Hayley Peters has been working in the marketing industry for 8 years, predominantly in the retail and agency space, specializing in digital marketing. Her passion is coming up with unique strategies for small businesses and startups to implement and use to build their businesses. Her other passions include her cocker spaniel, horror movies and her ridiculous pink Toyota Yaris.
Katy Gillies is a marketing professional who has worked across a wide range of brands including non-profits, professional services, lifestyle, and technology. Today she helps small businesses and startups build their brand online and grow their business through digital marketing. She loves dogs, coffee and rap music (in no particular order).
What motivated and inspired you to start your own business?
We both worked at an agency together in the past and it was during a time when there was a lot of unease about working with digital agencies.
Brands globally were pulling their online activity in-house due to concerns about brand safety and lack of visibility about how their budgets were being spent.
We also knew there were a lot of small businesses out there who could really benefit from digital marketing but it wasn’t accessible because it was still very overwhelming and expensive for many of them.
We thought – ‘there has to be a better way’ (original, we know) and that’s how Oh My Digital was born.
Tell us about your business.
If Oh My Digital was a person, it would be like your work-wife. Easy to work with, fun to hang out with, and ready to listen to your problems and give advice when you need it!
We offer content creation, social media advertising, website makeovers, and email strategy. We also do training and consulting on these services for those who prefer to get skilled up and take their digital work in-house.
List awards/certifications/accomplishments.
We both hold a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) and are both Google Partners (Analytics).  Â
Where is your business based?
We are based in Brissy, but work with clients across Australia!
What were the first few steps you took to get your business up and running?
It started with working out our brand and the image we wanted to project. Then we started our Instagram and Facebook account to build a following and tell people what we were doing. Our website came later and we’re currently re-working this – stay tuned!
Being purely online and a service-based business we didn’t have to worry about finding a premise or ordering inventory – which was nice!
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness of your business and getting new customers?
Obviously, social media is essential for us as we get to show people what we do and attract interest that way. Aside from Instagram and Facebook, the rest of our customers typically come from good old fashioned networking.
We love meeting other small business owners at events just to connect and share our stories. We never set out to ‘sell’, we just try to get out there and build great relationships with people. The work just comes naturally.
Word of mouth is so powerful, especially once you get your first few customers and they start recommending you!
What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Most small business owners who offer a service can probably relate to this, but it would definitely have to be knowing our worth and how to value and price ourselves. While we want to be accessible to any size business, we also need to ensure we’re profitable.
How did you overcome these challenges?
We’ve found that a good happy medium is being flexible to clients and their budgets. If someone can’t afford your standard offering – that doesn’t mean you need to slash the price. Then you will just end up getting down, putting in less effort – and nobody wins.
Instead we’d rather be really upfront about what’s involved and instead narrow the scope or offer a different solution that does fit the client’s budget – without hurting ourselves in the process.
How do you keep motivated through difficult times?
It definitely helps to be co-founders! Neither of us could probably do this on our own. Like any entrepreneurial journey, there will ALWAYS be ups and downs. Whether you’re stressing about money, workload or just thinking WTF am I doing – this is inevitable.
When these moments come up we just talk it out and remind each other it’s going to get better!
How do you distinguish yourself from your competitors?
For us, it’s all about transparency.
- It has always been about maintaining a super hands-on and down to earth relationship with our clients.
- We feel fortunate to have met all these business owners we now work with and they are all lovely people who feel like friends – not just customers!
- We feel we can offer a different experience to larger agencies as it’s really personal and high-touch.
Our customers don’t have to go through an Account Manager who isn’t skilled in digital. They can just come straight to the source and talk to us about what they want to achieve – and then we act on it.
Big agencies are great too. However, they can still be a bit intimidating to small business owners, that’s where we come in. As we grow and scale, we’re really committed to maintaining this connection with every client that joins the Oh My Digital family.
What is the best advice you have received recently?
Know your worth and value yourself!
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
For every low moment, there’s going to be something exceptional around the corner. The only way to succeed is to push through and keep going – sounds cliche but it really is true.
What are your favorite business tools/resources and why?
There are so many! We are big fans of Planoly (for Instagram scheduling), Trello (for planning out tasks) and Easil (for quick graphic design assets).
What is a good article or book you have read recently?
We spend so much time reading industry news and articles from industry leaders like Social Media Examiner, Social Media Today, and TechCrunch.
What are you currently learning about for your business or looking for help with?
We’re currently working on upskilling ourselves in Google AdWords. We know the basics but we’d like to have greater strategies and tricks so that we can implement these for our clients.
What are your goals for the next few months and how are you striving to achieve them?
Our first goal currently is our website refresh and rebrand. However, our biggest goal is for the two of us to travel to Bali and have a two-week retreat to refresh and get creative.
What social media outlets do you use? List them below.
Instagram @ohmydigital
Facebook www.facebook.com/ohmydigitalau
Website www.ohmydigitalagency.com.au
Email hello@ohmydigitalagency.com.au
Hashtags #ohmydigital