How Every Business can Grow during Lockdown and Beyond

Danny Page tells us how DLZ Design offers web design and SEO to enhance digital marketing.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?

Danny Page: We are all doing great thanks, we are lucky to live and work in a rural location with lots of space around us. We haven’t had much time to get bored either, although a holiday would be nice!

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded DLZ Design.

Danny Page: I started web design at 16. Then used it as a way to fund the university, at which time clients were already getting in touch through recommendations. After graduating, I went to work at an IT company in Nottingham but quickly realized that working for someone else wasn’t for me. I then restarted web design, and things picked up from there.

How does DLZ Design innovate?

Danny Page: The nature of web design and SEO means that you constantly have to innovate. Keeping up with and hopefully ahead of the latest techniques, styles, and of course, Google algorithms is all part of the job. We are always studying new techniques as well as testing our own techniques to stay one step ahead of the competition. It is really important to us that our clients achieve the best results possible that is what keeps us motivated.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Danny Page: The great thing to come out of the pandemic for us has been the advancement of the need for online marketing for all businesses, no matter how big or small. We have been contacted by several business owners who had never even considered a website before the pandemic. In fact, one of our recent clients didn’t even own a computer, and now they have a successful ecommerce website to run alongside their high street shop. Having the ability to change the life of a small business owner in that way gives us a huge buzz, and we wouldn’t change that for any 9 to 5!

The increase in new clients, along with many of our existing clients increasing their marketing budgets, has meant that we have actually had a record year!

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Danny Page: We love meeting up with our clients; however, we have found that the sudden rise of Zoom meetings, or skype video calls, etc., has made things so much more efficient. It isn’t quite the same as a face-to-face, but it pretty much does the same job. The extra time we have as a result has been fantastic!

Another way we have improved our own efficiency – as well as adding value to our clients – is that all our website training is now done using videos recorded on Loom. It’s a fantastic free software that records the screen and enables us to send bespoke training videos to the client, which they can then save and refer back to when needed. This has certainly been a big hit with the clients, as we feel very strongly that for a website to work for a business, business owners need to feel confident to make their own changes.

We obviously work remotely from our clients usually anyway, so not a lot else has changed for us.

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat?

Danny Page: We are one of those businesses which fell through the cracks. I don’t think that we were really entitled to anything. However, we wouldn’t have wanted to anyway as business has been good. Many of our clients have received grants to help them build websites and improve their businesses in general, so that is great for them.

We’re just hoping that the high street economy can recover when things start to return to normal; a booming online economy with a strong high street would make the UK a real force!

Your final thoughts?

Danny Page: Staying positive is the key to success in business. If you allow the constant negativity in the media to dictate your strategy, you won’t reach your end goals. We love working with businesses that spot opportunities during turbulent times. There is no better satisfaction for us than helping a client’s business flourish!

Your website?

https://dlzdesign.co.uk