Fruit Hampers Newcastle

Setting the Standard;  Interview With Hunter Valley Hampers
OFFICIAL MEDIA RELEASE DECEMBER 2013

AFTER A HALF DOZEN Christmas Seasons as the creative designer behind Hunter Valley Hampers, Kacy has a special feeling for knowing what her buying public wants.

And when you consider her Fruit Baskets Newcastle BlogHunter Valley Hampers has sold out completely in 2011 and 2012 on a budget of zero advertising, it's no wonder she must be doing something right.  Artisan Food, Craft Beer and handmade fresh regional produce is a winning formula.

Gift Basket Delivery in Newcastle

Over coffee, we sat down and asked her secrets to making a delicious gourmet hamper and what makes Hunter Valley Hampers a trusted authority on gift baskets.

"No Pretzels," Kacy laughs, when I ask her the secret to gourmet gift baskets, "Once we stopped putting in bags of pretzels we noticed we got a different clientele."

Keeping it Real for the Peeps

The secret to Hunter Valley Hampers success over the last decade (the business has operated independently since 1988, although only recently moved to 'high end' gourmet in 2009) is offering quality product regardless of the price.

"People are willing to pay for quality product," Kacy explains, showing a jar of tunisian spiced pickle made locally, "and so long as they know you are backing the product up with a meaningful purpose, place and personality; they will pay a premium price."

"We see competitors offering plastic poinsettia flowers and questionable "gourmet" products like john west smoked oysters - these things just don't meet what our clients expect in a regional gourmet hamper," Kacy offered as a reason for the loyal customer base at Hunter Valley Hampers.  "It's really quite embarrassing to turn up at a corporate tower in Sydney and expect the executives to accept a hamper filled with this sort of stuff - I can see why people keep coming back to us.  We keep our hampers understated and let the real food do all the talking."

Making meaningful Connections with the Community

Things are looking great this Christmas, but I feel the moment of truth for any Christmas Gift Basket is the minutes after arriving home when the hamper box is sitting by your front door.  You place the box on the kitchen counter and open it to reveal a wicker basket filled with clinking jars, bottles, pouches and pudding - all presentation packed under crisp cellophane and ready for display under the Christmas Tree in time for the big day. 

An authentic artisan hamper for a genuine, homestyle Christmas Day.  Merry Christmas, and Give Yourself the Gift of a Joyous Sharing Christmas with real friends and valued family members.

Fresh Fruit Gift Baskets sent to hospital or home

Being grateful and sharing your thanks makes life a richer experience

Newcastle is a dirty, post industrial city - ask anyone who hasn't been there...

Answering the question about highly regarded and personally recommended gifts to say get well, celebrate a new baby, enjoy a christening and alternatively, remember a friend at a funeral or bereavement is a good suggestion.  So what would we recommend for a local designer to share a fruit basket around Newcastle and Lake Macquarie?  Certainly, our impartiality may be blurred by the fact that we have been working behind the counter at a trusted, established fruit hamper and gift basket retailer with a twenty year history in the Hunter Region.

Adamstown    Adamstown Heights    Bar Beach    Beresfield    Birmingham Gardens    Broadmeadow    Callaghan (University)    Carrington    Cooks Hill    Elermore Vale    Fletcher    Georgetown

For starters, be certain the person you are ordering the fruit basket from will actually be making it and delivering it for you.  It is simply not good enough to let an affiliate sales agent take your order and skim nearly 20% off your order price only to send the order to a fruit basket specialist closer to where the order is to be delivered.  Just think - you wouldn't go to a restaurant and order a meal and then have the waiter run out the door and on sell your order to another kitchen - would you?

This kind of affiliate marketing is rife in the florist industry and has penetrated the hamper industry to some extent.  It means that you can place your order with one local Newcastle company and then have some other mob deliver your order that you have no connection with.

Newcastle Local Websites

In 2013, if you aren't online you are missing a vital cog of your marketing and exposure.  Without changing any of your existing business practice - simply adding an effective brochure-style website would at the bare minimum give searchers something at least to find and discover about your business.

Just think of it as a 24/7 advert diverting enquiries to your business - or maybe without it you have nothing heading to your business.  At Organic Digital I have run my own business for 8 years before I started building websites that work for people who want results.  It might not be about jargon and corporate invoices for you - and it isn't for me either.

Here's 10 more reasons why you should start doing business online right now.
1. New economy.

Internet has created a new economy, which by its explosive growth and sheer size already changed our perception of traditional way of doing business.

Companies like Amazon and Ebay have successfully created domination on areas, where just few years ago traditional brick-and-mortar companies were kings.

But, in order to be successful on the net, you don’t have to be a giant like them.  In fact, now it's all about being found in local search - which means a local presence in Newcastle is more powerful and important than ever.

Many small and mid-size companies managed to build online businesses without fancy corporate web design companies or their ridiculous pricing systems. 

Right now, studies show small and mid-size companies will be the main growth force of e-commerce in 2013 going forward.


2. Internet is a perfect venue for business.

In order to make a sale you need visitors to physically walk to your shop, or track down your number.

On the Internet, your shop is a click away from your next customer.

