Drive more traffic to Your Business through content promotion
Ranking in the search results is slow and sometimes painful. But with a bit of work, you can start getting great results with your search engine listings.
Organic Growth is the Holy Grail of Internet Marketing.
Why? Because organic traffic is ‘Free’ and has longevity. As opposed to Paid Traffic, Organic traffic does not stop once you stop paying.
So as a long term SEO strategy its a no brainer.
There are many ways to increase traffic, some of the strategies including:
When you promote your content across all these channels you automatically start boosting your reach.
1 -Social Media Marketing
If you don’t already have social media in your SEO strategy then now is the time to start.
It has never been easier to reach so many potential customers. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest are probably the top 4 Social media platforms that you need as part of your online business strategy.
All these enable you to reach potential customers. Whether its Organic or Paid engagements there is no doubt that using Social Media is a have
up your (marketing) sleeves.
2- Email Marketing
Email MArketing has come a long way and there is no better way to engage with your customers than with personalised emails to remind them of your offerings.
With Websites like Sender, MailChimp and Campaign Monitor to name a few, creating amazing emails is a breeze. Give them a test drive with their free plans
3 – Paid Search (PPC)
PPC, PPM, SEO, SEM, LMAO; what is it with all these acronyms in our world of today?
Well just to clarify PPC basically stands for ‘Pay Per Click‘ and PPM is the Pay Per (Mil – Thousand) impressions Bid Strategy
With a little budget, you can stretch your reach with Google Ads and Bing Ads.
The battle for top spot is not an easy one, but with paid search ads, which come in Text and Image variants you can get above your competitors.
The trick is to focus on less contested keywords and build your strategy around ‘long tail’ keywords.
So what are these long tails? The basic concept is to target words that are within a set that include the ones you are interested in.
For example, let’s say you want to display your ads for ‘Fresh Eggs’; this phrase might find you in a bidding war with every other Fresh Egg wanna be advertiser.
But if instead, you target ‘Where can I buy Fresh Eggs in Keysborough‘ chances are that you will not only be only one of a few fighting for that phrase but you will also end up paying a lot less for that Click
4 – Business Directories
This one is our favourite – Clearly no biases here.
Directory sites offer great value when it comes to online marketing strategies.
With our very own looklocal Business listing and a wave of other business sites offering to list your business such as Yelp, truelocal, Yellow Pages you get incredible value.
This value comes in the form of not only exposure to your business but also quality backlinks for your site.
Backlink are by far the most important search engine optimisation marker that the big boys and gals measure when it comes to ranking you high.
In a nut shell Backlinks are the inbound links from other sites to your. The more backlinks you have the greater the Authority your web site will be perceived to have in the eyes of the Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and company.
Today we are going to talk about the benefits promoting your business on Instagram. Making a Instagram profile is just not enough. The real hurdle is to build and maintain an attractive, interactive and solid online presence. Creativity and consistency are the real protagonists here, it is true that each of the big social networks has it’s own algorithm, we should be aware of this, but creativity and consistency are still key. In this post we will answer the very important question…
Shot of a young businessman using his laptop and phone at work
Let’s start by assuming you already have a Instagram for Business account and not a personal profile. If you don’t have one, no problem! Follow the guide proposed by Instagram and you’ll be set up in no time. Now let’s get back to it.
What comes next is to understand at what point and for what purpose does Instagram enters into the equation of your online marketing plan. It is very likely that, in terms of attraction and impact, your goal with Instagram is to generate a community to integrate your brand. To achieve the conversion of followers or “fans” to leads and then convert them into your customers.
This will involve defining attractive content, formats for better interaction, graphic style and publication times. Tactical tasks that always lead you to the most practical point: telling the story behind your services or products.
What do we mean by this? That being clear about what the key topic is, that a video or reel is more effective than a post, that hashtags or trending numbers are necessary, but not the only thing.
The humanization of your account, eliminating artificial photos from image banks and proposing natural photos of what you do, how you do it and why you do it makes more sense and helps connect to your audience.
Posts maintain your audience, reels grows your audience.
Apartment purchase concept. Let’s go and I’ll show you my house! Young man make call on front camera of modern smartphone standing in the middle of a light room in his brown stylish trendy shirt
It is true that Instagram was created as a social network to highlight good graphic content and the beautiful panoramas that surround us. But, with the arrival of entertainment and advertising consumption to this platform, videos became the most interesting audiovisual resource for consumption and growth. But it is not just any video. The duration, music, graphic intervention and interactivity have a key role in reaching more audience.
We will not to focus on whether the video should have a shorter or longer duration to achieve more profit. This will be relevant according to your industry and what is more attractive to your audience.
