Affordable city locations winners for interstate migration

Affordable city locations winners for interstate migration

Tens of thousands of Australians are prepared to move cities in their hunt for affordable housing, according to Propertyology’s analysis of the latest population data.

The Great Australian Dream is alive and well with the latest data proving that people are prepared to uproot and move to make that dream a reality.

Sydney

Sydney’s strong population growth was mainly due to overseas migration however, some local residents were opting for more affordable city regions.

The biggest gains from interstate migration were Camden (5,531), The Hills Shire (2,044) and Liverpool (1,068).

 

Sydney’s median house price will always be eye-wateringly high but it’s clear that more wannabe property owners are prepared to compromise proximity for affordability.

There’s a pull towards Sydney’s more affordable areas like Camden and Liverpool. On the other hand, there appears to be a push away from locations that are attracting the highest proportion of overseas migration (areas like Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Parramatta and Georges River).

There continues to be a lot of hype about Greater-Sydney’s 101,754 population increase in 2016/17. In isolation, one might be forgiven for associating strong population growth with popularity. Breaking the data apart suggests otherwise: 83 per cent of Sydney’s total population growth (84,684 people) was from overseas migration while a further 17,943 people migrated away from Sydney last year to another Australian location.

Melbourne

Melbourne’s biggest gains from interstate migration were Casey (6,051), Wyndham (5,255) and Melton (3,844). These are outer-suburbs where affordable houses are readily available for families. Australia’s second most expensive city has a median house price sitting at $828,000.

The locations with the biggest gains are outer-suburbs where affordable houses are readily available for families. Conversely, Monash (which had the largest population loss to internal migration) is one of Melbourne’s more expensive pockets. Propertyology’s suspicion is that migration away from Brimbank and Dandenong is related to car manufacturing job losses last year.

Brisbane

Greater Brisbane is made up of only five city councils, all of which were beneficiaries of positive internal migration last year. The biggest gains from interstate migration were Moreton Bay (5,110), Ipswich (3,223), and Redland (1,237).

Interestingly, Brisbane City Council (officially Australia’s largest council) was the smallest beneficiary with only 846 people from the 17,426 total interstate migration to Queensland.

52 per cent of Queensland’s population reside outside of the state’s capital.

Perth

Greater Perth’s population growth of 20,085 last year was well down on the 40,000 to 50,000 annual growth between 2007 and 2013.

9 out of the 30 city councils which make up Greater-Perth actually saw overall population decline last year.

Perth’s biggest gains from interstate migration were Wanneroo (1,402), Serpentine-Jarrahdale (1,311), and Armadale (1,227).

Several years ago, Perth used to be one of Australia’s most expensive cities but the soft property market has improved housing affordability; this is a factor in the decision-making of many interstate migrants.

Adelaide

While Greater-Adelaide’s total population increased by 8,623 over the year, 6,115 existing residents migrated away.

Of the 18 city councils which make up Greater-Adelaide, only 3 produced a positive figure for internal migration last year; one of those (Walkerville) was for only 9 people.

Propertyology is a Brisbane-based buyer’s agency and (national) property market research firm. As the only company in Australia to correctly forecast Hobart’s resurgence before its current boom, Propertyology help everyday people to invest in strategically-chosen locations all over Australia. The multi-award-winning firm’s success includes 2018 winner of Buyers Agency of the Year in REIQ Awards For Excellence and being a finalist in the 2017 Telstra Business Awards. To find out how we can help you invest, contact us on 1300 65 40 70 or email here.

social media

Where And When Are The Best Times To Engage With Social Media?

Social media has moved to the front seat of many PR and marketing strategies. Many groups and individuals engage with social media on a daily basis, and when done correctly it can immeasurably boost a brand or message.

One of the biggest challenges presented by social media is knowing the perfect time to engage with users. Some strategies suggest engaging in the morning and afternoon, before and after the audience is focusing on their jobs or day-to-day business. Other strategies prefer relying on social media during the day when people are more likely to be looking at a device.

