I love Tasmania – for its uniqueness when it comes to small business; hobbies that turn into a full-scale business, local produce, handmade or homemade goods, locally crafted products, families open cellar doors or whiskey distilleries and so much more. It means we have an amazing array of high-quality products, made by passionate artisans, all with that special ‘Made in Tasmania’ label.
Of course, we work with a lot of these businesses and one of their key points they often want to focus on is reaching a wider audience outside of Tasmania. At first, many businesses start with focusing on the Tassie market, but eventually, they get to a point where they want to grow Australia wide. So, what’s the next step to growing your business? How do you expand from our little island state to show the rest of Australia just how awesome your ‘Made in Tasmania’ product is? Well, we compiled our best tips and strategies we use with these businesses to help. Start taking action on a few of these and then work on nailing them all and we can almost be certain you will see growth in your Aussie market share!

Website

First and foremost, how are you planning to sell your product online? If you already have a website, awesome! If not, this is without a doubt the first step you need to take. A website is like your very own shop front, just online! To reach an audience Australia wide, you’ll need a beautifully designed online shop front to direct your audience to and entice them to ‘add to cart’.
Most importantly, when you’re selling a product online you want to make the shopping experience enjoyable and simple for your customer. They should know exactly what you are selling the moment they arrive on your website and then your website should direct them through the right pages, build interest and make a sale.

Build Customer Loyalty

If you’re selling to an Australia-wide audience, of course, you’re selling online. Using social media on a regular basis is the best way to build customer loyalty, grow your brand, share your story, engage with your audience and show them how your product can make a difference in their lives.
We find ‘keeping it real’ and authentic with a brand that’s selling Tasmanian products works well. You still want to maintain a level of professionalism of course, but also show your audience who you are, why you love making what you make, how you make it, what makes it unique and all the other special quirks about you and your business. Engage with your audience in a way that you would talk to a family member or friend about your product, let your passion shine in the words you use, and the stories you tell online.

Use Hashtags

While you’re using social media, remember to take advantage of the 30 hashtags you have available on Instagram too. It can take a bit of time to find the right hashtags for your niche, but if you do your research, with some trial and error you will find hashtags that improve your engagement and other ones that don’t work for you. Take a look at what other successful brands in your industry or niche are using and see if they will work for you as well. By using hashtags, you can reach an engaged audience who are searching for products just like yours! A.K.A. “hot customers”!

Connect with Brand Representatives

Working with brand representatives can be a great way to drastically increase your reach and build brand loyalty. As a business trying to tap into a new market it can be hard to establish brand loyalty, but if you work with brand reps who have already built trust with their audience, the work is already done for you! They don’t call them influencers for nothing!

Collaborate with Other Businesses

Much like brand reps and influencers, you can collaborate with other businesses who might be interested in stocking your product. Nowadays there are a lot of online businesses that do hamper style packs which can be a great way to expose your product to a broader audience for a little ‘taste’ of what you have to offer.
Otherwise, contacting businesses with a shopfront in an area you want to grow your market would work just as well, chat with them about your special product and see if they want to put it on their shelves!

Use Paid Advertising

We couldn’t write this blog without mentioning paid advertising, it’s one of the most simple ways to reach a broader audience outside of Tasmania. Narrow down on your target market and create an audience on Facebook Ads and/or Google Ads that match that target market.
With Google Ads, decide on what your customers would be searching online if they were looking to buy a product like yours, use that for your keywords but also for the copy you write into the ad itself.
Facebook Ads, you can’t use keywords like you do on Google because people aren’t searching on Facebook, but if you have accurately created an audience that suits your target market, the results should start flowing in. If you’re just starting out, you might begin doing ads that are more focused on brand exposure and perhaps getting users to like your page, rather than going for the hard sell when it’s the first time they have been exposed to your brand. Then, once you feel your brand has been exposed to that audience well and they have connected with you, you can then begin with sales-oriented Facebook ads.

Use Your Facebook Pixel

This goes hand-in-hand with Facebook advertising and it will be your saving grace! If you already have a decent audience on Facebook of engaged buyers, or sales flowing through your website, you can use your Facebook Pixel to target people just like your current Tasmanian audience but in different areas around Australia. Facebook Pixel is smart and it will pick up the demographic & interests of your current customers or audience and then find people who are similar. Saving you from creating your own audience for an ad and letting Facebook do the work of finding your target market for you! If you have no idea what we’re talking about when we say Facebook Pixel, we wrote a blog about it, how to use it, and steps to setting it up over here.
Starting your own small business is exciting, yet it can be so overwhelming when you’re trying to manage the day-to-day of running the business and trying to grow it at the same time. Just remember to take things one step at a time, decide on one action you’ll take from this blog, go and work on it, make it happen and then come back and work on the next action. It’s really exciting when you start to see your products make it across the Bass Strait and suddenly your little business begins to grow! If you feel like you need a hand in implementing any of these steps or getting started and you want to work with someone who knows how to reach a wider audience outside of Tasmania, get in touch with us today and we can chat about your business, ideas and plans for the future!
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