What is the Small Business Technology Investment Boost?

As part of our commitment to ensuring you’re always informed about opportunities that could benefit your business, we’re thrilled to bring to your attention the Small Business Technology Investment Boost recently announced by the ATO.

The ATO has recognised the essential role of digital operations in modern business. To support small businesses in enhancing their digital footprint and operations, they’re offering a tax incentive.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Who’s Eligible? If your business has an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50 million, you’re in!
2. What’s the Deal? Get an additional 20% tax deduction on eligible expenditure related to supporting and digitizing your business operations.
3. Time Frame: The boost applies to expenses incurred from 7:30 pm AEDT on 29 March 2022 through to 30 June 2023.
4. Cap on Expenditure: There’s a cap of $100,000 on eligible expenditure per income year, which means you can secure a maximum bonus deduction of $20,000 annually.

What can you claim?

Eligible expenditure may include, but is not limited to, business expenditure on:
• digital enabling items – computer and telecommunications hardware and equipment, software, internet costs, systems and services that form and facilitate the use of computer networks
• digital media and marketing – audio and visual content that can be created, accessed, stored or viewed on digital devices, including web page design

Why This Matters For You

As a client of AiiMS, leveraging this boost could supercharge your digital marketing strategies and infrastructure. Whether you’re thinking of revamping your website, investing in new digital tools, or expanding your online advertising campaigns, this is the optimal time to make those moves. Not only do you receive the direct benefits of these investments, but you also enjoy a substantial tax deduction!

What’s the Next Step?

Review Your Plans: Assess your current and upcoming digital needs. It might be the perfect time to plan or accelerate certain initiatives.

Consult with Your Accountant: Ensure you understand how to best utilize this tax boost and stay within the eligibility criteria.

Reach Out to Us: Let’s discuss how we can align your digital marketing strategy with these opportunities. We’re here to help maximize the return on your investments.

Contact the AiiMS Team

In Q1 2022, TikTok was the most downloaded app worldwide across all categories.

TikTok topped Google as the most popular domain. In Q1 2022, TikTok was the most downloaded app worldwide across all categories.

Google is facing stiff competition these days – from a new search engine quickly gaining users. TikTok has already overtaken Google as the number-one app in several countries, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. What is behind this meteoric rise? And can Google do anything to stop it?

Why has Tik Tok succeeded?

User experience: The app has been built for optimal mobile use through user experience and interfaces e.g. the positioning of the button near the thumb, full-screen vertical video easy swipe up and down to the next video, etc.

Catering to short-form ‘visual’ content demands: Younger audiences prefer short form content. What was once Youtube’s forte (now Tik Tok’s) for hacks, recipes, tips and tricks. They are proving to be a trailblazer in search, social, and ads.

Favorable Demographic Of Creators : To suggest another example. Young people searching ‘What to do in London’ on Google, will often land on pages suggesting sites such as the ‘London dungeons’ or ‘Buckingham Palace’. These tourist areas, although popular, are not the fun fresh ideas that younger audiences may be searching for. Conversely, audiences can search on TikTok and be greeted with a number of videos showing a range of newly opened cool experiences available in London. These can include fun exhibitions or pop-ups. Relatability: The videos are more relatable as they are often made by other young people, rather than official pages which can come across as ‘try-hard’. Also, the fact that anyone can become a creator on TikTok gives it an edge over Google, which is still perceived as the big corporate machine.

What does this mean for small business?

According to a recent report, among all of the major social media sites, the platform with the best word-of-mouth from fellow small business owners was TikTok.

If you’re already posting short-form videos on other platforms then get them in TikTok!

Tip: It helps to run small budget ads on your videos to increase awareness and build your niche community.

Want to get your business noticed on Tik Tok?
Reach out to the team at AiiMS 1300 367 603 or reply back to info@aiims.com.au

The algorithm is key

How would you like to claim back 120% on your Google Ads and service fees or website? The government has announced a deduction of 20 per cent of the cost .

Have you wanted to amp up your online presence but haven’t had the budget for it? Well, the Australian Government is offering a pretty tempting rebate for any business earning below $50m a 120% rebate on technology. 

