Let’s Par Tee!

Last Friday, 25th November 2022, was the Northern Rivers Food golf day, held at the Byron Bay Golf Club. This annual event brings together businesses from the food and drinks industry across the Northern Rivers. Barefruit was proud to be the major sponsor again. For the last 4 years we have sponsored and helped to organise this event.

The theme for the day was ‘Safari’, with teams arriving in an array of outfits that wouldn’t look out of place (actually, they would) on the African Plains. Best-dressed was awarded to Pam and the team from Brookfarm.

Every player received a goodie-bag jammed packed with donations from Hemp Food Australia, Byron Bay Chocolates, We The Many, Brookfarm, Don Cholita, The Kind Coffee Co, Three Blue Ducks and more.

NBN News covered the day and spoke with Eddie Brook from Cape Byron Distillery about their involvement. Eddie spoke about the difficulties Northern Rivers businesses have faced over the last two years with Covid, lockdowns, floods and staff shortages all heavily impacting the food and drink industry in the area. He said it was a great opportunity to come together with other business owners and staff in the same industry to catch up, network and celebrate each other.

The event took a lot of organisation and collaboration between Barefruit Marketing and Northern Rivers Food. We had a great turnout, with 44 players from local businesses including Three Blue Ducks, The Casino Food co-op, Hemp Food Australia, Harvest, NAB, Stone and Wood, and Salumi Australia.

Northern Rivers Food Golf Day

Stone and Wood supplied the beers for the day and players nibbled on bread from The Bread Social paired with yummy Salumi Australia salami. It was a perfect day to be out on the green, and was a tight finish with only a point between first and second. The Harvest team were the days’ winners, coming away with four bottles of Brookies Gin from Cape Byron Distillery, lucky buggers!

 

After all golfers had finished the 18 holes, we enjoyed a beautiful lunch at the Byron Bay Golf Club restaurant. It was a great day to bring the Northern Rivers food and drink industry together.

Evan, our Co-founder and lead Safari Guide on the day said “we’re proud to sponsor this event once again. Aside from the fact that I love a good round of golf, it is a great opportunity to catch up with other businesses, our clients and colleagues for the day. A lot of work went into the organising, thanks to the team at Barefruit and Anne from Northern Rivers Food. The agency has been full of Northern Rivers produce for the last week or so, which has been slightly distracting – for the staff and agency puppy! We’re so happy to see such a great turnout again. Well done to the well-dressed Brookies - we’re looking forward to taking that title next year."

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Barefruit Marketing Win Employer of Choice!

Barefruit Marketing win Employer of Choice

We are so excited to share that Barefruit Marketing won Employer of Choice at the 2022 Northern Rivers Regional Business Awards on Saturday, October 22nd. This is a recognition and reflection of the wonderful culture we have at Barefruit.

We were nominated in five different categories for the night:

  • Outstanding Employee: Ashleigh Cameron
  • Outstanding Leader: Claire Harding
  • Excellence in Sustainability
  • Employer of Choice
  • Excellence in Small Business.

Over 10 years ago, Claire and Evan Harding – marketing professionals with over 40 years’ of combined experience - moved from London to the Northern Rivers. It was here, in Lennox, that the Harding family set up their home-based business, Barefruit Marketing. A boutique agency focused on inspirational, creative marketing that would really work, and in essence, help businesses ‘bear fruit’. Fast-forward to 2022, Barefruit Marketing has expanded to a full-service agency with a diverse team of ten, fostering an amazing culture that they have all worked so hard to create.

Part of our team got all dressed up and attended the ‘2022 Northern Rivers Regional Business Awards’ at Southern Cross University in Lismore. The past couple of years have been extremely challenging for small businesses in the Northern Rivers with lockdowns, floods and other obstacles to overcome. The event celebrated business in the Northern Rivers and recognised the resilience and hard work that goes on behind the scenes within our community.

There were many well-known local businesses nominated for these awards. Thrilled and emotional, we were awarded ‘2022 Employer of Choice’. We were also ecstatic for our client Early Up Property Solutions who won ‘Excellence in Small Business’, an amazing achievement. Employer of Choice is a great reflection of Barefruit as a workplace as we pride ourselves in creating a fun, creative, open, and supportive workplace for our team.

Claire and Evan with award

Our Co-founder and Director Claire comments, “Winning Employer of Choice makes me really proud. We are very passionate about the values we all hold both personally and at work – that is what makes our agency tick.”