What we want to focus on is the use of some options to grow. And that is that by taking a video vertically, selecting a couple of hashtags (yes a couple, not a bunch), adding audio from the network’s media library and publishing it as a story or reels, your post has a better chance of:
Impressions
Plays
Engagement
But are these elements alone enough? In my opinion, in order to grow, the creation of reels must have a more fundamental element: you. That’s why I mentioned the previous point. Personal videos have 3 times more exposure than simply using a video bank.
From Interaction to Conversation
And, we arrive at the last step. Last, but not least, on the contrary. Considering that at this point you are already thinking about a more practical and human instagram account, with natural and proper content of the network, you have won more reach and engagement.
What’s next, what’s the use of having traction in interaction on this network?
Well, it’s time to take the results obtained to the next level: to sell.
You may ask yourself: and how will I achieve this?
Well. The first thing is to forget about the idea that the most important thing on Instagram is the acquisition of followers, just because, that mentality is today no longer relevant to any company. With just a Facebook Ads campaign (target followers) or misleading bots, you can artificially increase this number.
The second thing is to make strategic use of the presentation and description of your Instagram Business profile:
The description of your account must have a value proposition, call to action, interaction link and fixed stories that highlight what you and the strategy at the time needs to show as relevant in the Instagram bio.
This implies that you constantly perform renewal of:
Brand identity according to the context and moment, through the logo, in the profile picture.
Description of what you do and why you do it. How you are helping your community with keywords.
Use of hashtags or citation to other accounts if needed.
Location of the account.
Call to action link.
And fixed stories you can highlight: relevant content, product or service catalog, promotion of the month or relevant customer service notices.
And why not, your corporate email address.
And, we arrive at the last step without it ceasing to be important. On the contrary. Considering that at this point you are already thinking about a more practical and human instagram account, with natural and proper content of the network, you have won two more points: reach and engagement.
What’s next, what’s the use of having traction in interaction on this network?
Well, it’s time to take the results obtained to the next level for your main objective: to sell.
You may ask yourself: and how will I achieve this?
Well. The first thing is to eliminate that thought that the most important thing on Instagram is the acquisition of followers just because. That today is no longer relevant for any company. With just a Facebook Ads campaign (target followers) or misleading bot, you can artificially increase this number.
The second thing is to make strategic use of the presentation and description of your Instagram Business profile:
As we denoted in the image, the description of your account must have a value proposition, call to action, interaction link and fixed stories that highlight what you and the strategy at the time needs to show as relevant in the Instagram bio.
This requires that you constantly perform renewal of:
Brand identity according to the context and moment, through the logo, in the profile picture.
Description of what you do and why you do it. How you are helping your community with keywords.
Use of hashtags or citation to other accounts if needed.
Location of the account.
Call to action link.
Fixed stories you can highlight: relevant content, product or service catalog, promotion of the month or relevant customer service notices.
And why not, your corporate email address.
Turning interaction into action on Instagram is not hard. You just need to make the most of the “description and link in the bio” to increase lead generation for your company. We hope these tips help you grow your Australian business on Instagram. And if you want to make the most out of your company remember how helpful it is to use Directory Listings as a tool to promote your business.
There are common mistakes that many companies make that are hindering their ROI!
Here are some simple and overlooked holes in many pay per click campaigns. In no particular order
MISTAKE #1: NOT LISTING NEGATIVE KEYWORDS
It’s important to understand the difference between “Keywords” and “Search Terms.”
What are keywords? Keywords are words or collection of words that you can target within Google Ads.
But how often do you just type in a single word to search? Not too often, unless you are prepared to get a lot of unrelated results.
Most searchers use multiple words or phrases, otherwise known as “long tail” keywords.
For example, you might bid on “Red Wines” for your web store or cellar.
You’d think that would be the perfect keyword to bid, right? After all you ‘sell’ Australian Red Wines
The problem is that a searcher would more likely be searching for something like ” Red Barrossa Valley Wines ” or “Australian Red Shiraz” or even more common “Where can I get great red wines to drink?”
When you set up a campaign, its important to also research irrelevant keywords and add them to a negative keyword list before activating your campaign. Negative keywords will tell Google which searches you don’t want to your ads to show for. This will definitely save you money from false clicks or bounces.
There are many free keyword research tools and one of our favourite for researching long tail phrases is answer the public!
This is a crucial optimisation step for any campaign to ensure relevancy and cost-effectiveness!
MISTAKE #2: POOR OR NO LANDING PAGES
Where do people go after they click?
Do you send them straight to your home page? Is that what they expect?
