Cutting edge Australian software to help grow your business
As accountants and advisers to many business owners, we regularly get to trade stories with clients on all the ups and downs of managing and growing SMEs. It’s also fun to discuss all the latest time-saving technology and, as business owners ourselves, we always enjoy a good success story from young Australian entrepreneurs. It may be surprising to see us writing about marketing rather than accounting, but we thought we would take an opportunity to share some time-saving Australian technology for anyone managing their own sales and marketing operations, and celebrate some truly awesome new companies along the way. Disclosure: we’re not affiliated with any of the following companies – just fans!
Growing a small business in the digital age can be extremely difficult and time consuming for non-marketers. The sheer scope of possible marketing activities is mind-boggling to most. You (probably) didn’t get into business to spend your valuable time managing a Facebook page, growing an Instagram following or running monthly MailChimp newsletter campaigns. And you probably didn’t expect to become a Z-list actor for company video shoots!
Even so, many of these activities (and many others) are now generally accepted norms in small business. They’re the baseline, not the “stretch target.” So in this post, we take a look at 3 handy tools for all the “DIY” marketing managers out there; business owners or employees who are taking digital marketing tasks into their own hands. These tools are: Canva, Snappr and Biteable.
These easy-to-use solutions could be the answer to all your graphic design, photography and video production needs, and – better yet – they were all started in Australia by talented young entrepreneurs.
1. Canva
- Valuation: USD $1bn+ (one of Australia’s only “unicorn” technology startups i.e. one worth more than $1 billion)
- Service: Drag and drop graphic design tool for non-designers
- Cost: Free with paid premium features
- Link: https://www.canva.com/
What they do
Canva is an online graphic design tool that enables its users to create, customise and publish a huge range of marketing content, including but not limited to: presentation slides, website banners, social media posts, print flyers and posters, etc. E.g. even the small collage above was made for this blog post on Canva!
To get started, you can select from a huge range of layout templates as well as stock graphics and images. Some are “premium” (meaning you have to pay for them) but you really can get a lot done for free too. The templates are actually very appealing and produced by professional designers.
Over time, having all your graphics and media stored in one place makes it so easy to continuously publish content that is consistent and “on brand.” You can then start to build a consistent visual identity across all your different content and channels (both online and offline), making you look like a company with its very own in-house marketing and design team.
Where they came from
Canva was cofounded by CEO Melanie Perkins, who previously taught graphic design and realised that the difficulties of learning industry-grade design software (such as InDesign and Photoshop) prevented many non-designers from creating beautiful content on a regular basis – or at all.
She initially launched a self-publishing platform called Fusion Books to help schools create and publish annual yearbooks. However, she and her team soon realised that the concept had much wider applications and thus founded Canva.
Canva’s mission is to enable good design by anyone worldwide and it’s now one of Australia’s most successful technology businesses. It has over 10 million users globally and had a valuation of USD $1 billion as of its last capital raise announced in early 2018.
2. Snappr
- Service: Photography marketplace so you can book a vetted photographer near you
- Cost: Ranges from $75 to $899 depending on inclusions
- Link: https://www.snappr.co/
Snappr is an online marketplace that allows you to find and book pre-vetted photographers quickly and with transparent fixed price packages, which you can view on their website. They are the self-described “Uber for photography.”
Snappr was founded by two University of New South Wales graduates in 2016 and has received USD $3m in funding to date from prominent US startup investors, including Y-Combinator: the world’s most highly-regarded accelerator program.
SMEs can use Snappr to access quality photographers at affordable prices. It’s always a good idea to have professional, recent and consistent photos of your team on your website and other marketing materials. It’s probably not good enough to crop people out of old family photos or borrow their profile pictures from LinkedIn!
This helps prospective customers gain more of an insight into who you are as individuals and a team and – if done well – contributes to the quality and impression of your overall brand. Having some more casual shots taken of people at work can also save you from needing to use boring stock photography across your website. However, if it’s high-quality stock photography you’re after (and copyright free photography to boot), Unsplash is your destination: https://unsplash.com/
3. Biteable
- Service: Drag and drop video maker with huge library of provided templates and stock video
- Cost: Ranges from USD $23-29 per month depending on time commitment – unlimited videos!
- Link: https://biteable.com/
Biteable is an online template-based video production tool that helps you to “make better videos than your competitors, on your lunch break.” This intuitive video platform provides video templates (which users can work with by adding their own text, images and audio) along with access to Biteable’s sizeable bank of free stock media.
Biteable was founded by 3 mates from Hobart in 2014, and – after raising close to AUD $4m over the years – is now used by 4 million people around the world to make beautiful videos for their businesses and other organisations.
Having professional (but quickly and cheaply produced) videos on your website helps make a powerful impression with prospective customers. They can be used in many different ways e.g. to explain a new product or service, make an announcement, share a special offer and much more.
Research has repeatedly shown an increase in conversions where video is used and tools like Biteable mean that anyone can now experiment to see how their own results can improve. With the “unlimited videos” business model, Biteable also means you can update your videos (or produce entirely new ones) on a regular basis, which is important to keep your online followers engaged.
Summary
The above examples show that even with little budget and no expertise, business owners can use new technological tools available to take their marketing efforts to the next level! So, what are you waiting for?
