Fiona Ariva – Wax Seals and Modern Calligraphy specialises in designing and creating wax seal stamps, kits, stationary, and calligraphy personalisation services. The business is based online, with retail and stockist channels to diversify sales channels. Since receiving guidance from a Digital Solutions mentor, Fiona has expanded her customer reach using online strategies and marketing.
“We started off as an online, product-based business, selling from our website,” Fiona explains. “Our main digital strategy was to market to our Instagram followers. We dabbled with different platforms such as email marketing, Facebook Ads, SEO, and YouTube to see what worked. It was based on trial and error.”
Fiona had wanted to explore business mentoring for some time but didn’t know where to start. It was during the pandemic that she found the Digital Solutions program on her local council’s business resources page.
“The program provided access to a range of mentors with expertise in an impressive range of fields, who were pre-vetted and had experience working with small and micro-businesses. The sessions were either free or heavily subsidised.”
The accessibility and high-quality guarantee of the mentors made it easy for Fiona to book in her sessions. She chose to meet with different mentors each time to make the most of experts from different fields, such as SEO, Facebook Ads, and PR.
“Access to their wealth of knowledge and tailored advice has been pivotal in the continued growth and development of our business,” Fiona says. “Each mentor was able to spend time with us one-on-one, reviewing our current business practices, marketing strategies, and online presence.”
Without the program, Fiona admits it would have been very difficult for her small business to afford mentoring or find experts who have worked with, and understand, the unique challenges that small businesses face.
“With guidance from mentors,” she shares, “we learned how to configure the set-up of Facebook Ad campaigns, performance metrics, how to optimise websites for conversions and SEO, and received tips on using useful tools like broken links checkers and page speed insights.”
Her business was also able to implement new SEO practices based on insights gained from the Google Merchant Centre, as well as a new Facebook Ad framework. With the step-by-step guidance of program mentors, Fiona was comfortable implementing these strategies.
As for whether she recommends the Digital Solutions program?
“Yes,” she says, “and I already have to our networks of fellow small business owners!”
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