For example; if your Ad copy has a BUY NOW cta (Call to Action) would you send the click to your ABOUT US Page?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to send them to a PRODUCTS page, right?
A Landing page should be a purpose built page that can include;
Should be focused on the end goal
Should display Products if it CTA calls for the user to purchase
Shouldnt have too many distractions and focusses on the intended action
Essentially matches exactly what the user expected from the ad
Mistake #3: Letting your campaign fly free
Setting up campaigns takes a lot of time and effort – from ad copy, keyword research, to landing pages, reporting and more.
This, of course, is just the start. It is important to set a rinse and repeat process of review and optimise.
Some important areas for all campaigns to focus on once your ads go live include:
Monitoring your ads on a Daily basis:
Check your campaigns daily and be aware of any issues such as:
Irrelevent Search Terms
Low performing Keywords
Low converting campaigns
Low Clich trough rates (CTR)
Large increases in CPC (Cost Per Click)
Spikes in clicks
Spikes in clicks may indicate a major problem and mark a ‘money pit’ – which is where clicks and campaign funds are wasted
Split Testing Peformance:
You’ll want to take a multi-stage approach to campaign optimization, including:
A/B Testing ad copy to optimise your ads
researching and re-applying negative keywords rules to adgroups
Split converting keywords into their own adgroups to increase CTR
A weekly time frame is enough for this once the campaign is running as expected without major issues
Expanding your Reach:
With extended campaigns (3 – 6 months) make monthly reviews and expand on your research. This would most likely be budget locked and would occur quicker and more often with bigger budgets..
Over optimising or optimising prematurely can be detrimental to your campaigns but you definitely don’t want to spend you money on non-performing Ads.
When expanding your reach, consider the following actions:
Expanding your keywords
Experiment with different bidding strategies and campaign types.
Set up new campaigns based on performance
Mistake #3: Not Using The Search Term Report
The search term report helps you identify search terms or phrases that are using up your budget. These are the actual things people are entering into the search bar and that are triggering your ad to be shown.
Basically the search term report shows all the queries people are using to search for when they click your ads. This report can also show you what ‘negative keywords’ you should be implementing because they don’t suit your campaign. The report will also give you ideas on how to better understand what copy to use in your ads, how to create better landing pages, help better identify your key or secondary audience, and what keywords would work the best to serve more appropriate ads.
MISTAKE #4: USING TOO MANY KEYWORDS PER AD GROUP
When you use too many keywords per ad group, your ads can’t be specific enough to get a good click-through rate.
For instance, let’s go back to the blue widget example.
If you were to pack a bunch of blue widget related keywords into one adgroup, all these seraches would be targeted with the same set of ads:
blue widgets reviews
high-quality blue widgets
big blue widgets
small blue widgets
durable blue widgets
Instead, you would want to break these up into different groups and create new ad copy for each.
By doing this, you can match the searcher intent to the right ad, then get them to the right landing page.
Most marketing noobs use the automated Bid strategy when setting up their campaigns. The problem is that this is probably far from the ideal bidding strategy for your type of campaign or company target.
This includes giving Google the green light to Bid whatever it feels like for your keyword or phrase.
You should always look at maintaining as much control as possible of your budget and an automated Bidding strategy is one sure way to lose control of your cost!
Although it will take a little more time to set the right bidding strategy, it is worthwhile for the money that you will save on making the right choice.
Conclusion
Pay Per Click Campaigns can create a lot of traffic to your site, but if not done correctly you will find yourself spending a big chunk of your budget on the wrong type of traffic.
Always research and adjust both your positive key phrases and Negative Keywords to optimise your spend.
Make sure that you review your campaigns constantly and look out for money pits that waste more and bring down your ROI.
Still one of the best and most affordable strategies is to List your Business in a Business directory just like ours. Get listed today and start growing your business
After overcoming the survival stage businesses can exponentially increase their revenues.
Scalability not only means the ability to grow, but to do so with minimal investment and costs.
If you want to know if your business is scalable, you need to review different parameters such as the current demand for your products or services and your own ability as an owner to manage risk.
Have you ever thought about whether your business is scalable? What does that mean? During the early years of a business we are more concerned with making it survive than it’s growth. But when we are certain of its viability, then it is time to think about how to increase revenues and profits for the owners in an exponential way.
As experts explain, a business model is scalable when it has the capacity to generate more sales for a minimum investment and stable costs. That is, when growth is not hindered by a rigid production structure (such as the existence of a single supplier) or by a shortage of resources (such as the lack of capital to open another physical location); and, again, when obtaining more income does not mean a greater effort in time and money than the current one.
Now that you are clear that scaling doesn’t just mean growing, let’s look at the factors that determine and indicate that your business is on the right path to generate more wealth.