Some people may ask why it matters – isn’t it more important that the message is out there? But research has found that social media users are more susceptible to messages when they are feeling more positive, and positive and negative emotions have been directly linked to a person’s location and the time of day.

A recent study conducted by the University of Melbourne, the Victorian Government and the University of Tasmania combined social media such as Twitter and big data analytics, and tied them to real time and place which provided insights that suggested optimal social media engagement.

“Each tweet is tagged with the time it’s posted. Tweet sentiment scores can also be averaged across specific periods, such as hour, day or month. Beyond the general positive effects of parks compared to built-up areas, we found some general patterns that show people tend to be influenced by the time they are tweeting.

“Across the day, from lunch to the end of the work day, people tended to express less and less positivity, before bouncing back in the evening. This change seems to mirror general schooling and working life – that is, how people experience and recover from their work.

“Similarly, there is a general pattern of people being more positive on weekends than weekdays. While this pattern is similar for both parks and built-up areas, parks seem more positive than built-up areas regardless of the day of week.”

You may recall earlier in this piece a reference to location also being a factor in social media receptivity. After analysing 2.2 million Tweets in Melbourne, the researchers found people in parks are more positive than those around areas like major transport hubs, and that tweets in parks contain more positive content than in built-up areas.

For built-up areas in general, negativity is often associated with major transport hubs, perhaps unsurprisingly, and residential areas.

It’s important to note that the study was conducted to illustrate the importance that open spaces like parks have on human wellbeing, but it also revealed some illuminating insights into when people were typically more receptive to social media engagement.

“Hundreds of millions of people around the world use Twitter for updating their family, friends and followers about their daily activities, thoughts and feelings. People sometimes post public tweets that are linked to the location they are sending from. The words in each tweet can be analysed for their emotional content (referred to as sentiment).

“Sentiment analysis categorises each word as positive, negative or neutral, to give an overall score for each tweet. We averaged tweets across the parks that they were posted from, to give an overall positivity/negativity score for each park.

“On average, tweets by people in parks express more joy, anticipation and trust, and lower levels of anger and fear, compared to tweets by people in built-up areas. Being near parks also reduced negativity, but did not affect positivity.

“People might be happier in parks for several reasons. Parks can help them to recover from the stress and mental strain of living in cities, and provide a place to exercise, meet other people, or host special events such as music festivals.”

When you have a story to tell, it’s important to know when people are listening.

References to research were sourced from an article on The Conversation by Kwan Hui Lim, Dave Kendal & Kate Lee. Read the full story here.

The Conversation

Screen Shot 2018-05-11 at 11.24.13 AM

Adobe’s 2018 Digital Marketing Trends Are All About CX and Tech

Marketing’s transition from art to science continues to gather pace with top-performing companies almost three times as likely as their mainstream peers to have invested in an integrated, cloud-based technology stack.

Econsultancy’s 2018 Digital Trends report, published in association with Adobe, is based on a global survey of 12,795 marketing, creative and technology professionals in the digital industry across EMEA, North America and Asia Pacific. 

One of the most important takeaways from the report is the impact of marketing technology infrastructure, or tech stack.

The reports showed that while just over one-in-ten respondents have “a highly-integrated, cloud-based tech stack” those that do are almost three times more likely than their mainstream peers to outperform competitors (25% vs. 9%).

The bottom line is the nature of a company’s technology infrastructure can make or break its attempts to provide an optimal experience for customers across a growing number of channels and touchpoints.

Despite this, organisations are most likely to have a fragmented approach with inconsistent integration between technologies, an unsatisfactory state of affairs indicated by 43% of company and 48% of agency respondents.

A lack of integration reduces the chances of providing a seamless customer experience. It can also be frustrating for marketers and other employees who want to go about their jobs without unnecessary restrictions in their ability to acquire, retain and delight customers.

With an ever-growing number of marketing technology point solutions available (more than 5,000 at the last count), it is no surprise that many companies are struggling to build the kind of unifed platform that is increasingly a prerequisite for success.

