Whilst at Walka Miniature Railway, recently I was reminded about the perception of marketing vs advertising.
Marketing is all encompassing from product packaging through to delivery. Advertising is a component of marketing.
From a non-technical perspective and as a conversational point, you could substitute marketing with advertising and people would still understand what you were explaining.
The comment that caught my attention was when one of the conductors proudly declared the passengers that they ‘don’t do any marketing’. It was just a quick off-hand comment as a reaction to waiting for people to realise the train was departing and to hurry along, but let’s take it at face value.
I suspect what he meant was ‘we don’t do any broadcast media advertising’ because they, the Walka Miniature Railway, in fact, have quite a comprehensive presence online.
How many other people when they think of ‘marketing or advertising’ would first think of tv, radio, print, and then other media types and websites considered secondary?
For example, they have a website it can be easily found. It’s simple and could benefit from a tidy and design revamp to better include their branding but conveys the necessary information.
They also have a Facebook page which is being kept up to date and given the vast number of people who have a Facebook account and login occasionally. A sensible choice for a media presence.
Plus, they’re in Google Maps and Trip Advisor with positive reviews and have various mentions on parenting and travel blogs, the Maitland City Council website, and more.
The railway volunteers have an identifiable uniform with prominent branding and, though it may not be formally taught clearly, the volunteers have a personable and friendly manner that makes for an enjoyable experience.
All of this is clearly part of their marketing and contributes to a referral stream of new visitors that any small businesses would be delighted to have.
Though the Walka Miniature Railway may well not be purchasing traditional ‘broadcast advertising’ like tv, radio, newspapers, magazines, editorials, or skywriting, they are verifiably marketing the experience.
Considering there were about 5 birthday parties on that Sunday, we were there and, easily, over 150 people in the park grounds and Miniature trains regularly departing the station with paying passengers, it looks to me like their marketing is working quite well. If you are looking for something to do on a weekend that is outdoors, cheap, not far from Newcastle, take a picnic lunch and ride the mini trains at Walka Miniature Railway.
It was, of course, an off-hand comment taken a little out of context that they don’t do marketing. But I think it’s a good reminder of the difference in perceptions people might have between marketing and advertising.
MEET THE TEAM
This month we meet Scott Bonner, Support at Jezweb.
Scott, what’s your role and what does it involve?
First level support, involving email setups and troubleshooting, website issues, and content updates.
What do you love about your job?
Working with a flexible team passionate on their role to serve our clients.
Describe a typical day?
Our days are typically full of warm and interesting customers that bring welcomed challenges and ideas.
Have you always been in IT?
My interest in IT started very young, tearing apart the old family computer with my twin brother to see what made it tick.
I worked packing shelves and maintaining warehouses while studying and got my first IT break providing application support for a marketing company in Sydney. From then on my career would be IT related.
What did you do before you started working for Jezweb?
I worked as a support officer for the Newcastle University before battling a stint of depression exacerbated by a benign tumour of my parathyroid.
After spending several years out of work I was lucky enough to find Jezweb who has been very accommodating to get me back into the workforce.
What do you do in your downtime?
I like to keep up on current geopolitical affairs, watch copious amounts of Youtube, competitive online gaming, and cryptocurrency based investing and trading.
Tell us about your family?
My family was born in the UK, and we lived in Inverness Scotland before moving to Australia when I was very young. We’ve lived in the Hunter for most of the time since moving.
My mother works as a financial officer for the Newcastle University and my father is a retired print estimator who takes near yearly trips to Tibet.
Some great websites we’ve delivered this month
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION EDUCATION
Our Disaster Resilience Education Capacity Building in South-East Asia Project team at the University of Newcastle needed to develop a project website. The purpose of our project website is to create synergy about disaster resilience and disaster management education both locally in the Hunter and NSW and globally. We wanted to use a local Website developer and went to Jeremy at Jezweb.
Throughout the process of dealing with Jezweb in the web development process, they have been very informative and helpful. Jeremy, Rachel and the team from Jezweb has provided us with a website that is very suitable for our audiences in terms of look, feel, with the technical aspects that answer our needs.