Small Business Technology Investment Boost

Small businesses (with an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50 million) will be able to deduct an additional 20 per cent of the cost incurred on business expenses and depreciating assets that support their digital adoption, such as portable payment devices, cyber security systems or subscriptions to cloud-based services…

Businesses may continue to deduct expenditure that is ineligible for the bonus deduction under the existing tax law. We will provide further details on eligible expenses once the law has passed.

An annual $100,000 cap will apply to each qualifying income year. Businesses can continue to deduct expenditures over $100,000 under existing law.

What you can claim back

Digital Marketing Products & Services such as:

AiiMS is a full-service digital production and marketing agency that assists in the online presence and growth of SMEs. If what you’re after is not on the list reach out to see if you’re eligible! info@aiims.com.au or 1300 397 603

Special Guest and successful business owner Michael Alayan tell us his story with Michael Alayan with Kynan Albassit

There are undoubtedly two sides to every story and that’s no different from the arguments around the merits of formal education vs what you learn outside the classroom. The answer is always going to differ depending on who you speak with, their outlook and of course where they are now.

Two schools of thought shaped who I am today

There’s a fine line between distracted and focused or disinterested and passionate and we’re told that that line separates the successful from the unsuccessful. As is the case with many students, Michael had his favourite subjects at school and those that just seemed to get in the way. Sports was a passion but maths? Not so much.

Regardless, Michael found that there was definitely a difference between “book learning” and the “social” lessons around human interaction, finding your place in the world, learning what you stand for and what you most certainly will not stand for. In some schools, these social lessons are taught gently, the rules are hinted at and missteps are overlooked. In others, mistakes like failing to set boundaries and standing firm on your principles and codes of behaviour do not go unnoticed and are vigorously addressed. From an early age, Michael knew that he had been thrust into the latter in Sydney’s inner and southwest and learned hard lessons that shaped him to be the man he is today.

That’s not where the duality ended though and the question remained: Should you try to pour all your energy into all of your classes or, if you recognise a pathway that you strongly feel you should follow, do you put your focus and energy into that? Again, Michael chose the latter… or vice versa.

Having spent time after school, working at Hungry Jacks, KFC and McDonalds from the age of 14, it was clear that the world of work beckoned more strongly than the call of ATAR and subsequent university life. With ambitions of gaining a trade and running a business, it was soon time to commit to making it happen.

Perception vs reality and the first steps along a 6-year journey

It’s almost a cliché nowadays. A wide-eyed, wet-behind-the-ears kid quickly goes from floor-mopper/dishwasher/sh*t kicker to successful business owner. The movies usually cover this story arc are about 90-120 minutes. Michael’s reality was very different – as you’d expect, after all, this is real life.

So what was real life for Michael like back then?

Basically, a year spent carrying things as a plumber’s apprentice on construction sites coupled with a day a week at TAFE as a formal introduction to the trade, codes and regulations. Year two was spent with a new employer trying to catch up on skills and knowledge that should have been trained in during year one which, again, was spent, essentially labouring. From there, mandatory Cert III and then Cert IV qualifications were worked for and achieved over the following years.

But this was by no means a spartan, one-dimensional existence. Remember, those extracurricular “social” lessons during the school years? Those, coupled with the memories of a childhood home life filled with love and the essentials, even while scarred by the death of his father, the crippling disability of his sister and held together by a tireless mother, Michael had the seeds of true leadership, persistence and drive planted within him. Seeds that would bear fruit as he took the reins of what is now an established and successful plumbing business entering its 11th year, servicing the needs of residents and businesses in and around Sydney.

But as a newly, fully accredited plumber in his early 20s, Michael only knew that he wanted to work for himself. Surely, he had stamped his ticket to financial independence, good times and reaping the rewards of hard work while being his own boss. Yes, Michael had left formal education in the school system far behind him but, as he would find out, there was still a lot to learn.

The tough transition from the back of the van to the front office

Making the transition from driving the van to driving the business is not an easy one and definitely involves more than simply counting the money. Michael was always driven by the desire to help others, solve their problems and make life easier using the skills acquired over years of dedication, focus and application. As many business owners find out, there’s more to running a successful business than that.

