Sideshift Gear

Client Intro

Sideshift Gear is an Australian based company that creates hand-grafted utility gear for the stagehand industry. They provide a wide variety of gear from bags and pouches to cases and slings. They aim to help workers carry all of the gear, equipment, and parts they will need to boost efficiency on the jobsite. They also run Meshmakers, a service that recycles signage into unique merchandise for future events.

What problems are they having

Low engagement, low site visitation, and low revenue. Sideshift has faced a lack of brand orientation in all social media, which has lead to a steep drop off in brand visibility.

What goals do they have

The goal of this project is to help align marketing efforts and to provide pointers on building and maintaining the organization’s social media presence. This will be in the form of a brand kit that takes in all of the brand’s visible work and to coalesce it into key values, talking points, and strategic moves.

What I did to achieve those goals

I gathered all of Sideshift’s social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, and their website) into one location, and analyzed their best performing posts and highest traffic pages.I found that a significant amount of time has been spent creating a sizable Instagram following of 18k followers, however the conversion of follower to buyer has been neglected. This is the primary issue needing to be solved to grow the brand.

Proposed Solutions

The brand’s traffic is hovering around 200 visits/month, which is not enough to sustain, let alone grow, the business. First things first, I would recommend creating a more cohesive social media strategy, with regular posting times, more specific topics, and content that is more engaging. A) Build a community of stagehands that all want the same thing: high quality, affordable, gear that helps them on the site. B) Communicate the pros of the products you offer, talk about what your main selling point is. C) Express the reasons why someone should support your business. Why you? Why not some crap off of Ali Express or Amazon?Second, get some SEO and PPC campaigns going. Get a copywriter, get someone that can keep everything aligned with core values. Keep it personable. Make your brand feel alive, not on life support.

Results

These key points of improvement were combined and delivered in a pdf brand kit and style guide. Sideshift’s owner was incredibly happy with the end result, and has been steadily implementing them with great outcomes.

Insights Gained

As Sideshift is an Australian company, I found that scheduling a time to chat with decision-makers proved difficult due to time-zone difference. This is something that must be taken into account in the future.This project is where I learned to use Ahrefs to estimate web-traffic without having access to back-end analytics tools like GA4, Adobe Analytics, and Meta Business Suite.I learned that a strong brand presence and the ability to build and grow a community are not to be taken for granted. In fact, these things are paramount to any online business’ success.