Chamber Toast to Business Success

The Northern Rivers Review has featured us in a story about the announcement of finalists in the NSW Business Chamber's Northern Rivers Regional Business Awards. We are very excited to be recognised as finalists in the category of Business and Professional Services.

We are finalists, alongside 129 other businesses across 7 of the LGA's in the Northern Rivers; Tweed, Byron, Ballina, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley. The formal awards night will go ahead (fingers crossed) on Saturday, 23 October, where winners in each category will be announced. Winners will move onto the State awards, where they'll compete against 12 other regions across NSW and Sydney.

Related Tag: Marketing Gold Coast

Read the full article here.

 

Byron Magazine features Barefruit’s rebrand of BayFM

It was exciting to see that the local Byron Magazine ran our story on the pro-bono work we recently completed for not-for-profit, community radio station, BayFM. We completed a rebrand to help strengthen the brand and increase funding for the station which was near closing down.

The new branding is the result of an 18-month collaboration and sees the inclusion of the station’s home of Byron and was rolled out across all brand assets including a new website. Barefruit Marketing’s Co-Founder Evan Harding says,

“It was decided that to change the station’s name was a step too far, so the logo was simplified to be more digitally friendly, flexible and to include the world-famous name ‘Byron’. The brand’s fonts, colours, and images were all recreated for today’s digital world.”

Read more about the project here.

Byron Bay’s iconic radio station BayFM gets a rebrand and a facelift

bay FM rebrand and logo

Barefruit has recently supported iconic and not-for-profit community radio station, BayFM, as part of a pro bono project to help launch its new brand identity and new position as a digital platform.

The Brief

The long-standing radio station, established in the early 90s, sounded the alarm bells as funds were reaching a record low in February last year. With the station just weeks from closing, the business identified the need to strengthen the brand and increase funding and that’s when creative agency Barefruit Marketing Byron Bay acquired the project.

The new branding is the result of an 18-month collaboration and sees the inclusion of the station’s home of Byron. Barefruit Marketing’s Co-Founder Evan Harding says,

“It was decided that to change the station’s name was a step too far, so the logo was simplified to be more digitally friendly, flexible and to include the world-famous name ‘Byron’. The brand’s fonts, colours, and images were all recreated for today’s digital world.”

Bay FM bumper sticker
The Rebrand

The rebrand includes a black and white logo, collateral featuring a vibrant and fun colour palette, and a new website, using phrases such as ‘Listen like a local’, ‘Tune In. Chill out. Sign Up’ which is very much in line with Byron Bay and its culture.

Barefruit Marketing’s lead creative, Alex Wales, worked closely on the project with NZ-based designer Dan Mercer together with Nick Richardson and Nick Mercer from BayFM, for over 100 hours of donated time to develop the brand as a digital platform to attract new advocates and reach current supporters in better ways.

Evan Harding continues,

“We believe that good business drives good community, and Barefruit was in a unique position to help BayFM. Over the past nine years, Barefruit has worked with a number of not-for-profit organisations and both founders are board members of charities, giving them pro bono access to some great minds and creative services. In every instance, we’ve seen extraordinary results and our partners are thriving more than ever before. These success stories affirm our belief that pro bono work done properly can help transform businesses and organisations."

Bay FM website banner
Happy Clients, Happy Days

BayFM’s Nick Richardson comments on BayFM and the experience of working with Barefruit.

“We really dislike asking agencies to work pro bono, because we know it costs them to provide that work. But the fact of the matter is BayFM simply had no money. It’s an independent, volunteer-run station and receives no ongoing government support. Knowing this, the Barefruit team jumped in to help without hesitation and without charge, giving us more time and better service than we could have hoped for.”

The website is now live – bayfm.org and all other launch elements are in the process of being rolled out this month including signage, ads and stickers.

See our work...

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

Spend your End of Financial Year budget wisely…

We know the end of financial year is fast approaching. If you have some cash available in the budget, now’s the time to spend it. Most accountants will be asking you to look for ways to buy assets that minimise your tax for this year’s return. But spend it wisely… do you really need that snazzy new coffee machine for the office? Make sure your hard-earned cash is put into something that will bring you more, like investing in long-term marketing strategies that will pay off over the next financial year.

Here’s our take on spending your remaining FY21 budget to bring wins to your business.

Save $$ on media spend

The EOFY sales extend beyond retail. You can secure some great rates by purchasing media spots at this time of year, especially if you buy in bulk. If you’re thinking of running print ads in a local publication, why not purchase spots now for the next 6 to 12 months and secure yourself a deal. Same goes for radio, digital and TV.

Save money on media
new website

Invest in a new website

If you’re not already online, you need to seriously consider this to get ahead in the coming years. People are buying, connecting and sharing online more than ever before. Set your business up in a way that takes advantage of online behaviour. This could be a great time to refresh your company website, set up an online store or build a new site from the ground up. Your website is an asset that will serve your business into the future.