Michael said that moving away from the personal contact and communication with clients and customers and into brand/reputation management, logistics and project management was not something he readily embraced at first. But he had to get over that, fast, because there were yet more obstacles to overcome and milestones to surpass:

  • lifting the eyes and considering the broader leadership roles and tasks
  • establishing how to get the most out of people
  • setting operational procedure
  • “finding your business’s place in the world, learning what it stands for and what you most certainly will not stand for…”

And then there’s competing in a free market with other suppliers, reputations and the customers’ perceptions across the commercial landscape.

Leading the charge from serviceable reputation to supplier of (first) choice

They say that the only constant is change. You hear that a lot across a number of industries and with the advances in technology and an increasingly complex, knowledgeable and demanding consumer – it comes as no surprise. However, not all changes are good for consumers and one change that caught Michael’s attention a number of years ago was around “Trade Recognition”. As he tells it, most likely due to housing/property booms across both residential and commercial, the demand for trades resulted in players in the plumbing industry being rushed through the licensing process. Some were able to cover Michael’s 6-year journey to become a licensed plumber with just $5k and the completion of a single course.

Michael’s feeling is that you probably only learn 30% of what you need to at TAFE and that does not equip you to handle and solve the myriad problems, issues and challenges that are awaiting you and your client base in the real world. Now, as a result of botched jobs, overpricing for underwhelming results and a general lack of experience, customers and clients are understandably cautious and wary – which makes things tougher for legitimate and highly experienced service providers. Michael sums up by suggesting that it’s up to business owners like him to ensure that:

  • Confidence is openly backed up by experience and expertise – so talk about your successes and how your skills helped deliver a superior result
  • Social proof is on your side – therefore, pay attention to the reviews you are earning and make sure your social platforms are working harder for you by asking for feedback
  • Trust is nurtured at every opportunity – so remember to be transparent and open

As always, looking after your digital footprint can be a demanding task and a difficult one to get right. But it’s essential you do so. Michael’s advice? Find an expert you can trust that specialises in delivering the results you need.

That works for us. Thanks for stopping by Michael.

By Kynan Albassit & Janty Ayoub

Are you afraid of the dark? No? Good, it’s something most people grow out of but these days, most business owners seem to be more afraid of the light. They are scared that under the harsh commercial glare of their profit and loss (P&L;) sheet, it will come to light that their business is in trouble, or heading for trouble, or… that a change needs to happen.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, change is one of the few constants in today’s world and yes, that includes the business world. Change absolutely is going to happen but understanding how your business may need to adapt in step or ahead of market forces, will determine how your business thrives in this environment. But again, at the heart of it all, is the need to know where exactly you are, which means… knowing your numbers.

Running from reality is easier to do in the dark
Have you ever seen something shocking or disturbing or gross that you simply couldn’t unsee, or perhaps heard something you wish you could unhear? It can shake you up and stay with you for quite some time. We actively try to avoid those scenarios, don’t we?

Now, what if your accountant or a business partner revealed to you that your business was losing $100k a month, or a week, or depending on the size of the entity, a day! How much worse is that than a clip on a social channel? I’m guessing you would immediately, call a meeting, call a halt to everything, call an accountant, a lawyer, something. And there might be some pretty immediate changes and hard discussions to be had. And from there, there’ll be two distinct impulses:

  • Try to stop the bleeding immediately, essentially attempting to go from minus $100k/month or year or week, to plus $50K in the same time frame. That lofty goal requires more upheaval and strain on the commercial infrastructure than most businesses could bear – they’ll be at risk of breaking apart.
  • Take a more measured approach and act immediately to reduce the losses by $10k-20k at a time. But to achieve that, you’ll need to know your numbers (and the number behind those numbers).

How much easier would the next days, weeks and months be if you simply didn’t know about any of those shocking financial revelations and could carry on, blissfully ignorant, through the darkness for just a little bit longer? Thousands of businesses, even as you read this sentence are doing exactly that. Are you one of them? You don’t have to answer that but let’s take a quick look at some of the reasons behind the unconscious or conscious preference to keep the lights turned off.

