Having a fully interactive and mobile friendly website is a must for today’s small businesses especially in regional areas. A website enables small businesses to put the customer at the forefront of their business. The customer can decide when they want to view your services and products. They might want to shop or look for services at 3 in the morning after their shift at the mine has finished or on a Sunday afternoon after a busy week at work.

Regional small businesses in the Central Queensland area provide products and services to many customers from country areas around Rockhampton, Gladstone and Bundaberg. These customers can’t always get to your shopfront within normal business hours but they can search through your list of services or products at a time that suits them.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics advises that in 2011* the number of Central Queensland households who have access to the internet in their homes are:

• Rockhampton Regional Council – 69%
• Bundaberg Regional Council – 67%
• Gladstone Regional Council – 73%
• Central Highlands Regional Council – 71%
• Banana Shire Council – 68%

These statistics are heartening for any small business within the Central Queensland area. We can see that potential customers are online and internet savvy. Not having a website means that a business in this area is missing out on the opportunity to connect with many potential customers. This same information can be applied across all regional communities.

A website serves as a place for a potential customer to explore what your business is about and what it can do for them in the future. They can review your products online and contact you if they have specific questions.

Having a website for regional businesses makes very real business and economic sense. People working on properties, at mines and on farms can’t always get to town but they can still see what your services are and details about your products. They can browse your products outside of normal operating hours … on the weekend or after hours.

Noon on a Saturday is when most regional businesses close their doors for the week until starting the new week again on Monday morning. Have you ever experienced having to turn customers away because it’s closing time? Well, you don’t have to close the doors of your website. An online site can be visited anytime of the day or night. People can look at your website instead of going to your shop because it is more accessible.

* Figures from the 2011 census. These figures will have increased each year.

Whether your business is just starting out or whether you’ve been established for generations, marketing is a must. And marketing in regional communities with their economic downturns such as in the Central Queensland region is more important than ever. Smart marketing (not expensive marketing) can give you the edge to succeed in any economy.

1. Determine your brand
   A brand is much more than a logo. It encompasses everything people see, hear, think and feel about your business. It tells your potential customers a story about you and your business. Is your business a family friendly business, located firmly in the local community? Do you want to portray your business as being old and well established or new and edgy? Once determined, your brand should be represented in your website, your brochures and every piece of written material such as your business cards.
2. Know your customers
   Identify who your target market is. Who do you think would buy your product or service? Is it newly married couples? First home buyers setting up their house? Retired couples? Women? Men? Children? You need to take the time to determine who your customers are so that you can make sure your website design, your branding, your advertising and your slogans and content ‘speak’ to your customers.
3. Advertising
   Once you have identified your customers you can tailor your advertising to your customers. Advertise in a ‘bespoke’, ‘boutique’ way. Don’t advertise like a big business with a one size fits all approach to promoting your products and services. Take the time to tailor your ads to your customers.
4. Take advantage of your current customers
   Your current customers know your products or services. You have already converted them to your business. They are now potentially your best advertisers. Connect with these customers through social media or an e-newsletter and encourage them to forward information and promote your business to their friends and family.
5. Promote community events
   On your Facebook site or website, share community events that reflect your business values. You might like to let your customers know about great things that are happening throughout the Gladstone Libraries or a school fete that is coming up in Rockhampton. By sharing these community events, people associate your business with a positive community event. It implies that your business is concerned about local people and local events. In turn the libraries and schools will see that your business is supportive of them and they and their customers may support you in return.

Many small businesses have been up and running a good while before they start thinking about branding and marketing. Of course, with the 101 things small business owners are faced with on an everyday basis this is understandable. However it is important not to underestimate the importance of good branding.

What is a brand?

You might have a great logo but that is only part of your brand. Everything about your business is your brand:

• The name of your business
• Your staff
• Uniforms and office furniture
• Colours that you use on your signs
• Your sponsorship and support (such as sporting teams or community activities)

Your brand is essentially the set of ideas your business stands for in people’s minds. Visually this is seen such as through a logo, staff uniforms and office layout and location your brand is also shaped by your actions as a business. A successful brand will help differentiate you from your competitors, build loyalty, increase traffic, create brand advocates and help connect people emotionally to your business.

Creating your brand

Before you embark on building your brand presence you need first to spend some time thinking about the fundamentals of your brand. Considering the following questions will help you define your brand.

• What is your purpose as a business?
• What are your businesses core values?
• Who is your target audience and what are their needs?
• What do your customers think when they think of your business?
• What differentiates your business from that of your competitors?
• And most importantly, what is it you want your customers to think when your business comes to mind.

The great news is you don’t need a huge budget in place to build your brand. You will however need to invest some time and thought.

Marketing your brand

Think about the tone you use when you write, how you interact on with people on the phone, what things you post on social media and what visual images you use. Remember all of this is a reflection of your business and your brand values.

Try using your ‘About Us’ page on your website to give customers a feel for the people behind the business. ‘Meet the team’ or ‘behind the scenes’ can give a face to your business and help people build an emotional connection to your brand.

Be consistent with your visual style, use the same fonts on all of your written materials. Link your logo in with any products or services you advertise and use your designated business colours throughout all of your activities from the business premises through to staff uniforms. Everything should be a reinforcement of your brand.

