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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Lismore City Council
Lennox Centenary

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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Lismore City Council
Lennox Centenary

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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Lismore City Council
Lennox Centenary

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

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Lismore City Council
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Australian Seabird and Turtle Rescue

Australian Seabird & Turtle Rescue - Rebrand

 

Australian Seabird & Turtle Rescue logo
Australian Seabird & Turtle Rescue - logo variants
Australian Seabird & Turtle Rescue - before and after

Background

Originally Australian Seabird Rescue (ASR), the company was formed in 1992 when the late Lance Ferris discovered that 35% of Ballina’s pelicans were injured by fishing tackle. He discovered that pelicans in other major estuaries throughout NSW were suffering from the same fate. Now a volunteer organisation, Australian Seabird & Turtle Rescue (ASTR) operates branches along the NSW coastline, with volunteer members rescue and rehabilitate seabirds, shorebirds, sea turtles and sea snakes.

ASTR approached Barefruit with a vision to update their branding to something that is more representative to what they do. It was also an opportunity to bring their brand up to date with an identity that is modern and appealing to all audiences.

 

The work

Creating the ASTR brand identity was a fun process, which began with mood boards and different directions to choose, however it came down to a very simple artwork that incorporates a turtle, seabird, sea snakes, the sun and ocean all in one using very simple line-artwork.

The new identity is a holistic update from the previous logo, we kept the primary yellow brand colour, which works really well with the new secondary colour palette. The yellow is also bright and draws attention as an emergency rescue operator, and we have managed to combine the multiple identities they had for turtle rescue and seabird rescue into one.

The finished logo is also a great talking point for children of all ages for educational purposes too and will remain as a unique identity that is also wearable for locals, supporters, workers and tourists.

Related Tag: Logo Design in Australia

 

ABST colours
ABST brand guide
ABST stationary
ASBT-Shirts
ASBT-Bumper Sticker
ASBT-uniform
ASBT-Signage Wall

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    Kerrect Re-brand & Website

    Kerrect - Re-brand & Website

     

    Kerrect Logo
    Kerrect Business card

    Background

     

    Kerrect is a unique service with skilled professional rope climbers and maintenance staff that can access and install safety netting and access points on buildings - they are the go-to experts for working safely at height without scaffolding. Kerrect came to Barefruit with the aim of refreshing their brand identity, website, creating a new strapline to stay ahead of its competitors and to modernise their look and appeal for today’s purposes.

     

    The work

    The new logo evolved from utilising some of the old logo elements to create a stronger concept and brand identity that can be used in today’s digital world and on physical applications such as vehicles, netting on buildings, business cards and uniforms.

    The logo features lines to represent ropes, and uses the primary red and black colours of the brand to stand out amongst their competitors. The lines are positioned above the typeface to represent the safety netting and protection at height. Using a clean geometric sans font the brand identity is modern, approachable and professional.

    As part of the brand process. we also developed a new strapline for the business that really specified what Kerrect is and does - the strapline needed to be unique and ownable for the business. The original strap was “Safety at height” but Kerrect do more than just that, therefore, it evolved into, “Protecting your people and assets at height." The new strap really captures the core value of the business and what the achieve on a daily basis, making sure people and any building or business assets are always safe and protected whilst caring out their height defying work.

    Barefruit also designed and developed a new cutting-edge website that was unique to Kerrect and what they do. We created a slick black themed website which made their primary colour 'red' really pop, and especially when used with unique parallax scrolling effects in the background, Kerrect now have a creative looking website. Parallax scrolling is a special scrolling technique used in website design where background images throughout a site move slower than the foreground image when scrolling. This creates a two-dimensional look and feel to the website and is accustomed to the way users behave nowadays - scrolling through feeds and pages. The whole website is fresh and up-to-date featuring areas for video or image based content with room to grow their portfolio projects. The navigation is also very simple to use on mobile and desktop and focuses on their user goals to enquire for one of their services.

    We are proud that the overall brand re-fresh has given Kerrect a big jump ahead of its competitors.

     

     

    Kerrect brand guide
    Kerrect website

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    Kerrect Van 2
    Kerrect Uniform

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      Richmond Valley Council

      Richmond Valley Council

      Print Collateral

      Richmond Valley Council

      Brief

      Richmond Valley Council first approached Barefruit to design a booklet that would help educate households in a fun, useful way with information about waste avoidance and how to dispose of household waste correctly.

      The work

      This was a fun and educating project for our team and the project had plenty of elements that required illustrations and intricate design work. To make this booklet fun, playful and inviting, the design relied on illustrations to help explain waste avoidance practises and processes.

      Our graphic designers on the Gold Coast create custom illustrations and graphics combined with a simple colour coordinated layout so readers could easily find specific information quickly. The booklet also included a tear-out calendar that had information on specific bin collection days as well as bin stickers to help households organise their waste easier.

      Richmond Valley Council also entrusted Barefruit with the organisation of printing 8000 booklets on an environmentally friendly 100% recycled stock that would help reflect their environmental values.

