The Small Business Development Commission (SBDC) Board and exec team love getting out into the region. Last week they chose Collie for their AGM, and took the opportunity to go and talk to local businesses who have accessed IPS Business Advisor Julie Broad through the Tourism Readiness project.

The team heard from locals about the challenges and the great changes Collie has experienced this past year – most notably, the overall excitement about the infrastructure tourism is bringing to town, like the Collie Mural Trail, the opening of Lake Kepwari, and the beautification of the town through the Throssel Street Upgrade funded by the State Government.

The team spent plenty of time getting to know Collie locals and businesses. They held an evening networking meeting at the Collie Golf Club; took a three hour tour of the town with Traaverse, taking in the Wellington Dam Mural, Lake Kepwari, and the Coalfields Museum; and went for a three hour walk through town with Julie meeting local businesses including the Collie River Valley Tourist Information Centre, Crank n Cycles, Retro Respection, White Stones Gifts and Homewares, LJ Hooker, Toscas Boutique and Espresso Bar and the Cheeky Squirrel, before stopping for lunch at Wagon 537.

​Google Analytics is a free app that will show you exactly how many people visit your website, where they come from, and what they liked and did not like on your website. Without this information, it can be difficult to know whether your website and marketing campaigns are successful, or whether they need some tweaking in order to hit the mark.
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Why use Google Analytics?
There are many reasons why you should be using Google Analytics. The data it gathers can be invaluable in tailoring your website and marketing to your audience; I always advise that it should be installed from the moment your website goes live. Even if you do not use the data immediately, having it on-hand will inform you what has gone wrong if your website begins to get less clients over time, or even if it stops working altogether.

by Sana Turnock

There is no doubt that a comprehensive business plan takes time and effort to put together, but how important is it to have one?

If you are seeking funding from potential investors or banking institutions, or have a vision for a business, project or venture, it is worth putting together a comprehensive business plan. Doing so provides you with the opportunity to paint a broad brush stroke across all aspects of running a business which can otherwise be missed.

Putting together a business plan allows you to reflect on the type of business model you want to create, and analyse the suitability of it for your business operations. It gives you the opportunity to think about staffing, risk assessment, marketing strategies and the products and services you want to provide. Other critical aspects to delve into are budgeting and financial forecasting, in addition to gaining clearer vision as to you customer, vision, values and purpose.

A business plan will help you identify potential competitors and, more importantly, decide if they are really competitors. As you dig deeper, you may find that not too many businesses offer exactly what you do, and even if they do, they are lacking a vital part: you. Once you identify this, you become the unique selling point of the business.

Creating a solid foundation for your business is critical for future success. There is an element of fluidity and adaptability required when it comes to running a business, and your business plan may and will change. Taking up opportunities that come your way is a realistic and part of organic business growth, however doing so through the lens of a solid business plan will allow you to make decision with confidence.

A business plan provides clarity, a solid foundation and a direction in which to begin a new business, project or venture.

To find out more, join Business Advisor Sana Turnock in her upcoming working: The Business Plan: What You Need to Know.
 
 
 

By Jerry Hoekman

People often ask me how best to use Facebook and Instagram to sell more, to which I often answer: don’t ask a marketing guru about social media, ask your grandmother! 

Why not ask a marketing guru?
It's called social media for a reason. People use it because humans have an innate desire and need to be social. We want to communicate with family, friends and peers, and do not want this time infiltrated by marketing messages. Posting too many sales or product-related messages can actually turn people away from your social media account.

Why ask your grandmother?
Your nanna is from a time when shopkeepers knew their clients intimately. They would first chat for a while before something was sold. They would tell her a certain item had arrived, because they knew how much she loved it. They would go out of their way to deliver an excellent service to every one of their clients. This would spread through word of mouth, the most effective mode of advertising.
 
Thus, the best way to use social media is as a channel for customer services and customer relations:

• Be social, interact with your followers and try to make them feel involved with you and your brand.
• Build a strong relationship with your customer and keep them loyal by creating a sense of community.
• Use your account to deliver an excellent service. Show how concerned you are about your clients, and you go out of your way when something with a product or service goes wrong.

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The strategies above will not only increase client loyalty, but can also deliver new customers and clients through word of mouth.
 
So next time you have a question about social media, just ask your grandmother!

Jerry offers one-on-one business consultations in the Peel area, and also hosts workshops on digital marketing regularly. To find out more and book an appointment with Jerry, head here.

by Sana Turnock

Are there retail shops and spaces that you just love going into? Close your eyes and immerse yourself in this space. Think about what you see, smell, hear, and perhaps touch.  Ask yourself what it is that you love about this space, and why?

Now think about a physical retail spaces that you don’t like going into. Using the same process, identify what it is that turns you away. What is it about this space that makes you not want to go into it, or perhaps spend little time there?

Many small details make up an experience of a space and place. Whether it be the poor customer service or the uncomfortable layout, we have all experienced that feeling of walking into a space and not feeling at ease. Perhaps it is the shop front that has looked the same for years, the lack of natural light, the dust, the unhygienic toilets, the unappealing food viewed through the grimy glass counter, or that general lack of "good vibes".