The other major takeaway from the report was the growing importance of customer experience (CX), as well as the content required to facilitate this. Organisations committed to CX were shown to outperform their peers.

Asked about the single most exciting opportunity for the year ahead, optimising customer experience (19%) again comes out on top, ahead of data-driven marketing that focuses on the individual (16%) and creating compelling content for digital experiences (14%).

Organisations with a ‘cross-team approach with the customer at the heart of all initiatives’ are nearly twice as likely to have exceeded their top 2017 business goal by a significant margin (20% vs. 11%).

Just under two-thirds (62%) of companies agree they have ‘a cohesive plan, long-term view and executive support for the future of [their] customer’.

The top strategic priority for organisations in 2018 is content and experience management. Almost half (45%) of companies surveyed rank this as one of their three most important priority areas for the year ahead, with a fifth (20%) stating that this is their primary focus.

simPRO Brisbane Office

Brisbane’s simPRO Builds California Presence

Brisbane-based software group simPRO has established a team in California as part of a strategic move into the USA’s booming West Coast solar and security markets.

simPRO began in Brisbane in 2002 and over the last 15 years has grown to become one of the world’s leading job management software platforms, with more than 100,000 users worldwide.

The company has now appointed a team of three to focus on the Californian cities of San Diego and Sacramento, supporting its existing US headquarters in Colorado.

Announcing the move, simPRO US President Glenn Nott said the company had received strong interest from businesses in California looking for a job management platform like simPRO’s.

‘California is our fastest growing market in the US, particularly in the solar and security industries,’ he said.

‘The California solar industry has exploded over recent years, creating demand for technicians and field maintenance people.

‘Helping businesses that provide this maintenance and ensuring they can deliver the right people, at the right place and at the right time is what simPRO does best.’

The US solar industry generated $USD154 billion in economic activity in 2016, with about 360,000 people employed in the industry. California makes up nearly half of the entire US industry.

‘We see the solar industry as a major opportunity, not just in the short term, but over the long term as solar energy becomes more common and affordable,’ Mr Nott said.

‘While figures are less readily available, we see the more established security industry as a large opportunity and one that has potential to achieve high growth for simPRO.’

Mr Nott said the high levels of technological sophistication of local California businesses was also an important part of the decision to target the state with additional resources.

simPRO provides office and field-based software solutions for service, project and maintenance trade contractors from a wide range of industries.

The company’s software streamlines business processes such as project management, asset maintenance, stock management, scheduling, invoicing and payment processing.

In 2016, simPRO raised AUD$40 million in capital and has made strong inroads into the US market since ramping up expansion 12 months ago.

TIQ Europe has previously worked with simPRO to support their expansion into the UK market.

Digital industries are identified as one of Queensland’s emerging export strengths in the Queensland Trade and Investment Strategy 2017–2022.

chatbot

SAM – The Super-Charged AI Chatbot has Landed in Australia

Flight Centre Travel Group’s (FCTG) powerful, pocket-sized chatbot travel assistant, is super-charged and ready to battle the travel grind on behalf of the country’s corporate road warriors.

FCTG today is announcing the Australian arrival of Sam at the btTB GBTA conference in Sydney. The award-winning mobile travel assistant app has been developed by the group’s innovation lab in Europe.

Employing a blend of AI (artificial intelligence) and integrated travel consultant support, Sam overlays the most important features that a business traveller needs with the experience that a leisure traveller enjoys.

Sam is now available for clients of FCTG brands FCM Travel Solutions and academic travel provider Campus Travel. FCTG’s SME business travel specialist Corporate Traveller and entertainment and sports travel brand Stage and Screen, will make Sam available for clients, second half of 2018.

FCTG’s corporate division executive general manager, James Kavanagh, said today’s launch was an exciting milestone for the Australian business travel community following the launch of Sam in the UK and the USA in 2017.

“By downloading Sam, our customers won’t miss a thing,” Mr Kavanagh said. “Sam’s messages are intuitive, helpful and include practical information and advice that is based on context, relevance and a traveller’s personal preferences.”