Claire continues; “Leading Barefruit is FUN! We, and our clients, are lucky to have such amazing talent at the agency. We spend more time with our workmates than our own families so having a good culture and an open and honest environment is so important. The team genuinely care about each other and support each other professionally and personally.

We’re fun to work with, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we take the work we do for our clients very seriously.”

She concludes; “A good culture attracts the right talent and the right clients and I believe we currently have that spot on.”

Jane Laverty, the Regional Director for Business NSW said, “A huge congratulations to Barefruit Marketing, they are so well deserving of being recognised as finalists in the Northern Rivers Regional Business Awards program – across 5 categories no less.

Their work with business and industry and in the community is so highly regarded because of their creative solutions - and also their passionate staff culture. It’s a milestone year for the team having just turned 10 and this is significant when operating from a regional area and further proof of their excellence… I wish the Barefruit team every success.”

Related tag: marketing gold coast

Northern Rivers Business Awards

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How to Develop a Creative Strategy

Having a solid creative strategy for your campaigns can set you apart from your competitors. Your creative strategy is all about defining what your advertising goals are, and planning on how you are going to achieve them through innovative advertising and marketing approaches that will appeal to your audience. For example, using humour to appeal to your audience or showcase everyday use of your product through a series of social videos.

For business owners, we know this can sound overwhelming. However, spending time planning a strategy ensures your campaign has purpose, direction and goals to achieve. It makes the rest of the work involved in building a campaign much easier too. Let us break it down for you.

Define your goals

What do you want your advertising to achieve? Every campaign has different goals, whether that is to grow your audience, generate more leads, make more sales or  something else. It’s important to set both short term and long term goals that are financial and non-financial (it isn’t always about the moolah). Our top tip is to use the SMART model when writing goals for your campaign…and keep the number of goals for a campaign to one or two, maximum.

creative strategy development
Write a creative strategy statement

Now use your goals to develop a creative strategy statement. This statement is like a mission statement that outlines how you aim to achieve these goals. It should focus on the reason for the creative strategy, who you are aiming to appeal to and through what creative approach.

Choose your KPIs

Use key performance indicators (KPIs) to track your campaign and check whether you’re on the way to achieving your goal or not. KIPs are dependent on what your goals are. For example, if your goal is to grow your audience, then your KPIs might be increase of social media following and increase of website and/ or foot traffic. If your ad is running on Facebook and Instagram, you will be able to access real-time data about its performance in Ads Manager.

strategy brand
Determine your target audience and message

Defining your audience is arguably the most important aspect of your strategy because it determines how you will craft your message. The length, tone and delivery of your message will depend on your target audience and their values. Other things to consider is what the content will look like, and where it will appear.

Set your dates

The last step of your creative strategy is to develop a timeline for your campaign. This is usually split into the time spent creating and implementing the strategy, when and how long the campaign will run for, and dates to see results. Timelines helps with the allocation of resources and keeps everyone involved in the project accountable.

 

With these steps, your will set your business up for a successful campaign that has purpose and will (hopefully) result in the achievement of your goal.

Related tag: advertising gold coast

 

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What is Local SEO and why does it matter?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a digital strategy that improves your website’s visibility to search engines in terms of search engine result ranks. The goal is to ensure your website is one of the first few links on search result pages. However, when it comes to businesses who service local areas (which is most of us in Ballina), Local SEO is arguably even more important. It is a strategy that uses location-based information to provide online users with relevant and meaningful search results. In doing so, your business can rank more highly on Google, resulting in more traffic to your website and boosting your brand awareness.

 

How it works

When you search for a service or product using location terms like “Ballina” or “near me”, Google will serve you a map of your local area with the top 3 business listings relevant to that search. This is called the ‘3-pack’ and it appears before all other search results (and it’s free!).

Local SEO starts with creating a Google My Business account. It’s a very simple process. All you need is a Google account. Add as much information about your business and business offering in this profile. Include contact information, opening hours, images, videos, links to your website and social media profiles etc. All this information will help Google understand who you are so it can serve your business as an option to someone who is looking for your services or products.

Google search of Barefruit Marketing
Find customers when they need you

The beauty of Local SEO is that it is incredibly timely. According to Google, 76% of people who made a local search using their smartphone visited a business from their search within 24 hours. Of those people, 28% made a purchase. Why? Because local SEO engages potential customers with your business when they are really interested in your offering. When customers are in this state of mind, they are far more likely to make a purchase. Local SEO executed properly can be more powerful than many other short-term marketing activities.