Creating a memorable experience can take a bit of thought and effort, but once you have it, your customers will keep coming back for more.

Here are three tips to help you create a more positive experience for your customer:

1. Change your shop front window display every few months. You are not only promoting your products but inviting curiosity and engagement from people walking by, especially if it is done well.
2. Include living plants as part of your décor.  Beautiful healthy plants complement and enhance the look and feel of a space. Not good at keeping plants alive? You can always rent plants. The benefit of this is when you want to change your décor, you can also change your plants.
3. Check that you have ambient temperature. If it’s too hot or too cold in a space you may lose a customer. This can be a tricky task, as temperature tolerance can vary for people due to age, time of year and health conditions. Research shows, however, that a good ambient temperature is around 22 – 24 degrees Celsius.  

 
Creating a rich customer experience is essential to drawing customers into your shop, and keeping them there.

To learn more, join us at our next workshop where Business Advisor Sana Turnock delves deep into how to create an experience your customers will remember. More details can be found here.

by Digital Marketing Consultant Jerry Hoekman

For many small businesses it can be very hard to choose the correct agency to build their website. Any agency presenting their own work will naturally show examples that look great, but how do you go about choosing the correct agency for you and your business?
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Critical aspects of a website
Before we begin, let’s have a look at the task at hand: what do these agencies need to accomplish, and what are the critical aspects of a website that they need to get right?

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
If your new website is not listed on search engines, you are missing out on potential customers. Thus, it is critical that the SEO work is done, and that it is done correctly.

2. Marketing Messages
When people arrive at your site, they need to know that it will fulfil the need they have. Whether that be a product or service, delivery of an answer to their question, or something else they are looking for. A website needs to easily and quickly deliver these two essential pieces of information: “what does this site deliver” and “who it is it for”.
 
3. Design
Contrary to common belief, design has nothing to do with taste. As a small business you are not looking for a web design that you like, but a web design that will turn your visitors into paying customers. This is a true art form and can make a large difference in your sales. The most important factor is that visitors connect the level of professionality of the design directly to the level of quality of the products and services it sells. No matter how good your product or service might be, visitors expect that a company with a badly designed website will deliver low quality goods or services.
 
4. Sales process
In general, people have very short attention spans. This means that writing too much content can disengage your potential customers. It is better to have concise text with a strong underlying sales process. A well-designed website will guide your visitors through your website, thus significantly improving your sales numbers, and the success of your website.
 
5. Measuring Success & Effectiveness
The last step in the process is analysis of the statistics. Once your website goes live, the right tools are added to be able to measure what people do on your site and which channels bring in more sales (e.g. Google search, paid ads, newsletters, Facebook, etc.). It will also make bottlenecks visible, meaning that you can retain those customers instead of losing them.
 

What Does This Mean for Choosing a Web Design Agency?
Looking at the five points above, it is immediately clear that you need to contract an agency that has sufficient experience in Google SEO, marketing, sales, design and analytics. Any agency lacking one or more of these skills will deliver a sub-optimal website, and put you at risk of not generating enough sales.

So how can you detect what is a good agency? This is very hard for most small businesses, and you will usually only find out once the site is running for a while. However, there are some things that you can investigate:

1. Do they have suitable experience and qualifications?
Remember, a professional designer creates a design that looks good, but also has the functionality needed.

2. Do they have a marketing specialist?
Does the agency have separate marketing or SEO specialist?

3. How successful are their websites?
Ask for some examples of their work and try to find them in Google using relevant keywords. Use these websites as a potential client and analyse how easy it is to find what you are looking for, and how easy it is for you to buy, book or contact them.

4. Do they have any reviews?
See if there are any Google, Facebook or LinkedIn reviews. There are a lot of scam reviews out there, so it will help if they have many reviews, so that you can get an overview of their competence.

The above is just a guide, but it might help you to make a more substantial comparison between the agencies that you approach for your website design and build.

If you are looking for more information, we have a lot of free workshops where you can dive a bit deeper into website design and analytics.

You can also book a free session with our Business Advisors to help with your business. Book a free face-to-face or Zoom session here: Mandurah Digital Marketing Booking

We interviewed our new Innovation and Advisory Lead Colette McEntee, and asked her about her experience here in the South West. She shares what advice she has for running a successful small business, and what she envisions for the future of the Peel region.
 
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What is your background?
I began my career as a theatre manager in London’s West End in my early 20s. I spent a few amazing years in that exciting world before my itchy feet led my backpack and I to Australia in 2004. I’ve been on an incredible ride since then – personally and professionally – including almost a decade in the Pilbara spent falling in love with the red dirt and wide open skies. I managed Karratha’s Walkington Theatre for three years, before starting my own business as an arts consultant in 2010. It was during this time that I also worked at a million miles per hour alongside a lot of very smart people overseeing the Royalties for Regions funded Pilbara Cities initiative. My family and I moved to the South West in 2014, and in 2016 we bought our current business – an innovation hub in Bunbury called Maker + Co.
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