Proudly Wyndham Business Expo

• Success Strategies - The key to leveraging Facebook Ads to help grow your business starts with a successful strategy, specific to your business goals. This will guide the types of campaigns you need to create, any offers you need to develop and the creative you should use. 
• Settings Setup - It’s important that you get your Meta Ads infrastructure set up properly as early as possible to protect your assets and so that you have data available when you’re ready to start advertising.
• Outstanding Offers - How you package what you’re promoting in your ad campaigns will have a massive impact on your ad performance.
• Amplify Your Audience - It's important to understand who your ideal customers are so that you can get the most out of Facebook's powerful targeting capabilities. 
• Creative That Converts - You need to create thumb stopping, highly engaging ad creative that entices your ideal customers to take notice, click through to your offers and ultimately convert.
• Creating Campaigns - How you create campaigns has completely changed in recent times thanks to Meta's AI tools and algorithms, so if it's been a while since you last created a Facebook Ad, it's probably worth investing in training to bring yourself up-to-speed to make sure that you set your ads up for success.
• Analytics & Optimisation - It's important to understand key metrics so that you can make data-based decisions to get the most out of your ad spend.
• Success Scaling - Once your ads are providing you with a positive return on investment, you’ll want to scale your campaigns to reach even greater heights.

Presented by Loren Bartley, Impactiv8

Impactiv8.com.au

info@impactiv8.com.au

Business energy saving tips – key takeaways

1. Consider your goals

There are different reasons for businesses to save energy. Some may be focused on operational costs, or on cutting emissions in line with company values. Your business’ goals will make a difference to the decisions you make. 

2. Review your bills

Bills provide useful information about your seasonal energy use – your heating and cooling loads. 

A review of your tariffs can also be a useful place to start in bringing energy costs down. Small businesses can use the Victorian Energy Compare website. Medium and large electricity users can discuss with their retailer whether they are on the right network tariff. Energy brokers may be useful in finding the best retail offer for larger businesses. 

3. Make a plan to electrify gas loads

Switching from gas to electric will be quite easy for some businesses, and much harder for others. But understanding the options for electrifying your gas loads will make this transition easier, even if its achieved over a long timeframe. Having a plan will be helpful if you need to replace an appliance that fails unexpectedly. It will also help you to take advantage of grants and subsidies as they become available.

4. Identify near, medium and long term actions

Improving efficiency is an ongoing process. Prioritise near term activities, that have a good business case (savings vs cost), and low cost measures like draught sealing and installing timers. Identify medium term priorities to work towards, and long term priorities as part of a larger plan. Often, energy saving upgrades will be complementary – for example, electrification and installing solar panels. 

5. Get specialist help for large and complex loads

Large loads like refrigeration and air conditioning can often offer substantial reductions when managed optimally. Regular maintenance is critical. It is also valuable to seek advice on the best approach to upgrading equipment, installing energy saving retrofits (eg. door seals or curtain doors) and managing their operation.

Presented by Geelong Sustainability

geelongsustainability.org.au

During the session, we explored how small businesses can harness the power of digital analytics to make informed decisions, simplify processes, and drive business growth. The focus was on practical, accessible strategies to demystify data and eliminate guesswork in decision-making.

Key Takeaways for Small Businesses:

1. Understand Your Audience: Learn who your customers are, their preferences, and behaviours to craft meaningful interactions.
2. Set Clear Objectives: Establish simple, measurable goals like increasing leads or improving conversion rates to track success effectively.
3. Use the Right (Free) Tools: Start small with platforms such as Google Analytics (GA4) to gather insights on customer behaviour, website performance, and campaign effectiveness.
4. Track Key Metrics: Focus on actionable metrics such as user engagement, click-through rates, or average order value to pinpoint areas for improvement.
5. Make Data-Driven Decisions: Use insights to refine marketing strategies, reduce costs, and increase ROI.