 

Google search Barefruit Marketing
Reviews

The criteria Google uses to select businesses for the 3-pack are relevance, distance and prominence (how well-known Google considers your business to be). Google reviews are extremely important in establishing your business’s prominence as they indicate to Google that your business is well known and well liked. Potential customers also heavily rely on Google reviews to determine which business within the local industry they want to make a purchase with. Reviews will help you compete against competitors, and they can give you a great advantage. So, once your Google My Business account is set up, make an effort to collect reviews from customers.

 

The movement to buy local is stronger than ever before and Local SEO capitalises on it. Go and set your Google My Business account up so people can find you when they really need you.

 

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Google Analytics 4 (GA4) – What’s it all about?

WARNING: The following blog post is fairly nerdy but we are here to try and make a very technically exciting topic more… relatable

If you have a website, you are quite likely to have Google Analytics set up.  In my experience, people with a website range from being very engaged with the data available on Google Analytics, to having a passing awareness of the term Google Analytics.

In short, Google Analytics is a platform that is used to monitor and report on website traffic.  This data helps you to understand your customers’ behaviour, measure performance of your website and connected campaigns.  At Barefruit, we always recommend that websites have Google Analytics to build a picture of how your website is being used. Some of the metrics we often look at include:

  • Reach – how many unique users have there been to your website and how does that compare over time?
  • Engagement – How long do people spend on your pages and which pages do they visit the most?
  • Acquisition – how did visitors to your website get to your website (social media, referrals, Google Ads, etc)?
  • Acquisition – what search queries did people use to find you on search engines?
GA4 Transition

A very brief history lesson – I promise.

The current generation of Google Analytics has evolved over time since its introduction in 2005 with subsequent major improvements to its tracking, functionality and reporting being contained within the current platform.

The last major update to its library was in 2013 when it introduced Universal Analytics. Other updates since then have been about tracking App data (Firebase Analytics 2016) and tracking other Google products such as Google Ads (Global Site Tag 2017).

In 2019, Google developed and launched a new property aimed at collecting and tracking data across both App + Web platforms. This was a fundamental shift in its measurement model and became the basis of this new generation of Google Analytics – GA4.

As many users of Google Analytics did not have an App, most users didn’t experiment with moving to GA4 initially as it meant abandoning a huge amount of historical data about their website for seemingly little benefit – especially as many reporting functions of Universal Analytics were not catered for initially.

A big change is coming – some key dates announced

In March 2022, Google brought things to a head by announcing a specific sunset date for Universal Analytics.
On 1 July 2023, Universal Analytics will stop collecting data – meaning, unless you are already on GA4 at this time, you will have no data about the traffic coming to your website.
Google has indicated that you will be able to access your historical data in Universal Analytics until end of December 2023.

So, in order to have at least 12 months of data in your GA4 when the sunset takes place, you must enable your GA4 set up by 30 June 2022.

How to Prepare for Google Analytics 4

Why is this change happening?

The primary reason for this change is that Google has been rebuilding its back end and front end of Google Analytics. The way data is gathered, where it is gathered from and how it is reported is a fundamental shift in the Google Analytics model – which is why this is a new generation of Google Analytics that is not a simple upgrade of what has been around for over 10 years

Privacy & The End of Third-Party Cookies
A big driver for this change is the move to increased privacy for data. This includes browser default settings leaning more to anonymous collection, as well as offering ways for users to choose not to have their data collected.

Third-party cookies were originally created to track user behaviour across the web. Cookies for marketing will die off when the Google Chrome browser blocks third party cookies as a default. This is anticipated to take place towards the end of 2023 – which seems to be in line with their GA4 sunset dates. Google has also specifically indicated that they will not be working on alternate identifiers (to cookies) to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will they use cookies in their products.

Keep an eye out for a blog post we are working on that will explore what digital marketing in a cookie free world looks like!

Event Based Data Collection

Another major change in GA4 is moving from viewing data in its raw form but modelled in a way to make sense of user behaviour. Instead of counting sessions and hits, GA4 tracks events that take place on a website. Some standard events include clicks, page views, scrolling, video watch start/progress/complete. This also means there is an increased focus on the full customer journey as opportunities for conversion rather than the last thing they did (e.g. clicked a button, clicked to call, download a file)

Machine Learning for Predictive Modeling

Another way in which GA4 improves the reporting aspect of Google Analytics is to build in machine learning that focuses on predicting behaviour and building audiences. The 3 main measurements that may be possible with your data on GA4 are:

  • Purchase probability
  • Churn probability
  • Predicted revenue

As with any exercise collecting the right set of data, and having a minimum number of events recorded, will improve the quality of the modelling.

