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Digital Debut | Nicole – Web Developer

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I am Nicole, a Web Developer at Temple.

I consider myself a down to earth individual, with an interesting upbringing. I’m in my early 30’s, married with 2 kids, living under the warm African sun, in sunny Durban. Thanks to my father’s career working for the United Nations, I have lived and grown up in multiple countries; Croatia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia. I finally moved to sunny Durbs to study and begin my career, where I met my now-husband and settled down.

I have always loved art and design. During my last year of school, I did some research into what possible vocation I could go into with art as my base. I was surprised to find many options, but only one stood out for me, that was graphic design. I studied graphic design and it grew into a love for designing and building websites.

In the Beginning

My digital journey started when we got our first computer. I was 11 years old and was fascinated by how my Dad used it, not only for work presentations, but for personal projects. As soon as my Dad showed me how to use it, I was hooked.

Dev - Nicole

Skills that are needed as a Web Developer

For design, you need to not only have a keen eye for design and layout, but the right tools and you need to know which tools to use when. You also need to know your audience, what kind of people will be visiting a website, to enhance the user experience as much as possible. For development, an understanding of key programming languages is fundamental.

I’ve developed a lot of my skills from continuing my personal development; I prefer on the go learning. I have various mentors who have guided me in growing each of my skills, from client communication, project and time management amongst others.

My average day involves lots of project meetings, communicating with the Temple team as well as clients. I work on various website projects at one time, not only from the beginning of a website build/design, but well after it has been designed, built and approved.

Once a website goes live, it still needs attention with ongoing maintenance and support. Depending on my day, I can go from assisting with project management of a new website, to designing and building websites, to assisting with general maintenance and support.

Give an example of a successful campaign you have had at Temple

Client problem – Client who has a service of selling goods, but needed a simpler, easier way of selling their goods to their customers and getting paid in a timely and simpler manner.

Solution – This client came to Temple with their problem, our suggestion was to build an online e-commerce store which would, in turn, allow them to manage their products, stock and orders, all in one place. The process was simplified for their customers by allowing their customers to browse their in-stock products, place their orders and pay, all in one online shopping experience.

How was it carried out? – The team met with the client; from the project manager, inbound marketing manager and the developer, together they created the e-commerce website from concept, design, build and launch, keeping the client involved every step of the way.

What was the result? – The result was more than the client expected, their customers took to the new website with great excitement. The site has been running now for 2 years and we are currently looking at building a whole new custom solution to help manage the bulk of their sales and better fine-tune their internal processes.

If you are looking for a beautiful and efficient website, book an appointment now by getting in touch with us via our website. Make a difference for your business, get in touch now.

Digital Debut | Carmen – Social Media & Communications Manager

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I am Carmen, a quirky character who heads up Social Media Marketing and Copywriting at Temple, as well as an avid coffee consumer.

Writing has always been a passion as long back as I can remember, and I think it was journal writing that started the whole journey to copywriting. My love of stringing words together was nurtured at school, where I started writing short novels. Later in life, I started writing travel pieces for websites, commercial blogs, and eventually creating SEO structured blog content for various website clients at Temple.

In the Beginning

Social media marketing kind of happened to me more than I found it. I didn’t start using social media until it became a career. I found social media marketing very challenging when I started (who am I kidding, it still is). Maybe that is why I stuck with it, exploring the borders and wide-ranging territory it occupies to understand how it can be best utilised in a given situation. 

Social Media & Comms - Carmen

Skills needed in Social Media Marketing

I would say the ability to work with systems while allowing for creativity is a winning skill. Social media without any kind of systems and controls to manage work processes and measure results, is a surefire way to lose your mind and patience quickly. Another required skill is to be able to channel creativity to be put into a feasible strategy to carry it out.

I have been given the opportunity over the years to spend time doing courses with the likes of Red & Yellow, Digitalab and Digital Marketer, and developing those skills online. But also, I have made a lot of mistakes, which is a hard way to learn, but it works too. 

I do what a lot of people will tell you not to do … I wake up to social media. Early morning is primetime on social media, so this is a good time to be responding to questions and engaging with audiences. Next is planning what needs to be accomplished within the time available for the day with regard to setting up social calendars, content writing and content creation.

Developing content, in general, is not a quick task, especially when you are working with different clients who have varying strategies and brand voices. I try to end the day with something that my brain can be creative with, whether it is learning some new skills or coming up with new strategies for clients.

An example of a success with a Client while at Temple

Client problem – Organic growth and engagement was slow on Instagram.

Solution – To entice users to create user-generated content and interact with the brand.

How was this done? – The brand started using user content in stories and tagging them, which exposed the audience to fresh content from a variety of perspectives, as well as allowed the people tagging the brand to get exposure to a large audience. 