Mr Kavanagh said Sam fulfilled the necessary travel management functions, but went a step further by tracking a traveller’s location, providing real-time information for traffic and flight delays, and featured interactive city guides, weather updates and gate changes.

“Sam will even give you information about what carousel your luggage is on and allows you to book an Uber ride within the app,” Mr Kavanagh said. “Plus, some of the new functionality that’s on its way, is a perfect example of how AI is redefining the travel management space.”

“Across the USA and UK FCM has travellers from more than 80 national and multi-national companies currently using Sam. A recent survey of our USA clients who had downloaded the app, included comments from customers who were loving the ‘automated weather and traffic’ alerts and many praising the real time updates following the recent storms across the US East Coast.”

Sam Also Brings The World’s First ‘Chatbot Assisted Community’

As part of FCTG’s announcement, customers will also be shown the new ‘Community’ functionality – which is a first for the Australian and global business travel industry.

‘Sam Community’ – soon to be released, taps into the knowledge and experience of a global community of business travellers, serving up user-generated tips and advice based on a traveller’s location or when they ask Sam for assistance or inspiration.

FCM Travel Solutions general manager Melissa Elf said the tips and advice that would be available through the ‘Community’ function were provided by business travellers for business travellers.

“Sam Community acutely focuses on the experience of the traveller and how to enhance that traveller’s situation then and there. By providing locally relevant and personalised advice that’s consistently up to date, the entire traveller experience is going to be safer, easier and more enjoyable,” said Mrs Elf.

As well as ‘Sam Community’, the FCTG team will also be showcasing other new Sam functions that are coming soon including:

Sam for Travel Bookers:
Sam will ensure Travel Bookers are aware of potential issues impacting their traveller(s) and prompt appropriate actions including booking changes and communication with the traveller to ensure their wellbeing.

Enhanced traveller safety features:
Sam will soon recognise the user’s location via a blend of itinerary information and GPS and match this to any critical incidents, triggering real time relevant alerts with an ability to respond with appropriate action for the individual traveller.

Deeper integration:
Sam currently integrates with many leading service providers including Uber, Lyft and Certify, and is in the process of growing its integration with global travel suppliers.

content marketing

Banding Together – SEO and Content Marketing

Content marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) go hand in hand, though they’re often viewed as being separate disciplines.

For the best results in a modern marketing campaign, they’re best used together – with one feeding the other to get amplified results. SEO expert Marcus Miller has outlined some useful steps to bring it all together.

First, a quick reminder of what content marketing and SEO are.

According to the Content Marketing Institute: “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

For most businesses, the content they promote usually provides some advice, insight or attempts to solve problems that your customers and target audience usually face.

SEO stands for “search engine optimisation.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.

It’s important to rank highly on the big commercial terms, but this is very competitive territory for most SMEs.

How to get your content marketing found on Google

The two main options are to 1. Get your content published on a highly authoritative website where the content will automatically rank well; 2. Increase the authority of your own website and at the same time your published content.

 

Option 1 is great if you can achieve it by coming up with an informative and well-researched article and getting it published on a highly relevant site.

 

Option 2 can be more difficult as your site isn’t likely to rank as highly as an established site that has prominence in its space. So, to counter that you need to have your SEO basics up to speed for your own content. Building domain authority for your overall site is crucial, then promoting your articles individually to secure page authority.

 

Both options are useful. Effective SEO can help achieve you being in front of potential customers without paying per click.

 

Miller believes that a best approach is to identify well-linked content in your sector, and then create an improved version of that content.

 

His simple strategy then to drive more traffic to the content on your own site is:

 

1. Create great content

 

2. Promote that content with:

 

  • outreach
  • digital PR
  • guest blogging.

To ensure you improve your visibility in organic search and rank higher in Google, Miller has listed 5 Easy wins for 2018 in SEO.