Google Analytics 4 changes to data collection

What do I need to do?

The most important thing to do is to enable GA4 by 30 June 2022 so that your new Google Analytics will have at least 12 months of data before Universal Analytics is retired.

In these 12 months your Google Analytics will be tracking both GA4 and Universal Analytics for 12 months. Your GA4 set up should have filtering set up to exclude your internal traffic so that your data is meaningful for customer events.

It will be important to set up your Events and Conversions as well as connecting other useful Google products such as Google Search Console, Google Ads and Google Tag Manager where relevant.

What if I don’t do this?

You have probably heard from us many times before that Google Analytics data is a key connection to utilising your website to understand your customers – what they are interested in, what makes them stay on the website longer, where they lose interest etc.
If you don’t commence this transition now, when Google turns off data collection in one year’s time, you will have no data in your new Google Analytics account. This means you have a gap in your digital data on which to you can base your marketing for the year ahead. In short, not turning on GA4 now, puts you a year behind in having data available for your marketing decisions.

Get ready for GA4

So, are you ready for the transition from UA to GA4? If you’re requiring assistance or have any other burning questions about saying goodbye to Universal Analytics our team are here to help! You can also opt in to kick off your transition with the help of Barefruit.

How Businesses Can Support Their Communities

If we have learnt anything from the generosity of our communities over the last couple of months, it’s that we have a lot of stuff we don’t actually need. So much so that evacuation centres closed their doors to donations, saying they have all they need and more. With most of the physical clean-up now done, ‘volunteer fatigue’ can set in. However, our community still needs a lot of love and support, especially those who lost homes, businesses and are separated from loved ones. This is a good time to focus on the little things we can do to make someone’s day that little bit better.

Pay it forward

We all know how the concept works, so let’s put it into action all around our community. For small businesses operating as usual, think about ways you can give your customers opportunities to ‘pay it forward’. Be Waxed and Tanned in River Street, Ballina have set up a simple system whereby customers can buy a gift voucher which staff can use, at their discretion, to treat a future customer to a little pampering. Little luxuries like this go such a long way. Imagine if most Ballina businesses led the way in setting up something like this to enable customers to ‘pay it forward’…

pay it Froward voucher

Consider whether your business is in a position to ‘pay it forward’. Remember, you rely on the community for ongoing business, so showing them love and support in a time like this is extremely important. Plus, doing nice things for others feels really good! Can you provide your products or services at a discounted rate, offer flood victims a meal or a drink on the house or, simply raise money in-store to donate to a flood recovery charity? At Barefruit, we’ve teamed up with Green Coast Coffee in River Street and have pre-paid for 80 coffees for flood victims. It’s the little things that make the biggest difference and your business will benefit in the long-run

 

Pay it forward coffee
Support your fellow local businesses

Our human nature is to help other people in times of need and crisis, and it’s as important that businesses support each other. Many local businesses been through tough times over the last two years, so help a brother (or sister) out and get amongst the local business community. Use local suppliers, purchase ingredients from local farmers, sell local products in-store, give local businesses a shout-out on social media, take the team out to the local café for lunch, network and offer help and advice…the ways businesses can support each other is endless but the impact of a positive, collaborative and supportive business community puts meals on our tables, keeps roofs over our heads and sends our kids to school.

At the end of the day, show kindness and support to those who need it most whenever and however you can. What goes around, comes around…

 

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BFM turns 10 ?

Barefruit is born

Barefruit Marketing was started from the kitchen table of Claire and Evan Harding. The duo had packed up their lives in London, left established careers at top advertising firms Ogilvy and Leo Burnett and moved to sunnier shores. Looking for a place to call home, they picked up a small car and headed north – a journey which led them to fall in love with the Ballina Shire. Whilst initially planning to try different career paths, their passion for sharing stories and creating content saw these Lennox locals joining forces to create their own unique business. Coming into contact with many owner / operator business owners, Claire and Evan quickly realised there was a need for a full service agency to help take these companies beyond their current reach. Claire explains, ‘We found ourselves surrounded by amazing brands, built by incredibly talented people. These people are so good at what they do but don’t have the time or energy to put into the marketing of their business to spread the word and grow their brand. We wanted to help them flourish and prosper.’ So in 2012, from the kitchen table of Claire and Evan’s home, Barefruit Marketing was born. ‘We appreciate people are busy,’ says Evan. ‘So we tell it how it is, no jargon, no waffle and no round-about explanations. From this, came the ‘Bare’ part of the Barefruit name.’ ‘As marketers, our ultimate goal is to grow business for our clients. We work hard to see them increase sales and be successful and self-sufficient. As such, we are helping businesses bear the fruits of success and this is how the word ‘fruit’ came into the mix.’ With that, Claire and Evan named the agency Barefruit Marketing. What’s more, the word play in ‘helping businesses to bare fruit’ was too perfect to ignore.

