She’s largely unfunded but Kerri Brennan has just undertaken a mammoth trip through western and southern Queensland on her own time to share knowledge learnt from her Buy From the Bush Queensland initiative.
The battlers who can’t work any harder than they already are to keep their properties afloat are who this unselfish woman from a property 70km south of Toowoomba has had at the front of her mind as she’s been travelling the highways in the last fortnight.
After welcome floods brought a schedule rearrangement, she and her support crew have been to Roma, Tambo, Blackall, Barcaldine, Longreach, Winton, Charleville, St George, Dirranbandi, and Westmar.
They have been delivering social media coaching, which is at the heart of the online sales initiative.
Individually, the Facebook reach of each person is not high but collectively we can do a lot
“We don’t profess to be marketing experts but we can help with ways to improve that reach without costing you a lot of money.”
Even expert users picked up valuable tips they were unaware of.
One of the biggest mistakes people with a product to sell make on social media is to concentrate just on what they have for sale, according to Buy From the Bush Queensland founder Kerri Brennan.
“Social media is about making connections – you want to be educational, inspirational and funny, as well as selling,” she said.
As an example of this, she suggested to Tambo Teddies owners that they pitch their cuddly bears as something you can share your innermost hopes with, as well as being a soft toy.
“They have a fantastic website but this addition could really get people interacting,” Ms Brennan said.
There were plenty of other ideas on how people search imparted on the two-week trek, along with health checks of rural people’s existing web sales initiatives.
Ms Brennan said the trip with son and daughter Thomas and Catherine and friend Lauren Michael was undertaken in response to the interest generated from events held in Toowoomba and Goondiwindi last December, that allowed regional business owners to share their stories and give them even more exposure.
“People love meeting who’s behind the page and seeing that we’re just ordinary people,” she said. “Some of the people on the page have had very special results so it’s emotional for them to come and see us, and tell us about that.”
Immediate success
One of those was a woman who had immediate results when her post about bags she had for sale went live and all nine she had made, the first she had attempted, were sold, including one to the United States.
“The thought that we could make such an incredible difference – these are the people we’re looking for,” Ms Brennan said. “My heart belongs with the battlers.”
While the physical 17-day journey was emotionally draining and undertaken largely from her own purse, Ms Brennan said it had been a great experience for themselves too.
“When you have a great day training and can take people on from where they are without overwhelming them, it’s very rewarding,” she said.
And it’s a long way from the day she looked out her window at home to the dry, dusty paddocks and asked what she could do to help the lot of everyone struggling.
“It just made me feel helpless and miserable, that’s where I started,” she said.
“I’d learnt some skills with social media and bringing people together, then a sad midnight post that people responded to was the catalyst for this idea.
“I call it resilience through diversification.”
Buy From the Bush Queensland began two years ago and now features over 1000 businesses from around the state.