Here’s why some business owners prefer to bask in the darkness
Sure, trying to avoid the horrible truth is definitely a reason for staying in the dark. But there are a couple of other reasons to dig into before we get to the benefits of knowing your numbers:

  • It’s all too hard. I mentioned the P&L sheet in the opening paragraph. Yes, to the uninitiated and experienced, the P&L sheet can seem complex and depending on the complexity, there can be an awful lot of numbers. My advice? Stick with it and get help if you don’t understand it – there are a lot of positive and negative indicators in there that can be a warning or… an opportunity!
  • Ignorance is bliss. Perhaps for a while, but as demonstrated, ignorance can take you from a bad spot to a disastrous one in no time at all if left unattended. Still, there are those who prefer to stay in the dark, put it off and face the music another time.
  • Knowing your numbers means knowing everything – including yourself. Nobody gets into business to get into debt they can’t get out of yet people still get into business without ever looking at the numbers! The mentality is similar to someone that withdraws money from an ATM but never looks at their balance, knowing deep down, that it may affect how they spend that money. Again, it may mean they have to… change: their plans, their spending habits, their expectations.

Whatever the reasons, it’s better to know – it is to your advantage and to the advantage of everyone involved in and with your business.

Okay but exactly why is it better to know your numbers – how does that help?
Put simply, you can’t afford to not know the numbers that count, such as:

  • Incoming gross revenue – don’t be fooled by the big numbers though, it’s all about nett profit.
  • Expenditure – how much are spending and on what… and when. The more detailed this section, the easier it is to make adjustments if you need/want to.
  • Net profit – if it’s sustainability you’re looking for, you will want to keep an eye on the direction your nett profit is heading. Staying the same is a bit like going backwards when your market, the economy and the rest of the world is moving forward. “Staying ahead of the game and your competitors” means more than simply keeping up. You can speak with our experts about ways to ensure you’re not left behind.

This is not an exhaustive list but it is a good place to start.

The advantage of knowing your numbers lays in the advanced notice of the good, the bad and the ugly of your business and where it’s all heading. All crucial to thriving in this environment of change.

3 simple steps you can take immediately to improve your business
At AiiMS we pride ourselves on uncovering the heart of the problem and getting straight to the solutions. So, here are some things you should do right now:

  • Wake Up – Face the music, look at your numbers, and know what they mean. You don’t need to make any changes straight away, just know your reality.
  • Take ownership of your numbers, don’t palm this task off to someone else, be actively involved, learn, strategy, work with your accountant.
  • Do it today, take action now, don’t wait for reality to bite, down the track.

I’m not saying, it will be easy but, having done it, you will realise that it was absolutely necessary.

A final thought. I know some of you will be saying to yourselves, “I’m not a numbers person, it’s not what I’m good at.” The answer is to enlist the services of a “numbers expert” – an accountant, a specialist in this area – that actually cares and understands your business and where you want to take it. Listen, knowing your numbers will help you make the right budgetary calls, minimise poor decisions, help you scale your business and give you some confidence around resourcing which is vital.

In other words, knowing your numbers makes your business better and that’s the truth.

Janty and Kynan are important resources within our brains trust and are on hand to help set your business up for ongoing success with the right type of guidance during these ever changing times.

By Kynan Albassit in collaboration with Microsoft Advertising

Don’t gamble with your reputation, your business or your livelihood. Calculated risks are fine but gambling, as in games of chance? No, don’t do it. Yet that’s what thousands of businesses and commercial entities around Australia are consciously and unconsciously doing every time they decide to place all their eggs in one “search” or “Ad-spend” basket.

That said, I want to urge you, as business owners and commercial decision-makers, to also think long and hard about broadening your reach across audiences that feature a higher percentage of:

  • Higher-income earners
  • Homeowners
  • Tertiary education graduates
  • White-collar workers 

In short, find decision-makers ready to make purchasing decisions.

As digital marketing experts, our reputation is built on the collective successes of our clients. One of the pivotal factors in securing, embedding and sustaining that success is understanding the advantages offered by a variety of channels and means by which your brand is amplified. By talking with us, we can help you present your business to the right audience at the right time for maximum ROI.

Back to that thought on putting all your marketing dollars in one “search” basket. Short answer – don’t do it. The slightly longer and better answer: let’s talk about the potential to power more sales through Bing and bust some myths about the network while we’re at it.

