Hello
Hello, it's Joh here.
Thanks for joining me for Issue 2 of The Marketing Muster. Welcome to all my new subscribers π.
I've got some great links for you this week, including an excellent move by Australia Post and a Standing Ovation going out to a clever team for their brilliant pandemic pivot.
Did you see the recent changes to the Google app suite of icons? It's been a bit divisive. I thought this was an interesting take by a designer.
I hope you're enjoying The Marketing Muster. I'd love to hear what you think.
If you missed last week's inaugural issue, you can read it in the archives.
Have a great week.
Standing Ovation
IsoKing by Stagekings
This week's Standing Ovation goes to the team at Stagekings for their pandemic pivot masterclass, IsoKing. Founded in 2015, Stagekings is a well-respected custom stage building company that was set for ongoing success in 2020. But then, almost overnight, their entire industry shut down.
When a global pandemic cancelled live events, the team at Stagekings saw their pipeline of work disappear in an instant. Where many would have been within their rights to despair, Stagekings used the creativity they're known for to develop a new offering utilising their existing talents and equipment.
With rapid pace, they launched a range of simple, but beautiful work-from-home desks; the perfect product for a population making an unexpected move to working from home.
Why I love it:
- They used their existing talent and equipment in a new and unexpected way
- They developed an interesting product to fill an emerging niche
- They used the power of PR to tell their feel-good story and raise product awareness
- They're using their success to support industry colleagues
Since their initial design, the IsoKing range now includes laptop stands, shoe racks, picnic desks, wine racks, device holders, puzzle boards and more recently, Christmas trees.
With IsoKing, Stagekings not only saved their business but also increased their workforce giving jobs to many out-of-work event freelancers. And they're donating a portion of their sales to Support Act, an Australian charity providing crisis relief services to artists, crew and music workers.
I'm looking forward to seeing the continued success of IsoKing and the resurrection of Stagekings as the industry starts to get back on its feet.
Breaking News
Australia Post encourages use of traditional place names
I love this! Australia Post has gotten behind Gomeroi woman, Rachael McPhail's campaign to include traditional place names on post items by including it in their addressing guidelines. I will try to include traditional place names on all the mail I send from now on and have added Kaurna Country to my address details.
If you're an ecommerce business, can you add a traditional place name field to your check out form so your buyers can easily include it?
If you want to know the traditional place name of the place you're sending mail to, you can check out the AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia.
Insights
Boost your holiday sales and revenue
If you run an e-commerce store, make sure you read this great list of ideas to boost your holiday sales and revenue by the team at WordStream.
7 must-dos for holiday promotions
Now is the time to be planning your Christmas and holiday promotions. This handy list of must-do tips from Jay Baer will help.
Website Wisdom
The ultimate SEO tutorial for 2020
If you're trying to get your head around the whole SEO thing, this tutorial by Brian Dean at Backlinko will get you sorted. It's an easy-to-follow and incredibly thorough explanation of things you can do to improve your website's performance in the search engine results.
Tools
Free publicity opportunities for small businesses
Have you heard about SourceBottle? It's a free service connecting journalists, reporters, bloggers and writers with expert sources. It can be a great way to get publicity for your business by being an expert source on a relevant topic. You can sign up as a source, or follow SourceBottle on Twitter.
Happenings
Women in business fee-free online program (NSW only)
If you're a woman in small business in NSW, you might be eligible for this fee-free TAFE course. It covers a range of business skills and features stories from some of Australia's leading entrepreneurs. I'm not in NSW, but I'll keep an eye out for similar courses in other states. Let me know if you see anything in your area.
My News
Check your contact details
This week, a local take away shop lost my business all because of a typo in the phone number they had listed on their Google My Business page. (I've since spoken with them and they've fixed it right up... sadly by then, I'd already ordered from their competitor down the road.)
So here's a quick tip you can action today:
πDouble-check your contact details on all your online listings.π
Where can people find your contact details?
- Google My Business?
- Facebook?
- Instagram (check your Linktree links if you use it)?
- Twitter?
- LinkedIn?
- Any other industry directories (e.g. TripAdvisor, Zomato etc)?
Do it today.