Customers should see your brand colours and immediately think of you and your business.

If you are a small business social media can grow your business and your profits.

There are lots of different social media platforms – Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram to name just a few options. It can be confusing knowing which social media platform to invest your time into.

Not all types of social media are suitable for all types of businesses. However, Facebook is one social media platform that is suited across all small businesses. Once you become experienced with using Facebook you can decide if you need to add other social media platforms such as twitter or LinkedIn.

According to Business Insider Australia as at April 2015 there were approximately 13 million Australian active on Facebook each month and Australians are some of the highest Facebookers in the world. Every day there are 10 million Australians are active on Facebook, of which 9 million are on a mobile device.

According to a Nielsen report, the latest Australian stats showed on average, of those that have discovered new information on Facebook, 60% would go on to learn more and about 35% of people who have discovered a business or product on Facebook would share that with their friends.
 
The main benefit of having a Facebook page is that your customers can help do your marketing for you. If you appeal to your existing customers they will share your posts with their friends and followers.

Starting up a Facebook page may be daunting but the potential for growing your business, expanding your customer base and making more money is just as vast. However, a Facebook page does not run itself, you have to put time and effort into running your page to reap the rewards.

As a website developer, I find that developing and designing for yourself is often one of the hardest projects, after all, you are your own worst critic. Some of the most talented design agencies I've had the pleasure to work with have had some of the most dull websites and portfolios, as the saying goes, a 'builder’s home is never finished' (and as the son of a builder, I can attest to that!) 

Then there are other agencies that have it all sorted! A clear style and branding to their business and a stellar quality website. However these companies generally have higher overheads, additional staff for internal communications and marketing which all costs money and needs to be paid for by their clients.

We are a small, busy team and often as a result we put our own projects to the bottom of the list resulting in our own work often never being completed. Our website has been one of them. The more I’ve been working with small businesses over the years, the more I find this similarity, the business’ priority is dealing with their clients and customers, providing their front line product or service (as it should be) and leaving their own business and brand to the bottom of the list, resulting in poor or little promotion of what could be a top quality business.

When working on a client’s website, we are often in the fortunate position of essentially forcing a client to stop and focus on their own business. When asking them to supply website content, we discuss their brand and the image that they want to portray to the world. It forces them revisit and take stock of what their company is about, how they see their design and their branding. We even take photos of their business or the image they want to portray and weave this into their website. This whole development process often reignites an old flame that may have been close to extinguishing - and we like to see that drive for success rise to the surface of our clients. 

Developing a new website or re-invigorating an old one is not just about platforms, downloads and location maps. It is about working together with a small business to create a presence and face for the business. It is about making each small business an online individual with a space that proudly and passionately says who they are.

We are passionate about our role in helping small business grow and we enjoy working with them.

So you have your new look website. You’re proud of it. It has loads of information on your products and your wonderful customer service plus it looks fabulous.

Now comes the hard part. How is anyone going to find your website? There are now millions of websites. Gone are the days when people could go to Google and type in a topic or product they were seeking and up would pop your website. These days you have promote your web address at every opportunity you get.

Some very simple ways that you can use to start promoting your website immediately are:

• Create a Facebook page
• Purchase Facebook ads
• List your website address on everything
  • your business card
  • stationary
  • Front of door or building
  • Brochures
  • Direct mail pieces
• List your website address in your email signature block
• Donate time or resources to a charity – negotiate for them to promote your website
• Sponsorships – if you sponsor a sporting team or charity

Promoting your business is a never ending task. And promoting your business website is also a continual process. Learning how to advertise your website is all about starting, getting feedback and adjusting your tactic.

For many people this is the first week back at work following the festive break. While we may still be trying to get the sand out of the car and have yet to pull down the Christmas decorations, January is often a quiet month that gives us the opportunity to reassess our business accomplishments (and areas of concern) from 2015 and focus on 2016. 

Assess your Christmas activities

If Christmas is one of the major sales times for your business, now is the time to measure your Christmas efforts. Review which products and services performed well and which didn’t. Did you have enough staff to handle the increased Christmas traffic? Make heaps of notes and KEEP THEM! You will need to refer to them before next Christmas. 

Lots of marketing people talk on and on about ROI … What is your ROI? … Were you pleased with your ROI? 

ROI stands for Return on Investment – basically, did the hard work and money you spent in promoting your business / service / product pay off? 

Plan to attract new customers in the new year

Go mobile. Customers are searching for products and services from their mobile devices, now more than ever, and we can be sure that the percentage of mobile searches will only increase in 2016. Do you have a mobile site? Could you sell more products and services online? Get on social media. If you aren’t already using social media to market your business you need to start this year! If you are, consider adding one new stream to your efforts. Create a Facebook page, Google+ community, a Pinterest or Instagram account to add to your digital marketing efforts.

Update your website. Leaving a website sitting there with no updates or changes is the same as building a retail store and never updating your products or displays. There’s no point to driving traffic from Facebook or Google Adwords to your website if it’s old and out-dated. You’ll lose those online leads very quickly.

Do a little housekeeping. Is the contact information on your website current? Google yourself, is the information found online correct? Going over some small business housekeeping items will keep you organised and productive.