Microsoft Advertising myth-busters deliver the numbers that count!

Full disclosure: we believe deeply in the value that Microsoft Advertising brings to the marketing mix of our clients. So much so that we invest heavily, on behalf of the successful businesses we help, in Microsoft Advertising to ensure that their approach to gaining new business through new audiences is complete. And with a 17% market share among search engines, can anyone really afford not to be found on Bing/Microsoft Search?

If you’re surprised that Microsoft enjoys an almost 1 in 5 share of search, you’ll be shocked that:

  • 6 out of 7 search engines are powered by Microsoft
  • 25 – 54 years old is the primary age bracket of users searching on Bing (the search browser powered by Microsoft), thoroughly disproving the idea that only “old people” who struggle with tech use it. Myth Busted!
  • Microsoft 10 is currently installed on over one billion devices throughout the world, with the default engine being Bing, the reach and numbers involved are absolutely worthy of every business owners’ attention, interest and investment.
  • Bing is just one part of the owned and operated/syndicated Microsoft network, joined by Verizon (DuckDuckGo and Ecosia), AOL, Yahoo… the point being that Bing is not a lonely search outlier, it is a worldwide search engine powerhouse that is enjoying year on year growth. Myth busted!

To help make an informed decision about where your ad and media spend will serve your business best, glance through our guide to intelligent search to learn more about Bing.

Making an impression is fine but making a sale is even better
Simply presenting your brand, your offer, your business to a broad audience is one thing but it’s rarely enough – certainly not enough to justify your entire marketing/search budget.

If you’re truly looking to broaden your sales funnel (get more users intentionally looking at your business), you need to look at the Microsoft Audience network. There are 3 key reasons why this programmatic, native display offering that presents your ads to 11 million unique Australian users across MSN, Edge, Outlook and other third-party sites impresses us:

  • You only pay for clicks. That’s right, you’re not paying money because a searcher may or may not have noticed your ad. There’s intentionality there. You are investing in an action that progresses your audience further along your sales funnel towards a purchase.
  • Users are actually redirected to the advertisers’ page, not a third-party destination. This demonstrates a real understanding of sales focus – which is what you need and what we recommend for our clients.
  • The “native” ads integrate seamlessly into the look and feel of the site you are visiting so that you’re not yanked from your workflow. This shows confidence in a way of presenting information that speaks to searchers instead of screaming at them.

We are also impressed by the fact that independent research has shown that potential customers on the Microsoft network are:

  • 178% more likely to search for the brand they’re focused on
  • 378% more likely to consider your product or service once interested
  • 238% more likely to purchase your product

Make no mistake, these are the numbers that count and it makes sense given what we know about intent, income and the connection to users that are searching with a buyer’s mindset. In short, the quality of leads from the Microsoft network is measurably superior. That’s not a guess, it’s not a gut feel – these are facts that we would like to discuss with you to help grow your business.

Your business is your business – Microsoft helps keep it that way
When I sat down with Renee Stubbs (enterprise and partner director) and Paul Korber (AUNZ partner development director) from Microsoft Advertising during our recent podcast episode, we enjoyed a far-reaching discussion on the benefits of the Bing network for our clients. But far from being purely a back-slapping exercise, I wanted to be sure, and in turn assure our viewers, that Microsoft had a definitive stance on the hot, hot topic of privacy. Online privacy is one of those pivotal phrases that can sway an audience by association because our right to privacy and our right to conduct our business without fear of security breaches needs to be protected.

I was heartened to hear from both of my guests that privacy and trust are key pillars of the Microsoft business. Both Renee and Paul confirmed what we at AiiMS already suspected – 85% of consumers would only consider a brand if they trusted it and that goes for investment in ads, searches and of course the advice, guidance and services that we provide as well. Happily, the three of us agreed that building trust is, in fact, a long process but it can be destroyed in a moment. But by pledging to protect customer data and refusing to export and sell it, the Microsoft teams across the entire organisation (including Xbox, store, surface, advertising…) actively build and preserve trust.

