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3 things Melbourne businesses can do right now to help themselves

Sep 7, 2020

The recent news that Melbourne would be in lockdown until late October sent most of us into a depressive Sunday slump and I was not immune to that! Let’s say the sunny Melbourne Spring Sunday started off with an energetic HIIT workout and a lovely stroll but ended with me eating apple pie from Cobb Lane in my safe space – on the couch binge watching Netflix.

But today here I am showing up for my business and thinking of ways I can help my clients. So I’ve put together these three tips on how you can immediately help your business and your own customers – because that’s what we have control of at the moment here in Melbourne – helping each other.

1. Get social

Even I am guilty of not being good at this but we all know how important it is. I’ve promised myself to step up my social game and you can too.

Firstly, identify the platform that most of your customers are hanging out on – this could be Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok or even Twitter. Then spend time on that platform finding and following your ideal clients. Find the hashtags that your audience use and make sure you use them yourself. On Facebook, find groups that your potential clients would hang out on and start participating in those groups, offering advice and tips.

Be sure to like and comment and reply to posts. This tells the algorithm that you are an active and a contributing user which helps to get your own content more visibility.

Make sure that you providing valuable content and not just mindlessing selling. People engage more with meaningful posts and ones that they can relate to on an emotional level.

Regularly review your engagement for each post to see what works for your audience and what doesn’t. Then keep posting content that works for you!

2. Solve problems for your client

Now’s the time to get creative and think outside of the box.

How can you add value to your clients right now?

Maybe you are a services based business like a hairdresser. Right about now I bet a lot of your clients are craving a new colour. Mix up colour kits and hair care kits for your customers and deliver them. Record a video tutorial on how they can apply the colour for the best results. Then create more videos on how they can get the best out of their hair whilst not visiting the hairdresser. Most people are working online from home on video calls so still need to look presentable!

Perhaps you are a beauty retail business. How about make up tutorials to look your best on zoom? Or perhaps a skincare regime for wearing face-masks? Then offer product packs to compliment your tutorials. People want easy answers to their problems during this time and if you can offer that then you are one step ahead of the rest.

3. Improve your digital real estate

If you don’t have a website, now is the time to get one. People are spending more time on the internet than they ever have right now. A website for your business is like a shop front that gives you visibility to that foot-traffic. Say someone sees you on Instagram and they want to know more about you. Where do you think they are going to look? Your website.

If you cannot afford a website
I get it, money’s tight. Have you reviewed the many grants available to business at this very moment? Check out Business.vic.gov.au to view the business support fund which has been extended until 14th of September. Alternatively, if you do not qualify for any grants, you can try doing it yourself with all in one builders like Wix, Squarespace or Shopify (commerce).

Already have a website?
Great so how is your website performing for you?
Perhaps it needs a little TLC:

  • make sure it is optimised for mobile user experience
  • ensure your socials are connected and that people can easily share your site
  • give it an SEO audit and check that keywords are being used on all pages and that you are using alt tags on images

Spend some time to plan content for your website for the rest of the year and aim to publish a blog post once a fortnight consistently. This is a great long term investment for your site. Writing great content that is relevant to your audience will get you more visitors over time. Publishing regularly gives you credit with Google as it rewards websites that provide fresh and helpful content.

IS YOUR BRAND SERVING YOU ?

Let’s take a deep dive into where your brand stands right now compared to where you want it to be in the market.

I’ll give you some real-life solutions to help you get there.