Business Growth

As the pair’s client list grew, so did their team. Today they employ approximately 14 locally-based individuals, who are able to attend to a client’s full marketing journey – from account handlers to web designers and everything in between. This is what makes them full service. ‘We are able to offer clients a local agency which is full of talent from the city,’ says Evan. ‘And as a team we find it so rewarding to see the results of our work roll out and our clients do well.’ ‘Each day we get to work with clients that excite and inspire us,’ adds Claire. ‘We are also fortunate to work on campaigns that align with our values – to be curious, real, brave and fun.’ It is this ethos that has since seen Barefruit Marketing receive many industry awards, the most recent of which was at the 2021 Ballina Shire Business Awards. Here, they won the Business Excellence in Business and Professional Services award and were Highly Commended in the category Excellence in Small Business. From councils to cattle stations, schools to solicitors keep an eye out for the work of the local Barefruit team as you move throughout your day.

Business philosophy

According to Barefruit, ‘Brands today know the importance of powerful and effective advertising campaigns. If they want to make an impact in an already saturated marketplace what they choose to advertise, how they choose to do it and why are all important considerations. Yet having a skilled and engaged team to help design and execute an impactful marketing campaign is key.’

A huge thank you to our clients, our suppliers, our community and especially our team for all the support over the last 10 years. We really ap-peach-iate it!

Here’s to another 10 years ?

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Business Communications During Crisis

It’s over a month now since our region saw the most devastating flood event ever recorded. And what an intense time it has been for our community. Our hearts go out to those affected (both directly and indirectly) and we extend our deepest gratitude for everyone who answered (and continue to answer) the call for help from friends, family, neighbours, and strangers; getting stuck in to help where it was (is) needed most.

Our local business community had already been tested and pushed to their absolute limits over the last few years with Covid, but nothing could prepare us for the tragedy of this natural disaster. The events that unfolded hour by hour and day by day were horrific and we think it’s safe to say, that those of us who had businesses left, were in complete shock of what to do next.

Check on your people

Our first move as a business, was to reach out to our own team and make sure they were safe or if they needed anything. Once the team were all accounted for, we needed to check on the other important people that bring our business to life – clients, suppliers, and contractors. We quickly assessed each of their individual situations and acted accordingly. Ranging from completely devastated to temporarily closed, and everything in between, one clear theme emerged – sensitivity, empathy and relevance were needed across the board in all business communications.

Business Communications During A Crisis

Sensitivity and Empathy

Even if your business was completely unaffected from the floods it’s likely that your customers have been affected in some way. Acknowledge the event and how your business is responding. Even if you intend to carry on business as usual, it’s not advisable to downplay or ignore the situation for fear of scaring off potential customers.
It is also imperative that your tone of voice and the language you use is sensitive to what people might be feeling and experiencing.

Relevance

Asking people to buy while they (or those around them) are in trauma and crisis is only going to do harm to your business reputation. Instead, communicate what you can do or offer to others at this time to make life a little easier. Make sure you check on all running and scheduled campaigns and pause them if you need to. Check all scheduled social media posts and decide if they are still relevant or whether they should be rescheduled for another time. Ensure that any automated communications are reviewed, tweaked, and amended to reflect the current situation. Emails that were drafted weeks ago, may not be well-received. We recommend sending out an email to your entire database acknowledging the crisis, including any information about how your business has been affected and what this means for regular business operations (trading hours, possible delays, etc) and how you intend to help the community.

A helping hand

In the best-case scenario, you would find ways that your business can help. We decided to pay all our team two full days for volunteering and cleaning up, and we know we certainly weren’t the only business doing this. It was important we got involved because we love and are part of this community and that’s what we do – help each other. We live in such a loving, caring community and we are so proud to be part of it. We are in this together now and for months to come. We encourage anyone who has yet to reach out and help, to do it. Not only is it rewarding, but it’s the right thing to do.

Northern Rivers – Our hearts are with you.

Related Tag: Marketing Gold Coast

Stay fruity,
Barefruit ?