Diversifying ad and media spend to maximise ROI makes sense
There is more to growing sales, profit and brands than simply being available on the off chance someone looks your business’s way. Being seen by additional audiences, audiences that tend to spend more, actively search for the products and services they want and value trust is a key consideration when investing in growth. Our advice is, and always has been, to cover off as many viable options as possible in terms of reach, connection and opportunity in your chosen market. Relying exclusively on one search engine is a risk you don’t need to take.

Take that first important step towards gaining more qualified leads for growth through smart, informed, diversification and talk with us today.

Kynan Albassit is the Product Director at AiiMS, a digital agency specialising in connecting people, businesses and brands, to power growth and profitability. Renee Stopps is the Enterprise and Partner Director at Microsoft Advertising and Paul Krober is the AUNZ Partner Development Director at Microsoft Advertising – we thank them both for appearing on our podcast.

Common mistakes that will spell the end for your business in 5 years or less

What a terrifying title but we have to shake ourselves awake if we want to recognise and learn from some cold hard truths before it’s too late.Who or what is killing our businesses?

You’re going to hear or read some pretty straight talk here because this is important and our aim is to not only support businesses but see them grow, enjoy success and make a difference.

Who or what is killing our businesses?

You’re going to hear or read some pretty straight talk here because this is important and our aim is to not only support businesses but see them grow, enjoy success and make a difference. But let’s focus for a moment on a telling statistic published in last year’s “Small Business Counts” report from the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO):

65% of small businesses survived over the reported 5-year period. Great. But 744,525 other small businesses disappeared beneath the waves. That’s right, almost three-quarters of a million small businesses failed.

So, the shocking reveal is that oftentimes, it is actually the business owners themselves that are leading the race to the bottom and why? It’s because of their reactions to two factors:

  • Guidance or advice
  • Change and the challenge of adaptability

This conclusion is based on our combined 30+ years of experience consulting with, managing and growing accounts in the digital business environment. Our experience means we can also provide some useful insights and tips to help you avoid disasters related to these two factors. Firstly…

If you don’t learn how to listen, you’ll learn how to fail

“Guidance” is a wonderful word because if we feel, as businesspeople, leaders or technicians, that we have guidance or are being guided, achievement and success is just around the corner. Here are three ways guidance can go wrong:

  1. Listening to poor guidance. This is the most obvious and so it’s both surprising and disappointing when this occurs. People will offer advice and guidance and they… well… have no clue what they’re talking about. They’ve never helped a business succeed, they’ve never run a business, it’s guesswork, cliché and BS. Pro tip: be polite, filter it out and move on.
  2. Mistaken identity. With all due respect to accountants, generally, asking them about achieving broader reach or online traffic would be a mistake. They will tell you what worked for them in their business but that doesn’t mean that their 5 -star rating for bookkeeping will raise your ratings from a 4 to a 5. Horses for courses, as they say.
  3. Not listening enough. Yes, listen to everyone. The challenge though is to realise what’s useful, redundant or simply not relevant. The same is true of guidance. Pro tip: speak to as many people as possible about your challenges around your industry, your business and even your products and/or services. Be interested but more importantly, be discerning. Not all of what you get will be useful or right or relevant. You’ll need the wisdom of experience to tell which is which. But yes, if you have the option of “playing your cards close to your chest” and speaking to only one or two trusted advisors or getting a broad range of opinions from a large and diverse group, choose the latter. Remember, you can learn as much from a wrong answer as a correct one – wisdom and experience are the keys.

Try this today – Every time you seek or receive guidance, feedback, opinions or reviews, identify at least one useful takeaway that you can use to improve your business. Here’s what you’ll need:

  1. Thick skin – not everything you hear is going to be positive. That’s life and that’s the truth. Use the useful stuff, discard the rest but stay resilient and realistically optimistic.
  2. Open ears – if you are closed to feedback it will show in everything from your attitude, your inaction and reactions. Listen to everything, hear the relevant pieces and action the important items.
  3. An “actionable item radar” – there will always be something positive you can apply from every interaction. Seek and you will find.

Adaptability makes all the difference when change occurs – and it will!

We’ve already agreed that misusing or ignoring guidance is every bit as fatal to a business as failing to adapt to change.