      Richmond Valley Council Waste Avoidance Booklet
      Richmond Valley Council Waste Avoidance Booklet
      Richmond Valley Council Waste Avoidance Booklet
      Richmond Valley Council Waste Avoidance Booklet
      Richmond Valley Council Waste Avoidance Booklet
      Richmond Valley Council Waste Avoidance Booklet
      Richmond Valley Council Waste Avoidance Booklet

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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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        Lismore City Council
        Lennox Centenary

        North Coast No Space for Weeds

        North Coast No Space for Weeds

        Print Collateral

        North Coast No Space for Weeds

        Background

        No Space For Weeeeeds is part of the North Coast Local Land Services, they aim to increase awareness of weeds within the community, encourage people to understand weeds and know how to report and control them correctly.

        The work

        North Coast No Space for Weeds (part of North Coast Local Land Services) approached us to design some print collateral to run alongside their "No Space For Weeeeeds campaign. The aim was to help promote awareness of weed identification and prevention in the local community. They were attending the annual PRIMEX event (Australia’s sustainable farm and primary industries exhibition) and was in need of a six-page A5 fact sheet flyer to hand out to event attendees with information on how to prevent spreading weeds from one location to another.

        As part of their weeds awareness campaign, they requested our graphic design services to revamp their existing annual weed awareness calendar to not only reflect their branding but to also have a clean, modern look and feel. This calendar was to be distributed to local farmers within the North Coast to help with the identification process of a particular weed and provide solutions on how to treat and prevent the weed from spreading.

        No Space for Weeds Calendar
        No Space for Weeds Flyer
        No Space for Weeds Flyer
        No Space for Weeds Flyer

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          How to Use Instagram for Your Small Business

          how to use instagram for small business

          With 2022 now in full swing (we can’t believe it either!), it's time to talk how you are going to best use your social media presence to support and grow your business.  To make the most of customer's attention (and pocket), your business needs to be visible, attractive and engaging for customers in spaces where they spend most time. Yes, a shop front in town will do just that, but don’t forget where many of us spend hours of the day scrolling…Instagram. And so, here’s a few top tips to help you get the most out of your Instagram in the next few months.

          Engage your community

          Use the additional features on Instagram to create experiences that your customers can interact with. We’re talking polls, quizzes and interactive GIFs, as well as Instagram Live, Reels and Stories. When you engage and ask your followers for their voice, opinions and ideas, you start to build trust and transparency, as well as getting great feedback you can use to up your social game.

          Go Live

          Instagram Live opens up a whole new level of user engagement. Brands can showcase their products or services, demonstrate in-real-life use, discuss the production process – you can talk about anything in great detail which creates really valuable information for customers. Users that join the Live can pose questions and make comments in real-time, creating an authentic brand-customer experience you can’t simulate anywhere else.

          Engage your community
          Video is everything

          Video content is everything on Instagram and you must use it showcase your products or services in fun, engaging and authentic ways. Product shots just don’t cut it anymore, so hit the record button instead. The beauty of Instagram Reels is that you can use trending edits and music as inspiration which not only makes the creativity part much easier, but also boosts your video’s chance of reaching a much wider audience. Don’t stress about not having all the tech skills, your smartphone and the editing software in Instagram is all you need. And the more ‘real’ you can be, the better.

          Video is everything
          Word of mouth

          You need to tell everyone about your new business. Your friends, your family, neighbours, local publications, radio stations, competitors, other businesses, the community etc. Write a press release and send it to the local publications, invest in print and digital advertising, be present on socials and use your customer service skills to set yourself apart.

          And with that, you’ll have launched a brand that is set up for success. But, of course, the hard work has only just begun.

          Related Tag: Advertising Gold Coast

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          What clients are saying

          It was great working with Jennica and Claire from Barefruit Marketing. They really took time to understand my project and delivered amazing ‘pitch’ / media release to appeal to journalists and media corporations. I felt comfortable sharing my ideas, and they were able to capture my vision and marry it to their expertise. Would highly recommend.

          Alex Bosin

          EV Classic

          I'd like to say a huge thank you to Claire and Charlotte from Barefruit Marketing who have helped me in the last couple of months to pull this amazing media event together. The agency has offered their services on a pro bono basis, I am so grateful for the work they have done. Claire and Charlotte have been my unconditional support crew to lean on for advice and ideas, and I am excited about how our relationship will move forward in the next few months.

          Kate Kempshall

          North Coast Community College

          I have been using Barefruit for my SEO and website development for Behind the Barrel. The best part about Barefruit is your're not just getting the attention of one of their staff members. The whole team works together to help bring the best possible outcome for your business marketing. I highly recommend Evan and his team if you want to take your business marketing to the next level.

          Jarryd

          Behind the Barrel

          The Barefruit team is always friendly, helpful and very professional. They have taken the time to understand our business needs and develop a effective strategy to grow our brand.

          Andrew Illingworth

          Tweed Coast Holiday Parks

          Just want to say a HUGE thank you to each and every one of the team for the website. You all went over and above and most certainly went above my expectations. I'm extremely happy with it (been bragging a bit about it just quietly) and couldn't have done it without you all. Thank you for bringing this to life.

          Trent Chapman

          Prevent Consultants