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A Guide to Email Marketing

Email Marketing 101

We know things are crazy at the moment for our local businesses. It’s a big juggle managing staff shortages, implications to supply chains and the ever-changing regulations, but there is one thing you can do to help your business maintain sales in this time, and that’s Email Marketing.

Email Marketing is your best friend. It’s one of the most effective ways to engage and build relationships with your customers, subscribers and leads. Why? Because you’re communicating with people who have already shown interest and see value in your business offering, and because of this they are much easier to nurture and convert into customers (and sales). Email Marketing on the Gold Coast can provide that extra push to move these people from the start to the end of the consumer journey.

The Golden Rule

Email Marketing is not about you or your brand, it’s about your audience. You need to really get in the mind of your target audience and create content you know they will value and engage with. Keep things simple to begin with and segment your contact list into customers and leads.

With your leads, your communication should give them the information and tools (in a non-salesy way) to make a purchase decision. Maybe that looks like behind the scenes content, product features and/or exclusive discounts. When it comes to your customers, Email Marketing is all about nurturing the relationship and doing what you can to get the most out of their appreciation for your brand, for example, tips on how to care for their purchase, how to use it in unconventional ways, loyalty and referral programs and asking them to leave a review. Top tip: offer something of value to your readers in exchange for an action, for example leaving a review, because if there is something in it for you, there has to be something in it for them.

Email Marketing

Automation

If you have a little time up your sleeve (perhaps when you’re isolating at home ?), setting up and automating a series of emails is the best thing you can do. Create a flow that a takes a newsletter subscriber or new customer on a journey to learn more about who you are and the products or services they are specifically interested in. The automated flow means all your new customers and subscribers are regularly reminded about your brand automatically. Remember, the content in these emails must be targeted to the reader (customers and leads need different information). Mailchimp is the place to get started and there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube to help when you get stuck.

Reach your readers in their inbox at the right time, with relevant and personalised content in a consistent manner and it’s more likely you’ll make more sales. Remember, there is a fine balance when it comes to how often you should reach customers on email. Don’t be a spammer – touching base with your valuable contact list every week or two is more than enough.

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Marketing Trends to Expect in 2022

BFM 2022 Marketing Trends

2022 is finally here, and January is a great time to prepare for a good year ahead. Marketing trends for the new year have already started to emerge; here’s what you can expect to see in the world of marketing in 2022.

Have a Purpose

The focus of 2021 was supporting local communities and businesses through some pretty tough times. This has driven conscious consumerism, meaning people are actively looking to support brands that give back in some way and are willing to spend more with those that do. This year, brands doing something for the greater good are going to come out on top. Having a purpose other than maximising profits – look at brands like Arnhem, who are committed to sustainable fashion – will be the catalyst for growth.

Have a Purpose
Social Commerce

Your shop should be located wherever your customer’s shopping bag is…and that’s on their phone and, more importantly, it’s on social media. The convenience of shopping on socials allows users to use brand messages, user-generated content and reviews to make a purchase decision all in one place. So, if you’re yet to sell your products on social media, now’s the time to try.

Social Commerce
The Need for Video

Over the last two years our appetite for entertaining, engaging content has become insatiable, and with our ever-shortening attention spans, the best way to capture attention is with video. That’s why TikTok and Instagram Reels have taken off. This year, we’ll see video enter the mainstream for everyone, from small business to big brands, so start working on gathering your library of content.

The Need for Video
Own your Audience

This one rings even more true after Facebook was down for several hours on the 5th of October last year. Even though your social accounts may have thousands of followers, that data belongs to Facebook. You don’t own any of your followers, and if Facebook were to disappear, so would they. To own your audience, you must collect email addresses from your customers and potential customers to use in future marketing. Customer data can be collected through newsletter signups and value exchanges, e.g. sign up to receive 15% off your first purchase.

Embrace Localised SEO

For local businesses, your Google My Business listing is quickly becoming one of the most important marketing tools in your shed. More and more, people searching online are using Google My Business listings to research, compare and choose a business in their local area. Supporting local is on the rise and the search term “near me” is more popular than ever, so use it to your advantage.

With these top tips you’ll be on your way to smashing 2022 out of the park. Remember that trends evolve as time goes on, and we look forward to keeping you up to date on other trends as they emerge over the next 12 months.

Related Tag: Social Media Marketing Gold Coast

Embrace Localised SEO

If you're interested in our trend report and would like some help to kick-start your 2022 marketing goals send us a message below