Pimp yo’ ride

If you’ve got a company vehicle, use it to its full potential…this is valuable, moving, real estate. Car stickers and wraps are an excellent tool to increase your brand awareness while you’re on the move. If you’re a tradie, builder, personal trainer, cleaner, allied health worker, home care provider (the list can go on), pimp up your company car –  sign writers might have some good offers at this time of year.

car wrap
social media campaign | Kookabox

Think of future promotions

Get organised for the year ahead and order promotional merchandise in advance. We’ve all experienced the rush to get flyers or a batch of business cards printed before a deadline. No one needs that stress. Consider what you’ll need in the lead up to Christmas: cards, product brochures, postcards, stickers etc. When it comes to events, what collateral will you need to grab the attention of consumers from the get-go; new signage, flyers, branded samples etc.

Polish up your marketing collateral

The beginning of the new financial year is a popular time for businesses to bring changes into effect. All marketing collateral will need to reflect any changes. Polish up your email signature, business cards, Web Design Byron Bay, campaign material and social media content so that they work together to deliver the same message.

Integrated messaging

As tax-time draws near, consider your marketing needs for the new financial year and what you could get organised now, rather than later. Giving a little love to your marketing will help business bare fruit.

Unsure where to start?

Leave your details and we’ll get in touch ?


See our work…

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

Marketing, even when you’re crazy busy

Juggling Marketing When You're Busy

Our region has been so fortunate to have had so much business recently. We’ve heard that many local businesses have been overwhelmed with demand. Considering how difficult 2020 was, this is an amazing place to be so soon after. Whether you’re crazy busy with high demand, expanding your business or working towards getting back to pre-COVID times, marketing is always important.

Marketing does help drive sales, and so much more than that. So even if you think you’re busy now, you’d be taking a big gamble to let it slide from your business strategy. The Northern Rivers has been flooded with visitors, and your marketing tells these people why they should consider you. Without these messages, your competitors will be thanking you.

In It to Win It

If you’re not in the game, you can’t win. Good marketing makes consumers think of you first when they need the product or service you offer. The brand awareness, interest and desire for your brand will impact your sales positively, no doubt. Keeping up with social media, traditional advertising, emails, digital marketing, SEO (whatever forms your strategy) keeps your brand in the forefront of consumer’s minds. If you drop your marketing efforts, even from just one channel, your competitors will already be ahead of you. Vying for consumer’s attention is a competitive game, so you must always play if you’re serious about growing your business.

Slow and Steady

It’s hard to keep up with marketing when you’re busy but you can’t let it take a back, or even a side seat. Consistency always wins. Right now is a great opportunity to put long-term marketing strategies in place to drive awareness and sales for the future. With a surge in domestic travel and people moving to the area, you can expect to see business steady all year round and your marketing efforts need to reflect this. You’ll need to continuously communicate with visitors, the locals and the new people arriving in our area. Businesses that never stop marketing experience a forward-momentum situation, like a train getting faster and faster along the tracks. Don’t slam the brakes on your marketing when you’re busy - doing so could slow down your sales in the future. To maintain sales (and to grow them!), be consistent.

Always Communicate

Tactics such as social media marketing, email marketing, print, TV advertising and PR help you tell your brand story. The more you communicate value to consumers, the more they consider you a voice of authority in the industry, especially if you’ve got something interesting, valuable or different to say. In 2021, brand activism is extremely important to influence purchase decision-making, so tell your story and communicate your brand’s personality to consumers.

Having a long-term strategy and consistency in your marketing activities helps you compete against your competitors, maintain and drive sales in the future and grow your business. To keep moving forward, don’t stop what you’re doing.

Related Tag: Marketing Gold Coast

How to write a Press Release

We’ve all been waiting for it, and finally 2021 is here. Over the holidays Lennox has been buzzing with visitors. It’s been fantastic to see local businesses being supported after such a trying year.

Success stories are popping up all over the place and if that’s you, it should be part of your marketing strategy to tell people about it. Social media is great at spreading awareness, but a story in the media, whether in a newspaper, magazine or on the TV or radio is unparalleled. Getting your story ‘published’ is the best form of word-of-mouth marketing you can get. We refer to this as ‘earned media’ and it is more trusted and credible to the viewer than ‘paid (owned) media’ as it is seen as unbiased. Naturally, people get talking and before you know it, you will hopefully see an impact on your business in terms of customers and sales.

When something newsworthy happens, let the media know about it by sending them a press release. Journalists are busy bees, so when writing a press release, there is a bit of a recipe to follow to make their life easier.

