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Seriously Frances, enough with the excuses! It's time to pull finger and do something with your site, so people don't think you've given up.
So here I am, proving to anyone who cares that I am still here, willing and able to get things done. I've got some jobs lined up for one of the newest members of the All Sorted family -Self Defense Northland - and the brief I've been given is that their business is about empowering women, not scaring them. It will be a nice brief to work on. I've also been asked about SEO and Google rankings for a new business. These guys were approached by a company promising the sky if they were willing to pay several thousand dollars! I was annoyed and disappointed on their behalf. I mean, anyone could get on the first page of Google if they had thousands to spend! But that's not the point, small businesses (especially new ones) don't tend to have that kind of money to spend. They need to be savvy with their marketing budget not spend it all in the first couple of months. I hope they will give me the chance to show them how a smaller budget can do wonderful things for their business. Okay, enough of my ranting, I have things to do. Until next time... Fx I'm currently a good example of what not to do. I always encourage people to update their website and social media as often as they can; being active on your site only helps with your organic reach and build your profile.
I have not been paying attention to that. I find that when life gets busy, I neglect my All Sorted presence. I suppose in my mind I must subconsciously think, "I'm busy working, so I'll do my own marketing later," Little and often is a good motto here, and one I need to adopt. In other news, one of the All Sorted family have launched their new business venture and website! I wish Jon and Shae-Renee nothing but the best of luck with Budget Caravans NZ, if I had any spare money I wouldn't hesitate to buy my own home-away-from-home. It would be a pretty great way of seeing more of Aotearoa and no one said adventure had to involve "roughing it". Until next time... Fx I'm ever so pleased to welcome a new client to the All Sorted family; Intuitive Birth is giving me the chance to learn about their business and come up with new ways to reach their target market.
It's only been a day but Sarah-Jane has already given me a whole bunch of information about what they've done to date, and where she sees her business going in future. I haven't been able to spend too much time on it yet, but I can already see some great opportunities to spread the Intuitive word. My main focus is trying to get some real bang for her buck. As a mum I attended atenatal classes, so thankfully this isn't completely foreign to me, but I still need to do my research to ensure I get the language and audience right. I'm looking forward to it. Until next time... Fx It's been a while, and there's a bit to catch you up on but I'll do us all a favour and keep it brief.
The Tale of the Great Road Trip You know that touch of whimsy I was going on about in my previous post? Well, my client went for it! They loved that their caravan business was going to have an obvious point-of-difference in their marketing, and thought their fresh and fun website would appeal to their target market. As soon as they're ready to "go live" I'll share it with you with pride. Seek And You Shall Find Maybe it's the change of season, but an increasing number people are on the look-out for the next step in their career. Maybe they can't face another winter in a job that doesn't make them smile, or maybe they know they're capable of so much more than they're being given the chance to do. No matter their reasons, I find it very rewarding being asked to capture who someone is, as well as what they can do, and put it into a CV. I know it can be hard to promote yourself, so let me take care of that for you. Save It For Later In case you weren't already aware, Facebook have introduced a feature enabling you to 'Save' posts for future use. Kind of like Pinterest, but with a Facebook twist. It's incredibly useful for when your scrolling through your Newsfeed and you see something that fits in with your business/profile page, but for whatever reason the timing doesn't work right then and there. By saving it for later, you can schedule it for when it works for you. Sounds like a win/win. That's about it for now. Until next time... Fx Following on from my recent post, the client gave me what I was waiting for and I've been busy working on bits and pieces to help him and his wife start-up their new start up.