 

1. Research and Use Relevant Keywords

 

2. Optimise Page Titles & Meta Descriptions

 

3. Optimise Page Content

 

4. Optimise Your Business Around the Web

 

5. Build Relevant Links.

 

Another tip is to register your site with Moz or Google Search Console where there are various tools and reports to improve your rankings in search results.

Merrick Ubank

Merrick Ubank Takes Gold at Aquis Champions Tour Showjumping Event

The Aquis Champions Tour showjumping event has concluded at Elysian Fields at Canungra on Sunday (May 6) with a narrow win by rider Merrick Ubank after he rode Alantinus to win the Pryde’s EasiFeed Gold Tour Final on Sunday in front of an excited crowd.

Ubank scored the win by just .35 of a second from Clint Beresford and Emmaville Jitterbug to claim the first prize of $35,000 in the richest event on the Australian Jumping calendar.

More than 300 of Australia’s best showjumpers have competed on the Gold Coast in a nine-day program for more than $340,000 in total prize money at the third annual Aquis Champions Tour.

Competition manager Michelle McMahon was delighted with the quality of competition at the prestigious event.

“Over the course of the program we’ve seen some spectacular jumping and tough competition with competitors from all Australian states and international entrants from Japan and New Zealand. Elysian Fields has been a first-class venue and this has been reflected in the quality of this elite event.” 

The Coolmore Silver Tour was won by Stephen Dingwell riding Cavalier Du Rouet, just .06 of a second ahead of Tom McDermott and Elegance De La Charmille. McDermott had paid double entry fee for the chance to win triple prizemoney, which resulted in him winning $12,000 for this class.

McDermott riding Alpha Activity then went on to win the hard-fought IRT Bronze Tour.  He beat Chris Chugg and KG Queenie with a huge gallop to the last fence for another $10,500 in prizemoney.

The junior championship was won by Jess Rice-Ward riding Dusky Farm Cavalier, while the amateur championship went to Morgan Daniel and Aladino. Jessie O’Connell rode Cassis Z Ten Halven to win the young rider championship.

The final event of the day is always a crowd favourite and this year did not disappoint. The winner of the Gollan Racing Speed Derby with an impressive clear 84.68 seconds was Clint Beresford riding SL Donato.

Second place went to Katie Laurie riding Cera Caruso and third was the entertaining Ron Easey riding Simplistic with a time of 87.49. Spread over almost 500 acres of prime pristine rural land at Canungra on the Gold Coast hinterland Elysian Fields features polo fields, show jumping facilities and acres of riding and relaxation country, plus luxury accommodation.

The facility, which has previously hosted a concert by Elton John, is the home of the biggest prize money show jumping competitions ever held in Queensland and the location for the highest level of polo tournaments ever played in Queensland.

Gold Tour Final top 10 placings: 

PLACE

RIDER NAME

HORSE NAME

PRIZE MONEY

1st

Merrick Ubank

Alantinus

$35,000

2nd

Clint Beresford

Emmaville Jitterbug

$25,000

3rd

Amber Fuller

CP Aretino

$20,000

4th

Ally Lamb

Diamond B Corsica

$17,500

5th

Katie Laurie

Casebrooke Lomond

$12,500

6th

David Cameron

RR Dyranta

$5,000

7th

Steven Hill

Yalambi’s Bellini Star

$4,000

8th

Brooke Langbecker

Quintago 1

$3,000

9th

Gabrielle Kuna

Cera Cassiago

$2,000

10th

Billy Raymont

Anton

$1,000

 

CFMG Capital

CFMG Capital Completes $8.1 Million Morayfield Acquisition

Diversified property group CFMG Capital has completed the acquisition of two parcels comprising 6.72ha for development as a residential community at Morayfield, in the heart of Brisbane’s high growth northern corridor.

The sites are located at Graham Road, Morayfield, 40kms north of Brisbane and just three kilometres south of the Moreton Bay region’s largest city, Caboolture.

CFMG will develop the sites to yield over 130 lots ranging from 300 to 687sqm with traditional 10m, 12.5m and 15m frontages and lot depths up to 32m.