So, let me just jump in with a Pro Tip spoiler alert: if you do not recognise and respond to the waves and winds of change that are constantly reshaping the business landscape (proactively or at the very least, immediately) your business will not survive. Harsh but true!

But what kind of change are we talking about?

The 3 changes that can kill your business – if you let them

Okay, we know that there are many changes that can shape the environment in which we all operate but it’s how you manage those changes and how we plan for those changes that determines your fate. Going back to the early 2000’s I’ve seen three clearly-defined categories of change that affect businesses:

1. Customer influence and opinion

At no time has the balance of power been more skewed in your customers’ favour. With the advent of an ever-increasing range of social media platforms and the ability to post, publicise and share opinions through ratings, customers can remotely cement a business’s reputation – for better or for worse.

Pro-tip: lean into this. Listen to what your customers are saying. Engage with them and if by chance you get a bad review, work as hard you can to ensure the next five are brilliant. This tells people that you are listening and that you have their best interests and satisfaction in mind.

2. Customer expectations of products

Recognising that customers consume product differently today than the way they 5 years ago is another important step in “change-proofing” your business. People like rapid service but they love convenience. There was a time when people would purchase a pie, circle back for a drink and then maybe a bit later, grab a dessert – something like that. In today’s market, if you can offer an all-in-one tradies lunch (pie, drink and cake) with some sort of loyalty token thrown in, you’re actually matching and maybe exceeding customer expectations. Cue a 5-star rating, a like, a comment and maybe a share. Again, the world has changed and the rules are adapt or disappear!

Customer expectations of user experience/customer service
Once upon a time, most shops, vendors and service counters could get away with asking for cash payments and today, believe it or not, there are still some businesses out there that won’t take on EFTPOS payments. They refuse to adapt for whatever reason and it’s costing them – daily, hourly, every minute.

Consumers want flexibility and options, what options are you offering them? Are presenting quotes, do you offer finance, product bundles?

Pro tip: take a step back from your business and ask, how am I meeting modern customer expectations?

If you fail to adapt, then this and the next generation of your customers/clients, which is only ever 5 years away, will choose to go where their preferences and needs are accommodated. Letting all this slip – along with your business is all too easy and there’s a price to pay.  BUT getting on top of things by learning these lessons around guidance and adaptability will set you up for future success.

Janty and Kynan are important resources within our brains trust and are on hand to help set your business up for ongoing success with the right type of guidance during these everchanging times.

Lock & Roll is a part of the Alchin Long Group which is the parent company of leading global hardware brands including Doric, Cowdry & Azuma.

With offices, branches and distribution networks across the globe. AiiMS created a pathway to tackle the digital world and set out to rapidly expand the fleet across Australia.

The Problem
 Lock & Roll services Sydney across the window and door industry. They’ve always looked for new opportunities in the marketplace, they’ve tried it all in terms of marketing they’ve gone into local papers, magazines, trade shows, franchise expos and advertorial. Their biggest challenge was not being able to tangibly see how their campaign was performing. Their previous attempts were a shot in the dark and needed a more strategic approach.

Our Approach
Our strategy was to increase brand awareness and website traffic through organic and paid search campaigns by strengthening existing SEO strategy and building a targeted Paid Search Campaign through Google and Bing ads.

First stop, build a custom website that featured:

  • High-end development and functionality
  • Consideration of user experience and target market through high-end UI/UX Design
  • Brand strengthening design
  • Device responsiveness to all devices including all phones, tablets and desktop
  • Lead generating features and call to actions to create a site that actually converts!
  • SEO compatibility
  • Custom and fresh copy and content
  • Custom Code (NOT a template)
  • Strong site architecture
  • Custom photography & video throughout

Second, was to set up and establish SEO along with Google Ad Campaigns that allow us to achieve:

  • An increase in volume of leads whilst decreasing ad spend and cost per lead with Gooogle Ads
  • An increase in relevant organic traffic through SEO to 1000 impressions /month

Visit their website lockandroll.com.au

Campaign Results
Lock & Roll’s journey with AiiMS in the last 18 months has been tremendous in regards to growth and especially ORGANIC growth. Their growth through our online strategies and implementation of social platforms has resulted in a strong foundation. This all came about as the client’s trust for online marketing grew through careful monitoring of their website and campaigns.

