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Would love to get your opinion on this @Leigh Cummings 

Hi thanks for your interesting question!

According to Yes Marketing Australia the best word count for a 30 second ad is 75-85 words. 

This is so the words are conveyed clearly and accurately to the listener. Any more and the ad can sound rushed and your audience may not hear what you have to say properly!

Hope this helps!

Unless you are sending with a courier with service guarantee and tracking mechanism, the responsibility remains with the sender. Australia Post don't take responsibily for lost regular postage.

Omnisend:

Best at:

• Providing excellent value with low fees. 
• Numerous beautiful email templates for campaigns
• Caters perfectly for eCommerce merchants

Pricing:

• Free Plan: Allows for email campaigns, signup forms, sales and performance reports, segmentation, and customer analytics.
• Standard Plan: Costs $16/ mo, Free plan+ marketing automation, pre-built workflows, SMS  messages, A/B testing, 24/7 support.
• Pro plan: Costs $99/ mo, Standard plan+ SMS credits, web push notifications, audience sync from Google and Facebook, advanced reporting, customer success manager. 
• Enterprise plan: Custom pricing, Pro plan+  email account migration, customer success manager, deliverability support, and custom IP address.

(All plans are capped at 15,000 emails per month, except for the Enterprise plan which is uncapped)

Pros of Omnisend:

• Excellent value for the money (low monthly fees)
• Offers a basic free edition
• 24/7 customer service
• Wide range of stunning templates
• Terrific eCommerce focused Automation
• In-depth reporting and data
• Integrates with Shopify

Cons of Omnisend:

• Must start from scratch with each new campaign, cannot edit existing email. 
• Most of the plans have a 15,000 limit with the exception of the Enterprise plan

Drip:
Best at:

• High-Quality marketing automation process
• One of the best at personalisation 
• Integrating with social media platforms for multi-channel marketing
• Comprehensive analytics and reporting

Pricing:

• Basic Plan ($49/month, Up to 2,5000 subscribers, unlimited email sends, 24/7 Chat/Email support)
• Pro Plan ($122/month, Up to 5,000 subscribers, unlimited email sends, 24/7 Chat/Email support)
• Enterprise (Price varies, + 5,001 subscribers, 24/7 Chat/Email support)

(Drip does offer a free trial period when you join.)

Drip's Pros:

• One of the best email software for e-commerce
• Great automation features
• Integrates with a wide range of applications
• Easy-to-use interface

Drip's Cons:

• Expensive 
• Email templates can be improved
• The platform can glitch from time to time
• The form builder is quite limited

Best for: Drip is excellent for e-comm brands selling physical products online, integrating with Shopify and providing several excellent automation features.

 

 

I manage imports for a few printers/ distributors. They seem to be finding good value in China. From the freight side it's pretty smooth. Transit time by sea is relatively short. When getting a quote,  ask them to supply on FOB terms. That is often the best way to import, subject to the specific conditions of your order.

Not necessarilly cheap.. but create a unique and great product and customer experience. Definitely the most effective. 

 

To add to the excellent reply by Richard Chalmers, we would recommend that you set up messaging which gives searchers the opportunity to send a message directly from your Google Business profile. With a large portion of searches being done from mobile phones these days, this allows a quick option for connecting with your business.  Make sure you reply to these and also monitor and respond to your reviews.

Also, it is hard when life is so busy, but trying to publish posts and photos weekly as doing these two small things will also enhance your profile.

Jackie, my stock answer for most service-based businesses is definitely to outsource, for the following reasons:

1. Depending on your familiarity with the plethora of tools, tactics and media available, it makes sense to go with the experts. Seldom will a business owner or single employee be across all relevant methodologies.
2. An outsourced agency is in my view, more responsible and more accountable. Even tho' it's not "money out of their own pocket," an independent agent can see what's needed, rather than what's wanted. An employee might not be allowed the flexibility to make recommendations or decisions that impact spending.
3. There's an adage about "sticking to your knitting." If marketing is not your strong suit, stick to what you do best – be it sales, manufacturing, people management, networking, product development etc. – and employ a range of the best minds available to fill in the gaps. Those skills are not easily embodied in one person (see Point 1).

The situations where it makes more sense to employ full timers arise when the business is sufficiently developed to afford, or require, dedicated in-house marketing staff. Even then, it should be looked at as a team effort, again see Point 1.

One exception might be when a new business partner is being considered for a business experiencing strong growth. If that person is a marketing expert across several fields and can make a substantial contribution to ongoing growth, it might make sense to bring them on board as a director or profit-sharer, rather than an employee.

Hope that helps.