The acquisition will take CFMG’s development pipeline to more than 1,000 lots across six different projects in Queensland and Victoria.

CFMG Managing Director Scott Watson said pre-release marketing had generated strong sales enquiry from both owner occupiers and local volume builders looking to secure land for their clients, with in excess of 40 pre-sales already in place.

With the current contract exchanges already in place totaling a sales value of $7.2 million, Mr Watson expects that number to increase as a growing number of people are on the search for homes with a quality of lifestyle.

“The momentum of the project is expected to continue with official data indicating the demand for quality affordable projects in strong growth corridors forecast to continue,” he said.

Since 2009 Morayfield has experienced an average of 2.5% population growth, eclipsing the state average of 1.8%

The project also benefits from a myriad of local amenities that add value to the location and convenience to future residents, including parkland facilities such as playgrounds and barbeque areas, schools, childcare, shopping centres, specialty retailers and public transport networks.

CFMG Capital operates two core divisions; a residential communities development business with a pipeline of more than 1,000 lots and residential funds management business which has raised  more than $90 million in third party equity.

THE RESULT:

Maple Developer Group

Beijing Developer Peng Bo Group Unveils Debut Australian Project

One of Beijing’s largest developers, the privately-owned Peng Bo Group, has unveiled its first project in Australia, with a $20 million boutique apartment project in the western Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly.

The Arcadia Apartments project is being developed by Peng Bo’s local arm, Maple Development Group.

Maple has acquired additional sites across Brisbane including projects at Woolloongabba (25 apartments), two projects in St Lucia (over 30 apartments) and a development site on Coronation Drive.

Peng Bo, which has developed more than 30,000 units in Beijing over the last five years also has extensive agricultural interests in Queensland with a nursery in Upper Coomera and farmland at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast.

The company has extensive interests in and around Beijing and recently completed development of one of the largest proton therapy cancer treatment facilities in China at Zhuozhou, Hebei Province, about 70 kilometres from Beijing. Around 2,000 patients per year are expected to be treated at the Zhuozhou facility.

Proton Therapy is one of the most technologically advanced treatments for cancer and is expected to eventually replace traditional methods of radiation therapy.

Maple Development Group Development Manager Gilbert Zhu said that the company was driven to create quality projects in convenient locations.

“Our projects are principally aimed for the owner-occupier market rather than investors. We are focused on delivering quality in all of our developments,” Mr Zhu said.

“Each project has its own architect and interior design team to ensure individuality for owners with premium design and fittings.”

Maple Development Group’s first project consists of 29 apartments in Priory Street, Indooroopilly, with a choice of two- and three-bedroom configurations. Queensland-based company Constructions Group has been appointed to design and build the Priory Street development, with a focus on creating a luxurious and ultra-convenient experience for owner-occupiers.

Maple Development Group director Nick Liu said that the company was establishing itself in Queensland based on a reputation for selecting superior sites that will resonate with the market.

“We’re developing a pipeline of projects that will ensure a steady supply of boutique quality residences for those seeking to downsize yet not sacrificing anything in terms of quality and lifestyle,” Mr Liu said.

THE RESULT

small business marketing technology

The Essential Small Business Marketing Technology Stack

Marketing technology (Martech) has exploded to almost unfathomable size in recent years. Few other areas have been disrupted, and continue to be disrupted, by technology more than the art of securing new customers.

The graphic above was first produced in 2011 with 150 companies operating in the martech space. In 2015, it had grown to 2,000. Last year, it nearly doubled from that to the 3,500 mark. This year, it includes nearly 5,000.

For the average small business operator who also needs to be on top of accounting tech, product tech, HR and all the other techs, finding the right blend of solutions, or tech stack, for a high-performing marketing framework can be daunting.

For our own business, clients and in-house projects we have trialed dozens of new technologies designed to make marketing more effective while reducing the financial and human resources required to deliver genuine results.

If I knew five years ago what I know now and was starting my own small business these are the essential technologies I would invest time and money learning to use. The payoff will be immense.