  1. A Strong and Informative Title

The title is the first thing the journalist will read, so it must clearly describe your story, grab attention and not be too long. This will become your email subject when you send press release out to publications. If it’s boring, the email won’t be opened.

 

  1. Your Subheading is Everything

Journalists receive hundreds of press releases, so don’t have time to read them all. Write a sentence or two that sums up your story and this will become your subheading. Make sure you answer all the Who, Where, When, What, How and Why questions.

 

  1. Talk about the Important Things First

Your press release is not an essay. Like a news article, you need to include the most important and relevant information towards the beginning. When you’ve done this, you can go into more detail, adding quotes and interesting facts about your story.

 

  1. Include Photos with People in Them

Send photos (with people in them) along with your press release. Photos make things more engaging for readers and helps them relate to your story. By including a variety of photos that are captioned, you’ll give your story a better chance of being published.

 

  1. Quotes are important 

Boost the credibility of your story with quotes from the business owners, customers, members of the community…whoever is relevant.

 

  1. Your contact details

Often, journalists will want to get in touch to organise interviews, take photos or learn more. Include your contact details, so they can get in touch.

 

  1. Boilerplate

Appearing at the bottom of every press release, is an outline of your company, products, services, awards and website and social links.

 

And with that fine-tuned recipe, you’ll have a press release ready to send to publications. Happy writing !

Related tag: Digital Marketing Byron Bay

 

Should I Outsource Marketing?

Barefruit Marketing Meeting

Here are 5 reasons to outsource your marketing in 2021 and beyond.

Do you need a marketing team but can’t quite justify bringing on full-time staff? Even if you already have a marketing team, perhaps you need more time for high-level strategic and creative thinking. Maybe you need additional expertise and resources for a one-off project or other elements of your marketing plan? Businesses, small and large, outsource their marketing activities to agencies to do more with less resources.

With more and more businesses outsourcing their marketing, let’s look into why it’s such an attractive option.

1. Access to expertise, resources, technology and unique perspectives
1. Access to expertise, resources, technology and unique perspectives

By working with a marketing agency, you instantly increase your resources and capabilities for your business. Gone are the days of having an idea and not being able to execute it to the standard you’d like. When you bring on an agency to look after your marketing, you absorb their experience and expertise, as well as the technology and software they use. Agency employees are experienced in creative thinking, looking at the bigger picture and by being outside of the internal business, they bring unique perspectives to business solutions.

In-house marketing can be great, but usually you end up with a team who are all-rounders because you need them to do lot of different tasks. Agencies are able to provide businesses with people who are specialists in a particular area. Need a new brand video? An agency will have a videographer and a video editor. Need an ongoing digital campaign? An agency will have someone to look after your social media, someone for your Google Ads campaigns and someone else for your SEO strategy. These people are all experts in their field, so you know you’re getting the best of the best.

When you outsource your marketing, you instantly have the tools and the people to make your ideas come to fruition

2. You’ll save money
You'll save money

In-house marketing teams are expensive, not to mention the cost of the equipment, hardware, software and materials required to do the job professionally. When you consider the time invested in finding the right person for the job, recruitment, training and salaries, in-house marketing is quite a big investment. The average annual salary of a Marketing Manager in Australia is $90K (and that’s just for an individual). Instead, when outsourcing, your business can receive the support and expertise from an entire team of marketing professionals (top-level strategists, copywriters, creative directors, graphic designers, digital marketing experts, web developers and account handlers) for much less. Plus, an agency gives you flexibility; it’s up to you how much you want to invest, whether it be on an ongoing- or project-basis. 

3. Get things done, and faster
3. Get things done, and faster

We get it, running a one-man show is a lot already. Employees and business owners, especially in small business, are often stretched for time, fulfilling their day-to-day responsibilities and operations. This leaves no time for strategic thinking, creative concepting, development and production of campaigns, let alone urgent advertising deadlines and ongoing digital marketing Gold Coast.

Sometimes it can take time to get the ball rolling on campaigns and other marketing activities when you’re doing it all yourself. If an order comes up or you’re slammed with organising a market day stall, we know your promotional efforts will slip down the list of priorities. The thing is, they really shouldn’t, especially when you are busy. When you don’t have the time, an agency does, and the promotional activity will become a constant. In turn, you’ll increase your sales and revenue at a constant too.

4. Analysis and Reporting all done for you
Reporting

It’s one thing to run a campaign and engage in marketing efforts, but it’s another thing to analyse performance. Arguably, one of the most important stages in any marketing activity is the analysis of how it performed. Understanding consumer engagement and drawing insights from the data collected will inform future marketing direction and reveal the-all-important Return on Investment. Unfortunately, there is sometimes not enough time to pick apart the data in an in-house marketing team, which is why outsourcing marketing activities can really be valuable for businesses.

