Christchurch-based Sandy is the owner and director of Skin Bay, a small e-commerce store that sells skincare products and devices. We chatted with her about her experience studying NZIE’s Social Media Course.
Needing Social Media Support
Operating the business solo (with a bit of help from her husband) Sandy employs contractors to assist with marketing tasks she is not trained in. But, in the current economic climate, she looked at ways to cut extra costs and decided to upskill in areas that can help her business.
NZIE’s Social Media Strategy course allowed her to learn how to run her ads and save on her marketing contractor fees. After completing the course, she took over managing her ads and has had an impressive return on ad spend.
Upskilling to Increase Profit
With many years of experience and training in skincare, Sandy understands the ins and outs of the industry and knows how to speak to her customers. It made perfect sense that she would create online advertising for SkinBay, using the key messages she knows will attract her target audience.
After completing the Social Media Course, Sandy stopped outsourcing her ads management and began running ads herself – with incredible results!
“I finished the course in December and got [my contractor] to stop doing the ads for me. In January, I took over managing my ads on Meta. And I’ve had an impressive return on assets/investment since then.”
The Skincare guru was able to increase her ROI 8 times on ad spend – a super impressive result!
Fitting study into a busy schedule
The Social Media course fit easily into Sandy’s jam-packed schedule. Not only is she a small business owner, she also has many family responsibilities to juggle;
“I loved how I could fit it into my busy schedule. Aside from running the business, I’ve got a family and household to manage. Being able to study in the evenings gave me time to manage my business and family commitments.”
Running a small business
While Sandy keeps busy running a small business and juggling motherhood, she is excited at the thought of continuing to upskill in Digital Marketing to improve her business.
She plans to study NZIE’s Meta Ads Manager course to deep dive further into understanding the platform. “I’m wearing a lot of hats, but Facebook, and the ads side of Meta, really interests me and I feel like I can optimize that,” she says.
She’s also looking to study NZIE’s SEO course, which will help her optimize her website, which she describes as “a massive job”:
“Recently, I’ve been researching keywords. I’ve just started updating some meta titles and meta descriptions too. Ultimately the goal is to spend less on paid Google advertising because I still have a marketing manager that does that for me. That’s another significant cost to my business.”
Another goal for her business is to increase organic traffic and reduce ad spend:
“I’m looking for ways that I can increase profit margins. I’d love to bring in more organic traffic that’s more targeted, because those people are already looking for my products. I feel that that’s going to improve my conversions and sales overall.”
Positive Experience
Sandy’s experience with the social media course at NZIE is an example of how this course can benefit small business owners. By learning how to run Facebook ads for her business, Sandy saved on external marketing fees and had an impressive return on ad spend. This has allowed her to increase profits and reduce excess spending – which is incredibly crucial in today’s economy!