By starting small—tracking just a few critical metrics and implementing a single tool—businesses can gradually build confidence and competency in using data. Digital analytics platforms like Looker Studio or heatmaps provide visual insights into user behaviour, offering actionable information for enhancing customer experience.

Whether it’s understanding what drives traffic to your website or identifying barriers to conversions, data removes the guesswork from decision-making. The tools are scalable, allowing you to adapt as your business grows.

Take the First Step: Begin by identifying a clear objective and tracking one key metric. Contact tapan@digitxl.com.au for tailored guidance on setting up analytics tools and interpreting the results for growth. Visit www.digitxl.com.au to start your journey today.

We have covered the good, bad and ugly parts of AI in business, and also the strategies to solve the challenges in adopting AI in business.

1.      The Good:

• AI offers transformative opportunities for businesses, including enhanced efficiency, innovation, and scalability.
• Real-world examples showcase how businesses use AI to improve customer experiences, optimize supply chains, and predict market trends.

2.      The Bad:

• Challenges such as ethical dilemmas, biased algorithms, data privacy concerns, and workforce disruptions need proactive management.
• The cost and complexity of implementation can be barriers, especially for small-to-medium enterprises.

3.      The Ugly:

• Poorly implemented AI can harm brand reputation, customer trust, and employee morale.
• Examples include failures like biased hiring algorithms, financial losses from faulty predictions, and public backlash against intrusive AI systems.

4.      Key Strategies for Success:

• Start small with pilot projects to test feasibility and ROI.
• Stay informed about advancements in AI technology and regulatory changes.
• Prioritize ethical practices, transparency, and employee training to foster trust and acceptance.
• Focus on aligning AI initiatives with clear business goals to maximize benefits and minimize risks.

5.      Call to Action:

• Embrace AI as an evolving tool for growth, but maintain vigilance to adapt to the ever-changing landscape responsibly.

Presented by RMIT Enterprise AI and Data Analytics Hub

Professor Kok-Leong Ong

Director, RMIT Enterprise AI and Data Analytics Hub

Email: ai.analytics.hub@rmit.edu.au

Website: http://rmit-aihub.org.au

1. Small Businesses Are a Target

Cyber criminals often focus on small businesses and sole traders. Why? Because many think they won’t be targeted – but the truth is, you’re an attractive target. Hackers are after data and business information they can use or sell.

2. Tricks Hackers Use

Most attacks on small businesses involve tricking people:

• Sharing confidential information by mistake.

• Clicking on links or downloading files that contain harmful software (malware).

It’s sneaky but avoidable if you know what to look out for.

3. Cyber Safety is a Team Effort

Discussing cyber safety as a team helps everyone:

• Break bad habits.

• Learn good ones.

When everyone is alert, your business becomes a harder target.

4. It’s Easier Than You Think!

Becoming cyber safe doesn’t require fancy tools or skills. By learning and practising the basics, you’re already ahead of most threats.

5. Keep Learning and Spread the Word

• Sign up for Course Level 1 to keep improving your cyber skills: cyberwardens.com.au/courses

• Explore the Resource Hub for practical tools and action plans: cyberwardens.com.au/resources-hub/

• Help your network stay safe – refer a friend to the program and grow our community of Cyber Wardens.

Remember: Cyber safety is something we can all achieve together. Stay aware and keep learning!