Ultimately, it’s better to get the experts in to analyse the data, especially when you don’t know what you’re looking for. Further to this, some analysis tools that agencies have access to are expensive and difficult to use without proper training. We’re not saying you can’t do it, not at all. However, it’s probably more convenient and resourceful to leave it to someone who knows what to do.

5. Strategic Direction
Strategic direction

Agencies are constantly reviewing their campaigns and investigating data because it’s in their best interest to execute successful campaigns for their clients. Analysis also informs how a campaign can be improved for the future, which in turn informs strategic direction.

Business and marketing strategy go hand-in-hand. Agencies work with many different businesses to, ultimately, help the business grow and this can involve high-level strategic direction. If you’re pressed for time or feel like you’re not sure what needs to be determined when it comes to business strategy, an agency can really help. They’ve got experience with helping businesses across all industries, and they do it all day, every day.

All in all, we’re all for outsourcing marketing, no matter the size of the business. Whether it’s handing over organic social media management to an agency or having them concept and execute TVC and radio advertising. Gaining access to a team of experts who are highly experienced across many different services at a lower cost than hiring one to two internal marketers is enough reason in itself to get in touch with an agency.

Indigenous farming on offer at Wollongbar college

Barefruit assisted North Coast Community College with the launch of their new Primary Industries Training Centre. This involved creating media buzz to generate free publicity. Our PR strategy involved sending out a press release to the media before and after the event to engage local publications. The Byron Echo, followed up our press release with an article about the new training centre in Wollongbar.

The Echo's focus was informing the public about the indigenous aspect of the new, unique Cert. III qualifications. It's a first for our local area, and perhaps one in the State (who knows, maybe even nation-wide). The collaboration between North Coast Community College and the DPI extends also to the local indigenous tribe. The new qualifications all have a Cultural unit, taught by Cultural Trainer, Tracy King. She said, ‘As a Bundjalung woman with cultural connections through kinship throughout the Bundjalung Nation, I am very passionate and a firm believer in Aboriginal cultural and heritage values to use as a tool for future generations’.

You can read more this project here.

 

 

Northern Rivers Food – Event Management

Northern Rivers Food

Event Management

Save the date golf event

the brief

Northern Rivers Food hold a Golf Day each year to raise money for their organisation. Due to COVID-19 implications, Northern Rivers Food were not going to hold the event this year, until Barefruit offered to organise it. The goal was to organise the event, working with local food businesses and attract around 40 – 50 players. This was a fantastic opportunity to connect with another industry and build relationships for future business.  

Goody Bags for NRF Event

our response

With a six-week lead time, the priority was to find a venue and to contact local food businesses to ask if they wanted to sponsor and/ or contribute to the day. Byron Bay Golf Club agreed to hold the event and provide catering for late lunch and Barefruit became the major sponsor of the event. Northern Rivers Food wanted to provide ‘goody bags’ for each player and award prizes at the end of the day. Organising this involved reaching out to local food businesses and collecting donations of product. Over 15 companies donated product for the goody bags and prizes. 

Barefruit was also involved in advising how to promote the event as well as designing a digital invitation and social media content. Stone and Wood sponsored the event with a ‘Bar on the Green’ at hole 18. A keg was set up under a marque, accompanied by baguettes from The Bread Social and cured meats from Salumi for players to enjoy.

Goody Bags for NRF Event
Inside Goody Bag
Invitation for Golf day

the fruits

The event, held on Friday, 13 November was a great success. We attracted 54 players, who played in teams of 4. This was 4 players extra than the 2019 event! Goody bags for each player included donations of product from Brookfarm, Cape Byron Distillery, Dona Cholita, Tweed Real Food, Santos Organics, Extraordinary Foods, Mt Warning Spring Water, Northern Rivers Food and Barefruit Marketing. The Stone and Wood bar was a hit, enjoyed by all.

We were particularly proud of our Barefruit Marketing lunch bag which was part of the goody bag. We included an orange, flyer, branded pen and orange scorer in a brown lunch bag, sealed with a Barefruit sticker. 

Northern Rivers Golf day Event
Stone and Wood Bar at Golf Day
On the Green

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    Far North Coast Creative Agency Rebrand Financial Services Firm

    September has been an exciting month for Barefruit. Another one of our client projects has been recognised and featured by B&T Australia. Korff Wealth, formerly known as Yellow Brick Road Wealth and Management, Northern Rivers approached us with a rebrand brief at the beginning of the year. It was interesting timing, with Australia heading into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic mid-way through strategic and branding conversations. However, Korff Wealth saw this as an opportunity; with the current economic climate, Australians are looking for expert financial advice they can trust, more than ever. Considering, it was the perfect timing for a strategical review and rebrand of the business.

    Read more about the project here.

    Related Tag: Advertising Gold Coast