I'm taking care of the design & build of a website that will be super easy for them to manage and maintain themselves. They've chosen a logo concept which I was then able to turn into business cards, which should hopefully be with them as early as next week. As part of the design & build of the site, I had to do a bit of research into the market they're about to enter. I checked out their NZ competitors and also some overseas companies. and I was surprised to see how clinical they all seemed. Given what they're selling (all will be revealed when they're ready to launch), I would have thought selling the dream as opposed to the pure mechanics of the thing. So that's what I've tried to do with the copy; appeal to the whimsical and flight-of-fancy side of their target market. I mean, if you're Googling their product, you're already pre-disposed to forking out the cash and just doing it... all you might need to actually do it is for someone to give you a gentle push with some words of encouragement. At least that's what I reckon. Until next time... Fx Further to my most recent post, y'know the one about being a bit too cheap but in a good way, I am delighted to say that the quote was accepted and I have officially scored myself a new client!!
Thank you Budget Caravans, I won't let you down. Before I really get involved in the process, there is some basic but important information I need from the client. I'm just waiting for him to get back to me with that stuff and and doing my best not to start working on things until I know what's what. It's hard though. Patience is not one of my virtues. I have a bunch of copy ideas I want to flesh out and I have some logo concepts I want to start creating. But I have to stop myself. I am working to a budget on this one, as opposed to an hourly rate. There's no point going down a track that ends up completely wrong. Did I mention I'm not very good at the waiting thing? I'll keep you posted on this one. Until next time... Fx I put together a quote the other day for a full design & build of a new website, and coming up with some logo concepts.
After doing my happy dance and asking a number of questions to determine just how full on they wanted their website to be, I made an educated guess on how long the process should take. The quote isn't astronomical, in fact its very reasonable. Some might even call it cheap. Which makes be wonder whether someone would question the quality of the work produced. I've done my research; logo concepts can cost around $500, and a design & build of a straightforward website (including copy writing) can cost anywhere around $2,000. I would never be able to justify charging someone that much. But if you pay that much, would you expect the work produced to be better than someone who charges less? Does a smaller bill mean poorer quality? I wouldn't think so, but some might. I would be stoked that the work can be done for a fee I could afford. Just something to think about. Until next time... Fx I saw a quote today that I just had to share with you, '"Great marketing is like flirting with a crush."
Some might think that's too simplistic but I think it is a neat little summary of the relationship between you and your potential clients. I, for one, like to be treated like the (reasonably) intelligent individual that I am. I also like my sense of humour to be appealed to. But that's just me. Just something to think about. Until next time... Fx A client found themselves with a big pile of end-of-lines, samples and damaged packaging items they'd been given by a friendly supplier. They wanted to let everyone know about it, without spending a bunch of money. You know how it goes.
When considering something like this, you've got to take a good look at the resources you've got to work with, in this case they had their website, Facebook page, a customer database and a tiny budget. My advice; use everything! Step 1. Create an effective banner for the website homepage Step 2. Create an email to send out to the database Step 3. Share email on Facebook (or if you'd prefer, create a Facebook specific post Step 4. Boost the Post on Facebook By 'Boosting the Post' you can choose a far smaller budget than if you were 'Promoting the Page' (in this case, we entered a daily budget of only $1.50). You can also specify a target market and the duration of the promotion. All of this took a couple of hours to get sorted, and within a day of the campaign starting some of the items sold out! If that's not success, I don't know what is. So if you've got something you want to "go loud" about but think you don't have the means to do it justice, just remember that an effective campaign can cost less than $20, Until next time... Fx Five teams. Twenty people (aged 3 and up). Equal parts ingenuity and competitive spirit. Yep, the inaugural Waitangi Day Scavenger Hunt went pretty well. I was impressed with how business cards for Dave/David/Davies were found. It was an extremely tight finish, with team Three Fiddy narrowly beating teamRoberts Rulz back to the hub, but missing out on the prize incorrectly interpreting the "100 Club" clue. And well done to team Fire the Cannon for finishing the Hunt despite a complete lack of local knowledge. I think everyone had a good time, and I hope they'll be back next year to check out a completely new location. And who know's, maybe there'll be even more teams to get in on the action. Thank you everyone who supported my whim. Until next time... Fx  |
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