'll explain the story of Love Jenkins Associates and the joke that is the LJA Clocktower to Eiffel Tower ride.

Thanks!

Will