With Organic Digital your Internet storefront can be another pillar holding up your brick and mortar shop.

Newcastle Fruit Hamper Delivery Service

Creating Great Memories

In the day to day bustle of life, where saving money is often given too high a priority, giving a Fruit Hamper offers validation, and a gesture of meaningful connection that is remembered.

Too often we pause to think that it would be “nice to” send a gift, but when it comes to picking up the phone and making the call with delivery details, we find ourselves just not that emotionally available.

Becoming Someone Who is Appreciative and Gracious

We all strive for self improvement and as the sales of self help books attest, the social appetite for becoming a better person is insatiable.

Demonstrating your own willingness to give, share and take the real life opportunity to connect in a caring a positive way is the first step toward a fulfilling this lifestyle goal.

Isn’t it time you shared a Fresh Fruit Basket?

Get Well Fruit Baskets

 Meeting a handmade fruit hamper filled with the freshest of seasonal fruit delivered right to your bedside is one sure way to bring a smile to a sick relative's face.
Share the luscious joy of real market fresh fruit from the boys at Newcastle Regional Fruit Markets, with the special designer flair of the team behind such household names as fruithampers.info, newcastlefruitbasket.com and of course, the flagship Hunter Valley Hampers.

Make the most of Newcastle Website Design while it is still cheap.

Sending a Get Well Fruit Basket to the John Hunter Hospital is the ideal way to make your feelings present whilst your friend recovers in hospital.

Newcastle Removals Made Easy

Making Removals Easy

Moving furniture, clothes and digital hardware can be simplified if you follow these simple tips.  Making your move efficient, well-organised and in your timeframe is what you should expect from an experienced removalist in Newcastle.

1 Use Plenty of Packaging.
Careful and well thought out packaging makes a bug difference on moving day.  If it fits in a box, put it in one.  Keeping things in a box encourages putting like with like - which is convenient when you are unpacking at your destination.  An adaptive, free void filler is shredded paper in plastic shopping bags.  Wedge these between any hard surfaces that may come into contact.  When you box doesn't rattle when shaken, you have packed it desely enough to support boxes being packed on top of each other.  This means you can fill the Newcastle Man and Van space most efficiently.

2 Prepare the Workflow
Take advantage of moving your boxes to a convenient packing point, so there less time is spent carrying boxes across your premises.  Remember, what you want from your removalist is pick up, transport and unload at destination.

3 Use a Local
Local service around Newcastle for a removal service is important.  Locals take the most direct route and can offer advice on the best times to move to avoid traffic congestion.

Making Removals Easy is often overlooked as during the move you are distracted by leases and estate agents.  Being prepared and armed with these simple tips for removals make a difference for your best move.

http://newcastlemanandvan.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/making-removals-easy.html

Unique Website Architecture for Your Brand

When making the decision to choose a platform for your website, it is important that you are making an informed choice.  There are different platforms for differnet uses and getting the optimum performance for your website as matched to how you intend to use the website is key.  Content Management Systems are great for large, updated sites with changing content, just as other simpler CMS work for smaller catalogue style websites.

It is important your web designer gives you more than a single platform to choose from when you are having a website built.  Using an obscure CMS no one else is willing to edit is just as frustrating as a fully featured overkill where you have too many widgets and plug ins.  So honest, open communication and a realistic expectation of what you will be using the website for is important.

At Newcastle Web Designers we work just as well across a range of content management systems and are able to recommend a solution to meet your specific needs.  And importantly, we build your site with full access for you or if you should choose to get another website designer to contribute, the CMS is an industry standard that is most people can work with.

Ideally, we offer a great initial set up with as many revisions as it takes to get your look and feel right, plus, we can advise you on some sensible add-ons to improve visitor interest and make your site stand out from the competition.  Without being over the top with excessive prettiness or flashing buttons and gimmicks.

Choose a local website designer in Newcastle.

Need a New Website

Once you have your new website up and online with Organic Digital, the next step is to promote your website.  In a competitive environment where people are adding new websites by the thousand every day, standing out from the crowd is not simple.  So having a great, fully featured website is simply not enough when you are getting no traffic (visitors to your website).

Firstly, website promotion is categorized into online and offline  - online is using web methods and offline is having your web address and a compelling call to action on your vehicle, on business cards and actively promoting your website by face to face networking.  Organic Digital can help with ongoing support and assistance with online marketing.

Second, the fastest way to appear on page one of the search results is through paid search – or buying pay-per-click advertising through a search provider like Google.  However, this is expensive and beyond the scope of most small business as your paid account balance dwindles with every click from a visitor, whether they make a purchase or not.  At Newcastle Organic Digital, we focus on the organic search results (hence our name) and this is called the “real” results below the ads at the top of each search results page.

Search Engine Optimisation

Once you have your established website it is time to focus on the number of visitors to your site, and more importantly, converting these visitors into paying customers. 

There are several tried and tested methods of improving your page ranking for your carefully researched keywords, and consistent, thorough application of these methods will invariably result in an upward score on the rankings. 

But it is time consuming and fraught with the potential to actually harm your success - so a scatter-gun, fragmented approach might not be the best option.  Using the latest applied methods to drill down into the results for your own benefit is the most effective, proven technique.

