Brief
An initiative by Blue Square Design launched in November 2005. This business directory was intended to provide exposure for the businesses located in our township of Gisborne, Victoria. With a printed A5 size guide and a website listing over 140 businesses and community groups in the Macedon Ranges area.

Since launching the Gisborne Guide website in November 2005 the traffic visiting the site has steadily grown through the Search Engine Optimisation techniques we have employed. These same techniques can be applied to any website to help more people find your site.

Solutions
We provided a complete service to our advertisers by doing everything from:

• booking their ad space
• assisting with copywriting
• photography of their stores or products
• designing the ad layouts
• overseeing the printing on a web printer
• distribution of the guides through Australia Post

Results
The Gisborne Guide was extremely well received by locals and businesses alike. Being a glossy annual publication means that people tend to hang onto it and keep it by the phone for reference.

This is evidenced by the fact that 6 months after the Guide was released we continue to receive enquiries from customers who saw our own ad in the Gisborne Guide. We have also received many reports from advertisers who say the same:

Just wanted to let you know I have already secured two jobs for testing and tagging directly from the letter box drop of the
Gisborne guide, the two new customers said that the guide was absolutely teriffic and well over due in Gisborne.
WELL DONE!!
Kindest Regards,

Graeme Cox
Test It's Safe Electrics

Even the end users have been excited by the publication:

I just wanted to write this note to say that we received a copy of the Gisborne Guide in the mailbox today and I am very pleased and impressed to now have such an informative little booklet.

Our family is new to Gisborne and it has taken some time to find out exactly what is available in town from community services to local business. It had been tricky to try to locate services from a range of different info sources. I am now thrilled to have all of this information we need in one handy booklet.

I am also impressed by the look and the layout, sections are well defined, maps are great and just about every service and business has been included. The online link is an excellent idea too. I hope you have great success and I hope the guide grows as it will benefit the community as well as local business.

Thank you and congratulations on such a terrific guide.

Annie Irwin

The traffic to the website www.gisborneguide.com.au continues to increase also as a result of the Search Engine Optimisation work we have completed on the site.

Future Guides for the area are planned with the Woodend Guide already underway.

Visit the site >>