Markisol Blinds Australian digital marketing. This campaign was so highly rated by the client that it will lead the way for their entire Global strategy.
Firstly was the brand strategy working with the client on understanding their customers. We boiled them down to 3 key segments: DIY wanting information, DIFM wanting inspiration and Commercial wanting to know that big jobs can be supplied.
Secondly was the Markisol Blinds website development. our challenge was to create a balanced site between the 3 segments, but also bring the brand in the 2020’s. Along with this we had to satisfy the corporate needs of the site. The DIY section contains a product catalogue with direct links to their key retailer Bunnings.
Finally was the establishment and kick start of their 3 social channels – Facebook for DIY, Instagram for DIFM, Pinterest for Commercial.
Welcome to Magoombi – a Shopify site using AliExpress and Oberlo to drop ship golfing attire and accessories. It is aimed at the club golfer who doesn’t take the sport (or themselves) too seriously.
For those new to Drop Ship – it is a system of selling product without holding any stock. Basically you buy from a wholesaler who picks, packs and sends you order to your customers on your behalf. The difference between what you sell to the customer and what you pay the wholesaler is your profit margin. Basically you run the sales and marketing, the wholesaler does the rest.
We normally build sites upon WordPress and Woocommerce – due to the flexible and myriad of solutions. However Drop Ship is something that the Shopify platform does extremely well. It directly links to Oberlo and AliExpress (both collections of wholesalers). Thus you just need to pick the products that you want to sell and add them to the store. You can have a drop shipping site set up relatively quickly with Shopify. In fact we were quite amazed with how simple the process was.
A common question that we are asked: “What product should I Drop Ship?” The answer is always the same: whatever you are passionate and/or knowledgable about. The reality is that due to the low barriers to entry for Drop Shipping – competition is fierce in most sectors. So you need to create a point of difference that is not solely price based. One of the best ways to do that is to become an expert in the field and develop a high degree of trust with your audience. That trust can be gained by Blog posting, Social media and just helping people out with their questions. Thus if you are already passionate and knowledgeable about a topic, you have a head start.
Do you due diligence. Look at competitors and what price they are selling their products at. Look at sectors of the market or geographic regions that they are not targeting so well. Keep up to date with all local tax laws.
Most importantly – just have a go. It coudl become a handy side earner for you. Shopify has plans starting at around US$30 per month + transaction fees. At the time of writing, this equates to just over AUD$50 per month inc GST. Shopify also has a free trial period if you want to “dip your toe in.”
If you want more advice or need help setting up or managing a Shopify Drop Ship site, feel free to Contact Us.
Tiny Barns was one of our all time favorites to work on. There is a groundswell of people wanting to downsize or minimise their living space.
The project was briefed as a landing page focusing solely on product, ie. images of barns. We weren’t happy with the direction, then a bolt of lightning struck us. What sells these barns/homes is the people and their stories. Downsizing, minimalism, a seperate residence to look after an elderly family member. So we helped to shift the entire marketing strategy and business focus to be customer driven, not product driven.
This booking site for Edgbaston Wellness and Medispa was a site redesign and rebrand for new owners who wanted a fresh, clean look. The brief was to add functionality:
Dynamic Website
Mobile Responsive
Newsletter
Booking appointment system
Blog
Live Chat Integration
Gift Card integration
Advertisement space
Contact page integration with all the enquired in backend
Basic SEO and organic page ranking
Ability to upload pictures and files
The first step was to have a good chat with the customer about their business and what their aims were, how they were going to differentiate, who their customer was and how they were going to market to that customer.
There was then a collaborative process of choosing a site structure that could be adapted to achieve the clients needs. I recommended 4 different structures, with the chosen one being my final recommendation. I chose this structure because the code is ultra tight. Meaning its lightning fast (even on mobile), not bogged down by an unnessary amount of javascript and extremely user friendly. It also had a freshness and aesthetic to it that met the clients brief.
Images were ultra important – as they are for most sites – to convey the right message to the customer, explaining what the services are.
I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t want to add the slider on the front page – but the client won out on that discussion. I find sliders to be a bit cumbersome to the most important part of the site – front page above the fold. Plus they dont really do anything, except delay the customer to getting to the information that they want. But that’s my rant and like I said, the customer won out. Note that in the end, I didnt add the slider to the mobile version- it was just useless.
We added all of the functionality to the booking site, some highlights:
Booking appointment system
This took a bit of tinkering to get it exactly right for the customer. It’s a real time booking system where customers can see the available spots, in 30 minute increments and book a time to suit. The front desk staff then have instant access to be able to view the booking, assign resources (such as rooms and equipment) to it and extend the time if the consultation requires it. They then contact the customer to confirm.
Booking site live chat
For this, we set the customer up on Chaport. This chat system is easy to use and has an easy to install and configure plugin/widget to accompany it. They are currently on the Free Plan
Gift Card Integration
We used YITH Gift Cards for this. Easy to use and set up. A very powerful selling tool for the clients business. These gift cards are delivered digitally to the customer. Some really cool features:
You can set a delivery date in advance – eg. Birthdays
You can add your own designs and messages
You can send to multiple recipients – sort Christmas out in a flash!
Dollar amount or percentage amount
Notifications – eg that the recipient actually got it!
Can be printed physically – if that is your thing
QR codes for simple implementation at store level.
Ability to upload files and pictures in the booking site
This is a really clever one for a booking site. We used a plug in that can be added anywhere on the site to allow the client or the customer to upload files (such as consent forms) and images (such as before/after). We then linked it with the clients cloud storage of choice.
Basic SEO and organic page ranking
Our basic SEO package which included:
‘Long Tail’ keyword research with recommendations and opportunities. Ie extensions similar to the main key words.
Blog suggestions based upon key words
Image optimisation. Renaming images with key words
Website title and description
Bing verification
Development of Site Map and ping Google/Bing
Page by Page analysis with SEO scoring including meta descriptions – Using “Yoast SEO”.
Taxonomy strings and Breadcrumbs
Social Media linking
Google Analytics, Adsense linking
Page speed
Mobile friendliness
Develop a “My Business” account
If you wish to get a booking site done for your business, contact us or fill in a quote form for us to get quickly back to you.
This finance website is what is known as a Hybrid site – the combination of a website and an app. Developed on WordPress, the client has the ability to manipulate the website and the app quite easily. We also recommended and provided web hosting for the client on Australian servers. The first step of the process was to transfer 2 domain names over to the hosting, then redirect old URL’s to the new ones.
As a bonus we also developed a sub landing page site for the client. They wanted to highlight the category of “Supply Chain Finance” and had already secured the domain name supplychainfinance.com.au. So instead of a regular wordpress page for supply chain finance, we created a landing page and linked said landing page to and from the main site.
The build also came with a Basic SEO package: 1) Keywords 2) Google My Business 3) Search Console and Analytics 4) Image optimisation 5) Meta titles and descriptions 6) Social Media Linking 7) Site map
Gabriels Tiles: The client was operating in a highly competitive environment (selling tiles) in a low profile warehouse (not subject to passers by) surrounded by competitors in better locations who were also destroying them online. The previous website had its good points, but it was cluttered, slow and had a confused purpose – it was trying to be everything to everybody. Solution: The client was focused (like all of their competitors) upon product. After talking to the client, it became far more apparent that they were a service. Full Stack Tilers – if you will! So the strategy changed to positioning themselves as an end to end service. Given that this made them unique, the right keywords naturally just fell out for them to target. Some of the implementations were: Front page restructure with a clear focus, with call to action deals. All direted toward a key phrase.
Image optimisation
Site reduction – ie getting rid of unnecessary pages and posts