Presented by Cyber Wardens

https://cyberwardens.com.au/

• Understanding Wellbeing: In general, everyone has their own unique definition of personal wellbeing. Wellbeing encompasses being happy, healthy, and content. It involves living a meaningful, satisfying, and enjoyable life, which includes good emotional health, positive relationships, engaging in meaningful activities, and maintaining overall general health.
• Impact of Low Self-Care: Neglecting wellbeing increases the risk of psychological harm and burnout. Poor wellbeing negatively affects labour productivity and leads to higher absenteeism at work.
• Signs of Poor Wellbeing: Indicators of poor wellbeing include disrupted sleep, low self-worth, family conflict and relational issues, feeling persistently sad or tired, difficulty managing emotions, being disconnected from, or overly invested in business, a racing mind or inability to sit still, and feeling disconnected from cultural identity and others.
• Managing Stress: Stress significantly impacts our wellbeing. The concept of the “stress bucket” helps us understand how stress accumulates. Implementing wellbeing strategies is essential to manage stress and improve overall wellbeing.
• Wellbeing Strategies: Effective strategies include prioritising sleep, nourishing your body, incorporating movement and exercise, spending time in nature, focusing on spiritual practices, engaging in creative activities, connecting with cultural identity and others, and seeking support.
• Support Available: The Partners in Wellbeing program offers one-on-one, confidential, phone-based wellbeing coaching. This support helps develop strategies to cope with stress, anxiety, and depression, providing emotional support as needed.

  Presented by Tina Cao, Partners in Wellbeing

  For more information and further professional support call 1300 375 330 or visit  www.partnersinwellbeing.org.au/small-business-support/

Understanding the demographics of Wyndham  is essential for effective marketing, product development, and reliable forecasting. Several tools and resources are available to help you access and analyse this data.

Here are some key data sources and tools to assist local businesses in making more informed decisions;

REMPLAN

• Remplan Economy
   An online resource offering ABS economic data and mapping for Wyndham, helping you track local economic trends.
   https://app.remplan.com.au/wyndham/economy/summary
• Remplan Community
   Provides insights into Wyndham’s demographics and community characteristics.
   https://app.remplan.com.au/wyndham/community/summary

.ID

• EconomyID
   Using ABS Census data from 1991 to 2021, it analyses Wyndham’s local economy and its changes over time, comparing it to other regions. https://economy.id.com.au/wyndham
• Community Profile
   A detailed demographic profile of Wyndham, offering insights into population characteristics.
   https://profile.id.com.au/wyndham
• Social Atlas
   Visualises social data for Wyndham through interactive maps and charts.
   https://atlas.id.com.au/wyndham

Population Forecast
Provides population projections and forecasts for Wyndham’s future growth.
https://forecast.id.com.au/wyndham

If you’re interested in similar information for other Local Government Areas (LGAs), even outside Victoria, visit https://economy.id.com.au/

Spendmapp

Spendmapp by Geografia is a tool providing monthly and quarterly economic snapshots of Wyndham. It tracks spending by residents and visitors using transaction data from banks, including EFTPOS, credit, and debit cards.

https://www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/spendmapp-reports

By leveraging these resources, you can gain valuable insights to drive business growth and make data-informed decisions.

For more information please get in touch with Wyndham City’s Economic Development team via business@wyndham.vic.gov.au.

Local SEO overview - what is it & why is it important

Local SEO is the process of improving organic search engine visibility for local businesses, usually with physical locations. This can help your business show up prominently within the ‘Maps Results’ or in the ‘General Search Results’ for local searches.

Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile is a local listing with information about your business. It’s free and allows your business to appear in the Map Pack and Google Maps… it’s essential! We look at best practices to set up your business profile for success.

Head to this page to get your business profile set up: https://www.google.com/intl/en_au/business/

Local/Online directories - why they’re important for local SEO and best practices for getting on them

Local directories are other websites (directories) that will display information about your website & business when people search on them for local results. Some examples of these are the online Yellow/White pages, Apple, Wyndham City Council Business Directory,  etc. These can play an important role in SEO.

Reviews - why they’re important and how to get them

Google reviews act as a strong trust signal for your business & increase the likelihood of attracting customers to make a purchase. Businesses with positive Google reviews see an average of 18% increase in revenue.

A couple of tips include:

• Develop a process where reviews are actively requested from customers
• Engage with your reviews where possible

Local SEO for general search results

There  are strategies you can apply to your website itself to support Local SEO performance, these will help you show up in the general search results for queries with local intent.

A couple of tips include:

• Create  location pages for primary service areas
• Include target location in the page titles & page content

Presented by Matthew Cullen, Strategy Director at SIXGUN

https://sixgun.com.au/