If you still have doubts about the demand for your products or services or if you are still making adjustments to your value proposition, it means that your business is not ready to scale. So no matter how many sales you have in your business, even if you are already receiving orders from abroad, you need to wait longer and work on your business model as well.
Scalability needs firm foundations; otherwise, years of work and effort can fall apart in a few weeks after a bad decision.
Clear and automated processes
Are you still at that stage where, as a business owner, you are handling many tasks at once? Are there processes that are still being done manually? Are you just now incorporating automation tools? Are there many areas of the business that do not have clear and documented processes? Then your business is not ready for the big leap.
Without processes and automation tools that allow you, for example, to have better control of inventory in a store, your team will not be able to absorb a sudden increase in activity, the amount of information to be processed and customer demands.
The ability to manage risk
In a stage of accelerated growth, business owners must manage increasing costs, new demands and unknown scenarios. Therefore, not only they, but the entire organization, must be better prepared to manage risk.
That means that the operations must be agile, costs must be controlled and monitored so that your team of collaborators is able to make their own decisions, since the learning curve is much steeper and the demand for results is greater.
Outsourcing of non-strategic activities
Another clear indicator of a company’s ability to scale is the outsourcing of tasks to save time and money on activities that are important for daily operations, but have no impact on strategy.
This is the case of outsourcing logistics, shipping or accounting management when there is not yet enough of a budget to hire an accountant 100% dedicated to the company.
Having the necessary talent for the new stage.
Before starting a scaling process, it is also essential to have the personnel that will be in charge of new strategic tasks, such as the management of the online store or the export area. Are you clear about the new positions to be filled? Have you already defined the profile of these new professionals? Do you know how difficult it is to find them, and what you will have to offer in terms of salary and compensation to attract them to the business and keep them?
Consider that, many times, the best recruitment is internal; therefore, with the necessary training and a fair offer, current collaborators can become key pieces of the new expansion stage.
Openness to change
In order to scale up, it takes much more than an owner with innovative ideas and the ability to manage risk: it requires a corporate culture open to change, where all employees feel that they have room to propose new ideas, take risks and make mistakes, without jeopardizing their chances of growing up the corporate ladder.
In an environment of creativity and motivation, growth is made possible beyond material resources and the number of working hours. That’s why you not only have to surround yourself with the best talent, but also be able to clearly convey your vision.
Those are some of the factors to take into account when considering scaling up your business, we hope they prove useful, and if you’re thinking about growing your business it’s always a good idea to check 7 tips to help you make a good post for your business.
Registering and running a Business in Australia Links and Faqs.
Do I need an ABN to register a business?
An ABN (Australian Business Number) is a 9 digit number. To register a business name, you will need to have an ABN, or in the process of applying for one with the Australian Business Register (ABR).
How much does it cost to register ABN?
To apply for an ABN is FREE of charge. Whether you apply online or by a printable form you will not be charged for the application. If you go through your Tax agent they may charge you their fee to process the application.
Can I run a business without an ABN?
If your turnover is less than $75,000 you may be able to operate without an ABN. The Australian Taxation Office does suggest to apply for an ABN when starting as a sole trader even if your annual turnover is less than the $75k stated.
Do I have to pay to register a business name in Australia?
The fees for registering a business name range from $37 for one year to $87 for three years.
What is considered a ‘Small Business’?
The ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) and ATO have slightly different definitions of a small business. Below is a guide to what they may consider a small business is.
For more in-depth information and guidelines visit their websites.
ABS
Micro-businesses (businesses employing between 1 and 4 people including non‑employing businesses)
Non-employing businesses (sole proprietorships and partnerships without employees)
Other small businesses (businesses that employ between 5 and 19 employees)
Small businesses are more likely to have independent ownership and be operated independently.
ATO
A small business entity is an individual, partnership, company or trust that is carrying on a business
Has less than $2 million in aggregated turnover.
A Micro Business has a total business income of less than $2 million
A small business has a business income of between $2 and $10 million per annum.
What are some of the steps to starting a business in Australia
1. Choose your business structure.
There are four main Business structures to choose from:
Sole trader: You are the sole owner and are responsible for all the day to day operations and legal aspects of running the business and you are still entitled to hire people to work for you. Company: A commercial business or entity with separate legal definitions to its shareholders. Partnership: A Partnership as it sounds is when 2 entities work together but not as a company Trust: A Trust is an entity that may possess assets such as property or income for the benefit of a third party.