One of the outcomes of our project is to develop a Disaster Resilience Curriculum Mapping tool which will be used by our global education project partners in the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.
The website that Jezweb team provided us will enable us to have control of the back-end so we can then develop our tools offline and integrate them in seamlessly onto the web structure. Service wise, the Jezweb team has always provided us with prompt responses (either via email or phone), with informative suggestions and also helped us develop our project/website logo through their connections.
In summary, our team is very happy with the website that Jezweb developed for us and the professional level of service that accompanied the development.
Dr. Sittimont Kanjanabootra
Branding and Design of DRR
We worked Mike Haynes of When Creative for this project. A very creative and enthusiastic designer that is local to us in Newcastle.
MYALL COMMUNITY ART AND CRAFT
The Myall Community Art and Craft Centre formed from the Hawks Nest Tea Gardens “Hut Group” that was established in 1991. Groups include Sculpting, Decorative Art, Woodwork, Quilting and Patchwork,and Mosaics
My dealings with Jezweb on behalf of our small community-based craft centre have been easy and professional. Help has been given freely and the process simplified. Would not hesitate in recommending them to anyone.
Susan Truscott, Secretary
WHY WORDPRESS IS BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS WEBSITE
I covered this in a recent Blog Post, here’s a quick summary:
Since its inception in 2003, WordPress now accounts for over 70 million websites (and counting), with a large percentage of them being business websites.
Yes, there are other systems for websites that are excellent at what they do such as shopping cart systems from Vend, Shopify, Magento, and Bigcommerce that we have built websites with but, as an all-round, flexible system for building a website, it’s hard to go past the WordPress platform.
If you meet someone who is not, be sure whether to use it or not. So here are some of the greatest reasons why WordPress is good for a business website.
- It’s free – so anyone can use or download it for free and edit parts of it without infringing on any legal boundaries. It also means that it is always developing with fresh ideas from developers around the world.
- It’s easy to set up and use – you don’t have to possess extended knowledge of coding or prior experience. The platform takes you through the process with a series of prompts that guide you on the steps to follow including choosing a domain name, choosing a template, publishing your first post, and etc.
- You can design any type of website with it – whether it’s an online store, a question and answer forum, a blog, or a regular business website, you can be sure to find the necessary resources for building it on WordPress.
- It’s cost effective – using the platform is free and it offers both basic and premium accounts with the free version good enough to use if you don’t mind having “.wordpress.com” as a finishing to your website’s URL
- Mobile friendly – with around 70% of all online interaction now done via mobile, websites designed with WordPress are known to be responsive and to translate well on phones, tablets, and desktops.
- You can update your website yourself – whether it’s changing a theme or tweaking a template, business owners have total control. Once your business website is up and running, it is quite easy to publish content, insert media, edit content, and reorganise it. You can also add and remove pages, edit landing pages, and customise your logo.
- Social media integration – a website today needs integration with your other social media platforms. WordPress websites are designed to be compatible with any social media account such that readers can integrate the two seamlessly.
- It’s ideal for business – WordPress websites are designed to promote interaction between you and your customers. Most have features including subscription forms, follow options, business blogs etc to help you reach out and know your customers better. The platform also tracks the reach of your posts, which helps in knowing your marketing campaigns’ performance.
Have you met someone who is still wondering why they should get their business website built with WordPress? If you want a well-designed website with limitless functionality, the platform is the way to go. So give us a call today and we’ll help get you started.
One further point about the ‘freeness’ of WordPress. Whilst the core software is literally free as in free beer and can be used for free to make a nice blog when it comes to making a fully functional business website, we do pay for a lot of software add-ons and subscriptions that make it the terrific system for managing a website or shopping cart.
Thank you
I’m really happy that we have a great team and friends in businesses and clients who made Jezweb possible. This year, we have set up hundreds of new websites and worked on thousands of support requests, updates, and edits. We’re looking forward to 2017 once we’ve had some time to relax between Christmas and New Year.
Whilst the office will be closed over the Christmas break if you need a hand or have anything urgent please call me on 0411 056 876 because I will be reasonably available and we’ll be working on SEO and blogs, website maintenance, updates, and etc. during that time too.