What was the result? – Fresh content and tagging increased for the brand, and resulted in increased engagement with comments, conversations and liking, which also increased reach and impressions for the brand and ignited growth in numbers.

If you are looking to build audience and engage future customers on social media, book an appointment now by getting in touch with us via our website. Take your business into new territory, join up for social media marketing with Temple now.

Digital Debut | Leesha – Google Ads & SEO Specialist

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I am Leesha, the Google Ads and SEO Specialist at Temple.

I started my career when I attained my Marketing Degree and Advertising Diploma. I set out to Johannesburg in 2011 to search for a job in my field of study. I had no experience in the Industry because I had just finished studying, and 99% of marketing jobs were looking to hire people with experience! This was somewhat of a challenge. The first company that offered me a position, I accepted.

In the Beginning

My digital journey started in Houghton, Johannesburg, when I was thrown into this wonderful world of digital marketing. Digital marketing was something I knew NOTHING about. I didn’t even understand what I was doing for the first few weeks.  

Little did I know that 9 years later I would still be in the same field with so much passion for this industry. Due to this ever changing industry, there is so much to learn and never a dull moment. 

Wisdom Online - Leesha

Skills needed for a Google ads and SEO Specialist

The skills needed by someone getting into this field are to be analytically minded, and have strong organisational and research skills. I was also aided by an incredible mentor in my first job who helped me hone innate skills for this line of work, and guide me to continue growing.

A day in this job is never boring. The first half of my day is spent on Google ads, making sure that all the campaigns have enough budget and optimising the campaigns in order to attain a better quality score, therefore, reducing the cost per click. The second half of my day I spend working on SEO, and making sure my clients are ranking for their specific set of keywords. During the month I spend time looking at overall traffic to my clients’ websites and send them detailed monthly reports. I also keep in contact with clients on a weekly basis to make sure that they are up to date on what is happening.

Give an example of a successful campaign you have had at Temple

Client problem – A client was not getting any leads. 

Solution – A Google ads campaign was launched and backed up with SEO optimisation.

How was this done? – I spent more time than was actually available to set up an indepth campaign with correct tracking and tagging. 

What was the result? – The client is now averaging 2 online enquiries a day and 5 phone calls a day. 

If you are looking for the Yoda of Google ads and SEO, then Leesha is the person you need to get in touch with. Book an appointment now, by getting in touch with us via our website. Make a difference for your business, get in touch now.

Digital Debut | Hayley – Traffic Officer

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I am Hayley, the Traffic Officer at Temple.

I started in the digital industry at Temple to assist with the admin of directing queries and client ‘traffic’, and to run Front Desk support. I met Brendan years’ ago, he was my neighbour at that stage, and in 2014 he asked me to join Temple to assist with Front Desk support. I have been with the company ever since.

In the Beginning

I never planned to work in the digital field, it is more like the digital industry chose me. I worked for many years as a PA at various companies in Pietermaritzburg and Joburg, and then contracted to a Golf company in Johannesburg. Here I learnt Adobe Illustrator to assist with doing their logos and graphics for golfing apparel. I found it was something that I really enjoyed, and I realised I had some ‘graphics’ in me. I also enjoy photography, especially wildlife, animals just getting on with their daily lives; and various sports, without people knowing I’m watching them and looking for the best action shot.

Since starting at Temple, I have learnt WordPress and am now able to assist more with some of the changes requested by our clients, as well as learning Campaign Monitor which we use to design and disseminate newsletter campaigns.

Traffic operator - Hayley

Skills needed for Traffic Management

The skills needed in a position like mine incorporate the three P’s – People, patience and perseverance.

The skillset needed is an understanding of specialised software, i.e. Teamwork Desk and Teamwork Projects. Being familiar with how websites function and are linked between pages and forms/email links is important, as well as being organised and having a system to follow up on so that Desk tickets are checked regularly. Using these systems are important to make sure clients’ requests are completed at a high standard and as quickly as possible.

My day is busy and fragmented; every day is different.  I deal with many clients and websites in one day, with creating tasks from clients’ emails, following up with developers on progress with tasks, assisting with email and hosting issues and purchasing of new domains. In addition to this, I am involved in checking website changes and doing website Quality Assurance testing (including checking spelling/grammar, content and links, testing on desktop and mobile devices, etc).

Working at Temple, I enjoy getting to know our clients and their needs, and I aim to give each client the best service possible with their websites. I enjoy the challenge of dealing with many different tasks and ensuring that the processes flow smoothly to accomplish the end product. I pay great attention to detail, and am known for my ‘beady eye’ when it comes to the quality and standard of our work.

If you want to find out what more Temple can do for your marketing or web design, why not get in touch with us here.