2. Choose a business type.
By choosing a type of business you will better understand the structure you may need. Some of the business types are::
Retail Brick and Mortar
Online business
Franchise
Contractor
3. Registering for your Australian business number (ABN)
As stated earlier, visit the ATO website to start your application for your Australian Business Number
4. Set up record keeping and accounting systems
As you start gaining income, it is important to keep track of your Business financials
5. Understand tax and legal obligations
Learn what Tax and legal obligations you need to be aware of for your business. You will have to submit Tax income statements every year.
6. Get insurance
Find what type of insurance you may need as different businesses will have different insurance needs for liabilities.
Every Business is different and depending on the type of structure you may expect some of these constants in the cost to run your business
Costs of Premise – If you have a Brick and Mortar of Office to work out of
Insurance – to deal with any legal requirements and incidents
Marketing – To get customers to your business, this may take many different forms such as Digital, social marketing, website content marketing, business directory listings etc.
Professional services Fees – such as accountants, solicitors, other expert professionals to oversee the legalities of starting a business
Stock – You may need to invest in holding your product ready to ship out
Staff and employment – as your company grows you may need to look at the prospect of hiring more staff to do some of or particular tasks
Finance Software – Programs to manage your money
IT costs – these may include Computers, servers, plugins for automation, Licencing of software etc.
Conclusion
There are many aspects of starting a new business, but as overwhelming as it all may sound, with a little planning and a few mandatory steps you can be well on your way into running your own business.
Once you have your ABN and have registered your Business name then all you need to do is start letting potential customers know about your business through Marketing. If you haven’t already take a read of our How to Rank Higher in Google article for some insights into promoting your business on the web.
Need some Helpful Business Resource Links?
Are you a small business owner? Have a look at a collection of links to some great Business resources
Planning on Renting a Wedding Dress? Lets try answering some of your questions.
Are you wondering whether to rent or buy a wedding dress? You may have a few questions. Renting is a new way to fulfill the dream.
1. Wedding dress rental: a new trend!
In current times, renting wedding dresses or elegant clothes for parties tends to be taken more naturally. Brides can wear beautiful designs in a more affordable way and not give up a dream because of the costs of buying a new dress. Many brides also calculate the impact that the purchase can have on a more limited wedding budget, so this solution is very favorable for them.
2. Sustainable option
The labor put into a wedding dress with worked lace and the material costs are reused much more over time. More brides can enjoy it and get all the happy moments out of it with photos that they will treasure in their wedding albums. It will not be necessary to look for a place to store the dress without it turning yellow or to wait years to transfer it to a daughter or another relative, even more so when houses have little space.
3. All styles
If you have already reviewed catalogs and visited bridal houses, you will have a better idea of what designs are in fashion, the cuts that are imposed in your favorite firms and the most empowered vintage or boho models. Most of the bridal houses are not limited only to the sale, but also offer the rental of wedding dresses, with advice and sewing arrangements just as if you were buying the garment.
4. Types of rental
The most common format is to rent a used wedding dress, that is, some brides have already worn it. These are dresses given for rent or garments owned by the Bridal firms that are made for that purpose. The second way is to rent a first-tier design that the lucky bride can wear for a much lower price than a new model. This second option is a bit more expensive.
5. How do wedding dress rentals work?
Each enterprise has its management modality. We already mentioned that you can discover a design that you fall in love with in traditional bridal houses. Other houses can be dedicated only to rent and add different models to offer a wide range. Another way arises from community networks made up of girls who give up their dresses to rent and thus amortize the expenses of their own wedding. If you thought about it, the same can be applied to the civil wedding dress.
6. Second hand
Renting and buying second-hand are equally valid options for thrifty brides. However, in the rental house they assure you of the good condition of the garment, while a second-hand purchase could require a greater investment in repairs, especially in the lower part and in the buttoning, for which we recommend that you check it carefully.
7. Steps to rent the wedding dress
Once you have decided on this modality and have found out how much it costs to rent a wedding dress, you should start the search at least three months in advance to start trying on various models until you find the one you like. It is advisable to look for a trusted site or a specialized company that offers 100% quality. You can request advice, and better yet, a prior appointment so that the staff is available to answer all your questions. The timing of the tests is important because it ensures comfort with the garment later at the moment of truth.
8. The contract
If you have already chosen your dress, we recommend reviewing it from head to toe to avoid encountering surprises later. Next you will need to formally reserve the dress and sign a lease agreement. Many stores can offer you insurance for the risk of breakage or stains that the garment may suffer, and it is advisable to take it. Finally, if necessary, you will have to make the sewing arrangements so that the dress you selected fits your silhouette.
When the dresses have already gone through a few uses, the stores usually move them to outlet sales, which is another way to get a simple and cheap wedding dress.
Best of luck in your Wedding Dress hunt.