We’ve set up tracking tools to monitor the performance of every strategy that we implement – from Phone Tracking to Email Conversion being pinpointed to the exact customer’s profile and their search term. This allows Lock & Roll to continuously grow as they know what results to forecast for every month as they increase their investment in online marketing.

“Working with Lock & Roll has been a great experience for me. Dom the General Manager who has over 15+ years of experience in his industry and trialled many marketing strategies – Online and Offline such as Newspapers, Magazines, Email Marketing, Online Articles, Facebook, Google, etc. His knowledge and experience from learning from all these different marketing ventures opened up discussions on What Lock & Roll required to build an effective website and marketing strategy that can be tracked to pinpoint the funnels of success. This relationship has also educated me on a lot of the difficulties and limitations faced by even a well-established business in their industry. There is always room for improvement and growth!” – Ravi, Client Experience Manager at AiiMS

“I’m wrapped with current engagement with AiiMS, to grow as close as we have, it’s like a family you know you have your ups and downs but you know at the end of the day there’s a common goal and objective. From my point of view, having someone like AiiMS that cares about our business and responds to our needs and listens to what we’re planning for the future of our company as well as the need at hand to accelerate our growth, development & progress, that’s what makes the partnership work. That said make sure the partner you engage with is somebody that has your interests at heart.” – Dom Galluccio, General Manager at Lock & Roll
 

Watch Dom’s interview about Lock & Roll’s growth with AiiMS… 

Over the last 14 months, we’ve consistently delivered quality results. Over 310% growth in total revenue, 333% increase in booked jobs and 1069% increase in total calls November 2019 vs. November 2020. And that’s just the beginning.

Two brothers from Sydney decided to start a pest control business. Still, they faced a common struggle that most small businesses suffer from, to generate and convert enough leads to keep the business alive.

Our Approach 
We hit the ground running with creating a high converting landing page, and hyper-targeted ads campaign targeted to pest control in their service locations. Since Sydney Pest Crew started with AiiMS in Nov 2019, their business growth has been exponential.

Campaign Results 
The Sydney Pest Crew Brothers were delighted by the results they were able to achieve within a short period! Ten months into their campaign, they decided to elevate their strategy and online presence by building a full custom website that translated into their brand, mission and values. You can visit their website here.

“The success we have with our clients work only when the advice given is deployed correctly and the communication channel is open and honest. Shady from Sydney Pest Crew is an excellent example of this; our upfront and honest ideas have allowed us to optimise the online marketing strategies to gain amazing growth. We will not stop in offering new ideas to improve and grow his business constantly.” – Gurkan, Client Experience Manager at AiiMS

Having powerful online assets including a landing page, custom website, paid search campaign, an organic social media following along with a robust Google My Business profile with positive reviews that reflected nothing but their fantastic service. They can now tackle the digital jungle and gear themselves up with enough tools to navigate it further and get to the top of the food chain.

Ending 2020 on a high note, they converted 100 jobs in Nov/Dec. Their work ethic and drive for success along with a winning formula was the best recipe to achieve what they have so far. Here’s to a bigger and greater things Sydney Pest Crew Bros! 

“I have used AiiMS for the last two years for two of my companies, and they have been nothing but professional and responsive in all my requests and work overtime to attend to the needs of my business. They have helped expand my businesses greatly, and we couldn’t be any more grateful for the work they have done for us during this time! Thank you AiiMS!” – Shady, Sydney Pest Crew

Visit sydneypestcrew.com.au

Watch Shady’s interview about Sydney Pest Crew’s growth with AiiMS… 

Need a hand with your business strategy?
Get your FREE 30 min Business Strategy Session and Chat to AiiMS on 1300 397 603 or e-mail us at info@aiims.com.au.

Mark & Julie, owners of Techmark noticed a gap in the market for support and electrical installation service for automated blinds awnings, shutters & curtains.

As you can already probably see, their business is incredibly niche. Their business was in great need of a REAL and EFFECTIVE marketing strategy and realised word of mouth could only go so far. They needed to get in front of the RIGHT customer that brought in high-quality leads that brought in revenue for the business.