Website/CMS

Your website is the foundation of all marketing. Using a content management system (CMS) that allows you to quickly and efficiently load products, add and edit content, integrate other technologies and manage security is essential.

Don’t be conned into paying big fees for a complex proprietary or custom CMS. Demand your provider use an open source platform like WordPress. If you are planning an online store, the WooCommerce platform was made for WordPress.

If you elect to outsource building of the site to someone else it is essential you take the time to understand how it works. What plugins you are utilising, what structures have been established and what the SEO strategy is. It will grow to become your most important marketing asset.

Cost: WordPress is Free but factor in cost of buying domains, hosting, themes, plugins, security and backups.

 

Many years ago I had an idea for a website that eventually became www.mbanews.com.au. I visited a range of web developers all with their own custom/proprietary CMS. The development quotes came in at $15,000-$75,000. This was well beyond the $3.50 I had planned to spend.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was someone who told me to “Lock yourself in a room for a weekend and learn WordPress”. So I did.

Four years later the site attracts more than 10,000 unique browsers a month and has become the number one source for potential MBAs in Australia. The external cost to get the site live $0.00. Well inside my budget.

Direct/Email Marketing

Building a database of satisfied, engaged customers who do your marketing for you by word of mouth is easily the most cost effective form of marketing, because it costs virtually nothing.

While there are literally hundreds of solutions available for email marketing, for ease of use, low cost and extensive range of integrations we recommend MailChimp. The core platform makes building lists, creating emails and understanding the results easy. With an ever-growing range of integrations, including the ability to develop Google remarketing ads, it will change the way you reach your customers.

Cost: Free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,00 emails per month.

Analytics

Understanding how your customers are interacting with your website is essential to the continual task of refining your product and marketing messages. Intalling, monitoring and using the insights provided by Google Analytics.

The range of data available to businesses from Google Analytics is simply extraordinary. The biggest challenge you will find is isolating and utilizing the data that is of most value to you. Again, the easiest way to get your head around the complexity is to take a deep dive; immerse yourself in it for a day, the knowledge you gain will last years.

Cost: FREE for small business

Online Advertising

No other area of martech is populated by more sharks than online advertising. Some of these sharks have built very big businesses on their ability to separate small business people from their money on the promise of an avalanche of customers. Most of their customers are left confused, and poorer, with little to show.

Depending on the goals of your business, Google advertising should be a large chunk of your budget. Whether you are DIY or using an agency, managing the effectiveness of this spend to ensure you are maximising ROI is easy with a platform like WordStream. One of the many benefits of WordStream is the extensive resources available (for free) to help you get the maximum from every dollar.

Advertising on social media platforms, particularly Facebook, is increasingly easy with ex Many people have built.

Cost: How much have you got? External AdWords management can be charged as a flat fee (including set-up and ongoing management fee) or as a percentage of your spend. Bigger agencies will charge 15-20% while smaller agencies (like us) charge 10% with a minimum fee.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimistaion (SEO) is how you ensure customers looking for your products can you find you easily and before they find your customers. Great content is the foundation of all SEO and your website should be a highly-tuned SEO machine. Once you have your site humming, developing off-site SEO tactics like backlinks, can take your traffic stats to the next level.

We used a range of different SEO technologies before discovering Moz. If SEO is going to play an important part of your marketing, the Moz platform is essential. Identifying high value keywords, making content tweaks and tracking performance are all easier with Moz.

COST: From $US99/month.

Social Media

Most small businesses don’t need to be told the importance of (organic) social media in their marketing. While paid advertising on social media platforms is important, building an organic social following is the sort of investment that will pay dividends for years.

Like your website, content on social media is king. Monitoring what content is working and what is not can be made much easier with the use of martech like SproutSocial and Hootsuite. We use both for our business and clients.

With prices starting from $100/month it is a significant investment, especially when you can count your followers on one hand! But it is important to be persistent in posting content, understanding what works and why and refining your content to improve engagement.

Cost:  Sprout Social from $US100/month. Hootsuite $US25/month, billed annually