We’re talking about the importance of branding and good design with Melanie, owner and principal planner of Keepsake Events

Could you please tell my listeners and the people watching this video a little bit about yourself and what it is that you do?

Very happy to. My name is Mel or Melanie, and I’m the owner and principal planner at keepsake events. Keepsake Events is a boutique wedding planning company and we also do events and design work in Vancouver, BC. We like to focus on intimate moments and creating that personal space for couples to really celebrate their day.

 

You recently went through a rebranding and it looks great! Did you hire a designer and a branding team when you first started or did you do everything yourself in the beginning?

So I’ll go back to when I first started my company in 2014, it was very different then. I was picking and choosing elements that I really liked and putting them together fairly quickly. Fast forward to today and using brand designers and graphic artists I’ve created a brand that has a professional look, something that’s really cohesive, and something that reflects where Keepsake Events has evolved to. 

 

What made you decide to rebrand your business? 

I needed something that was a better reflection of the service I provide. My old website and the feeling my brand had before served me well, but as my portfolio grew and my skills expanded it became clear that I needed to create a brand that felt like my work. As a bonus, working with the brand agency and going through all their questions and going through everything with them, it was just a really good soul searching exercise into figuring out what type of weddings I wanted to book, what kind of clients I wanted to attract.

The process was amazing. It was also a lot of hard work. It involved going through a lot of other websites and drawing inspiration from many sources. 

 

If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, would you tell yourself to just hire a branding team in the beginning? 

I think it really depends on you and your business. If hiring a brand developer and a designer is in the cards for you financially, then yeah, go for it! If not, there are a lot of really great options available for a lower price point. There are amazing templates out there and excellent books on branding that could teach you a lot of the same concepts you’ll go over with a brand designer. 

 

What’s the difference between a good website and a bad website?

I think a good website is both beautiful and easy to navigate. When someone comes to your website they should be able to tell exactly how to contact you, but they should also be able to read loads about you and see all of the work you’ve done in the past. It’s finding that balance between having a lot of information on your website and creating an organized flow to navigate it. 

 

Did your branding team help you with your website copy? 

It was really important to me that my website copy sounded like me and that it reflected our values, so with the help of lots of homework given to me by the branding firm, I was able to write all of my website copy myself. 

 

Where should vendors be spending their time online?

Obviously it’s important to be on the social media platforms that are relevant to you and your business. It’s important to have a portfolio presence on those platforms, because they allow you to reach a wider audience, but it’s also very important to build and refine your website, since it is the platform you truly own. The various social media platforms are owned by other companies and they can go away at any time, so it’s important to keep that in mind when deciding where to spend your energy. 

 

Closing thoughts?

I’m definitely not a branding expert, so this is just my experience with going through a rebrand. It was really good and helpful for me and my business, and I think it’s good for you to do your research and see what your goals are financially and in your business. Sit down, write a list of what your top priorities are, what you’re trying to achieve. Take a look at a lot of websites and see what you like about them, what you don’t like about them. It can be a little bit overwhelming looking through and gathering so much inspiration. That’s where I think professional help can come in to streamline things and make sure you’re not losing focus.