Keywords For Your Business

At Newcastle Digital whilst we follow old formulas or service and communication, we aim to get your site right at the same time as reaching out and making sure that there is a concrete traffic and visitor plan.  That means getting quality inbound links using our years of experience as search engine optimisation specialists, and working with you to reveal what are the highest searched for but least competitive keywords for your particular niche.

Once we have found a few relatively achievable targets for your search results, we will work to reach the first page of Google for you, which might take a month or so, and then we branch out into the established more competitive keywords over the long term.  Whilst there is no hard and fast rule for getting this done, we typically get results in the more competitive keywords in search after say six to twelve months of dedicated work.

On Page Optimization

How much information you include in your website should be determined by the amount of information required for the website visitor to make an informed decision and take action.

If you are selling a simple thing like scarves, you mightn't need a 12 page category rich catalogue - there is only so much you can say about your scarves.  Plus, after a visitor sees your work they will be either converted to a sale or bounce from your site.  You'll probably be perfectly suited to a three page site with plenty of images of your work and maybe three tightly written articles about you, your products and your vision.

On the other hand complex machinery or lengthy educational courses might offer a lot more detail and specifications.  This starts as a brochure but has many sub pages and categories highlighting the features and operation of the machinery.  Interactivity like video and interview testimonials would be genuinely worthwhile and not just showy add-ons.

The website should reflect the business in look and feel as much as the actual product or service being sold.

internal pages and deep links

Promoting Internal Pages and Deep Links

A well designed home page of your website should intuitively lead visitors towards where they want to go within the site.  Over time, visitors will prefer certain internal pages to others, with the dominant deep links becoming search result worthy standalone.  This is where the internal pages of your site also become destinations in their own right. 

Give Visitors what they expect - to drill down into the content to find sub-niches, topics of interest and other relevant content that is worth investigating – including outbound links to authority sites.
By spending your limited online marketing budget reaching out to like minded individuals who value the content you have surrounded your website with (like blogs, social media, domain name match sites). 

Capturing the attention of the online reader is important when too many articles are awash with meaningless drivel.  This means there is a genuine opportunity for fresh content-driven copy writing for niche specific articles.  Newcastle Digital offers a comprehensive hand written article service.

The effort saved by targeting your search engine optimisation efforts to three or twelve key article topics, and then promoting them across the web as stand alone pages of interest, will generate a handsome legacy of linkjuice for your primary site.  SEO can be done in two week campaigns for $1000 – this gets you one the front page for your keywords.

For many enthused creatives, SEO starts a lifelong journey of research, entrepreneurship and personal development.  For others it is a drudge.  I love it and will deliver on what I offer.

 HVH20HVN to get your discount.

Website Designer Newcastle

 Well, if you have more and more links to your site it appears to the search engines (like Google and Yahoo and Bing) that your site is popular and carries some weight in its’ particular niche,

because it is offering something that is not available elsewhere (ie your unique handmade products).  So stick to what you do best and don’t try to be everything to everyone, as your website will get lost in the cloud of mediocrity.

http://www.newcastledigital.com.au/1/post/2013/02/popular-niche-listing.html

Getting Results Online

Newcastle Web Guru Results See for Yourself!

Getting results online is best demonstrated by the results itself.

Here is our result for the search terms newcastle web guru after a couple of weeks of search engine optimization.

Trust your online presence with a local professional with striking results.

Small Business Websites

IN the online marketplace, people are looking for a business that offers a saving, service or specialty that they cannot find elsewhere.  If you offer a product or service that is widely available, you will find the competition for your search terms or keywords very competitive.  It is quite likely that your new website from Organic Digital will be just one of hundreds across Australia and possibly of dozens across Newcastle and the Hunter Region.

So how do we attract online customers to your website when it is brand new amongst a plethora of established competition?  And how can we give it a nudge along so that it moves closer to the first page of the search results, which is where something like 98% of all buying decisions are made?  The first step is to target local search, so you are found within the local area by customers who are likely to use you – the low hanging fruit.

Once we have some traction with local search, we expand our horizon to take in regional and statewide geographic locations so we can compete with out of area business – and from then on you will be in the national marketplace.  It may sound ambitious, but it is not beyond the scope of Organic Digital to have your new website competing strongly in the Australian search results within 12 months.

Taking advantage of a positive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy can work wonders for a small business website.  If you have an existing site that has never been optimized, the results can be quite dramatic in the short term.  At Organic Digital, we are passionate and enthusiastic about SEO and gaining momentum in the search engine rankings is a source of real pride for the team.  Plus, it means more traffic and visitors to your site and at the end of the day, more sales and money in your pocket!

Website Design in Newcastle

Well it can be a bit of a yawn to have to fluff out a few dozen blog posts over the year to get this thing off the ground - but here goes anyway...

Getting a website in Newcastle has never been more exciting - there are literally dozens of capable individuals and little businesses out there perfectly capable of delivering a great website for you.

So why choose to deal with a particular designer?

Well. go for easy contact, a great understanding that you will be in contact initially but after everything is sorted and working well, you should not have too much to worry about.